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: “God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index E > Category: Equivalent

Equivalent Quotes (46 quotes)

[Helmholtz] is not a philosopher in the exclusive sense, as Kant, Hegel, Mansel are philosophers, but one who prosecutes physics and physiology, and acquires therein not only skill in developing any desideratum, but wisdom to know what are the desiderata, e.g., he was one of the first, and is one of the most active, preachers of the doctrine that since all kinds of energy are convertible, the first aim of science at this time. should be to ascertain in what way particular forms of energy can be converted into each other, and what are the equivalent quantities of the two forms of energy.
Letter to Lewis Campbell (21 Apr 1862). In P.M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1990), Vol. 1, 711.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Active (80)  |  Aim (175)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Hermann von Helmholtz (32)  |  Immanuel Kant (50)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Preacher (13)  |  Prosecute (3)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skill (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)

[In] the evolution of ideas… New ideas are thrown up spontaneously like mutations; the vast majority of them are useless crank theories, the equivalent of biological freaks without survival-value.
In Epilogue, The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), 515.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Crank (18)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Freak (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mutation (40)  |  New (1273)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Survival (105)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Useless (38)  |  Value (393)  |  Vast (188)

[The new term] Physicist is both to my mouth and ears so awkward that I think I shall never use it. The equivalent of three separate sounds of i in one word is too much.
Quoted in Sydney Ross, Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science (1991), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Awkward (11)  |  Biography (254)  |  Both (496)  |  Ear (69)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Separate (151)  |  Sound (187)  |  Term (357)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Word (650)

A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is about the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare’s?
The Two Cultures: The Rede Lecture (1959), 15-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Cold (115)  |  Company (63)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Culture (157)  |  Describe (132)  |  Educated (12)  |  Gather (76)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Good (906)  |  Illiteracy (8)  |  Incredulity (5)  |  Law (913)  |  Negative (66)  |  People (1031)  |  Present (630)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Response (56)  |  Science Literacy (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Illiteracy (8)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Second Law Of Thermodynamics (14)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Something (718)  |  Standard (64)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Traditional (16)  |  Work (1402)

A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measurable. He lives with data that cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once. The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible. ... He becomes an equivalent of scientist, in the act of examining and sorting the things popping in [to his head], finding the marks of remote similarity, points of distant relationship, tiny irregularities that indicate that this one is really the same as that one over there only more important. Gauging the fit, he can meticulously place pieces of the universe together, in geometric configurations that are as beautiful and balanced as crystals.
In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1995), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Balance (82)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Data (162)  |  Definition (238)  |  Distance (171)  |  Engagement (9)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gauge (2)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Information (173)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mark (47)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Once (4)  |  Piece (39)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poet (97)  |  Point (584)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Remote (86)  |  Reproducibility (2)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Sort (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Universe (900)

Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.
Adagia. In Opus Postumous: Poems, Plays, Prose (1958), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Thinking (425)

An amino acid residue (other than glycine) has no symmetry elements. The general operation of conversion of one residue of a single chain into a second residue equivalent to the first is accordingly a rotation about an axis accompanied by translation along the axis. Hence the only configurations for a chain compatible with our postulate of equivalence of the residues are helical configurations.
[Co-author with American chemist, ert B. Corey (1897-1971) and H. R. Branson]
'The Structure of Proteins: Two Hydrogen-bonded Helical Configurations of the Polypeptide Chain', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1951), 37, 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Chain (51)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Compatibility (4)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalence (7)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Helix (10)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Residue (9)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Single (365)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Translation (21)

Artificial intelligence is based on the assumption that the mind can be described as some kind of formal system manipulating symbols that stand for things in the world. Thus it doesn't matter what the brain is made of, or what it uses for tokens in the great game of thinking. Using an equivalent set of tokens and rules, we can do thinking with a digital computer, just as we can play chess using cups, salt and pepper shakers, knives, forks, and spoons. Using the right software, one system (the mind) can be mapped onto the other (the computer).
Machinery of the Mind: Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence (1986), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Brain (281)  |  Chess (27)  |  Computer (131)  |  Digital (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Game (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Kind (564)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Salt (48)  |  Set (400)  |  Software (14)  |  Spoon (5)  |  Stand (284)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Token (10)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

