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 path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it... That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That�s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Station

Station Quotes (30 quotes)

A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, in metals, and in lifesaving medicines which could be manufactured only in space.
From State of the Union Address (25 Jan 1984).
Science quotes on:  |  Communication (101)  |  Leap (57)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Metal (88)  |  Permit (61)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Research (753)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)  |  Will (2350)

America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.
From State of the Union Address (25 Jan 1984).
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Dare (55)  |  Decade (66)  |  Develop (278)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distant (33)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Economic (84)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  NASA (12)  |  Peaceful (6)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Reach (286)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tonight (9)  |  United States (31)  |  Work (1402)

An example of such emergent phenomena is the origin of life from non-living chemical compounds in the oldest, lifeless oceans of the earth. Here, aided by the radiation energy received from the sun, countless chemical materials were synthesized and accumulated in such a way that they constituted, as it were, a primeval “soup.” In this primeval soup, by infinite variations of lifeless growth and decay of substances during some billions of years, the way of life was ultimately reached, with its metabolism characterized by selective assimilation and dissimilation as end stations of a sluiced and canalized flow of free chemical energy.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 458.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Aid (101)  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Billion (104)  |  Canal (18)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Energy (3)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Countless (39)  |  Decay (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emergent (3)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Flow (89)  |  Free (239)  |  Growth (200)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Non-Living (3)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reach (286)  |  Selective (21)  |  Sluice (2)  |  Soup (10)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sun (407)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Variation (93)  |  Way (1214)  |  Way Of Life (15)  |  Year (963)

As regards railways, it is certain that nothing is so profitable, because nothing is so cheaply transported, as passenger traffic. Goods traffic, of whatsoever description, must be more or less costly. Every article conveyed by railway requires handling and conveyance beyond the limit of the railway stations; but passengers take care of themselves, and find their own way.
From 'Railway System and its Results' (Jan 1856) read to the Institution of Civil Engineers, reprinted in Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1857), 520.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Care (203)  |  Certain (557)  |  Cheap (13)  |  Convey (17)  |  Conveyance (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Goods (9)  |  Handling (7)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Passenger (10)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Require (229)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Transport (31)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatsoever (41)

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  41.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Brain (281)  |  Care (203)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exemption (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Honor (57)  |  Humour (116)  |  Man (2252)  |  Office (71)  |  Pitchfork (2)  |  Reward (72)  |  Something (718)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wealth (100)

By destroying the biological character of phenomena, the use of averages in physiology and medicine usually gives only apparent accuracy to the results. From our point of view, we may distinguish between several kinds of averages: physical averages, chemical averages and physiological and pathological averages. If, for instance, we observe the number of pulsations and the degree of blood pressure by means of the oscillations of a manometer throughout one day, and if we take the average of all our figures to get the true or average blood pressure and to learn the true or average number of pulsations, we shall simply have wrong numbers. In fact, the pulse decreases in number and intensity when we are fasting and increases during digestion or under different influences of movement and rest; all the biological characteristics of the phenomenon disappear in the average. Chemical averages are also often used. If we collect a man's urine during twenty-four hours and mix all this urine to analyze the average, we get an analysis of a urine which simply does not exist; for urine, when fasting, is different from urine during digestion. A startling instance of this kind was invented by a physiologist who took urine from a railroad station urinal where people of all nations passed, and who believed he could thus present an analysis of average European urine! Aside from physical and chemical, there are physiological averages, or what we might call average descriptions of phenomena, which are even more false. Let me assume that a physician collects a great many individual observations of a disease and that he makes an average description of symptoms observed in the individual cases; he will thus have a description that will never be matched in nature. So in physiology, we must never make average descriptions of experiments, because the true relations of phenomena disappear in the average; when dealing with complex and variable experiments, we must study their various circumstances, and then present our most perfect experiment as a type, which, however, still stands for true facts. In the cases just considered, averages must therefore be rejected, because they confuse, while aiming to unify, and distort while aiming to simplify. Averages are applicable only to reducing very slightly varying numerical data about clearly defined and absolutely simple cases.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 134-135.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Average (89)  |  Biological (137)  |  Blood (144)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consider (428)  |  Data (162)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distort (22)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fasting (3)  |  Figure (162)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hour (192)  |  Increase (225)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Kind (564)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pathological (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Present (630)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplify (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Startling (15)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Type (171)  |  Unify (7)  |  Urine (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Variable (37)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
In 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' (8 Feb 1996). Published on Electronic Frontier Foundation website. Reproduced in Lawrence Lessig, Code: Version 2.0) (2008), 303.
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Array (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cyberspace (3)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enter (145)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Express (192)  |  Fear (212)  |  Force (497)  |  Live (650)  |  Matter (821)  |  Military (45)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Race (278)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Silence (62)  |  Singular (24)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Wave (112)  |  Web (17)  |  World (1850)

