TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it... That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That�s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index D > Category: Description

Description Quotes (89 quotes)

“Normal” science, in Kuhn’s sense, exists. It is the activity of the non-revolutionary, or more precisely, the not-too-critical professional: of the science student who accepts the ruling dogma of the day… in my view the 'normal' scientist, as Kuhn describes him, is a person one ought to be sorry for… He has been taught in a dogmatic spirit: he is a victim of indoctrination… I can only say that I see a very great danger in it and in the possibility of its becoming normal… a danger to science and, indeed, to our civilization. And this shows why I regard Kuhn’s emphasis on the existence of this kind of science as so important.
In Imre Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.), 'Normal Science and its Dangers', Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970), 52-53.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Activity (218)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Critical (73)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indoctrination (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Thomas S. Kuhn (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Normal (29)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Professional (77)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  Victim (37)  |  View (496)  |  Why (491)

[Shawn Lawrence Otto describes the damaging] strategy used to undermine science in the interest of those industries where science has pointed out the dangers of their products to individuals and human life in general … [It was] used a generation ago by the tobacco industry… First they manufacture uncertainty by raising doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence. Then they launder information by using seemingly independent front organizations to promote their desired message and thereby confuse the public. And finally they recruit unscrupulous scientific spokespeople to misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings and cherry-pick facts in an attempt to persuade the media and the public that there is still serious debate among scientists on the issue at hand.
In 'Science Is Politics', Huffington Post (28 May 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attempting (3)  |  Cherry-Pick (2)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Damage (38)  |  Danger (127)  |  Debate (40)  |  Describe (132)  |  Desired (5)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Finding (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Front (16)  |  General (521)  |  Generation (256)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Human (1512)  |  Independent (74)  |  Indisputable (8)  |  Individual (420)  |  Industry (159)  |  Information (173)  |  Interest (416)  |  Issue (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Media (14)  |  Message (53)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organization (120)  |  Peer Review (4)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Product (166)  |  Promote (32)  |  Promoting (7)  |  Public (100)  |  Raising (4)  |  Recruiting (3)  |  Review (27)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Serious (98)  |  Still (614)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Undermining (2)  |  Unscrupulous (2)  |  Using (6)

[The] complex pattern of the misallocation of credit for scientific work must quite evidently be described as “the Matthew effect,” for, as will be remembered, the Gospel According to St. Matthew puts it this way: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Put in less stately language, the Matthew effect consists of the accruing of greater increments of recognition for particular scientific contributions to scientists of considerable repute and the withholding of such recognition from scientists who have not yet made their mark.
'The Matthew Effect in Science', Science (1968), 159, 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  According (236)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Credit (24)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Give (208)  |  Gospel (8)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hath (2)  |  Increment (2)  |  Language (308)  |  Mark (47)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Stately (12)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

[About describing atomic models in the language of classical physics:] We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.
As quoted by Werner Heisenberg, as translated by Arnold J. Pomerans, in Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (1971), 41. The words are not verbatim, but as later recollected by Werner Heisenberg describing his early encounter with Bohr in 1920.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Physics (6)  |  Concern (239)  |  Connection (171)  |  Creation (350)  |  Establishing (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Image (97)  |  Language (308)  |  Mental (179)  |  Model (106)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)

Question: State what are the conditions favourable for the formation of dew. Describe an instrument for determining the dew point, and the method of using it.
Answer: This is easily proved from question 1. A body of gas as it ascends expands, cools, and deposits moisture; so if you walk up a hill the body of gas inside you expands, gives its heat to you, and deposits its moisture in the form of dew or common sweat. Hence these are the favourable conditions; and moreover it explains why you get warm by ascending a hill, in opposition to the well-known law of the Conservation of Energy.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 179, Question 12. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Ascension (4)  |  Body (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Cooling (10)  |  Deposition (4)  |  Describe (132)  |  Determination (80)  |  Dew (10)  |  Easy (213)  |  Energy (373)  |  Examination (102)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Favor (69)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Gas (89)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hill (23)  |  Howler (15)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Method (531)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Point (584)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  State (505)  |  Sweat (17)  |  Use (771)  |  Walk (138)  |  Warm (74)  |  Well-Known (4)  |  Why (491)

A Beethoven string-quartet is truly, as some one has said, a scraping of horses’ tails on cats’ bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms; but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different description.
In The Sentiment of Rationality (1882, 1907), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Beethoven (14)  |  Beethoven_Ludwig (8)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Cat (52)  |  Different (595)  |  Horse (78)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Truly (118)  |  Violin (6)  |  Way (1214)

A good psychologist has to be able to distinguish strongly between problems of process, which are causal, and problems of structure, which are analytic and descriptive. In particular the statistics adequate for the latter are not sufficient for the former.
From archive recording (3 Jun 1959) with to John C. Kenna, giving his recollection of his farewell speech to Cambridge Psychological Society (4 Mar 1952), in which he gave a summary of points he considered to be basic requirements for a good experimental psychologist. Point 5 of 7, from transcription of recording held at British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre, London, as abridged on thepsychologist.bps.org.uk website.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Good (906)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sufficient (133)

A science in its infancy is the least satisfactory, and, at the same time, the most profitable theme for a general description.
In Modern Astrophysics (1924), Preface, v.
Science quotes on:  |  General (521)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Least (75)  |  Most (1728)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Theme (17)  |  Time (1911)

About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!
Letter to Henry Fawcett (18 Sep 1861). In Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin, Albert Charles Seward, More Letters of Charles Darwin (1903), Vol. 1, 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Color (155)  |  Count (107)  |  Describe (132)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Gravel (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Pit (20)  |  Remember (189)  |  See (1094)  |  Service (110)  |  Theory (1015)  |  View (496)  |  Year (963)

An evolution is a series of events that in itself as series is purely physical, — a set of necessary occurrences in the world of space and time. An egg develops into a chick; … a planet condenses from the fluid state, and develops the life that for millions of years makes it so wondrous a place. Look upon all these things descriptively, and you shall see nothing but matter moving instant after instant, each instant containing in its full description the necessity of passing over into the next. … But look at the whole appreciatively, historically, synthetically, as a musician listens to a symphony, as a spectator watches a drama. Now you shall seem to have seen, in phenomenal form, a story.
In The Spirit of Modern Philosophy: An Essay in the Form of Lectures (1892), 425.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciative (2)  |  Chick (5)  |  Condense (15)  |  Contain (68)  |  Develop (278)  |  Drama (24)  |  Egg (71)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  History (716)  |  Instant (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listen (81)  |  Look (584)  |  Make (25)  |  Matter (821)  |  Million (124)  |  Move (223)  |  Musician (23)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Planet (402)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Spectator (11)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Symphony (10)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

An experiment is an observation that can be repeated, isolated and varied. The more frequently you can repeat an observation, the more likely are you to see clearly what is there and to describe accurately what you have seen. The more strictly you can isolate an observation, the easier does your task of observation become, and the less danger is there of your being led astray by irrelevant circumstances, or of placing emphasis on the wrong point. The more widely you can vary an observation, the more clearly will the uniformity of experience stand out, and the better is your chance of discovering laws.
In A Text-Book of Psychology (1909), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Astray (13)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Chance (244)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Clear (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Easier (53)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Law (913)  |  Likely (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Point (584)  |  Repeat (44)  |  See (1094)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stand Out (5)  |  Strict (20)  |  Task (152)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

As for hailing [the new term] scientist as 'good', that was mere politeness: Faraday never used the word, describing himself as a natural philosopher to the end of his career.
Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science (1991), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Career (86)  |  End (603)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Good (906)  |  Himself (461)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosopher (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Term (357)  |  Word (650)

As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. I, cxiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Call (781)  |  Describe (132)  |  General (521)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Musician (23)  |  Name (359)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Need (320)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Painter (30)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poet (97)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Use (771)

At the beginning of its existence as a science, biology was forced to take cognizance of the seemingly boundless variety of living things, for no exact study of life phenomena was possible until the apparent chaos of the distinct kinds of organisms had been reduced to a rational system. Systematics and morphology, two predominantly descriptive and observational disciplines, took precedence among biological sciences during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. More recently physiology has come to the foreground, accompanied by the introduction of quantitative methods and by a shift from the observationalism of the past to a predominance of experimentation.
In Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937, 1982), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (41)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observational (15)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precedence (4)  |  Predominance (3)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Rational (95)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Shift (45)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Variety (138)

At this point, however, I have no intention whatever of criticizing the false teachings of Galen, who is easily first among the professors of dissection, for I certainly do not wish to start off by gaining a reputation for impiety toward him, the author of all good things, or by seeming insubordinate to his authority. For I am well aware how upset the practitioners (unlike the followers of Aristotle) invariably become nowadays, when they discover in the course of a single dissection that Galen has departed on two hundred or more occasions from the true description of the harmony, function, and action of the human parts, and how grimly they examine the dissected portions as they strive with all the zeal at their command to defend him. Yet even they, drawn by their love of truth, are gradually calming down and placing more faith in their own not ineffective eyes and reason than in Galen’s writings.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem: (1543), Book I, iv, as translated by William Frank Richardson, in On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book I: The Bones and Cartilages (1998), Preface, liv.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Author (175)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Command (60)  |  Course (413)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Examine (84)  |  Eye (440)  |  Faith (209)  |  False (105)  |  First (1302)  |  Follower (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Galen (20)  |  Good (906)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Intention (46)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Love (328)  |  More (2558)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Point (584)  |  Portion (86)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Professor (133)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Single (365)  |  Start (237)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Upset (18)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wish (216)  |  Writing (192)  |  Zeal (12)

But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Burn (99)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Compare (76)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Eager (17)  |  Eagerness (5)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Follow (389)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lost (34)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rare (94)  |  Right (473)  |  Saw (160)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zeal (12)

By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!
Times (28 Nov 1919). In Robert Andrews Famous Lines: a Columbia Dictionary of Familiar Quotations (1997), 414. Variations of this quote were made by Einstein on other occasions.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  England (43)  |  German (37)  |  Germany (16)  |  Jew (11)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nationality (3)  |  Reader (42)  |  Regard (312)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Represent (157)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Swiss (3)  |  Taste (93)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Today (321)  |  Will (2350)

Crystallographic science does not consist in the scrupulous description of all the accidents of crystalline form, but in specifying, by the description of these forms, the more or less close relationship they have with each other.
Cristallographie (1793), 1, 91
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Consist (223)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Form (976)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Scrupulous (7)  |  Specification (7)

Descriptive geometry has two objects: the first is to establish methods to represent on drawing paper which has only two dimensions,—namely, length and width,—all solids of nature which have three dimensions,—length, width, and depth,—provided, however, that these solids are capable of rigorous definition.
The second object is to furnish means to recognize accordingly an exact description of the forms of solids and to derive thereby all truths which result from their forms and their respective positions.
From On the Purpose of Descriptive Geometry as translated by Arnold Emch in David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics (1929), 426.
Science quotes on:  |  Capable (174)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Derive (70)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Descriptive Geometry (3)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Exact (75)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Length (24)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Paper (192)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Solid (119)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Width (5)

Do not the Rays which differ in Refrangibility differ also in Flexibity; and are they not by their different Inflexions separated from one another, so as after separation to make the Colours in the three Fringes above described? And after what manner are they inflected to make those Fringes?
Opticks (1704), Book 3, Query 2, 132-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Color (155)  |  Differ (88)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fringe (7)  |  Inflection (4)  |  Manner (62)  |  Ray (115)  |  Refrangibility (2)  |  Separation (60)

During Alfvén's visit he gave a lecture at the University of Chicago, which was attended by [Enrico] Fermi. As Alfvén described his work, Fermi nodded his head and said, 'Of course.' The next day the entire world of physics said. 'Oh, of course.'
Quoted in Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', Washington Times, supplement: The World and I (May 1988), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Hannes Alfvén (12)  |  Attend (67)  |  Course (413)  |  Enrico Fermi (20)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Next (238)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  University (130)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be a criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.
In Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958, 1962), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Criterion (28)  |  Degree (277)  |  Language (308)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Plain (34)  |  Reach (286)  |  Science And Journalism (3)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
A Brief History of Time (1998), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Approach (112)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Describe (132)  |  Equation (138)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fire (203)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Model (106)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (649)  |  Rule (307)  |  Set (400)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unified Theory (7)  |  Universe (900)  |  Why (491)

Evolution is either an innocent scientific description of how certain earthly things came about; or, if it is anything more than this, it is an attack upon thought itself. If evolution destroys anything, it does not destroy religion but rationalism.
In Orthodoxy (1918, 2008), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Certain (557)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Innocent (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Originate (39)  |  Rationalism (5)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)

Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief … give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.
From 'Science and Literature', The Hope of Progress: A Scientist Looks at Problems in Philosophy, Literature and Science (1973), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Believable (3)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deeper (4)  |  End (603)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Hang (46)  |  Incoherence (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Loss (117)  |  Myth (58)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Relief (30)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  True (239)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Genius … has been defined as a supreme capacity for taking trouble… It more fitly could be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds and keeping them there so long as the genius remains.
In Samuel Butler and Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1913), 174-175.
Science quotes on:  |  Capacity (105)  |  Definition (238)  |  Genius (301)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Trouble (117)

Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers—a living prismatic gem that changes its colour with every change of position— … its exquisite form, its changeful splendour, its swift motions and intervals of aërial suspension, it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description.
In Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest (1916),
Science quotes on:  |  Aerial (11)  |  Bird (163)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dance (35)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Fairy (10)  |  Flower (112)  |  Form (976)  |  Gem (17)  |  Humming (5)  |  Hummingbird (4)  |  Interval (14)  |  Living (492)  |  Loveliness (6)  |  Mock (7)  |  Motion (320)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Position (83)  |  Prismatic (2)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Splendour (8)  |  Suspension (7)  |  Swift (16)

I am ever more intrigued by the correspondence between mathematics and physical facts. The adaptability of mathematics to the description of physical phenomena is uncanny.
From Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1981), in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel 1981 (1981), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptability (7)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Intrigued (4)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Phenomena (8)  |  Physical (518)  |  Uncanny (5)

I have recently read an article on handwriting and forgeries in which it is stated that ink eradicators do not remove ink: but merely bleach it, and that ink so bleached can be easily brought out by a process of fuming: known to all handwriting experts. Can you give me a description of this process, what chemicals are used: and how it is performed?
Showing his early interest in science, at age 16, while a student at Tulsa Central High School. From the first time Gardner’s writing appeared in print: a query printed in a magazine in Hugo Gernsback (ed.), 'Now It Is Now It Isn’t', Science and Invention (Apr 1930), 1119. As quoted and cited in Dana Richards, 'Martin Gardner: A “Documentary”', collected in Elwyn R. Berlekamp and Tom Rodgers (ed.) The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler: A Collection in Tribute to Martin Gardner (1999), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Article (22)  |  Bleach (3)  |  Bring Out (4)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expert (67)  |  Forgery (3)  |  Fume (7)  |  Handwriting (2)  |  Ink (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Merely (315)  |  Perform (123)  |  Process (439)  |  Read (308)  |  Remove (50)

I would rather have a mineral ill-classified and well-described, than well-classified and ill-described.
In On the External Characters of Minerals (1774), xxix, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite CaroaL
Science quotes on:  |  Classification (102)  |  Ill (12)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Well (14)

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact or the description of one actual phenomenon to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect, but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through, it is not comprehended in its entireness.
In Walden (1878), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (118)  |  Bored (5)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Concur (2)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Course (413)  |  Detect (45)  |  Element (322)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infer (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instance (33)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Outline (13)  |  Particular (80)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Really (77)  |  Result (700)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Wonderful (155)

In any conceivable method ever invented by man, an automaton which produces an object by copying a pattern, will go first from the pattern to a description to the object. It first abstracts what the thing is like, and then carries it out. It’s therefore simpler not to extract from a real object its definition, but to start from the definition.
From lecture series on self-replicating machines at the University of Illinois, Lecture 5 (Dec 1949), 'Re-evaluation of the Problems of Complicated Automata—Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution', Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Copy (34)  |  Definition (238)  |  Extract (40)  |  First (1302)  |  Invent (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Object (438)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Produce (117)  |  Real (159)  |  Simpler (8)  |  Start (237)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

In modern thought, (if not in fact)
Nothing is that doesn’t act, So that is reckoned wisdom which
Describes the scratch but not the itch.
Anonymous
Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man? (2nd Ed.,1964), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Describe (132)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Itch (11)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Thought (4)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Scratch (14)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wisdom (235)

In our educational institutions applied science may almost be described as a “no-man's land.”
Referring to the need to improve the quality and status of applied science. From his essay contributed to the National Academy of Sciences Committee Report to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics (Mar 1965). Reprinted in 'The Role of Applied Science', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Mar 1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Education (423)  |  Institution (73)  |  Man (2252)

It is good to recall that three centuries ago, around the year 1660, two of the greatest monuments of modern history were erected, one in the West and one in the East; St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Between them, the two symbolize, perhaps better than words can describe, the comparative level of architectural technology, the comparative level of craftsmanship and the comparative level of affluence and sophistication the two cultures had attained at that epoch of history. But about the same time there was also created—and this time only in the West—a third monument, a monument still greater in its eventual import for humanity. This was Newton’s Principia, published in 1687. Newton's work had no counterpart in the India of the Mughuls.
'Ideals and Realities' (1975). Reprinted in Ideals and Realities (1984), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Affluence (3)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Attain (126)  |  Better (493)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Counterpart (11)  |  Craftsmanship (4)  |  Culture (157)  |  Describe (132)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Good (906)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  Humanity (186)  |  London (15)  |  Modern (402)  |  Monument (45)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Principia (14)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Technology (281)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

It is necessary to avoid the affected conciseness and quaint terms so much in fashion, and only to use the proper language and established terms. Linnæus, otherwise the great ornament of natural historians, is very blameable in this respect…I am the more desirous of fixing technical names, as the unjustifiable and very indecent terms used by Linnaeus in his Bivalves may meet their deserved fate, by being exploded with indignation; for
    Immodest words admit of defense,
    And want of decency is want of sense.

These my terms being adopted, will render descriptions proper, intelligible, and decent; by which the science may become useful, easy, and adapted to all capacities, and to both sexes.
From Preface to Elements of Conchology or, An introduction to the Knowledge of Shells (1776), 108-109. [Note: the quotation comes from the fourth Earl of Roscommon. Benjamin Franklin also used this quote, but he was only repeating it, not originating it.]
Science quotes on:  |  Blame (31)  |  Decency (5)  |  Decent (12)  |  Indignation (5)  |  Carolus Linnaeus (36)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Proper (150)  |  Term (357)

It was a dark and stormy night, so R. H. Bing volunteered to drive some stranded mathematicians from the fogged-in Madison airport to Chicago. Freezing rain pelted the windscreen and iced the roadway as Bing drove on—concentrating deeply on the mathematical theorem he was explaining. Soon the windshield was fogged from the energetic explanation. The passengers too had beaded brows, but their sweat arose from fear. As the mathematical description got brighter, the visibility got dimmer. Finally, the conferees felt a trace of hope for their survival when Bing reached forward—apparently to wipe off the moisture from the windshield. Their hope turned to horror when, instead, Bing drew a figure with his finger on the foggy pane and continued his proof—embellishing the illustration with arrows and helpful labels as needed for the demonstration.
In 'R. H. Bing', Biographical Memoirs: National Academy of Sciences (2002), 49. Anecdote based on the recollections of Bing's colleagues, Steve Armentrout and C. E. Burgess. The narrative was given in a memorial tribute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrow (22)  |  Brow (3)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Dark (145)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drive (61)  |  Embellish (4)  |  Energetic (6)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fear (212)  |  Figure (162)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fog (10)  |  Forward (104)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Hope (321)  |  Horror (15)  |  Ice (58)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Label (11)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Night (133)  |  Passenger (10)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rain (70)  |  Reach (286)  |  Roadway (2)  |  Soon (187)  |  Stormy (2)  |  Strand (9)  |  Survival (105)  |  Sweat (17)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Visibility (6)  |  Volunteer (7)  |  Windshield (2)  |  Wipe (6)

Lately, however, on abandoning the brindled and grey mosquitos and commencing similar work on a new, brown species, of which I have as yet obtained very few individuals, I succeeded in finding in two of them certain remarkable and suspicious cells containing pigment identical in appearance to that of the parasite of malaria. As these cells appear to me to be very worthy of attention … I think it would be advisable to place on record a brief description both of the cells and of the mosquitos.
In 'On Some Peculiar Pigmented Cells Found in Two Mosquitoes Fed on Malarial Blood', British Medical Journal (18 Dec 1897), 1786. Ross continued this study and identified how malaria was transmitted.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Attention (196)  |  Both (496)  |  Brief (37)  |  Brown (23)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Identical (55)  |  Individual (420)  |  Malaria (10)  |  Mosquito (16)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Record (161)  |  Species (435)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Work (1402)

Let us now discuss the extent of the mathematical quality in Nature. According to the mechanistic scheme of physics or to its relativistic modification, one needs for the complete description of the universe not merely a complete system of equations of motion, but also a complete set of initial conditions, and it is only to the former of these that mathematical theories apply. The latter are considered to be not amenable to theoretical treatment and to be determinable only from observation.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 125.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Amenable (4)  |  Apply (170)  |  Complete (209)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Determine (152)  |  Equation (138)  |  Extent (142)  |  Former (138)  |  Initial (17)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanistic (3)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modification (57)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Quality (139)  |  Relativistic (2)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Set (400)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Universe (900)

Mathematics, a creation of the mind, so accurately fits the outside world. … [There is a] fantastic amount of uniformity in the universe. The formulas of physics are compressed descriptions of nature's weird repetitions. The accuracy of those formulas, coupled with nature’s tireless ability to keep doing everything the same way, gives them their incredible power.
In book review, 'Adventures Of a Mathematician: The Man Who Invented the H-Bomb', New York Times (9 May 1976), 201. The book is a biography of Stanislaw Ulam, and this is Gardner’s description of one of Ulam’s reflections on nature and mathematics.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Amount (153)  |  Compressed (3)  |  Creation (350)  |  Doing (277)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  Fit (139)  |  Formula (102)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Outside (141)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Power (771)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Same (166)  |  Tireless (5)  |   Stanislaw M. Ulam, (7)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weird (3)  |  World (1850)

Mathematics, among all school subjects, is especially adapted to further clearness, definite brevity and precision in expression, although it offers no exercise in flights of rhetoric. This is due in the first place to the logical rigour with which it develops thought, avoiding every departure from the shortest, most direct way, never allowing empty phrases to enter. Other subjects excel in the development of expression in other respects: translation from foreign languages into the mother tongue gives exercise in finding the proper word for the given foreign word and gives knowledge of laws of syntax, the study of poetry and prose furnish fit patterns for connected presentation and elegant form of expression, composition is to exercise the pupil in a like presentation of his own or borrowed thoughtsand their development, the natural sciences teach description of natural objects, apparatus and processes, as well as the statement of laws on the grounds of immediate sense-perception. But all these aids for exercise in the use of the mother tongue, each in its way valuable and indispensable, do not guarantee, in the same manner as mathematical training, the exclusion of words whose concepts, if not entirely wanting, are not sufficiently clear. They do not furnish in the same measure that which the mathematician demands particularly as regards precision of expression.
In Anleitung zum mathematischen Unterricht in höheren Schulen (1906), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Aid (101)  |  Allow (51)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Borrow (31)  |  Brevity (8)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Clear (111)  |  Composition (86)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connect (126)  |  Definite (114)  |  Demand (131)  |  Departure (9)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Empty (82)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Excel (4)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Expression (181)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Flight (101)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Form (976)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Give (208)  |  Ground (222)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Logical (57)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mother Tongue (3)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (438)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Perception (97)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Place (192)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Precision (72)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Process (439)  |  Proper (150)  |  Prose (11)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Regard (312)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rhetoric (13)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Same (166)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Short (200)  |  Shortest (16)  |  Statement (148)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  Syntax (2)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Training (92)  |  Translation (21)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

My picture of the world is drawn in perspective and not like a model to scale. The foreground is occupied by human beings and the stars are all as small as three-penny bits. I don't really believe in astronomy, except as a complicated description of part of the course of human and possibly animal sensation. I apply my perspective not merely to space but also to time. In time the world will cool and everything will die; but that is a long time off still and its present value at compound discount is almost nothing.
From a paper read to the Apostles, a Cambridge discussion society (1925). In 'The Foundations of Mathematics' (1925), collected in Frank Plumpton Ramsey and D.H. Mellor (ed.), Philosophical Papers (1990), Epilogue, 249. Citation to the paper, in Nils-Eric Sahlin, The Philosophy of F.P. Ramsey (1990), 225.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Application (257)  |  Apply (170)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Coin (13)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Compound (117)  |  Cooling (10)  |  Course (413)  |  Death (406)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Everything (489)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Long (778)  |  Merely (315)  |  Model (106)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Part (235)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Picture (148)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Present (630)  |  Scale (122)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Time (1911)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

No language which lends itself to visualizability can describe the quantum jumps.
Max Born
As quoted in epigraph, without citation, in Nick Herbert, '“And Then A Miracle Occurs”: The Quantum Measurement Problem', Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics (1985), Chap 8, 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Describe (132)  |  Jump (31)  |  Language (308)  |  Lend (4)  |  Quantum (118)

No matter how we twist and turn we shall always come back to the cell. The eternal merit of Schwann does not lie in his cell theory that has occupied the foreground for so long, and perhaps will soon be given up, but in his description of the development of the various tissues, and in his demonstration that this development (hence all physiological activity) is in the end traceable back to the cell. Now if pathology is nothing but physiology with obstacles, and diseased life nothing but healthy life interfered with by all manner of external and internal influences then pathology too must be referred back to the cell.
In 'Cellular-Pathologie', Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fur klinische Medizin (1855), 8, 13-14, as translated in LellandJ. Rather, 'Cellular Pathology', Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays by Rudolf Virchow (1958), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Back (395)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cell Theory (4)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Development (441)  |  Disease (340)  |  End (603)  |  Eternal (113)  |  External (62)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Given (5)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interference (22)  |  Internal (69)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merit (51)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Theodor Schwann (12)  |  Soon (187)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Trace (109)  |  Traceable (5)  |  Turn (454)  |  Twist (10)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

No video, no photographs, no verbal descriptions, no lectures can provide the enchantment that a few minutes out-of-doors can: watch a spider construct a web; observe a caterpillar systematically ravaging the edge of a leaf; close your eyes, cup your hands behind your ears, and listen to aspen leaves rustle or a stream muse about its pools and eddies. Nothing can replace plucking a cluster of pine needles and rolling them in your fingers to feel how they’re put together, or discovering that “sedges have edges and grasses are round,” The firsthand, right-and-left-brain experience of being in the out-of-doors involves all the senses including some we’ve forgotten about, like smelling water a mile away. No teacher, no student, can help but sense and absorb the larger ecological rhythms at work here, and the intertwining of intricate, varied and complex strands that characterize a rich, healthy natural world.
Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Aspen (2)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Close (77)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Complex (202)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cup (7)  |  Discover (571)  |  Door (94)  |  Ear (69)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Eddy (4)  |  Edge (51)  |  Enchantment (9)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finger (48)  |  Firsthand (2)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Help (116)  |  Include (93)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Involve (93)  |  Large (398)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Listen (81)  |  Mile (43)  |  Minute (129)  |  Muse (10)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Needle (7)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pine (12)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Pool (16)  |  Provide (79)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Replace (32)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Rich (66)  |  Right (473)  |  Roll (41)  |  Round (26)  |  Rustle (2)  |  Sedge (2)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smell (29)  |  Spider (14)  |  Strand (9)  |  Stream (83)  |  Student (317)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Together (392)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Video (2)  |  Watch (118)  |  Water (503)  |  Web (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

On principle, there is nothing new in the postulate that in the end exact science should aim at nothing more than the description of what can really be observed. The question is only whether from now on we shall have to refrain from tying description to a clear hypothesis about the real nature of the world. There are many who wish to pronounce such abdication even today. But I believe that this means making things a little too easy for oneself.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Belief (615)  |  Clear (111)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Really (77)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tie (42)  |  Today (321)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

One cannot ignore half of life for the purposes of science, and then claim that the results of science give a full and adequate picture of the meaning of life. All discussions of “life” which begin with a description of man's place on a speck of matter in space, in an endless evolutionary scale, are bound to be half-measures, because they leave out most of the experiences which are important to use as human beings.
In Religion and the Rebel (1957), 309.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bound (120)  |  Claim (154)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Endless (60)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experience (494)  |  Full (68)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Important (229)  |  Leave Out (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meaning Of Life (2)  |  Measure (241)  |  Most (1728)  |  Picture (148)  |  Place (192)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Result (700)  |  Scale (122)  |  Space (523)  |  Speck (25)  |  Use (771)

One might describe the mathematical quality in Nature by saying that the universe is so constituted that mathematics is a useful tool in its description. However, recent advances in physical science show that this statement of the case is too trivial. The connection between mathematics and the description of the universe goes far deeper than this, and one can get an appreciation of it only from a thorough examination of the various facts that make it up.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Connection (171)  |  Constituted (5)  |  Describe (132)  |  Examination (102)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Quality (139)  |  Recent (78)  |  Show (353)  |  Statement (148)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Tool (129)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useful (260)  |  Various (205)

Open to lawful traffic of all descriptions without toll charges.
From the Proclamation by the Lincoln Highway Association (13 Sep 1913), announcing the route of the Lincoln Highway. In the Lincoln Highway Association, The Lincoln Highway: the Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History (1935), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Charge (63)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Lincoln Highway (4)  |  Open (277)  |  Toll (3)  |  Traffic (10)

Perhaps randomness is not merely an adequate description for complex causes that we cannot specify. Perhaps the world really works this way, and many events are uncaused in any conventional sense of the word. Perhaps our gut feeling that it cannot be so reflects only our hopes and prejudices, our desperate striving to make sense of a complex and confusing world, and not the ways of nature.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complex (202)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Desperate (5)  |  Event (222)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Gut Feeling (2)  |  Hope (321)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Randomness (5)  |  Really (77)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Specify (6)  |  Strive (53)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Perhaps we see equations as simple because they are easily expressed in terms of mathematical notation already invented at an earlier stage of development of the science, and thus what appears to us as elegance of description really reflects the interconnectedness of Nature's laws at different levels.
Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1969), in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.),Les Prix Nobel en 1969 (1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Early (196)  |  Ease (40)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Equation (138)  |  Express (192)  |  Expression (181)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notation (28)  |  Reflection (93)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Stage (152)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)

Physicists speak of the particle representation or the wave representation. Bohr's principle of complementarity asserts that there exist complementary properties of the same object of knowledge, one of which if known will exclude knowledge of the other. We may therefore describe an object like an electron in ways which are mutually exclusive—e.g., as wave or particle—without logical contradiction provided we also realize that the experimental arrangements that determine these descriptions are similarly mutually exclusive. Which experiment—and hence which description one chooses—is purely a matter of human choice.
The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature (1982), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Complementarity (6)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Describe (132)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Electron (96)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Principle (530)  |  Property (177)  |  Purely (111)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Physics investigates the essential nature of the world, and biology describes a local bump. Psychology, human psychology, describes a bump on the bump.
Theories and Things (1981), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Bump (2)  |  Describe (132)  |  Essential (210)  |  Human (1512)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Locality (8)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Psychology (166)  |  World (1850)

Quantum theory—at least in the Heisenberg interpretation—describes the way the world works as a literal moment-to-moment emergence of actual facts out of a background of less factual 'potentia.'
Quoted in article 'Nick Herbert', in Gale Cengage Learning, Contemporary Authors Online (2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Background (44)  |  Describe (132)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Literal (12)  |  Moment (260)  |  Potentia (3)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Connection (171)  |  Different (595)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Same (166)  |  Teach (299)

Religion and science ... constitute deep-rooted and ancient efforts to find richer experience and deeper meaning than are found in the ordinary biological and social satisfactions. As pointed out by Whitehead, religion and science have similar origins and are evolving toward similar goals. Both started from crude observations and fanciful concepts, meaningful only within a narrow range of conditions for the people who formulated them of their limited tribal experience. But progressively, continuously, and almost simultaneously, religious and scientific concepts are ridding themselves of their coarse and local components, reaching higher and higher levels of abstraction and purity. Both the myths of religion and the laws of science, it is now becoming apparent, are not so much descriptions of facts as symbolic expressions of cosmic truths.
'On Being Human,' A God Within, Scribner (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Coarse (4)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deep (241)  |  Effort (243)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  High (370)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Local (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Observation (593)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (286)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rich (66)  |  Rid (14)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (261)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toward (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)

Science can be defined as “the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.”
In Bernice Zeldin Schacter, Issues and Dilemmas of Biotechnology: A Reference Guide (1999), 1, citing the American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition.
Science quotes on:  |  Definition (238)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Identification (20)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Theoretical (27)

Science gives us the grounds of premises from which religious truths are to be inferred; but it does not set about inferring them, much less does it reach the inference; that is not its province. It brings before us phenomena, and it leaves us, if we will, to call them works of design, wisdom, or benevolence; and further still, if we will, to proceed to confess an Intelligent Creator. We have to take its facts, and to give them a meaning, and to draw our own conclusions from them. First comes Knowledge, then a view, then reasoning, then belief. This is why Science has so little of a religious tendency; deductions have no power of persuasion. The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon a dogma; no man will be a martyr for a conclusion.
Letter collected in Tamworth Reading Room: Letters on an Address Delivered by Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P. on the Establishment of a Reading Room at Tamworth (1841), 32. Excerpted in John Henry Newman, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), 89 & 94 footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confess (42)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deed (34)  |  Design (203)  |  Die (94)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Draw (140)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Give (208)  |  Ground (222)  |  Heart (243)  |  History (716)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impression (118)  |  Infer (12)  |  Inference (45)  |  Inflame (2)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Leave (138)  |  Less (105)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Martyr (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Melt (16)  |  Person (366)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Power (771)  |  Premise (40)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Province (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Religious (134)  |  Set (400)  |  Still (614)  |  Subdue (7)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)  |  Voice (54)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1402)

Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding.These words are meant as conveniences until real understanding can be found. … Words such as dimension and field and infinity … are not descriptions of reality, yet we accept them as such because everyone is sure someone else knows what the words mean.
In God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment (2004), 20-21.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Field (378)  |  Fill (67)  |  Hole (17)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Reality (274)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sure (15)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Word (650)

That form of popular science which merely recites the results of investigations, which merely communicates useful knowledge, is from this standpoint bad science, or no science at all. … Apply this test to every work professing to give a popular account of any branch of science. If any such work gives a description of phenomena that appeals to his imagination rather than to his reason, then it is bad science.
From The Grammar of Science (1892), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Apply (170)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bad Science (5)  |  Branch (155)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Form (976)  |  Give (208)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Popular (34)  |  Popular Science (2)  |  Profess (21)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recite (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Test (221)  |  Useful (260)  |  Work (1402)

The assumptions of population thinking are diametrically opposed to those of the typologist. The populationist stresses the uniqueness of everything in the organic world. What is true for the human species,–that no two individuals are alike, is equally true for all other species of animals and plants ... All organisms and organic phenomena are composed of unique features and can be described collectively only in statistical terms. Individuals, or any kind of organic entities, form populations of which we can determine the arithmetic mean and the statistics of variation. Averages are merely statistical abstractions, only the individuals of which the populations are composed have reality. The ultimate conclusions of the population thinker and of the typologist are precisely the opposite. For the typologist, the type (eidos) is real and the variation. an illusion, while for the populationist the type (average) is an abstraction and only the variation is real. No two ways of looking at nature could be more different.
Darwin and the Evolutionary Theory in Biology (1959), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Average (89)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everything (489)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Species (11)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mean (810)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Population (115)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Reality (274)  |  Species (435)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unique (72)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Variation (93)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

The attempted synthesis of paleontology and genetics, an essential part of the present study, may be particularly surprising and possibly hazardous. Not long ago, paleontologists felt that a geneticist was a person who shut himself in a room, pulled down the shades, watched small flies disporting themselves in milk bottles, and thought that he was studying nature. A pursuit so removed from the realities of life, they said, had no significance for the true biologist. On the other hand, the geneticists said that paleontology had no further contributions to make to biology, that its only point had been the completed demonstration of the truth of evolution, and that it was a subject too purely descriptive to merit the name 'science'. The paleontologist, they believed, is like a man who undertakes to study the principles of the internal combustion engine by standing on a street corner and watching the motor cars whiz by.
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Bottle (17)  |  Car (75)  |  Cat (52)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Completed (30)  |  Completion (23)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Corner (59)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Down (455)  |  Engine (99)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fly (153)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Internal (69)  |  Internal Combustion Engine (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merit (51)  |  Milk (23)  |  Motor (23)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Person (366)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pull (43)  |  Purely (111)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Room (42)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shut (41)  |  Significance (114)  |  Small (489)  |  Standing (11)  |  Street (25)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (543)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whiz (2)

The description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn.
From Principia Mathematica, Book 1, in Author’s Preface to the translation from the Latin by ‎Andrew Motte, as The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1729), Vol. 1, second unpaginated page of the Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Circle (117)  |  Draw (140)  |  Founded (22)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Line (100)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Require (229)  |  Right (473)  |  Teach (299)

The description of some of the experiments, which are communicated here, was completely worked out at my writing-table, before I had seen anything of the phenomena in question. After making the experiments on the following day, it was found that nothing in the description required to be altered. I do not mention this from feelings of pride, but in order to make clear the extraordinary ease and security with which the relations in question can be considered on the principles of Arrhenius' theory of free ions. Such facts speak more forcibly then any polemics for the value of this theory .
Philosophical Magazine (1891), 32, 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Altered (32)  |  Svante Arrhenius (11)  |  Communication (101)  |  Completely (137)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ease (40)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Free (239)  |  Ion (21)  |  Making (300)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Polemic (3)  |  Pride (84)  |  Principle (530)  |  Question (649)  |  Relation (166)  |  Required (108)  |  Security (51)  |  Speak (240)  |  Table (105)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

The empirical domain of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet in its present condition, do not include a consideration of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and existence.
In lecture, 'Organic Life', collected in Cosmos, the Elements of the Physical World (1849), 348, as translated by E.C. Otté. Also seen translated as “The mysterious and unsolved problem of how things came to be does not enter the empirical province of objective research, which is confined to a description of things as they are.”
Science quotes on:  |  Condition (362)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Domain (72)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Existence (481)  |  Include (93)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Objective (96)  |  Origin (250)  |  Planet (402)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Research (753)