Carbon is, as may easily be shown and as I shall explain in greater detail later, tetrabasic or tetratomic, that is 1 atom of carbon = C = 12 is equivalent to 4 At.H. The simplest connection of C with an element of the first Group, with H or Cl for example, is therefore: CH4 and CCl4.
Footnote in 'On the so-called Copulated Compounds and the Theory of Polyatomic Radicals', Annalen (1857), 104, No. 2, 133. The symbol Kekulé used for an atom of carbon, (C) is a capital C with a bar (not to be confused with the euro symbol). First sentence as translated and cited in J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry (1964), Vol. 4, 536. Second sentence trans. by Webmaster/Google Translate. From the original German: “Der Kohlenstoff ist, wie sich leicht zeigen lässt und worauf ich später ausführlich eingehen werde, vierbasisch oder vieratomig; d.h. 1 Atom Kohlenstoff = C = 12 ist äquivalent 4 At. H. Die einfachste Verbindung des C mit einem Element der ersten Gruppe, mit H oder Cl z. B., ist daher: CH4 und CCl4”. The title of the paper in the original German is: “Ueber die s. g. gepaarten Verbindungen und die Theorie der mehratomigen Radicale”. The words “gepaarten” and “mehratomigen” are translated above as “Copulated” and “Polyatomic”.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Compound (117)  |  Detail (150)  |  Explain (334)  |  Greater (288)  |  Strike (72)

Commenting on Archimedes, for whom he also had a boundless admiration, Gauss remarked that he could not understand how Archimedes failed to invent the decimal system of numeration or its equivalent (with some base other than 10). … This oversight Gauss regarded as the greatest calamity in the history of science.
In Men of Mathematics (1937), 256.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Base (120)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Calamity (11)  |  Comment (12)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Fail (191)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Invent (57)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oversight (4)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remark (28)  |  System (545)  |  Understand (648)

Every theoretical physicist who is any good knows six or seven different theoretical representations for exactly the same physics. He knows that they are all equivalent, and that nobody is ever going to be able to decide which one is right at that level, but he keeps them in his head, hoping that they will give him different ideas for guessing.
In The Character of Physical Law (1965, 2001), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Decide (50)  |  Different (595)  |  Good (906)  |  Guess (67)  |  Idea (881)  |  Know (1538)  |  Level (69)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Representation (55)  |  Right (473)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)

Fish farming, even with conventional techniques, changes fish within a few generations from an animal like a wild buffalo or a wildebeest to the equivalent of a domestic cow.
In The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and what We Eat (2004), 312.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquaculture (5)  |  Buffalo (7)  |  Change (639)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Cow (42)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fish Farming (2)  |  Generation (256)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Technique (84)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wildebeest (2)

Gravity. Surely this force must be capable of an experimental relation to electricity, magnetism, and the other forces, so as to bind it up with them in reciprocal action and equivalent effect.
Notebook entry (19 Mar 1849). In Bence Jones (ed.), The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 2, 252.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Capable (174)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reciprocal (7)  |  Relation (166)  |  Surely (101)

I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.
In 'My Early Life', My Inventions: And Other Writings (2016), 1. Originally published in serial form in Part 1, 'My Early Life' in the series of articles, 'My Inventions', Electrical Experimenter magazine (1919).
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Being (1276)  |  Credit (24)  |  Definite (114)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hour (192)  |  Interpret (25)  |  Labor (200)  |  Performance (51)  |  Specify (6)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wake (17)  |  Waking (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)

I have long held an opinion, almost amounting to conviction, in common I believe with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin; or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, one into another, and possess equivalents of power in their action.
Paper read to the Royal Institution (20 Nov 1845). 'On the Magnetization of Light and the Illumination of Magnetic Lines of Force', Series 19. In Experimental Researches in Electricity (1855), Vol. 3, 1. Reprinted from Philosophical Transactions (1846), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Belief (615)  |  Common (447)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Various (205)  |  Word (650)

I sometimes think there is a malign force loose in the universe that is the social equivalent of cancer, and it’s plastic. It infiltrates everything. It’s metastasis. It gets into every single pore of productive life. I mean there won’t be anything that isn’t made of plastic before long. They’ll be paving the roads with plastic before they’re done. Our bodies, our skeletons, will be replaced with plastic.
From Robert Begiebing, 'Twelfth Round: An Interview with Norman Mailer', collected in J. Michael Lennon (ed.), Conversations with Norman Mailer (1988), 321.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Everything (489)  |  Force (497)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Malign (2)  |  Mean (810)  |  Paving (2)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Pore (7)  |  Productive (37)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Road (71)  |  Single (365)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)

