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: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Absorb

Absorb Quotes (54 quotes)

“Progress” was synonymous with distance from nature. The adults, who set the pace of progress from nature, were so absorbed by their own ability to invent and to alter the existing world, that they hurried headlong, with no design for the ultimate structure. A man-made environment was the obvious goal, but who was the responsible architect? No one in my country. Not even the king of Great Britain or the president of America. Each inventor and producer who worked on building tomorrow’s world just threw in a brick or a cogwheel wherever he cared to, and it was up to us of the next generation to find out what the result would be.
In Ch. 1, 'Farewell to Civilization', Fatu-Hiva (1974), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Adult (24)  |  Alter (64)  |  America (143)  |  Architect (32)  |  Brick (20)  |  Build (211)  |  Care (203)  |  Country (269)  |  Design (203)  |  Distance (171)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exist (458)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Generation (256)  |  Goal (155)  |  Headlong (2)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Invent (57)  |  Inventor (79)  |  King (39)  |  Man-Made (10)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Next (238)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Pace (18)  |  President (36)  |  Producer (4)  |  Progress (492)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Result (700)  |  Structure (365)  |  Synonymous (2)  |  Throw (45)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  United Kingdom (2)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

[From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.
Originating the names for these two types of radiation. In 'Uranium Radiation and the Electrical Conduction Produced by It', Philosophical Magazine (1899), 47, 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorption (13)  |  Alpha Ray (4)  |  Character (259)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinction (72)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Present (630)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Term (357)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Will (2350)

[It was] a lot of fun and we were so absorbed trying to do a good job that we didn’t think of the dangers. Until later on when people were saying, “You were sitting on top of all that hydrogen and oxygen.” Those tanks were right outside, the control room’s right there. I mean now, like up at Plum Brook, the control room for B-2 is like half a mile away. We were fifty feet away.
Recalling his experience with rocket engine tests using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, while working as an engineer at the Propulsion Systems Laboratory. From Interview (1 Sep 2009), for the NASA Glenn History Collection, Oral History Collection, Cleveland, Ohio. As quoted an cited in Robert S. Arrighi, Pursuit of Power: NASA’s Propulsion and Systems Laboratory No. 1 and 2 (2012), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Control (182)  |  Danger (127)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Foot (65)  |  Good (906)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Job (86)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mile (43)  |  Outside (141)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  People (1031)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Tank (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Top (100)  |  Trying (144)

Absorbed in the special investigation, I paid no heed to the edifice which was meanwhile unconsciously building itself up. Having however completed the comparison of the fossil species in Paris, I wanted, for the sake of an easy revision of the same, to make a list according to their succession in geological formations, with a view of determining the characteristics more exactly and bringing them by their enumeration into bolder relief. What was my joy and surprise to find that the simplest enumeration of the fossil fishes according to their geological succession was also a complete statement of the natural relations of the families among themselves; that one might therefore read the genetic development of the whole class in the history of creation, the representation of the genera and species in the several families being therein determined; in one word, that the genetic succession of the fishes corresponds perfectly with their zoological classification, and with just that classification proposed by me.
Quoted in Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (ed.), Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence (1885), Vol. I, 203-4.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Being (1276)  |  Building (158)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Creation (350)  |  Development (441)  |  Easy (213)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Heed (12)  |  History (716)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Joy (117)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Read (308)  |  Relief (30)  |  Representation (55)  |  Revision (7)  |  Sake (61)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Statement (148)  |  Succession (80)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Themselves (433)  |  View (496)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

All frescoes are as high finished as miniatures or enamels, and they are known to be unchangeable; but oil, being a body itself, will drink or absorb very little colour, and changing yellow, and at length brown, destroys every colour it is mixed with, especially every delicate colour. It turns every permanent white to a yellow and brown putty, and has compelled the use of that destroyer of colour, white lead, which, when its protecting oil is evaporated, will become lead again. This is an awful thing to say to oil painters ; they may call it madness, but it is true. All the genuine old little pictures, called cabinet pictures, are in fresco and not in oil. Oil was not used except by blundering ignorance till after Vandyke’s time ; but the art of fresco painting being lost, oil became a fetter to genius and a dungeon to art.
In 'Opinions', The Poems: With Specimens of the Prose Writings of William Blake (1885), 276-277.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Body (557)  |  Brown (23)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Compel (31)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Drink (56)  |  Evaporate (5)  |  Finish (62)  |  Genius (301)  |  Genuine (54)  |  High (370)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Madness (33)  |  Miniature (7)  |  Oil (67)  |  Old (499)  |  Painter (30)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Picture (148)  |  Putty (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unchangeable (11)  |  Use (771)  |  White (132)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yellow (31)

All substances susceptible of decay, when in a moist state, and exposed to the air and light at the common temperature, undergo precisely the same change as they would if exposed to a red-heat, in a dry state, that is, they absorb oxygen,—they undergo combustion.
Justus von Liebig and John Gardner (ed.), Familiar Letters on Chemistry: Second Series. The Philosophical Principles and General Laws of the Science (1844), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Change (639)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Decay (59)  |  Dry (65)  |  Expose (28)  |  Light (635)  |  Moist (13)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Same (166)  |  Substance (253)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Undergo (18)