Firefly meteorites blazed against a dark background, and sometimes the lightning was frighteningly brilliant. Like a boy, I gazed open-mouthed at the fireworks, and suddenly, before my eyes, something magical occurred. A greenish radiance poured from Earth directly up to the station, a radiance resembling gigantic phosphorescent organ pipes, whose ends were glowing crimson, and overlapped by waves of swirling green mist.
“Consider yourself very lucky, Vladimir,” I said to myself, “to have watched the northern lights.”
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Background (44)  |  Blaze (14)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crimson (4)  |  Dark (145)  |  Directly (25)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Firefly (8)  |  Firework (2)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Glow (15)  |  Green (65)  |  Light (635)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Magic (92)  |  Meteorite (9)  |  Mist (17)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Myself (211)  |  Northern Lights (2)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Organ (118)  |  Overlap (9)  |  Phosphorescent (3)  |  Pipe (7)  |  Pour (9)  |  Radiance (7)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Swirl (10)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wave (112)

I find it sad, but all too human, that there are vast bureaucracies concerned about nuclear waste, huge organizations devoted to decommissioning nuclear power stations, but nothing comparable to deal with that truly malign waste, carbon dioxide.
In The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity (2006, 2007), 117-118.
Science quotes on:  |  Bureaucracy (8)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Comparable (7)  |  Concern (239)  |  Devote (45)  |  Huge (30)  |  Human (1512)  |  Malign (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nuclear Power (16)  |  Nuclear Waste (4)  |  Organization (120)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Truly (118)  |  Vast (188)  |  Waste (109)

I think if we had not repaired the telescope, it would have been the end of the space station, because space station requires a huge number of space walks. I think it was fair to use the Hubble space telescope as a test case for space walks, to say, “Can NASA really do what they say they can do up there?”
Interview (22 May 1997). On Academy of Achievement website.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Hubble Space Telescope (9)  |  NASA (12)  |  Number (710)  |  Repair (11)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (989)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Walk (138)

If a train station is where the train stops, what is a work station?
Anonymous
In Andrew Davison, Humour the Computer (1995), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Computer (131)  |  Quip (81)  |  Train (118)  |  Work (1402)

It is well known that theoretical physicists cannot handle experimental equipment; it breaks whenever they touch it. Pauli was such a good theoretical physicist that something usually broke in the lab whenever he merely stepped across the threshold. A mysterious event that did not seem at first to be connected with Pauli's presence once occurred in Professor J. Franck's laboratory in Göttingen. Early one afternoon, without apparent cause, a complicated apparatus for the study of atomic phenomena collapsed. Franck wrote humorously about this to Pauli at his Zürich address and, after some delay, received an answer in an envelope with a Danish stamp. Pauli wrote that he had gone to visit Bohr and at the time of the mishap in Franck's laboratory his train was stopped for a few minutes at the Göttingen railroad station. You may believe this anecdote or not, but there are many other observations concerning the reality of the Pauli Effect!
From Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory (1966), 64. Note the so-called Pauli Effect is merely anecdotal to provide humor about supposed parapsychology phenomena in coincidences involving Pauli; it should not be confused with scientifically significant Pauli Exclusion Principle.
Science quotes on:  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Atom (381)  |  Belief (615)  |  Break (109)  |  Cause (561)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Delay (21)  |  Early (196)  |  Effect (414)  |  Envelope (6)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Event (222)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  First (1302)  |  James Franck (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Handle (29)  |  Humor (10)  |  Known (453)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Merely (315)  |  Minute (129)  |  Mishap (2)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Wolfgang Pauli (16)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Presence (63)  |  Professor (133)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Reality (274)  |  Something (718)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Step (234)  |  Stopped (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Threshold (11)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Train (118)  |  Usually (176)  |  Visit (27)  |  Whenever (81)

