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Frederick Seitz
(4 Jul 1911 - 2 Mar 2008)
American physicist who was a pioneer in solid state physics
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Science Quotes by Frederick Seitz (7 quotes)
Interviewer: Is there any science that’s not wrapped in politics?
Seitz: Oh, there are some things. The disappearance of the frog—as you know, the frog is dying worldwide. … I don’t think that has had any political repercussions other than the fact that that is happening.
Seitz: Oh, there are some things. The disappearance of the frog—as you know, the frog is dying worldwide. … I don’t think that has had any political repercussions other than the fact that that is happening.
— Frederick Seitz
Interview transcript on PBS Frontline website (24 Apr 2007). Seitz was a leading skeptic, dismissive of climate change.
A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.
— Frederick Seitz
Quoted in James B. Simpson (ed.), Webster’s II New Riverside Desk Quotations (1992), 158; citing Fortune (Apr 1976).
Darwin recognized that thus far the civilization of mankind has passed through four successive stages of evolution, namely, those based on the use of fire, the development of agriculture, the development of urban life and the use of basic science for technological advancement.
— Frederick Seitz
In The Science Matrix: The Journey, Travails, Triumphs (1992, 2012), 86.
Essentially all civilizations that rose to the level of possessing an urban culture had need for two forms of science-related technology, namely, mathematics for land measurements and commerce and astronomy for time-keeping in agriculture and aspects of religious rituals.
— Frederick Seitz
From The Science Matrix: The Journey, Travails, Triumphs (1992, 1998), Preface, x.
Individual curiosity, often working without practical ends in mind, has always been a driving force for innovation.
— Frederick Seitz
From The Science Matrix: The Journey, Travails, Triumphs (1992, 1998), 39.
It required unusual inquisitiveness to pursue the development of scientific curiosities such as charged pith balls, the voltaic cell, and the electrostatic machine. Without such endeavors and the evolution of associated instrumentation, initially of purely scientific interest, most of the investigations that lead to the basic equations of electromagnetism would have been missed. … We would have been deprived of electromagnetic machinery as well as knowledge of electromagnetic waves.
— Frederick Seitz
From The Science Matrix: The Journey, Travails, Triumphs (1992, 1998), 14.
Things that people learn purely out of curiosity can have a revolutionary effect on human affairs.
— Frederick Seitz
From interview (3 Sep 1997), published on George C. Marshall Institute web site
See also:
- 4 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Seitz's birth.
- Frederick Seitz - context of quote “Individual curiosity…for innovation” - Medium image (500 x 250 px)
- Frederick Seitz - context of quote “Individual curiosity…for innovation” - Large image (800 x 400 px)
- On the Frontier: My Life in Science, by Frederick Seitz. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Frederick Seitz.
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) -- 
