Francis Bacon came up with the scientific method. He was an English statesman and philosopher whose name is associated with the development of modern experimental science. Bacon was also a contemporary of Shakespeare and lived in the exciting, intellectually rich times of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I in England. He displayed the intellectual curiosity and active way of life that typified Renaissance individuals.
Bacon believed that human reason, if armed with the proper logical methods, could gain command over nature and in so doing, greatly improve the human condition. In his greatest philosophical work, Novum Organum, Bacon developed a system of reasoning to gain such knowledge of the natural world.
Another important and innovative aspect of Bacon's thought is his vision of science as a collaborative effort in which individuals of reasoning such as he had described and contribute collectively to the good of humankind. In his utopian work, The New Atlantis, Bacon described a research institution equipped with tools of modern science such as laboratories, printing presses, and libraries. In time, this vision proved to be remarkably prophetic.
The scientific method is the way scientist investigate the world and produce knowledge about it. The term usually refers to an idealized, systematic approach that is supposed to characterize all scientific investigation. It is distinguished from other routes to knowledge by its use of controlled experiments and its requirements that results be reproducible. The scientific method is based on the commonality of the following steps: observe, hypothesize, predict, verify, evaluate, publish, and reproduce. As they are repeated continually, they build well tested hypothesis to explain more phenomena.