ChemE Stewart <cheme...@gmail.com> wrote: Ok, it was Francis Bacon that wrote the rules, that clears that up, thanks.
Yes, he is the one. That is why Jefferson kept a bust of Bacon in his house, and why some people consider him the founder of modern science as much as Newton was. When you see people making mistakes in science, going off the track, wasting money, causing fiascoes, you can usually find a good description of what they did wrong in Bacon's writings. He gave us a road map to success. He laid out what should be done, and what should not be avoided. In particular, he described the mental errors that people make. The methods have been refined in the last 400 years but the fundamentals are the same. When people screw up it is usually because they ignore these fundamentals. - Jed