I was suffering from a sharp attack of intermittent fever, and every day during the cold and succeeding hot fits had to lie down for several hours, during which time I had nothing to do but to think over any subjects then particularly interesting me. One day something brought to my recollection Malthus's 'Principles of Population', which I had read about twelve years before. I thought of his clear exposition of 'the positive checks to increase'—disease, accidents, war, and famine—which keep down the population of savage races to so much lower an average than that of more civilized peoples. It then occurred to me that these causes or their equivalents are continually acting in the case of animals also; and as animals usually breed much more rapidly than does mankind, the destruction every year from these causes must be enormous in order to keep down the numbers of each species, since they evidently do not increase regularly from year to year, as otherwise the world would long ago have been densely crowded with those that breed most quickly. Vaguely thinking over the enormous and constant destruction which this implied, it occurred to me to ask the question, Why do some die and some live? The answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted live. From the effects of disease the most healthy escaped; from enemies, the strongest, swiftest, or the most cunning; from famine, the best hunters or those with the best digestion; and so on. Then it suddenly flashed upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily improve the race, because in every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain—that is, the fittest would survive.
[The phrase 'survival of the fittest,' suggested by the writings of Thomas Robert Malthus, was expressed in those words by Herbert Spencer in 1865. Wallace saw the term in correspondence from Charles Darwin the following year, 1866. However, Wallace did not publish anything on his use of the expression until very much later, and his recollection is likely flawed.]
My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions (1905), Vol. 1, 361-362, or in reprint (2004), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attack (86)  |  Average (89)  |  Best (467)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cold (115)  |  Constant (148)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Cunning (17)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Express (192)  |  Expression (181)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Famine (18)  |  Fever (34)  |  Fit (139)  |  Flash (49)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Generation (256)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Kill (100)  |  Lie (370)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Population (115)  |  Positive (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Read (308)  |  Remain (355)  |  Saw (160)  |  Self (268)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Species (435)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Subject (543)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Superior (88)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Survive (87)  |  Term (357)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  War (233)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)

I’m not afraid of facts, I welcome facts but a congeries of fact is not equivalent to an idea. This is the essential fallacy of the so-called “scientific” mind. People who mistake facts for ideas are incomplete thinkers; they are gossips.
In 'We Are the Crazy Lady and Other Feisty Feminist Fables,' in The First Ms. Reader edited by Francine Klagsburn (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mistake (180)  |  People (1031)  |  Scientific (955)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Welcome (20)

If the man of science chose to follow the example of historians and pulpit-orators, and to obscure strange and peculiar phenomena by employing a hollow pomp of big and sounding words, this would be his opportunity; for we have approached one of the greatest mysteries which surround the problem of animated nature and distinguish it above all other problems of science. To discover the relations of man and woman to the egg-cell would be almost equivalent of the egg-cell in the body of the mother, the transfer to it by means of the seed, of the physical and mental characteristics of the father, affect all the questions which the human mind has ever raised in regard to existence.
Quoted in Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel, The Evolution of Man (1897), vol 1, 148.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Body (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Egg (71)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Existence (481)  |  Father (113)  |  Follow (389)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Historian (59)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Physical (518)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Regard (312)  |  Seed (97)  |  Strange (160)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Woman (160)  |  Word (650)

In both social and natural sciences, the body of positive knowledge grows by the failure of a tentative hypothesis to predict phenomena the hypothesis professes to explain; by the patching up of that hypothesis until someone suggests a new hypothesis that more elegantly or simply embodies the troublesome phenomena, and so on ad infinitum. In both, experiment is sometimes possible, sometimes not (witness meteorology). In both, no experiment is ever completely controlled, and experience often offers evidence that is the equivalent of controlled experiment. In both, there is no way to have a self-contained closed system or to avoid interaction between the observer and the observed. The Gödel theorem in mathematics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, the self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecy in the social sciences all exemplify these limitations.
Inflation and Unemployment (1976), 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Closed (38)  |  Completely (137)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Failure (176)  |  Kurt Gödel (8)  |  Grow (247)  |  Werner Heisenberg (43)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  New (1273)  |  Observed (149)  |  Offer (142)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predict (86)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Self (268)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  System (545)  |  Tentative (18)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Uncertainty Principle (9)  |  Way (1214)  |  Witness (57)

