Fantastically quotable scientists on science:
It is strange that only extraordinary men make the discoveries, which later appear so easy and simple.
Georg C. Lichtenberg, 1742 to 1799
Physicist
Actually, everything that can be known has a Number; for it is impossible to grasp anything with the mind or to recognize it without this.
Philolaus, c. 470 – c. 385 BC
Scientist and Philosopher
God created two acts of folly. First, He created the Universe in a Big Bang. Second, He was negligent enough to leave behind evidence for this act, in the form of microwave radiation.
Paul Erdős, 1913 to 1996
Mathematician
Progress is made by trial and failure; the failures are generally a hundred times more numerous than the successes ; yet they are usually left unchronicled.
William Ramsay, 1852 to 1916
Chemist
Although Nature needs thousands or millions of years to create a new species, man needs only a few dozen years to destroy one.
Victor Scheffer, 1906 to 2011
Biologist
There may be babblers, wholly ignorant of mathematics, who dare to condemn my hypothesis, upon the authority of some part of the Bible twisted to suit their purpose. I value them not, and scorn their unfounded judgment.
Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473 – 1543
Astronomer, Mathematician
If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.
Ernest Rutherford, 1871 to 1937
Physicist
By ‘life,’ we mean a thing that can nourish itself and grow and decay.
Aristotle, 384 BC to 322 BC
Scientist, Philosopher
A physicist is an atom’s way of knowing about atoms.
George Wald, 1906 to 1997
Neurobiologist
Did the genome of our cave-dwelling predecessors contain a set or sets of genes which enable modern man to compose music of infinite complexity and write novels with profound meaning? …It looks as though the early Homo was already provided with the intellectual potential which was in great excess of what was needed to cope with the environment of his time.”
Susumu Ohno, 1928 to 2000
Geneticist
An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature’s answer.
Max Planck, 1858 to 1947
Theoretical Physicist
A fact acquires its true and full value only through the idea which is developed from it.
Justus von Liebig, 1803 to 1873
Chemist
There is no law except the law that there is no law.
John Archibald Wheeler, 1911 to 2008
Theoretical Physicist
Falsity in intellectual action is intellectual immorality.
Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, 1843 to 1928
Geologist
Outstanding examples of genius – a Mozart, a Shakespeare, or a Carl Friedrich Gauss – are markers on the path along which our species appears destined to tread.
Fred Hoyle, 1915 to 2001
Astrophysicist
It does not help that some politicians and journalists assume the public is interested only in those aspects of science that promise immediate practical applications to technology or medicine.
Steven Weinberg, 1933 to present
Theoretical Physicist
Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than the classics.
J. B. S. Haldane, 1892 to 1964
Biologist
Valid criticism does you a favor.
Carl Sagan, 1934 to 1996
Astronomer
Trial by combat of wits in disputations has no attraction for the seeker after truth; to him, the appeal to experiment is the last and only test of the merit of an opinion, conjecture, or hypotheses.
Joseph Mellor, 1869 to 1938
Chemist
What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.
Sir Arthur Eddington, 1882 to 1944
Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician
Pierre Curie voluntarily exposed his arm to the action of radium for several hours. This resulted in damage resembling a burn that developed progressively and required several months to heal. Henri Becquerel had by accident a similar burn as a result of carrying in his vest pocket a glass tube containing radium salt. He came to tell us of this evil effect of radium, exclaiming in a manner at once delighted and annoyed: “I love it, but I owe it a grudge.”
Marie Curie, 1867 to 1934
Chemist, Physicist
The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe: the only elements in their construction are our concepts of space and time.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, 1910 to 1995
Astrophysicist
Chemistry, unlike other sciences, sprang originally from delusions and superstitions, and was at its commencement exactly on a par with magic and astrology.
Thomas Thomson, 1773 to 1852
Chemist
Understanding the history of matter and searching for its most interesting forms, such as galaxies, stars, planets and life, seems a suitable use for our intelligence.
Robert Kirshner, 1949 to present
Astronomer
We are storytelling animals, and cannot bear to acknowledge the ordinariness of our daily lives.
Stephen Jay Gould, 1941 to 2002
Paleontologist
Things are as they are because they were as they were.
Thomas Gold, 1920 to 2004
Astrophysicist
I believe there are 15 747 724 136 275 002 577 605 653 961 181 555 468 044 717 914 527 116 709 366 231 425 076 185 631 031 296 protons in the universe and the same number of electrons.
Sir Arthur Eddington, 1882 to 1944
Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician
Archimedes’ finding that the crown was of gold was a discovery; but he invented the method of determining the density of solids. Indeed, discoverers must generally be inventors; though inventors are not necessarily discoverers.
William Ramsay, 1852 to 1916
Chemist
A theory is a supposition which we hope to be true, a hypothesis is a supposition which we expect to be useful; fictions belong to the realm of art; if made to intrude elsewhere, they become either make-believes or mistakes.
George Johnstone Stoney, 1826 to 1911
Physicist
Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.
Jacob Bronowski, 1908 to 1974
Mathematician, Biologist
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Darwin questioned, that is science…….godly delusions are pompous certainty. That is not science.
