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 Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index R > Category: Radium

Radium Quotes (29 quotes)

[On the future of Chemistry:] Chemistry is not the preservation hall of old jazz that it sometimes looks like. We cannot know what may happen tomorrow. Someone may oxidize mercury (II), francium (I), or radium (II). A mineral in Nova Scotia may contain an unsaturated quark per 1020 nucleons. (This is still 6000 per gram.) We may pick up an extraterrestrial edition of Chemical Abstracts. The universe may be a 4-dimensional soap bubble in an 11-dimensional space as some supersymmetry theorists argued in May of 1983. Who knows?
In George B. Kaufmann, 'Interview with Jannik Bjerrum and Christian Klixbull Jørgensen', Journal of Chemical Education (1985), 62, No. 11, 1005.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Francium (2)  |  Future (467)  |  Happen (282)  |  Know (1538)  |  Look (584)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Nova (7)  |  Nucleon (5)  |  Old (499)  |  Quark (9)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Universe (900)

[Radium emits electrons with a velocity so great that] one gram is enough to lift the whole of the British fleet to the top of Ben Nevis; and I am not quite certain that we could not throw in the French fleet as well.
As quoted in 'Radium', New York Times (22 Feb 1903), 6. The reporter clarifies that this statement is “popular not scientific.” However, it is somewhat prescient, since only two years later (1905) Einstein published his E=mc² formula relating mass and energy. The top of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, is 1344-m high. As energy, one gram mass would lift about 68 million tonnes there—over a thousand modern battleships.
Science quotes on:  |  Britain (26)  |  British (42)  |  Certain (557)  |  Electron (96)  |  Emission (20)  |  Emit (15)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fleet (4)  |  France (29)  |  Gram (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Lift (57)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Top (100)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Whole (756)

Every teacher certainly should know something of non-euclidean geometry. Thus, it forms one of the few parts of mathematics which, at least in scattered catch-words, is talked about in wide circles, so that any teacher may be asked about it at any moment. … Imagine a teacher of physics who is unable to say anything about Röntgen rays, or about radium. A teacher of mathematics who could give no answer to questions about non-euclidean geometry would not make a better impression.
On the other hand, I should like to advise emphatically against bringing non-euclidean into regular school instruction (i.e., beyond occasional suggestions, upon inquiry by interested pupils), as enthusiasts are always recommending. Let us be satisfied if the preceding advice is followed and if the pupils learn to really understand euclidean geometry. After all, it is in order for the teacher to know a little more than the average pupil.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Advise (7)  |  Against (332)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Average (89)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bring (95)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Circle (117)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Least (75)  |  Let (64)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Non-Euclidean (7)  |  Occasional (23)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precede (23)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Question (649)  |  Ray (115)  |  Really (77)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Regular (48)  |  Wilhelm Röntgen (8)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  School (227)  |  Something (718)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Talk (108)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Wide (97)  |  Word (650)  |  X-ray (43)

At my urgent request the Curie laboratory, in which radium was discovered a short time ago, was shown to me. The Curies themselves were away travelling. It was a cross between a stable and a potato-cellar, and, if I had not seen the worktable with the chemical apparatus, I would have thought it a practical joke.
Wilhelm Ostwald on seeing the Curie's laboratory facilities.
In R. Reid, Marie Curie (1974), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Marie Curie (37)  |  Discover (571)  |  Joke (90)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Potato (11)  |  Practical (225)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Short (200)  |  Stable (32)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Urgent (15)

Had any one twenty-five years ago ventured to predict radium he would have been told simply that such a thing was not only wildly improbable, but actually opposed to all the established principles of the science of matter and energy.
In 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Energy (373)  |  Establish (63)  |  Improbable (15)  |  Matter (821)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Predict (86)  |  Principle (530)

I am afraid of radium and polonium ... I don’t want to monkey with them.
Quoted in 'Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-Rays', New York World (3 Aug 1903), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fear (212)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Polonium (5)  |  Want (504)

I came into the room, which was half dark, and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me! Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the earth, provided no new source was discovered. That prophetic utterance refers to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! the old boy beamed upon me.
The italicized phrase refers to “no new source” of energy. Concerning a Lecture by Rutherford, at the Royal Institution, dealing with the energy of subterranean radium, which had an effect prolonging the heat of the Earth. Arthur S. Eve wrote that Rutherford “used to tell humorous stories about this lecture long afterwards:” — followed by the subject quote above, as its own paragraph. As given in Arthur S. Eve, Rutherford: Being the Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O.M. (1939), 107. The story lacks quotation marks, and thus should be regarded as perhaps Eve’s own words giving a faithful recollection, rather than Rutherford’s verbatim words. (However, note that the style used throughout the book is to omit quotation marks from their own separate paragraph.)
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Audience (28)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Boy (100)  |  Cock (6)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Dark (145)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Eye (440)  |  Glance (36)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Last (425)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Lord (97)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Point (584)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Relief (30)  |  Saw (160)  |  Speech (66)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Tonight (9)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Utterance (11)  |  View (496)

I devoted myself especially to the purification of the radium…. It was only after treating one ton of pitchblende residues that I could get definite results. Indeed we know to-day that even in the best minerals there are not more than a few decigrammes of radium in a ton of raw material.
Meanwhile, her husband, Pierre, studied the physical properties of the rays emitted by the new substances. As translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg in Marie Curie, 'Autobiographical Notes', Pierre Curie (1923), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Decigram (2)  |  Devote (45)  |  Pitchblende (2)  |  Purification (10)  |  Result (700)  |  Ton (25)  |  Treatment (135)

I have a peculiar theory about radium, and I believe it is the correct one. I believe that there is some mysterious ray pervading the universe that is fluorescing to it. In other words, that all its energy is not self-constructed but that there is a mysterious something in the atmosphere that scientists have not found that is drawing out those infinitesimal atoms and distributing them forcefully and indestructibly.
Quoted in 'Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-Rays', New York World (3 Aug 1903), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Atom (381)  |  Construct (129)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fluorescence (3)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Pervading (7)  |  Ray (115)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)  |  Something (718)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universe (900)  |  Word (650)

I have satisfied myself that the [cosmic] rays are not generated by the formation of new matter in space, a process which would be like water running up a hill. Nor do they come to any appreciable amount from the stars. According to my investigations the sun emits a radiation of such penetrative power that it is virtually impossible to absorb it in lead or other substances. ... This ray, which I call the primary solar ray, gives rise to a secondary radiation by impact against the cosmic dust scattered through space. It is the secondary radiation which now is commonly called the cosmic ray, and comes, of course, equally from all directions in space. [The article continues: The phenomena of radioactivity are not the result of forces within the radioactive substances but are caused by this ray emitted by the sun. If radium could be screened effectively against this ray it would cease to be radioactive, he said.]
Quoted in 'Tesla, 75, Predicts New Power Source', New York Times (5 Jul 1931), Section 2, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  According (236)  |  Against (332)  |  Amount (153)  |  Call (781)  |  Cease (81)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmic Ray (7)  |  Course (413)  |  Direction (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dust (68)  |  Emit (15)  |  Equally (129)  |  Force (497)  |  Formation (100)  |  Hill (23)  |  Impact (45)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Matter (821)  |  Myself (211)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Power (771)  |  Primary (82)  |  Process (439)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Ray (115)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Running (61)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sun (407)  |  Through (846)  |  Water (503)

I then [in 1902] possessed one decigramme of very pure radium chloride. It had taken me almost four years to produce the kind of evidence which chemical science demands, that radium is truly a new element. … The demonstration that cost so much effort was the basis of the new science of radioactivity.
As translated by Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg in Marie Curie, 'Autobiographical Notes', Pierre Curie (1923), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Decigram (2)  |  Effort (243)  |  Element (322)  |  Evidence (267)  |  New (1273)  |  Pure (299)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Year (963)

If one were to demonstrate to an architect that the bricks…in his constructions were under other circumstances capable of entirely different uses—let us say,…that they could with effect be employed as an explosive incomparably more powerful in its activities than dynamite—the surprise of the architect would be no greater than the surprise of the chemist at the new and undreamt of possibilities of matter demonstrated by the mere existence of such an element as radium.
In 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Architect (32)  |  Brick (20)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Construction (114)  |  Different (595)  |  Dynamite (8)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Incomparable (14)  |  Matter (821)  |  New (1273)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Surprise (91)

It can even be thought that radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature, whether it is ready to profit from it or whether this knowledge will not be harmful for it. The example of the discoveries of Nobel is characteristic, as powerful explosives have enabled man to do wonderful work. They are also a terrible means of destruction in the hands of great criminals who lead the peoples towards war. I am one of those who believe with Nobel that mankind will derive more good than harm from the new discoveries.
Nobel Lecture (6 June 1905), 'Radioactive Substances, Especially Radium', collected in Stig Lundqvist (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1901-1921 (1998), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Derive (70)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Alfred Bernhard Nobel (17)  |  People (1031)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Profit (56)  |  Question (649)  |  Secret (216)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Thought (995)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)

