Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful scientist? A successful scientist is generally a good observer. He makes full 1 of the facts he observes. He doesn't accept ideas which are not 2 on obvious facts, and therefore 3 to accept authority as the only truth. He always checks ideas 4 and makes experiments to prove them.
The rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to 5 as far back as the time of Roger Bacon, the wonderful philosopher of Oxford, who lived between the years 1214 and 1292. He was probably the first in the Middle Ages to 6 that we should learn science 7 observing and experimenting on the things around us, and he himself 8 many important truths.
Galileo (1564－1642), 9 ，who lived more than 300 years later, was the greatest of several great men in Italy, France, Germany, and England, who began to show how many important 10 could be discovered by observation by degrees. Before Galileo, learned men believed that large bodies 11 more rapidly towards the earth than small ones, 12 Aristotle said so. But Galileo, going to the 13 of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, let fall two 14 stones and proved Aristotle was wrong. It is Galileo's 15 of going direct to nature, and proving our 16 and theories by experiment, that has 17 all the discoveries of modern science.
What 18 those people good scientists? From the example of Galileo, we know clearly that 19 scientists are those whose observations have 20 better results.