It seems to me that it had no other rationale than to show that we are not simply the country of entertainers, but also that of engineers and builders called from across the world to build bridges, viaducts, stations and major monuments of modern industry, the Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with more consideration.
English version by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “Il me semble que, n’eût elle pas d’autre raison d’être que de montrer que nous ne sommes pas simplement le pays des amuseurs, mais aussi celui des ingénieurs et des constructeurs qu’on appelle de toutes les régions du monde pour édifier les ponts, les viaducs, les gares et les grands monuments de l’industrie moderne, la Tour Eiffel mériterait d’être traitée avec plus de consideration.” From interview of Eiffel by Paul Bourde, in the newspaper Le Temps (14 Feb 1887). Reprinted in 'Au Jour le Jour: Les Artistes Contre la Tour Eiffel', Gazette Anecdotique, Littéraire, Artistique et Bibliographique (Feb 1887), 126-127, and in Gustave Eiffel, Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 16. Also quoted in review of the Gustave Eiffel’s book La Tour Eiffel (1902), in Nature (30 Jan 1902), 65, 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineer (136)  |  France (29)  |  Industry (159)  |  Major (88)  |  Modern (402)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Show (353)  |  Tower (45)  |  World (1850)

It still fascinates me to think that here in this room you have radio signals from stations all over the world going through, and we can stick up an antenna and receive them.
Recalling how his lifelong “natural interest in how things work” began as a youth, which included such activities as building a Tesla coil and assembling crystal radios. In interview, Rushworth M. Kidder, 'Grounded in Space Science', Christian Science Monitor (22 Dec 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  Antenna (5)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Radio (60)  |  Receive (117)  |  Room (42)  |  Signal (29)  |  Stick (27)  |  Still (614)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  World (1850)

Magnitude may be compared to the power output in kilowatts of a [radio] broadcasting station; local intensity, on the Mercalli or similar scale, is then comparable to the signal strength noted on a receiver at a given locality. Intensity, like signal strength, will generally fall off with distance from the source; it will also depend on local conditions at the point of observation, and to some extent on the conditions along the path from source to that point.
From interview in the Earthquake Information Bulletin (Jul-Aug 1971), 3, No. 4, as abridged in article on USGS website.
Science quotes on:  |  Comparable (7)  |  Compare (76)  |  Condition (362)  |  Depend (238)  |  Distance (171)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fall (243)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Kilowatt (2)  |  Local (25)  |  Locality (8)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Observation (593)  |  Output (12)  |  Path (159)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Radio (60)  |  Receiver (5)  |  Scale (122)  |  Signal (29)  |  Source (101)  |  Strength (139)  |  Will (2350)

Once the hatch was opened, I turned the lock handle and bright rays of sunlight burst through it. I opened the hatch and dust from the station flew in like little sparklets, looking like tiny snowflakes on a frosty day. Space, like a giant vacuum cleaner, began to suck everything out. Flying out together with the dust were some little washers and nuts that dad got stuck somewhere; a pencil flew by.
My first impression when I opened the hatch was of a huge Earth and of the sense of unreality concerning everything that was going on. Space is very beautiful. There was the dark velvet of the sky, the blue halo of the Earth and fast-moving lakes, rivers, fields and clouds clusters. It was dead silence all around, nothing whatever to indicate the velocity of the flight… no wind whistling in your ears, no pressure on you. The panorama was very serene and majestic.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bright (81)  |  Burst (41)  |  Clean (52)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Concern (239)  |  Dad (4)  |  Dark (145)  |  Dead (65)  |  Dust (68)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Frosty (3)  |  Giant (73)  |  Halo (7)  |  Handle (29)  |  Hatch (4)  |  Huge (30)  |  Impression (118)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Lake (36)  |  Little (717)  |  Lock (14)  |  Looking (191)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nut (7)  |  Open (277)  |  Panorama (5)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Ray (115)  |  River (140)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serene (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Sky (174)  |  Snowflake (15)  |  Space (523)  |  Stick (27)  |  Suck (8)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unreality (3)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Velvet (4)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whistle (3)  |  Wind (141)

Science and politics become the hobby of, and are cherished only by, the elect few; but religion becomes, through education, the property of all, without reference to station, age, and sex.
From an essay, reprinted as 'The Elect People' in Rev. W. Ayerst The Jews of the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Essays, Reviews and Historical Notices, Originally Published in the “Jewish Intelligence” (1848) 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Become (821)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Cherished (2)  |  Education (423)  |  Elect (5)  |  Hobby (14)  |  Politics (122)  |  Property (177)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sex (68)  |  Through (846)

