Some great scientists

Robert Boyle was one man who took Bacon's advice to observe and record. In his laboratory in Oxford he did hundreds of experiments. He invented an air pump, to pump air out of a vessel, and so make a vacuum. This made him think that air could be weighed. He went on to attack the Greek idea that there were just four elements - earth, water, air, and fire. In his day, men said he was wrong, but we know he was right.

Thanks to William Harvey, the science of medicine made a big leap forward. In a book which he wrote in 1628, Harvey said that blood moved round the body. He said that it flowed out from the heart through the arteries, and back through the veins. This was the idea of the circulation of the blood. Like Boyle, Harvey was not believed at first.

Sir Isaac Newton was the greatest scientist of his age. He was not the first man to say that the earth revolved round the sun. And he did not discover gravity. But he worked out laws to show how these things happened. And he showed that mathematics was at the heart of all physics. The men and women of his time did recognize Newton as a great man. His work made them think that science would soon solve all problems.

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, page 86