“Da Vinci was as great a mechanic and inventor as were Newton and his friends. Yet a glance at his notebooks shows us that what fascinated him about nature was its variety, its infinite adaptability, the fitness and the individuality of all its parts. By contrast what made astronomy a pleasure to Newton was its unity, its singleness, its model of a nature in which the diversified parts were mere disguises for the same blank atoms.” MadeShowsScienceNatureNaturalPleasureModelsInfiniteUnityMereIndividualityAstronomyVarietyAtomsFascinatedContrastBlankDisguiseGlancesMechanicInventorNotebookNewtonAdaptabilitySingleness Book:The Common Sense of Science Source: The Common Sense of Science
“When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object.” ThinkingWorldLooksNaturalExampleObjectsPlantDumbComplexityQuantumMechanicNatural WorldQuantum MechanicsSmartphonesPhotosynthesis Author:Jeff VanderMeer
“The history of the development of mechanics is quite indispensable to a full comprehension of the science in its present condition. It also affords a simple and instructive example or the processes by which natural science generally is developed.” ProcessNaturalSimpleConditionsExampleDevelopmentIndispensableMechanicComprehensionNatural Science Book:The Science of Mechanics Source: The Science of Mechanics
“The basic formulation, or bare-bones mechanics, of natural selection is a disarmingly simple argument, based on three undeniable facts (overproduction of offspring, variation, and heritability) and one syllogistic inference (natural selection, or the claim that organisms enjoying differential reproductive success will, on average, be those variants that are fortuitously better adapted to changing local environments, and that these variants will then pass their favored traits to offspring by inheritance).” FactsThreeEnjoyNaturalSimpleEnvironmentAtheismArgumentClaimsAverageBonesLocalsTraitsOrganismsMechanicSelectionInheritanceVariationAdaptedNatural SelectionOffspringInference Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, nay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person's advantage, as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet.” IfsMenKindLittlesPersonsDoeSoulMightTurnsEnjoyNaturalCommonMankindHe ManAmbitionAdvantageDelightCirclesEndeavorSuperiorityVery HappyMechanicInsignificantAcquaintanceGrandeurPoorestAdmirerAlmsUneasiness Book:The spectator Source: The spectator
“I've always been amazed at the vastness of America itself and what it does and how it does it. I'm interested in the mechanics of what makes this country happen, the power structures, the natural splendor.” DoeCountryHappensAmericaNaturalStructureAmazedMechanicSplendorVastness Author:Michael Light