Vocabulary:
Quote: He asserted that big objects fall faster than little ones.
1. assert :
v.declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true
synonyms: afirm, swear, aver, avow, swan, verify
Quote: While it may seem obvious today that a good scientist must rely on empirical evidence, this was not always apparent.
2. empirical:
adj. a.derived from experiment and observation rather than theory
synonyms: emmpiric, confimable, falsifiable, verifiable, existential, experiential, data-based, observational, semiempirical, trial-and-error
antonyms: theoretic, theoretial
b. relying on medical quackery
synonyms: empiric
Quote: Building on the work of the Arab scientist Alhazen 600 years earlier, and soon to be reinforced by the French philosopher Rene Descartes, Bacon's scientifiic method requires scientists to make observations, form a theory to explain what is going on, and then carry out an experiment to see whether the theory works.
3.reinforce:
v. a. strengthen and support wit rewards
synonyms: reward
b. make stronger
synonyms: reenforce
Quote: If it seems to be true, then the results may be sent out for peer review, in which people working in the same or a similar field are invited to pick holes in the arguement, and so falsify the theory, or to repeat the experiment to make sure that the results are correct.
4. falsify:
v. a. make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story
synonyms: distort, garble, warp
b. falsify knowingly
synonyms: correct, rectify, right
eg: She falsified the records.
c. insert words into texts, often falsigying it thereby
synonyms: alter, interpolate
d. tamper, with the purpose of deception
synonyms: cook, fake, fudge, manipulate, misrepresent, wangle
e. prove false
eg: Falsify a claim.
Quote: English astronomer Edmond Halley, observing the comet of 1682, realized that it was similar to comets reported in 1531 and 1607, and suggested that all three were the same object, in orbit round the Sun.
5. comet
n. a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly eliiptical orbit 彗星
6.orbit
n. a. the path described by one celestial body in its revolution about another
eg: He plotted the orbit of the moon.
b. the path of an electron aroung the nucleus of an atom
c. a particular environment or walk of life
synonyms: area, arena, domain, field, sphere
d. the bony cavity in the skull containing the eyeball
e. an area in which someting acts or operates or has power or control:" the range of a supersonic jet"
v. move in an orbit
synonyms: orb, revolve
eg: The moon orbits around the Earth.
Quote: When the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford watched his students fire alpha particles at gold leaf in a search for small deflections, he suggestedputting the detector beside the source, and to their astonishment some of the alpha articles bounced back off the paper-thin foil. Rutherford said it was as though an artillery shell had bounced back off its tissue paper - and this led to a new idea about the structure of the atom.
7. gold leaf: a very thin form of gold foil 金箔
8. arillery shell: a shell fired by artillery 炮弹
9. tissue paper: a soft thin paper 绵纸，薄纸
Quote: An experiment is all the more compelling if the scientist, while proposing a new mechanism or theory, can make a prediction about the outcome.
10. compelling:
adj. a. driving or forcing
synonyms: powerful
b. tending to persuade by forcefulness of arguement
synonyms: persuasive
Quote: Every experiment that gives predicted answers is supporing evidence, but one experiment that fails may bring an entire theory crashing down.
11. crash down: fall or come down violently
Quote: One reason for building the vast apparatus known as the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, was to search for the Higgs particle, whose existence was predicted 40 years earlier, in 1964.
12. apparatus:
n. a. equipment designed to serve a specific function
b. a group of body parts that work together to perform a given function
Quote: Meanwhile, in India, China, and the Mediterranean, people tried to make sense of the movements of the heavenly bodies.
13. heavenly:
adj. a. relating to or inhabiting a divine heaven
synonyms: celestial
b. of or belonging to heaven or god
synonyms: sacred, immortal, supernal, superlunar, superlunary, translunar, translunary, divine, providential, paradisaic, paradisical, paradisal, paradisiac, paradisiacal, godlike, godly, celestial, ethereal, ambrosial, ambrosian
antonyms: earthly
c. of or relating to the sky
Quote: The Chinese spotted Halley's comet in 240 BCE and, in 1054, a supernova that is now known as the Crab Nebula.
14. supernova:
n. a star that explodes and becomes extremely luminous in the process 超新星
Quote: Many ingenious mechanical devices were invented, along with the astrolabe, a navigational device that used the positions of the stars. Alchemy flourished, and techniques such as distillation appeared.
15.ingenious:
adj. showing inventiveness and skill
synonyms: clever, cunning, adroit
16. astrolabe: n .an early form of sextant 星盘，天梯观测仪
17.alchemy
n. a. a pseudoscientific(伪科学的) forerunner of chemistry in medieval times
b. the way two indiciduals relate to each other
synonyms: chemistry
18. distillation:
n. a. the process of purifying a liquid by boiling it and condensing its capors
synonyms: distillment
b. a purified liquid produced by condensation from a vapor during distilling; the product of distillin
synonyms: distillate
Quote: Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius produced De Humani Corporis Fabrica, which described his dissections of human corpses with exquisite illustratiions.
19. dissection:
n. a. cutting so as to separate into pieces
b. a minute and critical analysis
c. detailed critical analysis or examination one part at a time ( as of a literary work )
20. corpse:
n. the dead body of a human being
synonyms: cadaver, clay, remains, stiff
21. exquisite:
adj. a. delicately beautiful
synonyms: dainty, delicate
b. of extreme beauty
synonyms: beautiful
c. lavishly elegant and refined
synonyms: recherche, elegant
d. intense or sharp
synonyms: keen, intense
Quote: In 1623, another English physician, William Harvey, described for the first time how the heart acts as a pump and drives blood around the body, thereby quashing forever earlier theories that dated back 1,400 years to the Greco-Roman physician Galen.
22. quash:
v. a. decalre invalid
synonyms: annul, avoid, invalidate, nullify, void
antonyms: formalise, formalize, validate
b. put down by force or intimidation
synonyms: keep down, reduce, repress, subdue, subjugate
Quote: In the 18th century, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier discovered the role of oxygen in combustion, discrediting the old theory of phlogiston.
23. combustion:
n. a. a process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to give heat and light
synonyms: burning
b. the act of burning something
c. a state of violent disturbance and excitement
24. discredit:
n. the state of being held in low esteem
synonyms: disrepute
antonyms: reputation, repute
eg: Your actions will bring descredit to your name.
v. damage the reputation of
synonyms: disgrace
eg: This newspaper story discredits the politicians.
25. phlogiston n. 燃素
Quote: Just 40 years later this led to the human genome project, which seemed a daunting task in prospect, and yet, aided by computing, got faster and faster as it progressed.
26. genome n. 基因组
27. daunting
adj. discouraging through fear
synonyms: intimidating, discouraging
Quote: As today's scientists build on these and other achievements, the relentless search for the truth continues.
28. relentless:
adj. a. never-ceasing
synonyms: persistent, unrelenting, continual
b. not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty
synonyms: grim, inexorable, stern, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelenting, implacable
逻辑导图：
The article made me think about the history of the science. Nowadays, science and technology are developing in an unvelivable way. People in modern society enjioy all the convenience that high-tech and advanced science bring to them. But no one thinks about its history. Only scientists study on the process of the development of science.
This article tells me about the progressiion of science from 600BCE to 1900s. We can find that there are a great amount of scientists who have devoted their life into studying and in a fact, most of the sceientists are also phylosophers.
Not only in science, but also in usual life, we should learn to observe, to ask questions, to experiment and to find the answers.
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