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Georg von Békésy
(3 Jun 1899 - 13 Jun 1972)
Hungarian-American physicist and physiologist who received the 1961 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea of the inner ear.
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Science Quotes by Georg von Békésy (1 quote)
One way of dealing with errors is to have friends who are willing to spend the time necessary to carry out a critical examination of the experimental design beforehand and the results after the experiments have been completed. An even better way is to have an enemy. An enemy is willing to devote a vast amount of time and brain power to ferreting out errors both large and small, and this without any compensation. The trouble is that really capable enemies are scarce; most of them are only ordinary. Another trouble with enemies is that they sometimes develop into friends and lose a great deal of their zeal. It was in this way the writer lost his three best enemies. Everyone, not just scientists, needs a good few enemies.
— Georg von Békésy
Quoted in George A. Olah, A Life of Magic Chemistry (2001), 146.
See also:
- 3 Jun - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Békésy's birth.
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) -- 
