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Quote by John Charles Polanyi

“I knew, however, that it would cost ten times what I had available in order to build a molecular beam machine. I decided to follow a byway, rather than the highway. It is a procedure I have subsequently recommended to beginning scientists in this country, where research strategy is best modelled on that used by Wolfe at the Plains of Abraham.”

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John Charles Polanyi

John Charles Polanyi is a renowned chemist born in Canada in 1929. He made significant contributions to the field of chemistry, particularly in the study of chemical reaction dynamics and catalysis. Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 for his outstanding contributions to the field. more

“I think it's a very valuable thing for a doctor to learn how to do research, to learn how to approach research, something there isn't time to teach them in medical school. They don't really learn how to approach a problem, and yet diagnosis is a problem; and I think that year spent in research is extremely valuable to them.”

Thinking Years Problem School Science Teach Approach Research Doctors Valuable Medical Diagnosis Medical School Valuable Things

Author:Gertrude B. Elion

“I told him that for a modern scientist, practicing experimental research, the least that could be said, is that we do not know. But I felt that such a negative answer was only part of the truth. I told him that in this universe in which we live, unbounded in space, infinite in stored energy and, who knows, unlimited in time, the adequate and positive answer, according to my belief, is that this universe may, also, possess infinite potentialities.”

Knows May Said Science Universe Belief Energy Felt Space Answers Modern Research Negative Scientist Infinite Unlimited Adequate

Author:Albert Claude

“I went to the trash pile at Tuskegee Institute and started my laboratory with bottles, old fruit jars and any other thing I found I could use. ... [The early efforts were] worked out almost wholly on top of my flat topped writing desk and with teacups, glasses, bottles and reagents I made myself.”

Writing Made Use Science Found Effort Research Fruit Glasses Flats Bottles Desks Trash Laboratory Institute Jars

Author:George Washington Carver

“If I want to stop a research program I can always do it by getting a few experts to sit in on the subject, because they know right away that it was a fool thing to try in the first place.”

Ifs Knows Want Trying Firsts I Can Science Subjects Fool Research Program Experts Scientific Truth

Book:Prophet of progress: selections from the speeches of Charles F. Kettering

Source: Prophet of progress: selections from the speeches of Charles F. Kettering

“In the study of this membrane [the retina] I for the first time felt my faith in Darwinism (hypothesis of natural selection) weakened, being amazed and confounded by the supreme constructive ingenuity revealed not only in the retina and in the dioptric apparatus of the vertebrates but even in the meanest insect eye. ... I felt more profoundly than in any other subject of study the shuddering sensation of the unfathomable mystery of life.”

Source: Recollections of My Life

“It is a curious property of research activity that after the problem has been solved the solution seems obvious. This is true not only for those who have not previously been acquainted with the problem, but also for those who have worked over it for years.”

Years Has Beens Problem Seems Science Activity Solutions Research Property Obvious Curious Over It

Author:Edwin Land

“It is idle to expect any great advancement in science from the superinducing and engrafting of new things upon old. We must begin anew from the very foundations, unless we would revolve for ever in a circle with mean and contemptible progress.”

Mean Science Progress Research Foundation Circles New Things Idle Advancement

Book:The philosophical works of Francis Bacon, with prefaces and notes by the late Robert Leslie Ellis, together with English translations of the principal Latin pieces

Source: The philosophical works of Francis Bacon, with prefaces and notes by the late Robert Leslie Ellis, together with English translations of the principal Latin pieces

Quote by John Charles Polanyi

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