An Unlikely Visionary

It doesn’t take much by way of learning about science, to have come into contact with Boyle’s Law.

What is less well known are some of the details of this man’s life.

When Robert Boyle died in London in 1691, he left behind in his personal papers an extraordinary document, which today is kept at the Royal Society of which Robert Boyle was a founding member.

It is a list of 24 things, almost unrelated until you appreciate something of the context of the man that Robert Boyle was.

Robert Boyle is remembered today as the founder of modern chemistry, and he is certainly remembered by his fundamental law, that every student of science will appreciate and understand.

This list that was found in his personal papers is a list of what Robert Boyle believed would be things that science would contribute to the world, and 22 of the 24 things mentioned have indeed come to pass.

When it is remembered that he was writing towards the end of the 17th century, and the list included things such as the notion that we would be able to swim like fishes, prolong life, and take to the air and fly, you can begin to appreciate how much of a visionary this man was.

It would be nice to think that we could all leave behind in our personal papers something for those surviving us that would be as prescient as this list has proven to be.

I don’t think this would ever be the case, and neither do I truly feel that this is a cause for any concern.

For we are all visionaries in our own way, although it is perhaps the case that few of us may never stand in the place from which we can communicate what it is that we may see in our visions.

It is as if we all have a place to stand, but those of us that can find it, and equally also find our voice, and an audience to hear us.

Are simply exceptionally rare, or lucky perhaps.

But somehow, learning about this extraordinary visionary man of his time, and of his visionary sense, I have found to be liberating and inspirational.

And all of this was presented in the context of one of the most enlightening documentaries that I have seen from the BBC, delivered by Prof Brian Cox, from Manchester University.

He is a physicist, and possesses the remarkable capacity to be able to communicate complex ideas in the simplest way, and in a way that is memorable.

Inspirational stuff.