Festival commemorates Robert Boyle

摘要

Speakers include Oxford University historian, Allan Chapman; Professor Robert Watson, UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs chief science adviser on climate change; and WIT engineering lecturer, Eoin Gill Ml El who will be recreating Boyle's experiments for the public.Engineers will, of course, be familiar with Boyle's Law relating the inverse relationship between pressure and volume of a gas. However, some may not be aware of Boyle's Irish connections. He was born at Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford in 1627 and became one of the most important figures in the scientific revolution. Indeed, he gave the first account of Boyle's law to the Royal Society this month 350 years ago, in October 1661. His book, The Sceptical Chymist, also published in 1661, wrested chemistry from the shadows of alchemy and he is widely regarded as the father of modern chemistry. His range of interests included the improvement of agricultural methods, the possibility of extracting fresh water from salt, the improvement of medicines and medicinal practice, the possibility of preserving food by vacuum packing, and a number of other useful results, actual or potential, of experimental philosophy.