450 year old Bacon. Mmm

This weekend, it is time to celebrate bacon. When tucking in to that greasy, hangover-soothing fry-up, take a moment to think about Francis Bacon, who, this weekend, is celebrating the 450th anniversary of his birth.

Sir Francis was born on 22nd January, 1561 into a wealthy family and is widely acknowledged as the founding father of modern science. Holding the positions of Attorney General and Lord Chancellor, Bacon was undoubtedly an influential man. Yet he is remembered primarily for his efforts to create a coherent and universal scientific method, championing observation as a central tenet to scientific enquiry.

It may seem absurdly obvious to a modern scientist, but before it was promoted by Bacon, systematic observation was not deemed important; scientists relied heavily on the writings of Aristotle to guide their theories that assumed a base of ultimate truths from which all other knowledge could be deduced. Bacon saw this reliance on a finite source of knowledge as severely limited and he suggested that theories should be informed by observation. Induction, the process of predicting future events based on past observations, remained the dominant philosophy for several hundred years after Bacon’s death.

However, despite his huge influence in creating modern science, Bacon was anything but a selfless saint. In a flagrant abuse of his political powers (it is nice to see that some things never change), Bacon busied himself with multiple counts of corruption after he fell deeply into debt. Despite his close relationship to King James, he was fined £40,000 and spent several days locked up in the Tower of London in 1621.

Despite this fall from grace, Bacon continued to develop his ideas in writing and research until his death in 1626. It seems rather fitting that the grandfather of science died by the hand of his own creation – contracting pneumonia whilst conducting observations into the preservative effect of low temperatures on meat.