Science is dangerous. There is no question but that poison gas, genetic engineering, and nuclear weapons and power stations are terrifying. It may be that civilization is falling apart and the world we know is coming to an end. In that case, why no turn to religion and look forward to the Day of Judgment, ... [being] lifted into eternal bliss ... [and] watching the scoffers and disbelievers writhe forever in torment.
The 'Threat' of Creationism. In Ashley Montagu (ed.), Science and Creationism (1984), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Coming (114)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  End (603)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Fear (212)  |  Forever (111)  |  Forward (104)  |  Gas (89)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetic Engineering (16)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lift (57)  |  Look (584)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Power (16)  |  Nuclear Weapon (17)  |  Nuclear Weapons (2)  |  Poison (46)  |  Power (771)  |  Question (649)  |  Religion (369)  |  Torment (18)  |  Turn (454)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

Sir Edward has calculated that quick-growing Indian eucalyptus trees have a yield of nine and one-quarter tons of wood an acre a year. As the wood contains 0.8 per cent of the solar energy reaching the ground in the tropics in the form of heat, Sir Edward has suggested that in theory eucalyptus forests could provide a perpetual source of fuel. He has said that by rotational tree planting and felling, a forest of twenty kilometers square would enable a wood consuming power station to provide 10,000 kilowatts of power.
In 'British Hope to Use Green Trees of Jungles As Source of Power for New Steam Engine,' New York Times (27 Jun 1953), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acre (13)  |  Enable (122)  |  Energy (373)  |  Forest (161)  |  Form (976)  |  Ground (222)  |  Growing (99)  |  Heat (180)  |  Indian (32)  |  Kilometer (10)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Power (771)  |  Renewable Energy (15)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Square (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Ton (25)  |  Tree (269)  |  Wood (97)  |  Year (963)  |  Yield (86)

The crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honour without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proved honour, rectitude, and consistency—qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.
In Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859, 1861), 396.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Command (60)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Crown (39)  |  Estate (5)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fame (51)  |  General (521)  |  Glory (66)  |  Goodwill (6)  |  Greater (288)  |  Honour (58)  |  Influence (231)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Noble (93)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Rank (69)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Society (350)  |  Tell (344)  |  Wealth (100)

The Mecca of the biological world.
Describing the Naples Biological Station, one of the world’s leading marine laboratories in the world.
The Biological Stations of Europe (1910), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Prestige (16)  |  World (1850)

The relative importance of the white and gray matter is often misunderstood. Were it not for the manifold connection of the nerve cells in the cortex by the tens of millions of fibres which make up the under-estimated white matter, such a brain would be useless as a telephone or telegraph station with all the interconnecting wires destroyed.
Address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia (28 Dec 1904), as quoted in 'Americans of Future Will Have Best Brains', New York Times (29 Dec 1904), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Cell (146)  |  Connection (171)  |  Cortex (3)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Fibre (6)  |  Importance (299)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Telephone (31)  |  White (132)  |  Wire (36)

The theory here developed is that mega-evolution normally occurs among small populations that become preadaptive and evolve continuously (without saltation, but at exceptionally rapid rates) to radically different ecological positions. The typical pattern involved is probably this: A large population is fragmented into numerous small isolated lines of descent. Within these, inadaptive differentiation and random fixation of mutations occur. Among many such inadaptive lines one or a few are preadaptive, i.e., some of their characters tend to fit them for available ecological stations quite different from those occupied by their immediate ancestors. Such groups are subjected to strong selection pressure and evolve rapidly in the further direction of adaptation to the new status. The very few lines that successfully achieve this perfected adaptation then become abundant and expand widely, at the same time becoming differentiated and specialized on lower levels within the broad new ecological zone.
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Abundant (23)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Available (80)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Character (259)  |  Descent (30)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Direction (185)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Group (83)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Involved (90)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Large (398)  |  Level (69)  |  Mutation (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Population (115)  |  Position (83)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Probability (135)  |  Radically (5)  |  Random (42)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Selection (130)  |  Small (489)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Status (35)  |  Strong (182)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Typical (16)  |  Zone (5)

This [the opening of the Vatican City radio station built by Marconi earlier in 1931] was a new demonstration of the harmony between science and religion that each fresh conquest of science ever more luminously confirms, so that one may say that those who speak of the incompatibility of science and religion either make science say that which it never said or make religion say that which it never taught.
Address to Pontifical Academy of Sciences (20 Dec 1931).In Associated Press, 'Pope Sees Harmony in Faith and Science', New York Times (21 Dec 1931), p.9. The pontiff said the opening of the radio station was “crowned by the publication of a radiophonic newspaper.”
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Incompatibility (3)  |  Luminous (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Radio (60)  |  Religion (369)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Vatican (3)

