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: “Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Chemical Reaction

Chemical Reaction Quotes (17 quotes)

Die Welt der chemischen Vorgänge gleicht einer Bühne, auf welcher sich in unablässiger Aufeinanderfolge Scene um Scene abspielt. Die handelnden Personen auf ihr sind die Elemente.
The world of chemical reactions is like a stage, on which scene after scene is ceaselessly played. The actors on it are the elements.
Original German quote in Mary Elvira Weeks, The Discovery of the Elements (1934), 2, citing Winkler, 'Ueber die Entdeckung neuer Elemente im Verlaufe der letzten fünfundzwanzig Jahre," Ber. (Jan 1897), 30, 13. Translation in Mary Elvira Weeks and Henry M. Leicester (ed.)The Discovery of the Elements (6th ed. 1956), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Actor (9)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Element (322)  |  Play (116)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Scene (36)  |  Stage (152)  |  World (1850)

A catalyst is a substance which alters the velocity of a chemical reaction without appearing in the final products.
'Über Katalyse', Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie (1901), 7, 995-1004 as quoted in J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. 4 (1901), 599-600.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Final (121)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Product (166)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Substance (253)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Without (13)

An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going. But this should not be taken to imply that there are good reasons to believe that it could not have started on the earth by a perfectly reasonable sequence of fairly ordinary chemical reactions. The plain fact is that the time available was too long, the many microenvironments on the earth’s surface too diverse, the various chemical possibilities too numerous and our own knowledge and imagination too feeble to allow us to be able to unravel exactly how it might or might not have happened such a long time ago, especially as we have no experimental evidence from that era to check our ideas against.
In Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (1981), 88.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Arm (82)  |  Available (80)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Condition (362)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Era (51)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Honest (53)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Moment (260)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Start (237)  |  State (505)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unravel (16)  |  Various (205)

Chemistry is the study of material transformations. Yet a knowledge of the rate, or time dependence, of chemical change is of critical importance for the successful synthesis of new materials and for the utilization of the energy generated by a reaction. During the past century it has become clear that all macroscopic chemical processes consist of many elementary chemical reactions that are themselves simply a series of encounters between atomic or molecular species. In order to understand the time dependence of chemical reactions, chemical kineticists have traditionally focused on sorting out all of the elementary chemical reactions involved in a macroscopic chemical process and determining their respective rates.
'Molecular Beam Studies of Elementary Chemical Processes', Nobel Lecture, 8 Dec 1986. In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1981-1990 (1992), 320.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Consist (223)  |  Critical (73)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Energy (373)  |  Focus (36)  |  Importance (299)  |  Involved (90)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Past (355)  |  Process (439)  |  Rate (31)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Series (153)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Successful (134)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Understand (648)  |  Utilization (16)

Every breath you draw, every accelerated beat of your heart in the emotional periods of your oratory depend upon highly elaborated physical and chemical reactions and mechanisms which nature has been building up through a million centuries. If one of these mechanisms, which you owe entirely to your animal ancestry, were to be stopped for a single instant, you would fall lifeless on the stage. Not only this, but some of your highest ideals of human fellowship and comradeship were not created in a moment, but represent the work of ages.
Quoted in Closing Address by Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, president of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, at the Memorial Service for Osborn at St. Bartholomew's Church, N.Y. (18 Dec 1935). In 'Henry Fairfield Osborn', Supplement to Natural History (Feb 1936), 37:2, 133-34. Bound in Kofoid Collection of Pamphlets on Biography, University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beat (42)  |  Breath (61)  |  William Jennings Bryan (20)  |  Building (158)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Deaf (4)  |  Depend (238)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drowning (2)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elaborated (7)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fall (243)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Instant (46)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Moment (260)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Owe (71)  |  Period (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Represent (157)  |  Single (365)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Speech (66)  |  Stage (152)  |  Through (846)  |  Voice (54)  |  Work (1402)

