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.