As I strayed into the study of an eminent physicist, I observed hanging against the wall, framed like a choice engraving, several dingy, ribbon-like strips of, I knew not what... My curiosity was at once aroused. What were they? ... They might be shreds of mummy-wraps or bits of friable bark-cloth from the Pacific, ... [or] remnants from a grandmother’s wedding dress... They were none of these... He explained that they were carefully-prepared photographs of portions of the Solar Spectrum. I stood and mused, absorbed in the varying yet significant intensities of light and shade, bordered by mystic letters and symbolic numbers. As I mused, the pale legend began to glow with life. Every line became luminous with meaning. Every shadow was suffused with light shining from behind, suggesting some mighty achievement of knowledge; of knowledge growing more daring in proportion to the remoteness of the object known; of knowledge becoming more positive in its answers, as the questions which were asked seemed unanswerable. No Runic legend, no Babylonish arrowhead, no Egyptian hieroglyph, no Moabite stone, could present a history like this, or suggest thoughts of such weighty import or so stimulate and exalt the imagination.
The Sciences of Nature Versus the Science of Man: A Plea for the Science of Man (1871), 7-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Against (332)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arrowhead (4)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bark (19)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Behind (139)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Choice (114)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Daring (17)  |  Engraving (4)  |  Exalt (29)  |  Explain (334)  |  Growing (99)  |  Hieroglyph (3)  |  History (716)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Legend (18)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Mummy (7)  |  Mystic (23)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Observed (149)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Portion (86)  |  Positive (98)  |  Present (630)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Question (649)  |  Remnant (7)  |  Remoteness (9)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Shining (35)  |  Significant (78)  |  Solar Spectrum (4)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Stone (168)  |  Study (701)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wedding (7)

As the ostensible effect of the heat … consists not in warming the surrounding bodies but in rendering the ice fluid, so, in the case of boiling, the heat absorbed does not warm surrounding bodies but converts the water into vapor. In both cases, considered as the cause of warmth, we do not perceive its presence: it is concealed, or latent, and I gave it the name of “latent heat.”
Science quotes on:  |  Boil (24)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consist (223)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Name (359)  |  Presence (63)  |  Vapor (12)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warming (24)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Water (503)

At no period of [Michael Faraday’s] unmatched career was he interested in utility. He was absorbed in disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in later periods, physical riddles. As far as he cared, the question of utility was never raised. Any suspicion of utility would have restricted his restless curiosity. In the end, utility resulted, but it was never a criterion to which his ceaseless experimentation could be subjected.
'The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge', Harper's Magazine (Jun/Nov 1939), No. 179, 546. In Hispania (Feb 1944), 27, No. 1, 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Car (75)  |  Career (86)  |  Ceaseless (6)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Disentangle (4)  |  End (603)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  First (1302)  |  Interest (416)  |  Never (1089)  |  Period (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Question (649)  |  Restless (13)  |  Result (700)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Universe (900)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Utility (52)

Civilization is in no immediate danger of running out of energy or even just out of oil. But we are running out of environment—that is, out of the capacity of the environment to absorb energy's impacts without risk of intolerable disruption—and our heavy dependence on oil in particular entails not only environmental but also economic and political liabilities.
Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution will Transform an Industry, Change our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet (2003).
Science quotes on:  |  Capacity (105)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Economic (84)  |  Energy (373)  |  Environment (239)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Impact (45)  |  Oil (67)  |  Political (124)  |  Risk (68)  |  Running (61)

Consider the plight of a scientist of my age. I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1940. In the 41 years since then the amount of biological information has increased 16 fold; during these 4 decades my capacity to absorb new information has declined at an accelerating rate and now is at least 50% less than when I was a graduate student. If one defines ignorance as the ratio of what is available to be known to what is known, there seems no alternative to the conclusion that my ignorance is at least 25 times as extensive as it was when I got my bachelor’s degree. Although I am sure that my unfortunate condition comes as no surprise to my students and younger colleagues, I personally find it somewhat depressing. My depression is tempered, however, by the fact that all biologists, young or old, developing or senescing, face the same melancholy situation because of an interlocking set of circumstances.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerate (11)  |  Age (509)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Amount (153)  |  Available (80)  |  Bachelor (3)  |  Berkeley (3)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Decade (66)  |  Decline (28)  |  Define (53)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depressing (3)  |  Depression (26)  |  Develop (278)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fold (9)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Graduate Student (13)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Increase (225)  |  Information (173)  |  Interlocking (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Least (75)  |  Less (105)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Personally (7)  |  Plight (5)  |  Rate (31)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seem (150)  |  Set (400)  |  Situation (117)  |  Student (317)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Temper (12)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unfortunate (19)  |  University (130)  |  University Of California (2)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Younger (21)

Facts to [Herbert] Hoover's brain are as water to a sponge; they are absorbed into every tiny interstice.
Quoted in David Hinshaw, Herbert Hoover: American Quaker (1950), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Herbert Hoover (13)  |  Interstice (3)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Water (503)

