Question

Cornelius Drebbel and Robert Boyle both made important discoveries about the nature of matter during the Renaissance. What made Boyle a famous scientist while few people know of Drebbel's work?

The saying, “it’s not what you know but who you know” applies to Drebbel's life--he didn't know anyone who could make him famous.

Drebbel, an alchemist, did not keep good records while Boyle, a scientist, carefully recorded his discoveries for others to reproduce.

Boyle, who had a college education, was more believable than Drebbel who had never gone to college

Drebbel was under the allegiance of a king thereby he was unable to publish his work

Answer 1

The best answer is the second one: Drebbel was secretive and did not keep or publish careful records, while Boyle carefully recorded and published reproducible experiments.

Why: by the mid-1600s the new scientific culture valued repeatable experiments and published descriptions that others could test. Boyle was part of that culture (educated, well-connected in the Royal Society, author of The Sceptical Chymist and many papers), so his ideas spread and were accepted. Drebbel was an inventor/alchemist who worked for royal patrons, often kept methods secret, published little, and mixed demonstrated devices with opaque alchemical claims. That made his achievements harder for contemporaries and later historians to verify and publicize.

Notes on the other choices:
- “It’s not what you know but who you know” is only partly relevant: Drebbel did have powerful patrons, but they didn’t substitute for the institutional networks and publication practices that made Boyle famous.
- Boyle’s education helped, but the key was method and communication, not just a degree.
- Allegiance to a king didn’t by itself prevent publication; secrecy and the culture of patronage/alchemy did.