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Roald Hoffmann,
(18 Jul 1937 - )
Polish-American chemist.
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Science Quotes by Roald Hoffmann, (1 quote)
Not every collision,
not every punctilious trajectory
by which billiard-ball complexes
arrive at their calculable meeting places
lead to reaction. ...
Men (and women) are not
as different from molecules
as they think.
not every punctilious trajectory
by which billiard-ball complexes
arrive at their calculable meeting places
lead to reaction. ...
Men (and women) are not
as different from molecules
as they think.
— Roald Hoffmann,
Hoffmann, as a chemist-turned-poet is making the analogy of random intermolecular interactions to those of humans. From poem, 'Men and Molecules', The Metamict State (1984), 43. Cited as an epigraph in William L. Masterton and Cecile N. Hurley Chemistry: Principles and Reactions, Updated Edition (2005), 282.
See also:
- 18 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Hoffmann'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) -- 