Genes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of chemical processes. Genes do not make ‘novelty seeking’ or any other complex and overt behavior. Predisposition via a long chain of complex chemical reactions, mediated through a more complex series of life’s circumstances, does not equal identification or even causation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behavior (95)  |  Causation (14)  |  Chain (51)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Complex (202)  |  Control (182)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Equal (88)  |  Gene (105)  |  Identification (20)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Mediate (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Process (439)  |  Rate (31)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Seek (218)  |  Series (153)  |  Through (846)

I would like to start by emphasizing the importance of surfaces. It is at a surface where many of our most interesting and useful phenomena occur. We live for example on the surface of a planet. It is at a surface where the catalysis of chemical reactions occur. It is essentially at a surface of a plant that sunlight is converted to a sugar. In electronics, most if not all active circuit elements involve non-equilibrium phenomena occurring at surfaces. Much of biology is concerned with reactions at a surface.
'Surface properties of semiconductors', Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1956). In Nobel Lectures, Physics 1942-1962 (1967), 377.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Biology (232)  |  Catalysis (7)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Concern (239)  |  Electronics (21)  |  Element (322)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Involve (93)  |  Live (650)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occur (151)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Start (237)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Surface (223)  |  Useful (260)

Incandescent carbon particles, by the tens of millions, leap free of the log and wave like banners, as flame. Several hundred significantly different chemical reactions are now going on. For example, a carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, coming out of the breaking cellulose, may lock together and form methane, natural gas. The methane, burning (combining with oxygen), turns into carbon dioxide and water, which also go up the flue. If two carbon atoms happen to come out of the wood with six hydrogen atoms, they are, agglomerately, ethane, which bums to become, also, carbon dioxide and water. Three carbons and eight hydrogens form propane, and propane is there, too, in the fire. Four carbons and ten hydrogens—butane. Five carbons … pentane. Six … hexane. Seven … heptane. Eight carbons and eighteen hydrogens—octane. All these compounds come away in the breaking of the cellulose molecule, and burn, and go up the chimney as carbon dioxide and water. Pentane, hexane, heptane, and octane have a collective name. Logs burning in a fireplace are making and burning gasoline.
In 'Firewood', Pieces of the Frame (1975), 205-206.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Banner (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Bum (3)  |  Burn (99)  |  Burning (49)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Cellulose (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chimney (4)  |  Collective (24)  |  Combine (58)  |  Coming (114)  |  Compound (117)  |  Different (595)  |  Example (98)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fireplace (3)  |  Five (16)  |  Flame (44)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gasoline (4)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Incandescent (7)  |  Leap (57)  |  Lock (14)  |  Log (7)  |  Making (300)  |  Methane (9)  |  Millions (17)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Gas (2)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Particle (200)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Several (33)  |  Significantly (2)  |  Tens (3)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wood (97)

It was obvious—to me at any rate—that the answer was to why an enzyme is able to speed up a chemical reaction by as much as 10 million times. It had to do this by lowering the energy of activation—the energy of forming the activated complex. It could do this by forming strong bonds with the activated complex, but only weak bonds with the reactants or products.
Quoted In Thomas Hager, Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling (1995), 284.
Science quotes on:  |  Activation (6)  |  Answer (389)  |  Bond (46)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complex (202)  |  Do (1905)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Formation (100)  |  Forming (42)  |  Lowering (4)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Product (166)  |  Reactant (2)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Speed (66)  |  Strong (182)  |  Time (1911)  |  Weak (73)  |  Why (491)

Narration by flashback is now used by almost all novelists… The method of the sleuth does have some relation to contemporary science as well as to art. One of the procedures in modern chemical research, for example, is to take a compound or a chemical reaction and then to work backwards from that to the formula which will produce that compound or reaction.
In The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1967), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Backward (10)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Formula (102)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Novelist (9)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Produce (117)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Relation (166)  |  Research (753)  |  Science (39)  |  Work (1402)