In our day grand generalizations have been reached. The theory of the origin of species is but one of them. Another, of still wider grasp and more radical significance, is the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the ultimate philosophical issues of which are as yet but dimly seem-that doctrine which “binds nature fast in fate” to an extent not hitherto recognized, exacting from every antecedent its equivalent consequent, and bringing vital as well as physical phenomena under the dominion of that law of causal connexion which, so far as the human understanding has yet pierced, asserts itself everywhere in nature.
'Address Delivered Before The British Association Assembled at Belfast', (19 Aug 1874). Fragments of Science for Unscientific People: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews (1892), Vol. 2, 1801.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Binding (9)  |  Bringing (10)  |  Cause (561)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominion (11)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exacting (4)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fate (76)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Grandness (2)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Human (1512)  |  Issue (46)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Radical (28)  |  Reach (286)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Significance (114)  |  Species (435)  |  Still (614)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vital (89)  |  Vitality (24)

In the benzene nucleus we have been given a soil out of which we can see with surprise the already-known realm of organic chemistry multiply, not once or twice but three, four, five or six times just like an equivalent number of trees. What an amount of work had suddenly become necessary, and how quickly were busy hands found to carry it out! First the eye moves up the six stems opening out from the tremendous benzene trunk. But already the branches of the neighbouring stems have become intertwined, and a canopy of leaves has developed which becomes more spacious as the giant soars upwards into the air. The top of the tree rises into the clouds where the eye cannot yet follow it. And to what an extent is this wonderful benzene tree thronged with blossoms! Everywhere in the sea of leaves one can spy the slender hydroxyl bud: hardly rarer is the forked blossom [Gabelblüte] which we call the amine group, the most frequent is the beautiful cross-shaped blossom we call the methyl group. And inside this embellishment of blossoms, what a richness of fruit, some of them shining in a wonderful blaze of color, others giving off an overwhelming fragrance.
A. W. Hofmann, after-dinner speech at Kekulé Benzolfest (Mar 1890). Trans. in W. H. Brock, O. Theodor Benfrey and Susanne Stark, 'Hofmann's Benzene Tree at the Kekulé Festivities', Journal of Chemical Education (1991), 68, 887-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Already (226)  |  Amine (2)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Benzene (7)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Call (781)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Carry (130)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Color (155)  |  Develop (278)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Giant (73)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Radical (28)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Shining (35)  |  Soar (23)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spy (9)  |  Stem (31)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Upward (44)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)

It follows from the theory of relativity that mass and energy are both different manifestations of the same thing—a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average man. Furthermore E=MC2, in which energy is put equal to mass multiplied with the square of the velocity of light, showed that a very small amount of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy... the mass and energy were in fact equivalent.
As expressed in the Einstein film, produced by Nova Television (1979). Quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Average (89)  |  Both (496)  |  Conception (160)  |  Different (595)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mass (160)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Show (353)  |  Small (489)  |  Square (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Velocity (51)

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
In Hialmer Day Gould, New Practical Spelling (1905), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Force (497)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)

My father … considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.
In Those Barren Leaves (1925, 1948), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Church (64)  |  Consider (428)  |  Father (113)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Walk (138)

Natural history is not equivalent to biology. Biology is the study of life. Natural history is the study of animals and plants—of organisms. Biology thus includes natural history, and much else besides.
In The Nature of Natural History (1961, 2014), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Biology (232)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Life (1870)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Organism (231)  |  Plant (320)  |  Study (701)

No other part of science has contributed as much to the liberation of the human spirit as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Yet, at the same time, few other parts of science are held to be so recondite. Mention of the Second Law raises visions of lumbering steam engines, intricate mathematics, and infinitely incomprehensible entropy. Not many would pass C.P. Snow’s test of general literacy, in which not knowing the Second Law is equivalent to not having read a work of Shakespeare.
In The Second Law (1984), Preface, vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Contribution (93)  |  Engine (99)  |  Entropy (46)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Law (913)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Literacy (10)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mention (84)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Read (308)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Second Law Of Thermodynamics (14)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Snow (39)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Test (221)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vision (127)  |  Work (1402)

