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: “The Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index O > Category: Oxidation

Oxidation Quotes (8 quotes)

[When combustion occurs,] one body, at least, is oxygenated, and another restored, at the same time, to its combustible state... This view of combustion may serve to show how nature is always the same, and maintains her equilibrium by preserving the same quantities of air and water on the surface of our globe: for as fast as these are consumed in the various processes of combustion, equal quantities are formed, and rise regenerated like the Phoenix from her ashes.
Fulhame believed 'that water was the only source of oxygen, which oxygenates combustible bodies' and that 'the hydrogen of water is the only substance that restores bodies to their combustible state.'
An Essay on Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dyeing and Painting (1794), 179-180. In Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (2000), 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Body (557)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Conservation Of Matter (7)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Redox Reaction (2)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Rise (169)  |  Show (353)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)

Chemistry teaches us to regard under one aspect, as various types of combustion or oxidation, the burning of a candle, the rusting of metals, the physiological process of respiration, and the explosion of gunpowder. In each process there is the one common fact that oxygen enters into new chemical combinations. Similarly to the physicist, the fall of the traditional apple of Newton, the revolution of the earth and planets round the sun, the apparitions of comets, and the ebb and flow of the tides are all phases of the universal law of gravitation. A race ignorant of the nature of combustion or of the law of gravitation, and ignorant of the need of such generalisations, could not be considered to have advanced far along the paths of scientific discovery.
In 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Apple (46)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Burn (99)  |  Candle (32)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Combination (150)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Comet (65)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ebb (4)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flow (89)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Path (159)  |  Phase (37)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Race (278)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rust (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sun (407)  |  Teach (299)  |  Tide (37)  |  Type (171)  |  Various (205)

Combustible bodies do not reduce the metals by giving them phlogiston, as the Phlogistians suppose; nor buy uniting with, and separating their oxygen, as the Anti-phlogistians maintain.
Rejecting older theories of combustion.
Preface to An Essay on Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dyeing and Painting (1794), iv. In Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (2000), 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Combustion (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Metal (88)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Phlogiston (9)  |  Redox Reaction (2)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Suppose (158)

Dissection … teaches us that the body of man is made up of certain kinds of material, so differing from each other in optical and other physical characters and so built up together as to give the body certain structural features. Chemical examination further teaches us that these kinds of material are composed of various chemical substances, a large number of which have this characteristic that they possess a considerable amount of potential energy capable of being set free, rendered actual, by oxidation or some other chemical change. Thus the body as a whole may, from a chemical point of view, be considered as a mass of various chemical substances, representing altogether a considerable capital of potential energy.
From Introduction to A Text Book of Physiology (1876, 1891), Book 1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Altogether (9)  |  Amount (153)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Capable (174)  |  Capital (16)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Compose (20)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Energy (373)  |  Examination (102)  |  Free (239)  |  Kind (564)  |  Large (398)  |  Made (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Material (366)  |  Number (710)  |  Optical (11)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possess (157)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Render (96)  |  Represent (157)  |  Set (400)  |  Structural (29)  |  Substance (253)  |  Together (392)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

It is the destiny of wine to be drunk, and it is the destiny of glucose to be oxidized. But it was not oxidized immediately: its drinker kept it in his liver for more than a week, well curled up and tranquil, as a reserve aliment for a sudden effort; an effort that he was forced to make the following Sunday, pursuing a bolting horse. Farewell to the hexagonal structure: in the space of a few instants the skein was unwound and became glucose again, and this was dragged by the bloodstream all the way to a minute muscle fiber in the thigh, and here brutally split into two molecules of lactic acid, the grim harbinger of fatigue: only later, some minutes after, the panting of the lungs was able to supply the oxygen necessary to quietly oxidize the latter. So a new molecule of carbon dioxide returned to the atmosphere, and a parcel of the energy that the sun had handed to the vine-shoot passed from the state of chemical energy to that of mechanical energy, and thereafter settled down in the slothful condition of heat, warming up imperceptibly the air moved by the running and the blood of the runner. 'Such is life,' although rarely is it described in this manner: an inserting itself, a drawing off to its advantage, a parasitizing of the downward course of energy, from its noble solar form to the degraded one of low-temperature heat. In this downward course, which leads to equilibrium and thus death, life draws a bend and nests in it.
The Periodic Table (1975), trans. Raymond Rosenthal (1984), 192-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Air (366)  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Blood (144)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Energy (3)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Course (413)  |  Death (406)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Drunk (10)  |  Effort (243)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Fiber (16)  |  Form (976)  |  Glucose (2)  |  Heat (180)  |  Horse (78)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Instant (46)  |  Lactic Acid (2)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Liver (22)  |  Low (86)  |  Lung (37)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Minute (129)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nest (26)  |  New (1273)  |  Noble (93)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pass (241)  |  Plant (320)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Return (133)  |  Running (61)  |  Settled (34)  |  Space (523)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supply (100)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Two (936)  |  Warming (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Week (73)  |  Wine (39)

Once the forest has been removed and the swamp starts being drained, that organic matter begins to oxidise and give off continuing emissions. It’s sort of like the goose that keeps on giving.
From interview with Inter Press Service (IPS), with Stephen de Tarczynski, 'Environment—Indonesia: Deforestation Causing More Than Landslides' (9 Mar 2008).
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Drain (12)  |  Emission (20)  |  Forest (161)  |  Giving (11)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Goose (13)  |  Keeping (9)  |  Matter (821)  |  Organic (161)  |  Removal (12)  |  Start (237)  |  Swamp (9)

The energy liberated when substrates undergo air oxidation is not liberated in one large burst, as was once thought, but is released in stepwise fashion. At least six separate steps seem to be involved. The process is not unlike that of locks in a canal. As each lock is passed in the ascent from a lower to a higher level a certain amount of energy is expended. Similarly, the total energy resulting from the oxidation of foodstuffs is released in small units or parcels, step by step. The amount of free energy released at each step is proportional to the difference in potential of the systems comprising the several steps.
'Oxidative Mechanisms in Animal Tissues', A Symposium on Respiratory Enzymes (1942), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Amount (153)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Burst (41)  |  Canal (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Difference (355)  |  Energy (373)  |  Free (239)  |  Involved (90)  |  Large (398)  |  Nutrition (25)  |  Pass (241)  |  Potential (75)  |  Process (439)  |  Separate (151)  |  Small (489)  |  Step (234)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (995)  |  Total (95)

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 Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Food (213)  |  Idea (881)  |  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.