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Walter M. Elsasser
(20 Mar 1904 - 14 Oct 1991)
German-American physicist.
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Science Quotes by Walter M. Elsasser (1 quote)
This irrelevance of molecular arrangements for macroscopic results has given rise to the tendency to confine physics and chemistry to the study of homogeneous systems as well as homogeneous classes. In statistical mechanics a great deal of labor is in fact spent on showing that homogeneous systems and homogeneous classes are closely related and to a considerable extent interchangeable concepts of theoretical analysis (Gibbs theory). Naturally, this is not an accident. The methods of physics and chemistry are ideally suited for dealing with homogeneous classes with their interchangeable components. But experience shows that the objects of biology are radically inhomogeneous both as systems (structurally) and as classes (generically). Therefore, the method of biology and, consequently, its results will differ widely from the method and results of physical science.
— Walter M. Elsasser
Atom and Organism: A New Approach to Theoretical Biology (1966), 34.
See also:
- 20 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Elsasser's birth.
- Reflections on a Theory of Organisms, by Walter M. Elsasser, Harry Rubin. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