Of the Passive Principle, and Material Cause of the Small Pox ... Nature, in the first compounding and forming of us, hath laid into the Substance and Constitution of each something equivalent to Ovula, of various distinct Kinds, productive of all the contagious, venomous Fevers, we can possibly have as long as we live.
Exanthematologia: Or, An Attempt to Give a Rational Account of Eruptive Fevers, Especially of the Measles and SmallPox (1730), Part II, 'Of the Small-Pox', 175. In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: Country Physician and Pioneer Exponent of Specificness in Infection and Immunity', read to the Society (8 Nov 1921), published in Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 329, or in reprint form, p. 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Forming (42)  |  Germ (54)  |  Kind (564)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Principle (530)  |  Productive (37)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Something (718)  |  Substance (253)  |  Various (205)

Saying that each of two atoms can attain closed electron shells by sharing a pair of electrons is equivalent to saying that husband and wife, by having a total of two dollars in a joint account and each having six dollars in individual bank accounts, have eight dollars apiece!
Quoted in Reynold E. Holmen, 'Kasimir Fajans (1887-1975): The Man and His Work', Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, 1990, 6, 7-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attain (126)  |  Bank (31)  |  Bond (46)  |  Closed (38)  |  Electron (96)  |  Individual (420)  |  Joint (31)  |  Sharing (11)  |  Shell (69)  |  Total (95)  |  Two (936)  |  Wife (41)

Sustainable energy is the equivalent of the U.S. moon shot.
Quoted in Andrew C. Revkin, 'Panel Urges Global Shift on Sources of Energy', New York Times (23 Oct 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Energy (373)  |  Moon (252)  |  Sustainable (14)  |  Sustainable Energy (3)

The ancestors of the higher animals must be regarded as one-celled beings, similar to the Amœbæ which at the present day occur in our rivers, pools, and lakes. The incontrovertible fact that each human individual develops from an egg, which, in common with those of all animals, is a simple cell, most clearly proves that the most remote ancestors of man were primordial animals of this sort, of a form equivalent to a simple cell. When, therefore, the theory of the animal descent of man is condemned as a “horrible, shocking, and immoral” doctrine, tho unalterable fact, which can be proved at any moment under the microscope, that the human egg is a simple cell, which is in no way different to those of other mammals, must equally be pronounced “horrible, shocking, and immoral.”
Translated from his Ueber die Entstehung und den Stammbaum des Menschengeschlechts, (1873), Vol. 2, as an epigraph to Chap. 6, The Evolution of Man, (1879), Vol 1, 120-121.
Science quotes on:  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cell (146)  |  Common (447)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Descent (30)  |  Descent Of Man (6)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Egg (71)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Higher (37)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immoral (5)  |  Incontrovertible (8)  |  Individual (420)  |  Lake (36)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pool (16)  |  Present (630)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remote (86)  |  River (140)  |  Shocking (3)  |  Simple (426)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unalterable (7)  |  Way (1214)

The earth in its rapid motion round the sun possesses a degree of living force so vast that, if turned into the equivalent of heat, its temperature would be rendered at least one thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron, and the globe on which we tread would in all probability be rendered equal in brightness to the sun itself.
'On Matter, Living Force, and Heat' (1847). In The Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule (1884), Vol. 1, 271.
Science quotes on:  |  Brightness (12)  |  Degree (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Force (497)  |  Greater (288)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Iron (99)  |  Living (492)  |  Motion (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Probability (135)  |  Render (96)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tread (17)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vast (188)

The El Nino phenomenon, the geophysicists' equivalent of the universal solvent.
In 'Great Greenhouse in the Sky?', Nature (1983), 306, 221.
Science quotes on:  |  Geophysicist (3)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Solvent (7)  |  Universal (198)

The following general conclusions are drawn from the propositions stated above, and known facts with reference to the mechanics of animal and vegetable bodies:—
There is at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy.
Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life, or subjected to the will of an animated creature.
Within a finite period of time past the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject.
In 'On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1852, 3, 141-142. In Mathematical and Physical Papers (1882-1911), Vol. 1, 513-514.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Creature (242)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Finite (60)  |  General (521)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Past (355)  |  Perform (123)  |  Period (200)  |  Present (630)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universal (198)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The late Alan Gregg pointed out that human population growth within the ecosystem was closely analogous to the growth of malignant tumor cells within an organism: that man was acting like a cancer on the biosphere. The multiplication of human numbers certainly seems wild and uncontrolled… Four million a month—the equivalent of the population of Chicago… We seem to be doing all right at the moment; but if you could ask cancer cells, I suspect they would think they were doing fine. But when the organism dies, so do they; and for our own, selfish, practical, utilitarian reasons, I think we should be careful about how we influence the rest of the ecosystem.
From Horace M. Albright Conservation Lectureship Berkeley, California (23 Apr 1962), 'The Human Environment', collected in Conservators of Hope: the Horace M. Albright Conservation Lectures (1988), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Biosphere (14)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Ecosystem (33)  |  Alan Gregg (4)  |  Growth (200)  |  Human (1512)  |  Influence (231)  |  Late (119)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Month (91)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Number (710)  |  Organism (231)  |  Point (584)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  Practical (225)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wild (96)