Few men live lives of more devoted self-sacrifice than the family physician, but he may become so completely absorbed in work that leisure is unknown…. More than most men he feels the tragedy of isolation—that inner isolation so well expressed in Matthew Arnold’s line “We mortal millions live alone.”
Address to the Canadian Medical Association, Montreal (17 Sep 1902), 'Chauvinism in Medicine', published in The Montreal Medical Journal (1902), 31, 267. Collected in Aequanimitas, with Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine (1904), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Matthew Arnold (14)  |  Become (821)  |  Completely (137)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Express (192)  |  Family (101)  |  Feel (371)  |  Inner (72)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Live (650)  |  Millions (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physician (284)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Sacrifice (5)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Work (1402)

Forests are a fundamental component of our planet’s recovery. They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. And they are centers of biodiversity. Again, the two features work together. The wilder and more diverse forests are, the more effective they are at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere
From narration to Netflix TV program, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future (4 Oct 2020).
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Best (467)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Center (35)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Component (51)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Effective (68)  |  Feature (49)  |  Forest (161)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Lock (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Planet (402)  |  Recovery (24)  |  Technology (281)  |  Together (392)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)

Further study of the division phenomena requires a brief discussion of the material which thus far I have called the stainable substance of the nucleus. Since the term nuclear substance could easily result in misinterpretation..., I shall coin the term chromatin for the time being. This does not indicate that this substance must be a chemical compound of a definite composition, remaining the same in all nuclei. Although this may be the case, we simply do not know enough about the nuclear substances to make such an assumption. Therefore, we will designate as chromatin that substance, in the nucleus, which upon treatment with dyes known as nuclear stains does absorb the dye. From my description of the results of staining resting and dividing cells... it follows that the chromatin is distributed throughout the whole resting nucleus, mostly in the nucleoli, the network, and the membrane, but also in the ground-substance. In nuclear division it accumulates exclusively in the thread figures. The term achromatin suggests itself automatically for the unstainable substance of the nucleus. The terms chromatic and achromatic which will be used henceforth are thus explained.
Science quotes on:  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brief (37)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chromatic (4)  |  Chromatin (4)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dye (10)  |  Enough (341)  |  Explain (334)  |  Figure (162)  |  Follow (389)  |  Ground (222)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Material (366)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Must (1525)  |  Network (21)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Study (701)  |  Substance (253)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thread (36)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. I take half-matured schemes for mechanical development and make them practical. I am a sort of middleman between the long-haired and impractical inventor and the hard-headed businessman who measures all things in terms of dollars and cents. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Business (156)  |  Businessman (4)  |  Cent (5)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Development (441)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Give (208)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard-Headed (2)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impractical (3)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Long (778)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Middleman (2)  |  Misdirect (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principal (69)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Sort (50)  |  Source (101)  |  Sponge (9)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)

I did it [worked long hours] because I wanted to, not because I had to. I loved it and still do love it, That is what women must have in addition to diligence—a real and absorbing devotion to their work. They need now to have a bigger body of work to show.
In Genevieve Parkhurst, 'Dr. Sabin, Scientist: Winner Of Pictorial Review’s Achievement Award', Pictorial Review (Jan 1930), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Big (55)  |  Body (557)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Love (328)  |  Need (320)  |  Real (159)  |  Show (353)  |  Women Scientists (18)  |  Work (1402)

I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.
Journal, April 2, 1852.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enter (145)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Institution (73)  |  Man (2252)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Stand (284)  |  Universe (900)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)

I even believe that those who consider themselves to be opponents of Mach barely know how many of his views they absorbed, in a manner of speaking, with their mother’s milk.
Translation from obituary, 'Ernst Mach', Physikalische Zeitschrift (1 Apr 1916), 102. Einstein was pointing out how Mach as a science philosopher had influenced and continued to exert upon generations of physicists. Originally written in German, the subject quote is a translation into English. There are slight variations in wording in other translations. For example: “I believe that even those who consider themselves opponents of Mach are hardly aware of how much of Mach’s way of thinking they imbibed, so to speak, with their mother’s milk.” From the original German text: “Ich glaube sogar, daß diejenigen, welche sich für Gegner Machs halten, kaum wissen, wieviel von Machscher Betrachtungsweise sie sozusagen mit der Muttermilch eingesogen haben.”
Science quotes on:  |  Ernst Mach (28)  |  Milk (23)  |  Mother (116)  |  Opponent (23)

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:  |  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)  |  Radium (29)  |  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 waited for Rob and, linking arms, we took our final steps together onto the rooftop of the world. It was 8.15 am on 24 May 2004; there was nowhere higher on the planet that we could go, the world lay at our feet. Holding each other tightly, we tried to absorb where we were. To be standing here, together, exactly three years since Rob’s cancer treatment, was nothing short of a miracle. Standing on top of Everest was more than just climbing a mountain - it was a gift of life. With Pemba and Nawang we crowded together, wrapping our arms around each other. They had been more than Sherpas, they had been our guardian angels.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Climb (39)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Everest (10)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Final (121)  |  Foot (65)  |  Gift (105)  |  Guardian (3)  |  High (370)  |  Hold (96)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Linking (8)  |  Miracle (85)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rob (6)  |  Short (200)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Tightly (2)  |  Together (392)  |  Top (100)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Try (296)  |  Wait (66)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrap (7)  |  Year (963)

