334 years ago today, on December 30, 1691 (November 12, 1691, the 1691 lunar calendar), the famous chemist Robert Boyle passed away. Skeptical chemist Robert Boyle died on December 30, 1691. Chemical historians all regard 1661 as the beginning of modern chemistry, because this year a book that had a major impact on the development of chemistry was published. This book was "The Skeptical Chemist", written by the British scientist Robert Boyle. Revolutionary mentor Marx Engels also agreed with this view. He praised that "Boyle established chemistry as science." What kind of scientist was Boyle? What outstanding contributions have you made in the development of chemical science? Boyle lived during the British bourgeois revolution, which was also the era when modern science began to emerge. This was an era when giants emerged in large numbers. Boyle was born on January 25, 1627 in Lezmore, Ireland. Francis Bacon, the modern scientific thinker who famously argued that knowledge is power, had died just a year before his birth. Newton, the great physicist, was 16 years younger than Boyle. Great men of modern science, Galileo of Italy, Kepler of Germany, Descartes of France all lived in this period. Boyle was born in an aristocratic family, and his well-off family provided him with better material conditions for his study and future scientific research. In his childhood, he did not seem particularly intelligent. He was very quiet and stuttered a little. No game can fascinate him, but compared with his brothers, he is the most studious. He loves reading and often keeps reading. At the age of 8, his father sent him to Eton College in the suburbs of London, where he studied for three years. Later, he and his brother Frank went to Geneva, one of the educational centers in Europe at that time, accompanied by a tutor, for two years. Here he studied courses such as French, practical mathematics and art. More importantly, Switzerland was the base of Protestantism that emerged during the Reformation, and he was influenced by the Protestant teachings that reflected bourgeois thought. Since then, although Boyle has not participated in any faction in practical actions, he has always been inclined towards revolution in ideology. In 1641, the Boyle brothers traveled to Europe accompanied by their tutor and arrived in Italy at the end of the year. Even though he was riding on horseback during the journey, Boyle still couldn't hold back. In Italy, he read Galileo's famous book "Dialogue on Two World Systems". This book left a deep impression on him, and 20 years later his famous book "The Skeptic Chemist" was written in imitation of the format of this book. He admired Galileo himself even more. Boyle's brothers, like their father, were royalists in the British bourgeois revolution. In 1644, his father died in a battle. The sudden change in family conditions and the interruption of financial resources brought Boyle back to war-torn Britain. After returning home, he moved to London with his sister, Mrs. Lenella, who sympathized with the revolution. In London he met science educator Hart Lipper, who encouraged him to study medicine and agriculture. Boyle was the youngest of 14 brothers and sisters at home: his mother died unfortunately when he was three years old. Perhaps due to the lack of care from his mother, he was frail and sick since childhood. Once, when he fell ill, he almost died because the doctor prescribed the wrong medicine. Fortunately, his stomach did not absorb it and vomited the medicine out, so he did not die. After this encounter, he was more afraid of doctors than of illness, and he was unwilling to seek a doctor even when he was sick. He also began to self-study medicine and looked for prescriptions and folk prescriptions everywhere to treat his own diseases. Hartliber's encouragement made him decide to study medicine. At that time, doctors prepared their own drugs, so studying medicine also had to develop drugs and conduct experiments, which gave Boyle a strong interest in chemical experiments. In the process of studying medicine, he read many works of medicinal chemists. He admired Helmont, a Belgian medicinal chemist 50 years older than him. Helmont devoted himself to chemical experiments day and night, calling himself a "philosopher of fire." This became an example for Boyle to follow. Boyle created a laboratory for himself, covered in coal dust and smoke all day long, completely immersed in experiments. This was how Boyle began his life dedicated to science until his death at the end of 1691. Comment on the originator of modern chemistry.