The most convincing proof of the conversion of heat into living force [vis viva] has been derived from my experiments with the electro-magnetic engine, a machine composed of magnets and bars of iron set in motion by an electrical battery. I have proved by actual experiment that, in exact proportion to the force with which this machine works, heat is abstracted from the electrical battery. You see, therefore, that living force may be converted into heat, and that heat may be converted into living force, or its equivalent attraction through space.
'On Matter, Living Force, and Heat' (1847). In The Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule (1884), Vol. 1, 270-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Actual (118)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Battery (12)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Engine (99)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Force (497)  |  Heat (180)  |  Iron (99)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proportion (140)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  Through (846)  |  Work (1402)

The relationships of free and latent heat set forth in the language of the materialistic theory remain the same if in place of the quantity of matter we put the constant quantity of motion in accordance with the laws of mechanics. The only difference enters where it concerns the generations of heat through other motive forces and where it concerns the equivalent of heat that can be produced by a particular quantity of a mechanical or electrical force.
'Wärme, physiologisch', Handwörterbuch der medicinischen Wissenschaften (1845). In Timothy Lenoir, The Strategy of Life (1982), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Constant (148)  |  Difference (355)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Enter (145)  |  Force (497)  |  Free (239)  |  Generation (256)  |  Heat (180)  |  Language (308)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Motion (320)  |  Motive (62)  |  Other (2233)  |  Produced (187)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Remain (355)  |  Set (400)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)

There can never be two or more equivalent electrons in an atom, for which in a strong field the values of all the quantum numbers n, k1, k2 and m are the same. If an electron is present, for which these quantum numbers (in an external field) have definite values, then this state is ‘occupied.’
Quoted by M. Fierz, in article ‘Wolfgang Pauli’, in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974), Vol. 10, 423.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Definite (114)  |  Electron (96)  |  Equivalence (7)  |  Field (378)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Present (630)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Number (2)  |  State (505)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Two (936)  |  Value (393)

There is an occasional glimmer of fertility [as compounds], the chemical equivalent of a blade of grass [in a desert]. So, gone … is the justification for “inert.” [Group 0 elements] are now known collectively as the noble gases, a name intended to imply a kind of chemical aloofness rather than a rigorous chastity.
In The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into the Land of the Chemical Elements (1995), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Blade (11)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Compound (117)  |  Desert (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Grass (49)  |  Group (83)  |  Inert (14)  |  Justification (52)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Name (359)  |  Noble (93)  |  Noble Gas (4)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Rigorous (50)

There is deposited in them [plants] an enormous quantity of potential energy [Spannkräfte], whose equivalent is provided to us as heat in the burning of plant substances. So far as we know at present, the only living energy [lebendige Kraft] absorbed during plant growth are the chemical rays of sunlight… Animals take up oxygen and complex oxidizable compounds made by plants, release largely as combustion products carbonic acid and water, partly as simpler reduced compounds, thus using a certain amount of chemical potential energy to produce heat and mechanical forces. Since the latter represent a relatively small amount of work in relation to the quantity of heat, the question of the conservation of energy reduces itself roughly to whether the combustion and transformation of the nutritional components yields the same amount of heat released by animals.
Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (1847), 66. Trans. Joseph S. Fruton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Acid (83)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Burning (49)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Complex (202)  |  Component (51)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Energy (373)  |  Force (497)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heat (180)  |  Know (1538)  |  Living (492)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Plant (320)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Present (630)  |  Product (166)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (649)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Release (31)  |  Represent (157)  |  Small (489)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Water (503)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

