Although chemistry has never necessarily been my strong suit, it was interesting to learn the origins of how oxygen was discovered because it is literally all around us all the time. I also enjoyed the discussion of the characteristics of what a genius was. I feel there are many stereotypes that are made about what a genius is or is not. I feel that a genius may not fit a certain mold but may have similar traits to other geniuses and other great thinkers of the time. I also liked the discussion of trying to forget everything you know and come up with what air is. This really puts in perspective that many of these early discoverers did not have much to base their ideas off of. Also, it highlights that these people really had such intelligent ideas about the world and thought differently from others. We can reflect back to the time of these great discoveries to to where we are in science now and really be grateful for all that it was and has become.
I am glad to hear you liked the two-prong approach of trying to get people to put themselves in the shoes of Enlightenment philosophers and discuss perspectives on what makes a revolutionary breakthrough happen. I imagined that both of these topics might bring about some interesting discussion from you guys and I think it did turn out to be interesting.