It is not always the most brilliant speculations nor the choice of the most exotic materials that is most profitable. I prefer Monsieur de Reaumur busy exterminating moths by means of an oily fleece; or increasing fowl production by making them hatch without the help of their mothers, than Monsieur Bemouilli absorbed in algebra, or Monsieur Leibniz calculating the various advantages and disadvantages of the possible worlds.
Spectacle, 1, 475. Quoted in Camille Limoges, 'Noel-Antoine Pluche', in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974 ), Vol. 11, 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Brilliance (14)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Choice (114)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Exotic (8)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Fleece (2)  |  Fowl (6)  |  Hatch (4)  |  Help (116)  |  Increase (225)  |  Incubation (3)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Making (300)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Moth (5)  |  Mother (116)  |  Oil (67)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Production (190)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Various (205)  |  World (1850)

It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living being are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sort of ammonia and phosphoric salts—light, heat, electricity present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.
Letter (1 Feb 1871) to Joseph Dalton Hooker. In The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1888), Vol. 3, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complex (202)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devour (29)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Pond (17)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Protein (56)  |  Salt (48)  |  Still (614)  |  Warm (74)

It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could have ever been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, &c., present, that a proteine compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.
Letter; as quoted in The Origin of Life by J.D. Bernal (1967) publ.Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London
Science quotes on:  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Change (639)  |  Complex (202)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devour (29)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Light (635)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Pond (17)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Salt (48)  |  Still (614)  |  Warm (74)

It is possible to state as a general principle that the mesodermic phagocytes, which originally (as in the sponges of our days) acted as digestive cells, retained their role to absorb the dead or weakened parts of the organism as much as different foreign intruders.
'Uber die Pathologische Bedeutung der Intracellularen Verduung', Fortschritte der Medizin (1884), 17, 558-569. Trans. Alfred I. Tauber and Leon Chernyak, Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology (1991), 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Cell (146)  |  Dead (65)  |  Different (595)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Foreign (45)  |  General (521)  |  Intruder (5)  |  Organism (231)  |  Phagocyte (2)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Retain (57)  |  Role (86)  |  Sponge (9)  |  State (505)

It will be noticed that the fundamental theorem proved above bears some remarkable resemblances to the second law of thermodynamics. Both are properties of populations, or aggregates, true irrespective of the nature of the units which compose them; both are statistical laws; each requires the constant increase of a measurable quantity, in the one case the entropy of a physical system and in the other the fitness, measured by m, of a biological population. As in the physical world we can conceive the theoretical systems in which dissipative forces are wholly absent, and in which the entropy consequently remains constant, so we can conceive, though we need not expect to find, biological populations in which the genetic variance is absolutely zero, and in which fitness does not increase. Professor Eddington has recently remarked that “The law that entropy always increases—the second law of thermodynamics—holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of nature.” It is not a little instructive that so similar a law should hold the supreme position among the biological sciences. While it is possible that both may ultimately be absorbed by some more general principle, for the present we should note that the laws as they stand present profound differences—-(1) The systems considered in thermodynamics are permanent; species on the contrary are liable to extinction, although biological improvement must be expected to occur up to the end of their existence. (2) Fitness, although measured by a uniform method, is qualitatively different for every different organism, whereas entropy, like temperature, is taken to have the same meaning for all physical systems. (3) Fitness may be increased or decreased by changes in the environment, without reacting quantitatively upon that environment. (4) Entropy changes are exceptional in the physical world in being irreversible, while irreversible evolutionary changes form no exception among biological phenomena. Finally, (5) entropy changes lead to a progressive disorganization of the physical world, at least from the human standpoint of the utilization of energy, while evolutionary changes are generally recognized as producing progressively higher organization in the organic world.
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1930), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Change (639)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (135)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Existence (481)  |  Expect (203)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Human (1512)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increase (225)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Population (115)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Professor (133)  |  Profound (105)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Second Law Of Thermodynamics (14)  |  Species (435)  |  Stand (284)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Think (1122)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Utilization (16)  |  Variance (12)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Zero (38)

Mathematicians boast of their exacting achievements, but in reality they are absorbed in mental acrobatics and contribute nothing to society.
From Complete Works on Japan’s Philosophical Thought (1956). As quoted and cited in Alan L. Mackay, A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Acrobat (2)  |  Boast (22)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exacting (4)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mental (179)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Reality (274)  |  Society (350)

Mathematics is indeed dangerous in that it absorbs students to such a degree that it dulls their senses to everything else.
While a student, an observation made about his teacher, Professor Karl Schellbach. Quoted, without citation, in Howard W. Eves, Mathematical Circles Adieu, (1977).
Science quotes on:  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dull (58)  |  Everything (489)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Sense (785)  |  Student (317)

Nature has put itself the problem how to catch in flight light streaming to the earth and to store the most elusive of all powers in rigid form. To achieve this aim, it has covered the crust of earth with organisms which in their life processes absorb the light of the sun and use this power to produce a continuously accumulating chemical difference. ... The plants take in one form of power, light; and produce another power, chemical difference.
In pamphlet, The Organic Motion in its Relation to Metabolism (1845), as translated in Eugene Rabinowitch, Govindjee, Photosynthesis (1969), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Crust (43)  |  Difference (355)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flight (101)  |  Form (976)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organism (231)  |  Photosynthesis (21)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Store (49)  |  Sun (407)  |  Use (771)

