eat vegetables and water for ten days, rather than the royal food and wine. 1st–12th centuries 90–168 – Ptolemy writes the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest. His writings reveal his understanding of the scientific method, his recognition of the importance of both systematically ordered observations and hypotheses. c. 800–900 – Early Muslim scientists such al-Kindi (801–873) and the authors writing under the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan (died c. 806–816) started to put a greater emphasis on the use of experiment as a source of knowledge. 1021 – The astronomer, physicist and mathematician Ibn al-Haytham introduces the experimental method and combines observations, experiments and rational arguments in his Book of Optics. c. 1025 – The scholar al-Biruni develops experimental methods for mineralogy and mechanics, and conducts elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena. 1027 – In his treatise al-Burhân ('On Demonstration') in his book Kitāb al-Šifāʾ ('The Book of Healing'), the Persian polymath Ibn Sīnā (known in the Western world as Avicenna) censures Aristotelian method of induction. 1200–1700 1220–1235 – Robert Grosseteste, an English scholastic philosopher, theologian and later the Bishop of Lincoln during 1253, publishes his Aristotelian commentaries, laying out the framework for the proper methods of science. 1265 – The English monk Roger Bacon, inspired by the writings of Robert Grosseteste, describes a scientific method based on a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent verification. He recorded the manner in which he conducted his experiments in precise detail so that others could reproduce and independently test his results. 1327 – Ockham's razor appears, a principle which states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. 1408 – The Yongle Encyclopedia (), the largest encyclopedia in book form ever made, is completed. 1581 – The sceptic Francisco Sanches uses classical sceptical arguments to show that science, in the Aristotelian sense of giving necessary reasons or causes for the behavior of nature, cannot be attained. 1581 – The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe builds Uraniborg and Stjerneborg on the island of Ven. Research done in the fields of astronomy, alchemy, and meteorology by Tycho and his assistants produces high precision measurements of the planets. 1595 – The microscope is invented in the Netherlands. 1608 – Evidence of the earliest known telescope appears in the Netherlands, when a patent is submitted by Hans Lipperhey. 1609 – The first 'public chemical laboratory'