The mathematical formulation of the physicist’s often crude experience leads in an uncanny number of cases to an amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena. This shows that the mathematical language has more to commend it than being the only language which we can speak; it shows that it is, in a very real sense, the correct language.
In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 542.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Commend (7)  |  Correct (95)  |  Crude (32)  |  Experience (494)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Language (308)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Speak (240)  |  Uncanny (5)

The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena. The verbal interpretation, on the other hand – i.e., the metaphysics of quantum theory – is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model.
In The Tao of Physics (1975), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Atom (381)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Countless (39)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Framework (33)  |  Ground (222)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Solid (119)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universal (198)  |  Year (963)

The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena. The verbal interpretation, on the other hand, i.e. the metaphysics of quantum physics, is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model.
In The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics (1975), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Atomic (6)  |  Clear (111)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Countless (39)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Forty (4)  |  Framework (33)  |  Ground (222)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Less (105)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Providing (5)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Solid (119)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universal (198)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Year (963)

The mathematician, carried along on his flood of symbols, dealing apparently with purely formal truths, may still reach results of endless importance for our description of the physical universe.
In The Grammar of Science (1900), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Carry (130)  |  Deal (192)  |  Endless (60)  |  Flood (52)  |  Formal (37)  |  Importance (299)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Result (700)  |  Still (614)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)

The method of science depends on our attempts to describe the world with simple theories: theories that are complex may become untestable, even if they happen to be true. Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification—the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.
Karl Raimund Popper and William Warren Bartley (ed.), The Open Universe: an Argument for Indeterminism (1991), 44. by Karl Raimund Popper, William Warren Bartley - Science - 1991
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Depend (238)  |  Describe (132)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Happen (282)  |  Method (531)  |  Omit (12)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous enough, and his description of its wonders is among the noblest poetry of the race, but today the new science has opened to our eyes vistas of mystery that transcend in their inexplicable marvel anything the ancients ever dreamed.
In 'What Keeps Religion Going?', collected in Living Under Tension: Sermons On Christianity Today (1941), 53.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Dream (222)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eye (440)  |  Inexplicable (8)  |  Job (86)  |  Know (1538)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  More (2558)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  New (1273)  |  Noblest (5)  |  Old (499)  |  Old World (9)  |  Open (277)  |  Opened (2)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Race (278)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Today (321)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vista (12)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)

The other line of argument, which leads to the opposite conclusion, arises from looking at artificial automata. Everyone knows that a machine tool is more complicated than the elements which can be made with it, and that, generally speaking, an automaton A, which can make an automaton B, must contain a complete description of B, and also rules on how to behave while effecting the synthesis. So, one gets a very strong impression that complication, or productive potentiality in an organization, is degenerative, that an organization which synthesizes something is necessarily more complicated, of a higher order, than the organization it synthesizes. This conclusion, arrived at by considering artificial automaton, is clearly opposite to our early conclusion, arrived at by considering living organisms.
From lecture series on self-replicating machines at the University of Illinois, Lecture 5 (Dec 1949), 'Re-evaluation of the Problems of Complicated Automata—Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution', Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Arise (162)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contain (68)  |  Degenerative (2)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Impression (118)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Living (492)  |  Looking (191)  |  Machine (271)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Potentiality (9)  |  Productive (37)  |  Rule (307)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Strong (182)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Tool (129)

The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful and most beautiful appearance. Every part of the water which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake was a milky train. As far as the eye reached the crest of every wave was bright; and from the reflected light, the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens. It was impossible to behold this plane of matter, as if it were melted and consumed by heat, without being reminded of Milton’s description of the regions of Chaos and Anarchy.
Science quotes on:  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Billow (3)  |  Bow (15)  |  Bright (81)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Dark (145)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Eye (440)  |  Heat (180)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Light (635)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  John Milton (31)  |  Most (1728)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Present (630)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sky (174)  |  Train (118)  |  Two (936)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wonderful (155)

The subject-matter of Archaeology is threefold—the Oral, the Written and the Monumental.
In Lecture to the Oxford meeting of the Archaeological Institute (18 Jun 1850), printed in 'On the Study of Achaeology', Archaeological Journal (1851), 8, 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Definition (238)  |  Human (1512)  |  Matter (821)  |  Monument (45)  |  Sir Charles Thomas Newton (4)  |  Oral (2)  |  Past (355)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subject-Matter (8)  |  Writing (192)

The supposed astronomical proofs of the theory [of relativity], as cited and claimed by Einstein, do not exist. He is a confusionist. The Einstein theory is a fallacy. The theory that ether does not exist, and that gravity is not a force but a property of space can only be described as a crazy vagary, a disgrace to our age.
Quoted in Elizabeth Dilling, A "Who's Who" and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots (1934), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Citation (4)  |  Claim (154)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Disgrace (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Ether (37)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Space (523)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Vagary (2)

The tendency of the sciences has long been an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment … The mathematician turns away from the chemist; the chemist from the naturalist; the mathematician, left to himself divides himself into a pure mathematician and a mixed mathematician, who soon part company … And thus science, even mere physical science, loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppressively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their meetings at York, Oxford and Cambridge, in the last three summers. There was no general term by which these gentlemen could describe themselves with reference to their pursuits … some ingenious gentleman [William Whewell] proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form Scientist, and added that there could be no scruple … when we have words such as sciolist, economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable.
In Review of Mrs Somerville, 'On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences', The Quarterly Review (1834), 51, 58-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Artist (97)  |  Association (49)  |  Atheist (16)  |  British (42)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Company (63)  |  Curious (95)  |  Describe (132)  |  Designation (13)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Dismemberment (3)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Economist (20)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Inform (50)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Lose (165)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Name (359)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oxford (16)  |  Palatable (3)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sciolist (2)  |  Separation (60)  |  Soon (187)  |  Student (317)  |  Summer (56)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unity (81)  |  Want (504)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The theory of the earth is the science which describes and explains changes that the terrestrial globe has undergone from its beginning until today, and which allows the prediction of those it shall undergo in the future. The only way to understand these changes and their causes is to study the present-day state of the globe in order to gradually reconstruct its earlier stages, and to develop probable hypotheses on its future state. Therefore, the present state of the earth is the only solid base on which the theory can rely.
In Albert V. Carozzi, 'Forty Years of Thinking in Front of the Alps: Saussure's (1796) Unpublished Theory of the Earth', Earth Sciences History (1989), 8 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Describe (132)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Future (467)  |  Globe (51)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Order (638)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Present (630)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Solid (119)  |  Stage (152)  |  State (505)  |  Study (701)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Today (321)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Way (1214)