No other theory known to science [other than superstring theory] uses such powerful mathematics at such a fundamental level. …because any unified field theory first must absorb the Riemannian geometry of Einstein’s theory and the Lie groups coming from quantum field theory… The new mathematics, which is responsible for the merger of these two theories, is topology, and it is responsible for accomplishing the seemingly impossible task of abolishing the infinities of a quantum theory of gravity.
In 'Conclusion', Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1995), 326.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Coming (114)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lie Group (2)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Field Theory (3)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Seem (150)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Superstring (4)  |  Task (152)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Topology (3)  |  Two (936)  |  Unified (10)  |  Use (771)

No video, no photographs, no verbal descriptions, no lectures can provide the enchantment that a few minutes out-of-doors can: watch a spider construct a web; observe a caterpillar systematically ravaging the edge of a leaf; close your eyes, cup your hands behind your ears, and listen to aspen leaves rustle or a stream muse about its pools and eddies. Nothing can replace plucking a cluster of pine needles and rolling them in your fingers to feel how they’re put together, or discovering that “sedges have edges and grasses are round,” The firsthand, right-and-left-brain experience of being in the out-of-doors involves all the senses including some we’ve forgotten about, like smelling water a mile away. No teacher, no student, can help but sense and absorb the larger ecological rhythms at work here, and the intertwining of intricate, varied and complex strands that characterize a rich, healthy natural world.
Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching
Science quotes on:  |  Aspen (2)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Close (77)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Complex (202)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cup (7)  |  Description (89)  |  Discover (571)  |  Door (94)  |  Ear (69)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Eddy (4)  |  Edge (51)  |  Enchantment (9)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finger (48)  |  Firsthand (2)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Help (116)  |  Include (93)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Involve (93)  |  Large (398)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Listen (81)  |  Mile (43)  |  Minute (129)  |  Muse (10)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Needle (7)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pine (12)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Pool (16)  |  Provide (79)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Replace (32)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Rich (66)  |  Right (473)  |  Roll (41)  |  Round (26)  |  Rustle (2)  |  Sedge (2)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smell (29)  |  Spider (14)  |  Strand (9)  |  Stream (83)  |  Student (317)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Together (392)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Video (2)  |  Watch (118)  |  Water (503)  |  Web (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

On one occasion, when he was giving a dinner to some friends at the university, he left the table to get them a bottle of wine; but, on his way to the cellar, he fell into reflection, forgot his errand and his company, went to his chamber, put on his surplice, and proceeded to the chapel. Sometimes he would go into the street half dressed, and on discovering his condition, run back in great haste, much abashed. Often, while strolling in his garden, he would suddenly stop, and then run rapidly to his room, and begin to write, standing, on the first piece of paper that presented itself. Intending to dine in the public hall, he would go out in a brown study, take the wrong turn, walk a while, and then return to his room, having totally forgotten the dinner. Once having dismounted from his horse to lead him up a hill, the horse slipped his head out of the bridle; but Newton, oblivious, never discovered it till, on reaching a tollgate at the top of the hill, he turned to remount and perceived that the bridle which he held in his hand had no horse attached to it. His secretary records that his forgetfulness of his dinner was an excellent thing for his old housekeeper, who “sometimes found both dinner and supper scarcely tasted of, which the old woman has very pleasantly and mumpingly gone away with”. On getting out of bed in the morning, he has been discovered to sit on his bedside for hours without dressing himself, utterly absorbed in thought.
In 'Sir Isaac Newton', People’s Book of Biography: Or, Short Lives of the Most Interesting Persons of All Ages and Countries (1868), 257.
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Back (395)  |  Bedside (3)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Brown (23)  |  Cellar (4)  |  Chapel (3)  |  Company (63)  |  Condition (362)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Discover (571)  |  First (1302)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgetfulness (8)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Friend (180)  |  Garden (64)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Horse (78)  |  Hour (192)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Oblivious (9)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Old (499)  |  Paper (192)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Record (161)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Return (133)  |  Run (158)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Secretary (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Street (25)  |  Stroll (4)  |  Study (701)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Supper (10)  |  Table (105)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Top (100)  |  Turn (454)  |  University (130)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wine (39)  |  Woman (160)  |  Write (250)  |  Wrong (246)

Psychogenesis has led to man. Now it effaces itself, relieved or absorbed by another and a higher function—the engendering and subsequent development of the mind, in one word noogenesis. When for the first time in a living creature instinct perceived itself in its own mirror, the whole world took a pace forward.
In Teilhard de Chardin and Bernard Wall (trans.), The Phenomenon of Man (1959, 2008), 181. Originally published in French as Le Phénomene Humain (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Absorbed (3)  |  Creature (242)  |  Development (441)  |  Efface (6)  |  Engendering (3)  |  First (1302)  |  Forward (104)  |  Function (235)  |  Higher (37)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Pace (18)  |  Perceived (4)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Science ... must be absorbed in order to inculcate that wonderful humility before the facts of nature that comes from close attention to a textbook, and that unwillingness to learn from Authority that comes from making almost verbatim lecture notes and handing them back to the professor.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Authority (99)  |  Back (395)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Humility (31)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Making (300)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Note (39)  |  Order (638)  |  Professor (133)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Unwillingness (5)  |  Verbatim (4)  |  Wonderful (155)