It is probable that all heavy matter possesses—latent and bound up with the structure of the atom—a similar quantity of energy to that possessed by radium. If it could be tapped and controlled, what an agent it would be in shaping the world's destiny! The man who puts his hand on the lever by which a parsimonious nature regulates so jealously the output of this store of energy would possess a weapon by which he could destroy the Earth if he chose.
A prescient remark on atomic energy after the discovery of radioactivity, but decades before the harnessing of nuclear fission in an atomic bomb became a reality.
Lecture to the Corps of Royal Engineers, Britain (19040. In Rodney P. Carlisle, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries (2004), 373.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Bound (120)  |  Decade (66)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fission (10)  |  Lever (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Energy (18)  |  Parsimonious (3)  |  Possess (157)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Reality (274)  |  Store (49)  |  Structure (365)  |  Weapon (98)  |  World (1850)

It would be impossible, it would be against the scientific spirit. … Physicists should always publish their researches completely. If our discovery has a commercial future that is a circumstance from which we should not profit. If radium is to be used in the treatment of disease, it is impossible for us to take advantage of that.
In a discussion with her husband, Pierre, about the patenting of radium, in Marie Curie by Eve Curie (1939).
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Against (332)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Completely (137)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Future (467)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Profit (56)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Treatment (135)

Madam Curie = Radium came.
Anagram
From 'The Anagram Hall of Fame' on the wordsmith.org website.
Science quotes on:  |  Coming (114)  |  Marie Curie (37)

Probably if half a kilogram [of radium] were in a bottle on that table it would kill us all. It would almost certainly destroy our sight and burn our skins to such an extent that we could not survive. The smallest bit placed on one’s arm would produce a blister which it would need months to heal.
As quoted in 'Radium', New York Times (22 Feb 1903), 6. Note that X-rays were discovered only a few years before, in 1895, radioactivity in 1896, and the electron in 1897. Full knowledge of the harmful radiation did not exist at the time. Nevertheless, Crookes’ remark, in the words of the reporter, “would seem to indicate that it [radium] emits something more than light. Heat and actinic energy must make up a large part of its radiation. It also emits electrons with [great] velocity…”
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  Blister (2)  |  Bottle (17)  |  Burn (99)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Extent (142)  |  Healing (28)  |  Kill (100)  |  Killing (14)  |  Kilogram (3)  |  Month (91)  |  Sight (135)  |  Skin (48)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Table (105)

Radium could become very dangerous in criminal hands, and here the question can be raised whether mankind benefits from knowing the secrets of Nature…
Nobel Lecture (6 June 1905), 'Radioactive Substances, Especially Radium', collected in Stig Lundqvist (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1901-1921 (1998), 78. A longer version of this quote on this web page begins, “It can even be thought that…”
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Question (649)  |  Secret (216)

RADIUM, n. A mineral that gives off heat and stimulates the organ that a scientist is a fool with.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil’s Dictionary,  273.
Science quotes on:  |  Fool (121)  |  Heat (180)  |  Humour (116)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Organ (118)  |  Scientist (881)

Sir W. Ramsay has striven to show that radium is in process of transformation, that it contains a store of energy enormous but not inexhaustible. The transformation of radium then would produce a million times more heat than all known transformations; radium would wear itself out in 1,250 years; this is quite short, and you see that we are at least certain to have this point settled some hundreds of years from now. While waiting, our doubts remain.
In La Valeur de la Science (1904), 199, as translated by George Bruce Halsted, in The Value of Science (1907), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Known (453)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Point (584)  |  Process (439)  |  Sir William Ramsay (7)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Settled (34)  |  Short (200)  |  Show (353)  |  Store (49)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Year (963)  |  Years (5)

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. …
In the course of the last four months it has been made probable … that it may become possible to set up nuclear chain reactions in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.
This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat or exploded in a port, might well destroy the whole port altogether with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
Letter to President Franklin P. Roosevelt, (2 Aug 1939, delivered 11 Oct 1939). In Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden (Eds.) Einstein on Peace (1960, reprinted 1981), 294-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Air (366)  |  Amount (153)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Course (413)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Element (322)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expect (203)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Future (467)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mass (160)  |  Month (91)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Recent (78)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Territory (25)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Turn (454)  |  Type (171)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

The incomplete knowledge of a system must be an essential part of every formulation in quantum theory. Quantum theoretical laws must be of a statistical kind. To give an example: we know that the radium atom emits alpha-radiation. Quantum theory can give us an indication of the probability that the alpha-particle will leave the nucleus in unit time, but it cannot predict at what precise point in time the emission will occur, for this is uncertain in principle.
The Physicist's Conception of Nature (1958), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Atom (381)  |  Emit (15)  |  Essential (210)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Indication (33)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Occur (151)  |  Particle (200)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Predict (86)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Will (2350)