There is beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All illiterate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan, and the musician.
From address (1958), upon being appointed Chancellor of the University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Analyst (8)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Artisan (9)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Camp (12)  |  Different (595)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Economist (20)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Historian (59)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Kinship (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Music (133)  |  Musician (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Political (124)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Unity (81)

Those who assert that the mathematical sciences make no affirmation about what is fair or good make a false assertion; for they do speak of these and frame demonstrations of them in the most eminent sense of the word. For if they do not actually employ these names, they do not exhibit even the results and the reasons of these, and therefore can be hardly said to make any assertion about them. Of what is fair, however, the most important species are order and symmetry, and that which is definite, which the mathematical sciences make manifest in a most eminent degree. And since, at least, these appear to be the causes of many things—now, I mean, for example, order, and that which is a definite thing, it is evident that they would assert, also, the existence of a cause of this description, and its subsistence after the same manner as that which is fair subsists in.
Aristotle
In Metaphysics [MacMahon] Bk. 12, chap. 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Affirmation (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Cause (561)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Evident (92)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fair (16)  |  False (105)  |  Frame (26)  |  Good (906)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Important (229)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Least (75)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Order (638)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Subsist (5)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

To a man of an impatient disposition, like James Gray, it became clear that in view of the very large number of known species many more generations of scientists could be kept occupied as sedate, taxonomic filing clerks by painstaking description and comparison of structures. This sort of existence was not for him; it lacked the excitement of discovery, and was not likely to make the principles or mechanisms underlying the process of evolution any more plausible.
In obituary, 'James Gray, 14 October 1891 - 14 December 1975', Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1 Nov 1978), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Comparison (108)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Existence (481)  |  Generation (256)  |  Impatient (4)  |  Lack (127)  |  Likely (36)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Painstaking (3)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sedate (2)  |  Species (435)  |  Structure (365)  |  Taxonomy (19)  |  Underlying (33)

To say that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Element (322)  |  Fertilizer (13)  |  Intend (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Use (771)

To the exact descriptions he gave of the crystalline forms, he added the measure of their angles, and, which was essential, showed that these angles were constant for each variety. In one word, his crystallography was the fruit of an immense work, almost entirely new and most precious in its usefulness.<[About Jean-Baptiste Romé de l’Isle.]
(1795). As quoted in André Authier, Early Days of X-ray Crystallography (2013), 313.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Constant (148)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Immense (89)  |  Measure (241)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Precious (43)  |  Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l’lsle (2)  |  Show (353)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Variety (138)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

Until now, physical theories have been regarded as merely models with approximately describe the reality of nature. As the models improve, so the fit between theory and reality gets closer. Some physicists are now claiming that supergravity is the reality, that the model and the real world are in mathematically perfect accord.
Superforce (1984, 1985), 149.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Claim (154)  |  Claiming (8)  |  Closer (43)  |  Describe (132)  |  Fit (139)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Model (106)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reality (274)  |  Regard (312)  |  Theory (1015)  |  World (1850)

We believe in the possibility of a theory which is able to give a complete description of reality, the laws of which establish relations between the things themselves and not merely between their probabilities ... God does not play dice.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Complete (209)  |  Dice (21)  |  Establish (63)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Law (913)  |  Merely (315)  |  Play (116)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relation (166)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)

What appear to be the most valuable aspects of the theoretical physics we have are the mathematical descriptions which enable us to predict events. These equations are, we would argue, the only realities we can be certain of in physics; any other ways we have of thinking about the situation are visual aids or mnemonics which make it easier for beings with our sort of macroscopic experience to use and remember the equations.
In The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-body Problem (2003).
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Appear (122)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Being (1276)  |  Certain (557)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enable (122)  |  Equation (138)  |  Event (222)  |  Experience (494)  |  Macroscopic (2)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mnemonic (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Predict (86)  |  Reality (274)  |  Remember (189)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sort (50)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)

What we remember, belonging more particularly to some special active pattern, is always normally checked by the reconstructed or the striking material of other active settings. It is, accordingly, apt to take on a peculiarity of some kind which, in any given case, expresses the temperament, or the character, of the person who effects the recall. This may be why, in almost all psychological descriptions of memory processes, memory is said to have a characteristically personal flavour … depending upon an interplay of appetites, instincts, interests and ideals peculiar to any given subject.
In Chapter 10, 'A Theory of Remembering', Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932, 1995), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Appetite (20)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interplay (9)  |  Memory (144)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Personal (75)  |  Process (439)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Recall (11)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Remember (189)  |  Subject (543)  |  Temperament (18)

When I entered the field of space physics in 1956, I recall that I fell in with the crowd believing, for example, that electric fields could not exist in the highly conducting plasma of space. It was three years later that I was shamed by S. Chandrasekhar into investigating Alfvén's work objectively. My degree of shock and surprise in finding Alfvén right and his critics wrong can hardly be described. I learned that a cosmic ray acceleration mechanism basically identical to the famous mechanism suggested by Fermi in 1949 had [previously] been put forth by Alfvén.
Quoted in Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', Washington Times, supplement: The World and I (May 1988), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Belief (615)  |  Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (8)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmic Ray (7)  |  Critic (21)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Degree (277)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electric Field (3)  |  Electromagnetic Field (2)  |  Enter (145)  |  Exist (458)  |  Enrico Fermi (20)  |  Field (378)  |  Identical (55)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Objectively (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plasma (8)  |  Ray (115)  |  Recall (11)  |  Right (473)  |  Shame (15)  |  Shock (38)  |  Space (523)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

When, however, you see the specification, you will see that the fundamental principles are contained therein. I do not, however, claim even the credit of inventing it, as I do not believe a mere description of an idea that has never been reduced to practice—in the strict sense of that phrase—should be dignified with the name invention.‎
Letter (5 Mar 1877) to Alexander Graham Bell. Quoted in The Bell Telephone (1908), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Claim (154)  |  Credit (24)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mere (86)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reduce (100)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Specification (7)  |  Strict (20)  |  Will (2350)

Workers must root out the idea that by keeping the results of their labors to themselves a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are so much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1,000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition.
As quoted in Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), 218.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Assured (4)  |  Born (37)  |  Capable (174)  |  Competition (45)  |  Defy (11)  |  Design (203)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Fee (9)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fully (20)  |  Future (467)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Idea (881)  |  Keeping (9)  |  Labor (200)  |  Machine (271)  |  Made (14)  |  Mile (43)  |  Money (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patent (34)  |  Publish (42)  |  Result (700)  |  Root (121)  |  Root Out (4)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Wasted (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worker (34)  |  Workmanship (7)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail 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) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.