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Richard Cowen
(24 Jan 1940 - )
English-American paleontologist who completed his Ph.D. in Geology in 1966 (with a dissertation on the paleontology of brachiopods), and shortly thereafter began a lifetime of teaching at the University of California, Davis.
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Science Quotes by Richard Cowen (3 quotes)
A band of bacterial brothers
Swigging ATP with some others,
In a jocular fit,
They laughed til they split
Now theyre all microbial mothers.
Swigging ATP with some others,
In a jocular fit,
They laughed til they split
Now theyre all microbial mothers.
— Richard Cowen
In History of Life (1989). As quoted and cited in Jon Fripp, Michael Fripp and Deborah Fripp, Speaking of Science (2000), 20. Note: Cell division consumes energy provided by hydrolysis of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is the primary energy carrier in all living organisms on earth.
Caves are wonderful places for lairs
For sabertooth tigers and bears
But Try and eject us!
Said Homo erectus,
We need this place for our heirs!
For sabertooth tigers and bears
But Try and eject us!
Said Homo erectus,
We need this place for our heirs!
— Richard Cowen
In sidebar to 'Evolving Toward Humans', History of Life (1989, 1991), 361.
The reptilian idea of fun
Is to bask all day in the sun.
A physiological barrier,
Discovered by Carrier,
Says they can't breathe, if they run.
Is to bask all day in the sun.
A physiological barrier,
Discovered by Carrier,
Says they can't breathe, if they run.
— Richard Cowen
Written about David Carriers rule concerning a vertebrates breathing when lungs are affected because the rib structure distorts during locomotion. Thus sprawling vertebrates cannot run and breathe at the same time. In sidebar to 'Respiration, Metabolism, and Locomotion', History of Life (1991), 177. Carriers constraint idea was published in 'The evolution of locomotor stamina in tetrapods: circumventing a mechanical constraint' Paleobiology (1987), 13, 326-341.
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) -- 