The actions of bad men produce only temporary evil, the actions of good men only temporary good ; and eventually the good and the evil altogether subside, are neutralized by subsequent generations, absorbed by the incessant movements of future ages. But the discoveries of great men never leave us; they are immortal; they contain those eternal truths which survive the shock of empires, outlive the struggles of rival creeds, and witness the decay of successive religions.
In History of Civilization in England (1858), Vol. 1, 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Age (509)  |  Bad (185)  |  Creed (28)  |  Decay (59)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Empire (17)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eventual (9)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Evil (122)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Incessant (9)  |  Leave (138)  |  Movement (162)  |  Never (1089)  |  Outlive (4)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rival (20)  |  Shock (38)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Subside (5)  |  Successive (73)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Witness (57)

The blood corpuscles take up the atmospheric oxygen in the lungs, and the vital chemical process accordingly depends essentially on the combination of oxygen absorbed by blood corpuscles with the combustible constituents of the blood to form carbonic acid and water.
Quoted in Joseph Stewart Fruton Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (150)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Corpuscle (14)  |  Depend (238)  |  Form (976)  |  Lung (37)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Process (439)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Vital (89)  |  Water (503)

The carbon output that melts the ice in the Arctic also causes ocean acidification, which results from the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (the same carbon dioxide that is the primary cause of global warming, hence the nickname “the other carbon problem”).
In 'What do the Arctic, a Thermostat and COP15 Have in Common?', Huffington Post (18 Mar 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Acidification (4)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Cause (561)  |  Excess (23)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Ice (58)  |  Melt (16)  |  Nickname (3)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Output (12)  |  Primary (82)  |  Problem (731)  |  Result (700)  |  Warming (24)

The earth holds a silver treasure, cupped between ocean bed and tenting sky. Forever the heavens spend it, in the showers that refresh our temperate lands, the torrents that sluice the tropics. Every suckling root absorbs it, the very soil drains it down; the rivers run unceasing to the sea, the mountains yield it endlessly… Yet none is lost; in vast convection our water is returned, from soil to sky, and sky to soil, and back gain, to fall as pure as blessing. There was never less; there could never be more. A mighty mercy on which life depends, for all its glittering shifts, water is constant.
In A Cup of Sky (1950), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Bed (25)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Constant (148)  |  Convection (3)  |  Cup (7)  |  Depend (238)  |  Down (455)  |  Drain (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endlessly (4)  |  Fall (243)  |  Forever (111)  |  Gain (146)  |  Glittering (2)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hold (96)  |  Land (131)  |  Less (105)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lost (34)  |  Mercy (12)  |  Mighty (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pure (299)  |  Refresh (5)  |  Return (133)  |  River (140)  |  Root (121)  |  Run (158)  |  Sea (326)  |  Shift (45)  |  Shower (7)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sluice (2)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spend (97)  |  Suckling (3)  |  Torrent (5)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Tropic (2)  |  Unceasing (3)  |  Vast (188)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Cycle (5)  |  Yield (86)

The earth’s atmosphere is an imperfect window on the universe. Electromagnetic waves in the optical part of the spectrum (that is, waves longer than X rays and shorter than radio waves) penetrate to the surface of the earth only in a few narrow spectral bands. The widest of the transmitted bands corresponds roughly to the colors of visible light; waves in the flanking ultraviolet and infrared regions of the optical spectrum are almost totally absorbed by the atmosphere. In addition, atmospheric turbulence blurs the images of celestial objects, even when they are viewed through the most powerful ground-based telescopes.
in an article promoting the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope
Scientific American (July 1977)
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Blur (8)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Color (155)  |  Construction (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electromagnetic Wave (2)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hubble Space Telescope (9)  |  Image (97)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Object (438)  |  Optical (11)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Radio (60)  |  Ray (115)  |  Space (523)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Turbulence (4)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Visible (87)  |  Visible Light (2)  |  Wave (112)  |  Window (59)

The effort to reconcile science and religion is almost always made, not by theologians, but by scientists unable to shake off altogether the piety absorbed with their mother’s milk.
In Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956), 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Effort (243)  |  Milk (23)  |  Mother (116)  |  Piety (5)  |  Reconcile (19)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Shake (43)  |  Theologian (23)

The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acting (6)  |  Artist (97)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bread (42)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Course (413)  |  Daily (91)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Development (441)  |  Direct (228)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconspicuous (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lot (151)  |  Minority (24)  |  Most (1728)  |  Emmy Noether (7)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (141)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Run (158)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Special (188)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Successor (16)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (393)

The fascination of any search after truth lies not in the attainment, which at best is found to be very relative, but in the pursuit, where all the powers of the mind and character are brought into play and are absorbed by the task. One feels oneself in contact with something that is infinite and one finds joy that is beyond expression in sounding the abyss of science and the secrets of the infinite mind.
In Isabel Fothergill Smith, The Stone Lady: a Memoir of Florence Bascom (1981). Cited in Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society (992), Vols. 11-12, 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorption (13)  |  Abyss (30)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Character (259)  |  Contact (66)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Joy (117)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Power (771)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Search (175)  |  Secret (216)  |  Something (718)  |  Sounding (2)  |  Task (152)  |  Truth (1109)

