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Erwin Chargaff Quotes

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Erwin Chargaff, born on August 11, 1905 in Austria and died on June 20, 2002 in the United States, was a renowned biochemist known for his contributions to the study of DNA structure.

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All Science Men Ifs Form Humans Scientist Accounts Auschwitz Colleagues Fields Knows Long People Said Way Academy Acid Animal Answers Apologizing

Famous Erwin Chargaff Quotes

“The modern version of Buridan's ass [a figurative description of a man of indecision] has a Ph.D., but no time to grow up as he is undecided between making a Leonardo da Vinci in the test tube or planting a Coca Cola sign on Mars.”

Men Grows Growing Up Modern Tests Versions Ass Description Mars Tubes Indecision Leonardo Coca Cola Undecided Time To Grow Up

Author:Erwin Chargaff

“A scientific autobiography belongs to a most awkward literary genre. If the difficulties facing a man trying to record his life are great - and few have overcome them successfully - they are compounded in the case of scientists, of whom many lead monotonous and uneventful lives and who, besides, often do not know how to write . . .”

Ifs Knows Men Writing Trying Cases Know How Records Scientist Overcoming Difficulty Genre Awkward Autobiography Monotonous Literary Genre

Book:Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature

Source: Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature

“He [said of one or other eminent colleagues] is a very busy man, and half of what he publishes is true, but I don't know which half.”

Knows Men Said Truth Science Half Busy Colleagues Publish Publication Half Truth Busy Man

Author:Erwin Chargaff

“Scientific fashions last longer than women's fashions but not as long as men's”

Men Long Lasts Fashion

Book:Voices in the labyrinth: nature, man, and science

Source: Voices in the labyrinth: nature, man, and science

“There are no such men today. We have created a mechanism that makes it practically impossible for a real genius to appear. In my own field the biochemist Fritz Lipmann or the much maligned Linus Pauling were very talented people. But generally, geniuses everywhere seem to have died out by 1914. Today, most are mediocrities blown up by the winds of the time.”

People Men Real Seems Today My Own Impossible Fields Wind Genius Died Mediocrity Mechanism Real Genius

Author:Erwin Chargaff

“If you can modify a cell, it's only a short step to modifying a mouse, and if you can modify a mouse, it's only a step to modifying a higher animal, even man.”

Ifs Men Humans Science Animal Steps Higher Cells Mice Modifying

Author:Erwin Chargaff

“If at one time or another I have brushed a few colleagues the wrong way, I must apologize: I had not realized that they were covered with fur.”

Ifs Men Way Science Covered One Time Apologizing Colleagues Fur Wrong Way

Book:Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature

Source: Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature

“The narrow slit through which the scientist, if he wants to be successful, must view nature constructs, if this goes on for a long time, his entire character; and, more often than not, he ends up becoming what the German language so appropriately calls a Fachidiot (professional idiot).”

Ifs Men Want Long Ends Character Science Language Views Successful Goes On Becoming Long Time Scientist Idiot Being Successful Constructs Slits German Language

Author:Erwin Chargaff

About the Author

Born: August 11, 1905
Died: June 20, 2002
Known for: Author
Quotes: 19

Books & Sources

Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before NatureRelated source material

Voices in the labyrinth: nature, man, and scienceRelated source material

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