There is the immense sea of energy ... a multidimensional implicate order, ... the entire universe of matter as we generally observe it is to be treated as a comparatively small pattern of excitation. This excitation pattern is relatively autonomous and gives rise to approximately recurrent, stable separable projections into a three-dimensional explicate order of manifestation, which is more or less equivalent to that of space as we commonly experience it.
Wholeness and the Implicate Order? (1981), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Autonomous (3)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Energy (373)  |  Entire (50)  |  Excitation (9)  |  Experience (494)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Immense (89)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Order (638)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Projection (5)  |  Recurrent (2)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sea (326)  |  Separable (3)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Stable (32)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Treat (38)  |  Universe (900)

Those who are unacquainted with the details of scientific investigation have no idea of the amount of labour expended in the determination of those numbers on which important calculations or inferences depend. They have no idea of the patience shown by a Berzelius in determining atomic weights; by a Regnault in determining coefficients of expansion; or by a Joule in determining the mechanical equivalent of heat.
In Sound: A Course of Eight Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1867), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Atomic Weight (6)  |  Jöns Jacob Berzelius (13)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Coefficient (6)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Heat (180)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Inference (45)  |  Investigation (250)  |  James Prescott Joule (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Number (710)  |  Patience (58)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Unacquainted (3)  |  Weight (140)

Unfortunately, the study of organic remains is beset with two evils, which, though of an opposite character, do not neutralize each other so much as at first sight might be anticipated: the one consisting of a strong desire to find similar organic remains in supposed equivalent deposits, even at great distances; the other being an equally strong inclination to discover new species, often as it would seem for the sole purpose of appending the apparently magical word nobis.
In Geological Manual (1832), Preface, iii.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Consisting (5)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evil (122)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First Sight (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Magic (92)  |  New (1273)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remains (9)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sight (135)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sole (50)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Study (701)  |  Supposed (5)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Word (650)

We have seen that a proton of energy corresponding to 30,000 volts can effect the transformation of lithium into two fast α-particles, which together have an energy equivalent of more than 16 million volts. Considering the individual process, the output of energy in the transmutation is more than 500 times greater than the energy carried by the proton. There is thus a great gain of energy in the single transmutation, but we must not forget that on an average more than 1000 million protons of equal energy must be fired into the lithium before one happens to hit and enter the lithium nucleus. It is clear in this case that on the whole the energy derived from transmutation of the atom is small compared with the energy of the bombarding particles. There thus seems to be little prospect that we can hope to obtain a new source of power by these processes. It has sometimes been suggested, from analogy with ordinary explosives, that the transmutation of one atom might cause the transmutation of a neighbouring nucleus, so that the explosion would spread throughout all the material. If this were true, we should long ago have had a gigantic explosion in our laboratories with no one remaining to tell the tale. The absence of these accidents indicates, as we should expect, that the explosion is confined to the individual nucleus and does not spread to the neighbouring nuclei, which may be regarded as relatively far removed from the centre of the explosion.
The Transmutation of the Atom (1933), 23-4
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Accident (92)  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Average (89)  |  Bombardment (3)  |  Cause (561)  |  Centre (31)  |  Chain Reaction (2)  |  Confinement (4)  |  Effect (414)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enter (145)  |  Expect (203)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Forget (125)  |  Gain (146)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hope (321)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Individual (420)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lithium (3)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  New (1273)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Output (12)  |  Particle (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Proton (23)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Source (101)  |  Spread (86)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Tell (344)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

What agencies of electricity, gravity, light, affinity combine to make every plant what it is, and in a manner so quiet that the presence of these tremendous powers is not ordinarily suspected. Faraday said, “A grain of water is known to have electric relations equivalent to a very powerful flash of lightning.”
In 'Perpetual Forces', North American Review (1877), No. 125. Collected in Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Elliot Cabot (ed.), Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Combine (58)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Flash (49)  |  Grain (50)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Presence (63)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Water (503)

Work done on any system of bodies (in Newton’s statement, the parts of any machine) has its equivalent in work done against friction, molecular forces, or gravity, if there be no acceleration; but if there be acceleration, part of the work is expended in overcoming the resistance to acceleration, and the additional kinetic energy developed is equivalent to the work so spent.
In William Thomson and Peter Guthrie Tait, Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), Vol. 1, 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Against (332)  |  Body (557)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Develop (278)  |  Energy (373)  |  Force (497)  |  Friction (14)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Energy (3)  |  Machine (271)  |  Molecular Force (2)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statement (148)  |  System (545)  |  Work (1402)


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.