Scheele, it was said, never forgot anything if it had to do with chemistry. He never forgot the look, the feel, the smell of a substance, or the way it was transformed in chemical reactions, never forgot anything he read, or was told, about the phenomena of chemistry. He seemed indifferent, or inattentive, to most things else, being wholly dedicated to his single passion, chemistry. It was this pure and passionate absorption in phenomena—noticing everything, forgetting nothing—that constituted Scheele's special strength.
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorption (13)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Feel (371)  |  Look (584)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Passion (121)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Read (308)  |  Single (365)  |  Smell (29)  |  Special (188)  |  Strength (139)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transform (74)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)

Since it is proposed to regard chemical reactions as electrical transactions in which reagents act by reason of a constitutional affinity either for electrons or for atomic nuclei, it is important to be able to recognize which type of reactivity any given reagent exhibits.
'Principles of an Electronic Theory of Organic Reactions', Chemical Reviews (1934), 15, 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Affinity (27)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electron (96)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Regard (312)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Type (171)

So many of the chemical reactions occurring in living systems have been shown to be catalytic processes occurring isothermally on the surface of specific proteins, referred to as enzymes, that it seems fairly safe to assume that all are of this nature and that the proteins are the necessary basis for carrying out the processes that we call life.
In 'The Physical Basis of Life', (1951), 39. As given in Andrew Brown, J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science (2005), 359.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Call (781)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Process (439)  |  Protein (56)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Safe (61)  |  Specific (98)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)

The cell, too, has a geography, and its reactions occur in colloidal apparatus, of which the form, and the catalytic activity of its manifold surfaces, must efficiently contribute to the due guidance of chemical reactions.
'Some Aspects of Biochemistry', The Irish Journal of Medical Science (1932), 79, 344.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Colloid (5)  |  Due (143)  |  Form (976)  |  Geography (39)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occur (151)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Surface (223)

The chemists who uphold dualism are far from being agreed among themselves; nevertheless, all of them in maintaining their opinion, rely upon the phenomena of chemical reactions. For a long time the uncertainty of this method has been pointed out: it has been shown repeatedly, that the atoms put into movement during a reaction take at that time a new arrangement, and that it is impossible to deduce the old arrangement from the new one. It is as if, in the middle of a game of chess, after the disarrangement of all the pieces, one of the players should wish, from the inspection of the new place occupied by each piece, to determine that which it originally occupied.
Chemical Method (1855), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chess (27)  |  Determine (152)  |  Dualism (4)  |  Game (104)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (531)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  New (1273)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Wish (216)

Their specific effect on the glucosides might thus be explained by assuming that the intimate contact between the molecules necessary for the release of the chemical reaction is possible only with similar geometrical configurations. To give an illustration I will say that enzyme and glucoside must fit together like lock and key in order to be able to exercise a chemical action on each other. This concept has undoubtedly gained in probability and value for stereochemical research, after the phenomenon itself was transferred from the biological to the purely chemical field. It is an extension of the theory of asymmetry without being a direct consequence of it: for the conviction that the geometrical structure of the molecule even for optical isomers exercises such a great influence on the chemical affinities, in my opinion could only be gained by new actual observations.
'Einfluss der Configuration auf die wirkung der Enzyme', Berichte der deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 1894, 27, 2985-93. Trans. B. Holmstedt and G. Liljestrand (eds.) Readings in Pharmacology (1963), 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Actual (118)  |  Asymmetry (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contact (66)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Direct (228)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Influence (231)  |  Isomer (6)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Optical (11)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Probability (135)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Release (31)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Specific (98)  |  Stereochemistry (2)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

Without some idea of oxidation processes, of the chemical structure of food, and of the chemical reactions in digestion, visceral behavior is a blank. And without some understanding of visceral behavior, psychic behavior is up in the air.
From Why We Behave Like Human Beings (1925), xiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Blank (14)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Food (213)  |  Idea (881)  |  Oxidation (8)  |  Process (439)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Structure (365)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Visceral (3)


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.