The mathematicians have been very much absorbed with finding the general solution of algebraic equations, and several of them have tried to prove the impossibility of it. However, if I am not mistaken, they have not as yet succeeded. I therefore dare hope that the mathematicians will receive this memoir with good will, for its purpose is to fill this gap in the theory of algebraic equations.
Opening of Memoir on Algebraic Equations, Proving the Impossibility of a Solution of the General Equation of the Fifth Degree. The paper was originally published (1824) in French, as a pamphlet, in Oslo. Collected in Œuvres Complètes (1881), Vol. 1, 28. Translation by W.H. Langdon collected in David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics (2012), 261. In this work, he showed why—despite two centuries of efforts by mathematicians—solving equations of the fifth degree would remain futile. The insights from this paper led to the modern theory of equations.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorbed (3)  |  Algebraic (5)  |  Dare (55)  |  Equation (138)  |  Fill (67)  |  Finding (34)  |  Gap (36)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Hope (321)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mistaken (3)  |  Prove (261)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Receive (117)  |  Several (33)  |  Solution (282)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Succeeded (2)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)

The opinion I formed from attentive observation of the facts and phenomena, is as follows. When ice, for example, or any other solid substance, is changing into a fluid by heat, I am of opinion that it receives a much greater quantity of heat than that what is perceptible in it immediately after by the thermometer. A great quantity of heat enters into it, on this occasion, without making it apparently warmer, when tried by that instrument. This heat, however, must be thrown into it, in order to give it the form of a fluid; and I affirm, that this great addition of heat is the principal, and most immediate cause of the fluidity induced. And, on the other hand, when we deprive such a body of its fluidity again, by a diminution of its heat, a very great quantity of heat comes out of it, while it is assuming a solid form, the loss of which heat is not to be perceived by the common manner of using the thermometer. The apparent heat of the body, as measured by that instrument, is not diminished, or not in proportion to the loss of heat which the body actually gives out on this occasion; and it appears from a number of facts, that the state of solidity cannot be induced without the abstraction of this great quantity of heat. And this confirms the opinion, that this quantity of heat, absorbed, and, as it were, concealed in the composition of fluids, is the most necessary and immediate cause of their fluidity.
Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry, delivered in the University of Edinburgh (1803), Vol. I, 116-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Addition (70)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change Of State (2)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Enter (145)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Loss (117)  |  Making (300)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principal (69)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Receive (117)  |  Solid (119)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thermometer (11)

The principles which constituted the triumph of the preceding stages of the science, may appear to be subverted and ejected by the later discoveries, but in fact they are, (so far as they were true), taken up into the subsequent doctrines and included in them. They continue to be an essential part of the science. The earlier truths are not expelled but absorbed, not contradicted but extended; and the history of each science, which may thus appear like a succession of revolutions, is, in reality, a series of developments.
In History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) Vol. 1, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorbed (3)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Development (441)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Essential (210)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  History (716)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reality (274)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Series (153)  |  Stage (152)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Succession (80)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Truth (1109)

The responsibility for maintaining the composition of the blood in respect to other constituents devolves largely upon the kidneys. It is no exaggeration to say that the composition of the blood is determined not by what the mouth ingests but by what the kidneys keep; they are the master chemists of our internal environment, which, so to speak, they synthesize in reverse. When, among other duties, they excrete the ashes of our body fires, or remove from the blood the infinite variety of foreign substances which are constantly being absorbed from our indiscriminate gastrointestinal tracts, these excretory operations are incidental to the major task of keeping our internal environment in an ideal, balanced state. Our glands, our muscles, our bones, our tendons, even our brains, are called upon to do only one kind of physiological work, while our kidneys are called upon to perform an innumerable variety of operations. Bones can break, muscles can atrophy, glands can loaf, even the brain can go to sleep, without immediately endangering our survival, but when the kidneys fail to manufacture the proper kind of blood neither bone, muscle, gland nor brain can carry on.
'The Evolution of the Kidney', Lectures on the Kidney (1943), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorption (13)  |  Ash (21)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Balance (82)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Brain (281)  |  Break (109)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Composition (86)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Determined (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Excretion (7)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fire (203)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gland (14)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Indiscriminate (2)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Internal (69)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Kind (564)  |  Loaf (5)  |  Major (88)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Master (182)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Proper (150)  |  Removal (12)  |  Remove (50)  |  Respect (212)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Say (989)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Speak (240)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Survival (105)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Task (152)  |  Tract (7)  |  Variety (138)  |  Work (1402)

There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers: when a fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and hold it fast till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but they will close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of rain or a piece of stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its own interest.
In Erewhon: Or Over the Range (1880), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Blossom (22)  |  Curious (95)  |  Drop (77)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flower (112)  |  Fly (153)  |  Food (213)  |  Good (906)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Organic (161)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

There is deposited in them [plants] an enormous quantity of potential energy [Spannkräfte], whose equivalent is provided to us as heat in the burning of plant substances. So far as we know at present, the only living energy [lebendige Kraft] absorbed during plant growth are the chemical rays of sunlight… Animals take up oxygen and complex oxidizable compounds made by plants, release largely as combustion products carbonic acid and water, partly as simpler reduced compounds, thus using a certain amount of chemical potential energy to produce heat and mechanical forces. Since the latter represent a relatively small amount of work in relation to the quantity of heat, the question of the conservation of energy reduces itself roughly to whether the combustion and transformation of the nutritional components yields the same amount of heat released by animals.
Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (1847), 66. Trans. Joseph S. Fruton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Burning (49)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Complex (202)  |  Component (51)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Force (497)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heat (180)  |  Know (1538)  |  Living (492)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Plant (320)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Present (630)  |  Product (166)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (649)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Release (31)  |  Represent (157)  |  Small (489)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Water (503)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