It upsets me when people do not understand science. Saying evolution is a lie and not even having any information backing up the claim. It’s absurd to me how we have a society that thinks scientists are phonies. Scientist do not just make things up because they want to seek for the truth about the universe and they would get nothing out of lieing other than the fact that it would be a waste of time to lie. It’s also grinds my gears when people have the close minded that this universe was created for us and we are the center of this outstanding universe. Now I do not mind if you want to belief in a God or gods but claiming that it’s science and then discrediting the evolution of the universe and of life despite the evidence that is spread throughout the cosmos; it only makes you look ignorant. It is true that our species does not know everything and just because we do not know what happened before the Big Bang does not tear down the theory. The truth is no one knows everything. If we did know everything we wouldn’t need science. It’s great to not know everything because it’s means that we can keep searching. Science is how we discover nature. As Carl Sagan once said “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself”. Instead of tearing eachother down we should work together to discover this magestic universe.
but are happy to use all the modern conveniences that are only made possible by centuries of scientific enquiry.
Yes, you are right
such a civilized website. glad to be here.
You’re darned right.
just the other day i calculated how many days a 60year old has lived on earth…i found out that one has lived for only 21,900 days.. half of it theyve been asleep…so my point is?….enjoy your little stay on earth..
My hero, that’s him in my avatar only managed 13,097 days. If only he could have lived another 10,000. 🙁
I recently watched the documentary and creative presention, “Cosmos” on Netflix. The presentation makes considering evolution a bit more palpable, make our universe a lot more interesting and understandable for even the average person, and opens doors to lots of questions for my rather artistic but sheltered mind.
Evolution, as Darwin gave it, is a completely plausible and valid theory. Its when insanity like spontaneous generation is tacked to the end of it you get problems.
It is because Darwinian Evolution, in the form that Darwin presented it, was completely flawed and implausible that spontaneous generation and such were added. It is entirely impossible that the universe ALWAYS existed, yet what natural cause for the universe could there be OUTSIDE the universe? Regardless of what you may think about God, it becomes difficult to invent a non-miraculous origin for the universe. Thus the simplest definition of God is that which had no beginning, because nothing except the supernatural could ever be eternal.
Its difficult to count the number of unproven (and unprovable) suppositions you made in that brief justification for a god of some sort.
is it? is it really? or is it just impossible for you to imagine that the universe has always existed? I don’t even belief that it is expanding. the big bang is creationism dressed up as science and scientists are lapping it up.
What Susumu Ohno said makes me think that we don’t have the full evolution story yet. We evolved the ability to solve pure math problems, wave equations, complex symphonies and build computers while we’re hunter gatherers? That’s spooky.
I guess it’s not a popular view here, but I think there’s plenty wrong with evolution. People coming from fishes makes no sense to me.
You know, if a fish were ever to give birth to a human, it would make no sense to me either.
On the other hand, there is a clear path in fossil evidence leading from fish to creatures that lived on the margins of water and land, and then onto simple land creatures, and so on leading after hundreds of intermediate species and hundreds of millions of years to humans.
I wonder if humans will ever evolve into something else?
Actually, from what I’ve heard the fossil record is incomplete at best. There are only a couple questionable missing links that may or may not be such. If Macro evolution brought about the complex life forms we see today we should see many many intermediate forms between species, not just a few ambiguous ones. Not to mention there is no explanation for things like the Cambrian Explosion in the fossil record that I’ve heard. Universe expansion and microwave radiation all point to a definite beginning to the universe. The question is: What came before the big bang? Is it so repulsive an idea to consider that an infinite being started it all?
We only have the fossils that formed where fossils best form, so of course there will be gaps. And no, there would not need to be many many many intermediate forms as only the best suited to the environment would reproduce. ALL life is made of DNA. This fact alone supports the idea that all life emerged from a single source. Whether or not a supernatural being exists is a separate issue.
I believe the Platypus is a perfect living example and only Mammal that lays Eggs and to me is slowly evolving and we as humans also are evolving. So If We Know that then what’s to say we also are from reptiles.
that’ll be weird:/
Who made the hunters and gatherers?
Well about Darwinian evolution, what I always get amazed is why there is no any single species even a bit near to us intellectually . . .I mean we could have survived this planet as an ape ,why we got such an intellect to build a computer . .
It’s an interesting point, and my answer to it is gloomy. I have a feeling that our genetic programming would push us to try to exterminate any species that got close to us intellectually because we’d feel threatened by them.
Sadly I feel like you are right
Hi Mad Moinky,
Right, Ohno’s quote made the hairs on the back of my neck rise when I read it.
I think high intelligence proved to be singularly good for survival. The high intelligence that allowed our ancestors to strategize on the African plains and the European and Asian ice ages also produced math, science, music, art as byproducts of our ability to process information better than any other species.
Evolution in this sense is a lie. God created us on day six around six thousand years ago. There is no science in “evolution”, it is all just science-fiction. It is a known scientific LAW that life only comes from life, yet the foundation for the theory of evolution is life originating from non-living chemicals through random natural processes which is anti-science as it clearly violates scientific LAW. We were created with the ability to do everything we currently do and more, science shows us that we are losing information, energy and genetic stability over time, in short, all in the universe is in entropy and winding down to death. The evolution to which you refer has no place in science but rather religion as it requires blind faith in processes and anomalies unseen and unverified.