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James Burney
(13 Jun 1750 - 17 Nov 1821)
English navy officer and author who joined the navy at the age of ten as a captain’s servant. He sailed on James Cook’s second and third voyages of discovery. After retirement due to illness in 1784, he wrote a monumental work in several volumes on exploration. Burney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1809). He was promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list in 1821, and died later that year.
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Science Quotes by James Burney (1 quote)
It is not easy to name another Voyager or Traveller who has given more useful information to the world; to whom the Merchant and Mariner are so much indebted; or who has communicated his information in a more unembarrassed and intelligible manner. And this he has done in a style perfectly unassuming, equally free from affectation and from the most distant appearance of invention.
— James Burney
Describing Captain William Dampier in A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean: Vol. 4(1816), 486. [A similar quote found on the web is “It is not easy to name another sailor who has supplied such valuable information to the world; he had a passion for reporting exactly as he saw it, with a delicate and perfect style; he felt an unending curiosity that made his accounts have a unique delicate touch.” For this, Webmaster has so far not identified it in a primary source by Burney. Please contact if you know it. —Webmaster.]
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) -- 