Those who have occasion to enter into the depths of what is oddly, if generously, called the literature of a scientific subject, alone know the difficulty of emerging with an unsoured disposition. The multitudinous facts presented by each corner of Nature form in large part the scientific man's burden to-day, and restrict him more and more, willy-nilly, to a narrower and narrower specialism. But that is not the whole of his burden. Much that he is forced to read consists of records of defective experiments, confused statement of results, wearisome description of detail, and unnecessarily protracted discussion of unnecessary hypotheses. The publication of such matter is a serious injury to the man of science; it absorbs the scanty funds of his libraries, and steals away his poor hours of leisure.
'Physiology, including Experimental Pathology and Experimental Physiology', Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1899, 891-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Burden (30)  |  Call (781)  |  Consist (223)  |  Corner (59)  |  Depth (97)  |  Detail (150)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Fund (19)  |  Generous (17)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Injury (36)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Library (53)  |  Literature (116)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Multitudinous (4)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Poor (139)  |  Present (630)  |  Publication (102)  |  Read (308)  |  Record (161)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Serious (98)  |  Specialty (13)  |  Statement (148)  |  Subject (543)  |  Unnecessary (23)  |  Whole (756)

To eliminate the discrepancy between men's plans and the results achieved, a new approach is necessary. Morphological thinking suggests that this new approach cannot be realized through increased teaching of specialized knowledge. This morphological analysis suggests that the essential fact has been overlooked that every human is potentially a genius. Education and dissemination of knowledge must assume a form which allows each student to absorb whatever develops his own genius, lest he become frustrated. The same outlook applies to the genius of the peoples as a whole.
Halley Lecture for 1948, delivered at Oxford (12 May 1948). In "Morphological Astronomy", The Observatory (1948), 68, 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Approach (112)  |  Become (821)  |  Develop (278)  |  Discrepancy (7)  |  Dissemination (3)  |  Education (423)  |  Elimination (26)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Frustration (14)  |  Genius (301)  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Overlooking (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Potential (75)  |  Realization (44)  |  Result (700)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Student (317)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)

Walking home at night, I shine my flashlight up at the sky. I send billions of ... photons toward space. What is their destination? A tiny fraction will be absorbed by the air. An even smaller fraction will be intercepted by the surface of planets and stars. The vast majority ... will plod on forever. After some thousands of years they will leave our galaxy; after some millions of years they will leave our supercluster. They will wander through an even emptier, even colder realm. The universe is transparent in the direction of the future.
Atoms of Silence
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Billion (104)  |  Billions (7)  |  Cold (115)  |  Destination (16)  |  Direction (185)  |  Empty (82)  |  Forever (111)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Future (467)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Home (184)  |  Intercept (3)  |  Leave (138)  |  Majority (68)  |  Millions (17)  |  Night (133)  |  Photon (11)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plod (3)  |  Realm (87)  |  Send (23)  |  Shine (49)  |  Sky (174)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Toward (45)  |  Transparent (16)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wander (44)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

We must…never be too much absorbed by the thought we are pursuing, nor deceive ourselves about the value of our ideas or scientific theories.
In An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 167, as translated by Henry Copley Greene. From the original French by Claude Bernard: “On ne doit donc jamais être trop absorbé par la pensée qu’on poursuit, ni s’illusionner sur la valeur de ses idées ou de ses théories scientifiques.” (1865), 294.
Science quotes on:  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)

We need to be realistic. There is very little we can do now to stop the ice from disappearing from the North Pole in the Summer. And we probably cannot prevent the melting of the permafrost and the resulting release of methane. In addition, I fear that we may be too late to help the oceans maintain their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. But there is something we can do—and it could make the whole difference and buy us time to develop the necessary low carbon economies. We can halt the destruction of the world’s rainforests—and even restore parts of them—in order to ensure that the forests do what they are so good at—in other words storing carbon naturally. This is a far easier, cheaper and quicker option than imagining we can rely on as yet unproven technology to capture carbon at a cost of some $50 per tonne or, for that matter, imagining we can achieve what is necessary through plantation timber.
Presidential Lecture (3 Nov 2008) at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Indonesia. On the Prince of Wales website.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Absorbing (3)  |  Addition (70)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Cheaper (6)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Cost (94)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  Economy (59)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Fear (212)  |  Forest (161)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Good (906)  |  Halt (10)  |  Ice (58)  |  Late (119)  |  Little (717)  |  Low (86)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Matter (821)  |  Melting (6)  |  Methane (9)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  North Pole (5)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plantation (2)  |  Pole (49)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Realism (7)  |  Release (31)  |  Restore (12)  |  Result (700)  |  Something (718)  |  Stop (89)  |  Storage (6)  |  Summer (56)  |  Technology (281)  |  Through (846)  |  Timber (8)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unproven (5)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me that my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Examine (84)  |  Fantasy (15)  |  Gift (105)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mean (810)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Positive (98)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thought (995)


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.