| | '''Roger Bacon''' (Doctor Mirabilis) (Ilchester, ca. 1220 - Oxford, 1292) was a great English [[friar]] and [[philosopher]] who wrote an [[encyclopedia]], his ''Opus Majus''. He is hailed by many the father of modern [[science]]. His focus on [[empirical]] approaches to science was influential. Among other things, he wrote about [[mathematics]], [[alchemy]], the positions and sizes of celestial bodies, envisioned the possibility of spectacles, [[microscope]]s, [[telescope]]s, flying machines, steam ships and explosives, recognized the [[visible spectrum]] in a glass of water centuries before [[Isaac Newton]] worked on optics, and observed [[solar eclipse]]s through a camera obscura. | | '''Roger Bacon''' (Doctor Mirabilis) (Ilchester, ca. 1220 - Oxford, 1292) was a great English [[friar]] and [[philosopher]] who wrote an [[encyclopedia]], his ''Opus Majus''. He is hailed by many the father of modern [[science]]. His focus on [[empirical]] approaches to science was influential. Among other things, he wrote about [[mathematics]], [[alchemy]], the positions and sizes of celestial bodies, envisioned the possibility of spectacles, [[microscope]]s, [[telescope]]s, flying machines, steam ships and explosives, recognized the [[visible spectrum]] in a glass of water centuries before [[Isaac Newton]] worked on optics, and observed [[solar eclipse]]s through a camera obscura. |