Robert . 1627–91, Irish scientist who helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy. He established that air has weight and studied the behaviour of gases; author of The Sceptical Chymist (1661)
English physicist and chemist who is regarded as a founder of modern chemistry. Boyle rejected the traditional theory that all matter was composed of four elements and defined an element as a substance that cannot be reduced to other, simpler substances or produced by combining simpler substances. Boyle also conducted important physics experiments with Robert Hooke that led to the development of Boyle's law.