This new power, which has proved itself to be such a terrifying weapon of destruction, is harnessed for the first time for the common good of our community. [Upon opening Calder Hall nuclear power station in 1956.]
Speech, reproduced in Nuclear Power: The Journal of British Nuclear Engineering (1956), Vol. 1, 274.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  First Time (14)  |  Good (906)  |  Harness (25)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Power (16)  |  Power (771)  |  Terror (32)  |  Time (1911)  |  Weapon (98)

Three thousand stadia from the earth to the moon,—the first station. From thence to the sun about five hundred parasangs. ... Marvel not, my comrade, if I appear talking to you on super-terrestrial and aerial topics. The long and the short of the matter is that I am running over the order of a Journey I have lately made. ... I have travelled in the stars.
One of the earliest examples of what might be regarded as science fiction.
Icaromennipus, or the Aerial Jaunt in Ainsworth Rand Spofford (ed.), Rufus Edmonds Shapley (ed.) The Library of Wit and Humor, Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Literature of all Times and Nations (1894), vol. 4, 282-283. A shortened quote is on the title page of H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon (1901).
Science quotes on:  |  Aerial (11)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Journey (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moon (252)  |  Order (638)  |  Regard (312)  |  Running (61)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Short (200)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Talking (76)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Topic (23)

To take one of the simplest cases of the dissipation of energy, the conduction of heat through a solid—consider a bar of metal warmer at one end than the other and left to itself. To avoid all needless complication, of taking loss or gain of heat into account, imagine the bar to be varnished with a substance impermeable to heat. For the sake of definiteness, imagine the bar to be first given with one half of it at one uniform temperature, and the other half of it at another uniform temperature. Instantly a diffusing of heat commences, and the distribution of temperature becomes continuously less and less unequal, tending to perfect uniformity, but never in any finite time attaining perfectly to this ultimate condition. This process of diffusion could be perfectly prevented by an army of Maxwell’s ‘intelligent demons’* stationed at the surface, or interface as we may call it with Prof. James Thomson, separating the hot from the cold part of the bar.
* The definition of a ‘demon’, according to the use of this word by Maxwell, is an intelligent being endowed with free will, and fine enough tactile and perceptive organisation to give him the faculty of observing and influencing individual molecules of matter.
In 'The Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy', Nature (1874), 9, 442.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Account (195)  |  Army (35)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complication (30)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conduction (8)  |  Consider (428)  |  Definition (238)  |  Diffusion (13)  |  Distribution (51)  |  End (603)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enough (341)  |  Finite (60)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |  Free Will (15)  |  Gain (146)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Loss (117)  |  Matter (821)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Metal (88)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceptive (3)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Process (439)  |  Sake (61)  |  Solid (119)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unequal (12)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Use (771)  |  Varnish (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a “space station” in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945)
In 'Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Coverage?', Wireless World (Oct 1945). Quoted and cited in Arthur C. Clarke, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998, 22. Also quoted in 'Hazards of Communication Satellites', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1961), Vol. 17, No. 5, 181, by John R. Pierce Pierce, who then commented, “Clarke thought in terms of manned space stations; today these seem very remote.”
Science quotes on:  |  Comfort (64)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Crew (10)  |  Everything (489)  |  Ferry (4)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Provision (17)  |  Regular (48)  |  Relief (30)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Service (110)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)

We may produce at will, from a sending station. an electrical effect in any particular region of the globe; we may determine the relative position or course of a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the distance traversed by the same, or its speed.
In 'The Problem of Increasing Human Energy', Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (Jun 1900), 60, 208-209.
Science quotes on:  |  Course (413)  |  Determine (152)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Object (438)  |  Position (83)  |  Radar (9)  |  Sea (326)  |  Speed (66)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Will (2350)

When [Erwin Schrödinger] went to the Solvay conferences in Brussels, he would walk from the station to the hotel where the delegates stayed, carrying all his luggage in a rucksack and looking so like a tramp that it needed a great deal of argument at the reception desk before he could claim a room.
Quoted in Robert L. Weber, Pioneers of Science: Nobel Prize Winners in Physics (1980), 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Biography (254)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conference (18)  |  Deal (192)  |  Delegate (3)  |  Desk (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hotel (2)  |  Looking (191)  |  Luggage (5)  |  Reception (16)  |  Room (42)  |  Rucksack (3)  |  Erwin Schrödinger (68)  |  Walk (138)


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.