Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.
Everyone makes mistakes, the brighter folks the more elaborate ones.
I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release. Added to this (proh dolor! [O misery!]) the sight of my right eye — that eye whose labors (dare I say it) have had such glorious results — is for ever lost. That of the left, which was and is imperfect, is rendered null by continual weeping.
People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe.
Don’t ask what is allowed — ask what if it were true.That’s how you spike creativity, energy, and evolution.
Knowledge is akin to the Lernaean Hydra’s heads, multiplying as soon as one head is severed. The more knowledge you attain, the more you find yourself searching for answers to new questions.
For an object under the eye will appear very different from the same object placed above it; in an inclosed space, very different from the same in an open space.
Many vital questions would have remained unanswered and unresolved without philosophy.
I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.
The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, ‘All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.
I’ve only actively promoted what we always hope is good science.
French chemist Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth was warmer than it should be given the heat hitting the planet. In 1824, he theorized that gases in the atmosphere must trap heat. In 1837, he predicted that overall levels of warming could change depending on human behavior and activity.
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.
Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.
It is a good principle in science not to believe any ‘fact’—however well attested—until it fits into some accepted frame of reference. Occasionally, of course, an observation can shatter the frame and force the construction of a new one, but that is extremely rare. Galileos and Einsteins seldom appear more than once per century, which is just as well for the equanimity of mankind.
When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time.
Freaks become norms, and norms become extinct. Monster by monster, evolution advanced
Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely. Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours. . . .
His principle was that each theory was a contribution to genesis because in every era human intelligence conceives creation anew — and that each interpretation contains no more truth than a leaf that unfolds and soon withers. That is the reason he called himself Phyllobius, he who lives among leaves, in his unusual characteristic mixture of modesty and pride.
When you’re doing a film called ‘Interstellar,’ at some point – the idea was to be grounded in the science as much as possible – but with a name like ‘Interstellar,’ you had better go somewhere big and bold.
Le savant doit ordonner ; on fait la science avec des faits comme une maison avec des pierres ; mais une accumulation de faits n’est pas plus une science qu’un tas de pierres n’est une maison.The Scientist must set in order. Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
Science and mindfulness complement each other in helping people to eat well and maintain their health and well-being.
It is wrong to equate scientific laws, as a human construct, with the absolute truth.
Even if someone were to write extensively about economics, as Karl Marx did in Das Kapital, the truth is that, ultimately, the reality of the world is determined not by economics, but in the last instance by genetics.
We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.
Luckily, unreasonable expectations go hand in hand with naive young scientists. The more naive the better – otherwise we would never have the audacity to try and build a 22,000-mile-high space elevator or some sprawling underwater hotel.
A great physicist is always a metaphysicist as well; he has a higher concept of his knowledge and his task.
If human mind perseveres long enough, every mystery soon reveals its truth.
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.
The ironic part about all this was that it wasn’t the first time I’d been nearly digested. But that’s another story.
I remember in 1967, when there was that terrible fire on NASA’s Apollo 1 rocket that killed three astronauts, my father made pure oxygen and we lit this tiny cup and burned it. Suddenly, we had an unbelievable jet and a fire. You just could see exactly what had happened.
Transhumanism is the ethics and science of using things like biological and genetic engineering to transform our bodies and make us a more powerful species.
If you want to make an even softer and fluffier cake with a greater rise, and one that stays softer for longer, you can substitute half of the butter for a neutral-tasting oil, such as sunflower, vegetable, or canola oil. … Regular dairy butter is composed of about 80% fat, 15% water, and 5% milk solids – so when you’re swapping butter for oil, it’s not a 1:1 substitution. Instead, you need to replace the butter with 80% of oil and 15% of milk.
In mathematics and science, there is no difference in the intelligence of men and women. The difference in genes between men and women is simply the Y chromosome, which has nothing to do with intelligence.
I have a science YouTube channel where I will sometimes use my engineering skills to build things such as the world’s largest Super Soaker or the Guinness World Record world’s largest Nerf gun.
The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
In the abstract, it might be tempting to imagine that irreducible complexity simply requires multiple simultaneous mutations – that evolution might be far chancier than we thought, but still possible. Such an appeal to brute luck can never be refuted… Luck is metaphysical speculation; scientific explanations invoke causes.
… I realized that what’s out there is oblivious to us. There’s no menace to it, because there’s no intent. We’re just fragile, and we break sometimes. And time keeps moving. I don’t know. I think it’s comforting – our smallness is comforting to me.
The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome—not by favour of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.
In four months we could actually have an administration that believes in science.
What we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.
Reply when questioned on the safety of the polio vaccine he developed:It is safe, and you can’t get safer than safe.
There cannot be a language more universal and more simple, more free from errors and obscurities…more worthy to express the invariable relations of all natural things [than mathematics]. [It interprets] all phenomena by the same language, as if to attest the unity and simplicity of the plan of the universe, and to make still more evident that unchangeable order which presides over all natural causes
People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.
A nation must be strong in spirit, knowledge, science and morals. Military strength comes last … Today it is not enough to have arms in hand in order to take one’s place in the world as a human being.
Physics advances by accepting absurdities. Its history is one of unbelievable ideas proving to be true.
Indubitably, Magick is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgement and practice than in any other branch of physics.
Science has revealed that the human body is made up of millions and millions of atoms… For example, I am made up of 5.8×10 27 atoms.
People are welcome to believe whatever they want as long as their beliefs don’t hurt others. Besides, I happen to think science is a form of religion.
Faith does not imply a closed, but an open mind. Quite the opposite of blindness, faith appreciates the vast spiritual realities that materialist overlook by getting trapped in the purely physical.
At a time when science plays such a powerful role in the life of society, when the destiny of the whole of mankind may hinge on the results of scientific research, it is incumbent on all scientists to be fully conscious of that role, and conduct themselves accordingly.
Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No, no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics, Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.
Now,I’m no scientist,but I know what endorphins are. They’re tiny little magical elves that swim through your blood stream and tell funny jokes to each other. When they reach your brain,you hear what they’re saying and that boosts your health and happiness. Knock Knock… Who’s There?.. Little endorphin… Little endorphin who?… Little Endorphin Annie. And then the endorphins laugh and then you laugh. See? Its Science.
Science and faith are more in agreement than they realize. The growing belief the universe is sentient is evidence of a deity, just in a different form than anticipated.
Arabic science throughout its golden age was inextricably linked to religion; indeed, it was driven by the need of early scholars to interpret the Qur’an.
There is abundant science out there that connects mercury exposure in vaccines to not only autism, but to ASD, to SIDS, to ADD, ADHD, language tics – which is like Tourette Syndrome – OCD, asthma, food allergies, and diabetes.
As I have often said, not understanding something is not evidence for God or human frailty. It is just evidence of not understanding. And it should be an invitation to explore and learn.
I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
Mars is the only place in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetarian.