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Lewis Thomas

(25 Nov 1913 - 3 Dec 1993)

American physician and author best known for his reflective essays on a wide range of topics in biology.

Mistakes are at the very base of human thought feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack of being wrong, we could never get anything useful done.

— Lewis Thomas

In The Medusa and the Snail (1979), 37.

The body of science is not, as it is sometimes thought, a huge coherent mass of facts, neatly arranged in sequence, each one attached to the next by a logical string. In truth, whenever we discover a new fact it involves the elimination of old ones. We are always, as it turns out, fundamentally in error.

— Lewis Thomas

In 'On Science and Certainty', Discover Magazine (Oct 1980)

Lewis Thomas quote: The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still b

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The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.

— Lewis Thomas

In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1979), 28.

We are built to make mistakes, coded for error.

— Lewis Thomas

In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1995), 38.

Science quotes on: | Error (339) | Mistake (180)

Lewis Thomas quote: Chemical waste products are the droppings of science.

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Lewis Thomas quote: Ants are more like the parts of an animal than entities on their own. They are mobile cells,

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See also:

25 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Thomas's birth.
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, by Lewis Thomas. - book suggestion.
Booklist for Lewis Thomas.

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

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