The radiation of radium was “contagious”—Contagious like a persistent scent or a disease. It was impossible for an object, a plant, an animal or a person to be left near a tube of radium without immediately acquiring a notable “activity” which a sensitive apparatus could detect.
Eve Curie
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie: a Biography by Eve Curie (1937, 2007), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Contagious (5)  |  Detect (45)  |  Disease (340)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Person (366)  |  Plant (320)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Scent (7)

The various reasons which we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radio-active substance contains a new element which we propose to give the name of radium.
Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Gustave Bémont, 'Sur une Nouvelle Substance Fortement Radio-Active, Contenue dans las Pechblende', (On a new, strongly radio-active substance, contained in pitchblende), Comptes Rendus (1898). 127, 1217. In Joseph E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross (editors), The Scientific Literature (2007), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Lead (391)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Reason (766)  |  Substance (253)  |  Various (205)

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminium, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium,
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.
There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium.
There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium,
And lead, praseodymium and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.
There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium,
And chlorine, cobalt, carbon, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven't been discarvard.
[To the tune of I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.]
Song, 'The Elements' (1959). In Tom Lehrer,Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer: With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle (1981), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Aluminum (15)  |  Antimony (7)  |  Argon (3)  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Barium (4)  |  Beryllium (3)  |  Bismuth (7)  |  Boron (4)  |  Bromine (4)  |  Calcium (8)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Chlorine (15)  |  Chromium (2)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Copper (25)  |  Element (322)  |  Erbium (2)  |  Fluorine (5)  |  Francium (2)  |  General (521)  |  Gold (101)  |  Helium (11)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Iodine (7)  |  Iridium (3)  |  Iron (99)  |  Lanthanum (2)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lithium (3)  |  Magnesium (4)  |  Major (88)  |  Manganese (2)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Model (106)  |  Modern (402)  |  Neon (4)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Nickel (3)  |  Niobium (3)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Osmium (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Palladium (2)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Platinum (6)  |  Plutonium (5)  |  Polonium (5)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Rhodium (2)  |  Selenium (2)  |  Silicon (4)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Song (41)  |  Strontium (2)  |  Sulfur (5)  |  Tantalum (2)  |  Thorium (5)  |  Tin (18)  |  Titanium (2)  |  Tune (20)  |  Tungsten (2)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Xenon (5)  |  Yttrium (3)  |  Zinc (3)  |  Zirconium (2)

Through and through the world is infected with quantity: To talk sense is to talk quantities. It is not use saying the nation is large—How large? It is no use saying the radium is scarce—How scarce? You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.
In 'The Aims of Education', The Aims of Education: & Other Essays (1917), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Evade (4)  |  Face (214)  |  Fly (153)  |  Infect (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Music (133)  |  Nation (208)  |  Number (710)  |  Octave (3)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarce (11)  |  Sense (785)  |  Talk (108)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Thus the radio elements formed strange and cruel families in which each member was created by spontaneous transformation of the mother substance: radium was a “descendant” of uranium, polonium a descendant of radium.
Eve Curie
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie: a Biography by Eve Curie (1937, 2007), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Cruel (25)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Element (322)  |  Family (101)  |  Form (976)  |  Member (42)  |  Mother (116)  |  Polonium (5)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Strange (160)  |  Substance (253)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Uranium (21)

We have been forced to admit for the first time in history not only the possibility of the fact of the growth and decay of the elements of matter. With radium and with uranium we do not see anything but the decay. And yet, somewhere, somehow, it is almost certain that these elements must be continuously forming. They are probably being put together now in the laboratory of the stars. ... Can we ever learn to control the process. Why not? Only research can tell.
'The Significance of Radium,' an address delivered (in connection with the presentation of a gram of radium to Madame Curie) at the National Museum, Washington, D.C. (25 May 1921). In Science (1921), 54, No. 1383, 1921. In Rodney P. Carlisle, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries (2004), 375.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Certain (557)  |  Control (182)  |  Decay (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Element (322)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Forming (42)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Learn (672)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Process (439)  |  Research (753)  |  See (1094)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Why (491)

We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
Lecture at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (14 May 1921). In Cambridge Editorial Partnership, Speeches that Changed the World, 53.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Chance (244)  |  Consider (428)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Forget (125)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  View (496)  |  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.