Quotessence
Home / Topics / Scientists Quotes

Scientists Quotes

Browse 131 quotes about Scientists.

Scientists Quotes

“God's will is often not done. We despoil rivers and lakes. We pollute land and air. We drive species into extinction. Given time we can do worse - or we can, by God's grace, do better. The late Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971), who was a wiser theologian than Senator Inhofe, urged us to pray for "the wisdom to distinguish between those things that can and those things that cannot be changed and for the courage to change those things that should be changed". Certainly the distinction between those things that can and those things that cannot be changed is an important part of the understanding scientists seek. What we all need is the courage to change those things that should be changed.”

WisdomChangeCourageImprovementPollutionExtinctionScience QuotesScientistsReinhold Niebuhr
Book:Seeing Physics: 2,600 Years from Thales to Higgs
Create image

“Many scientists have tried to make determinism and complementarity the basis of conclusions that seem to me weak and dangerous; for instance, they have used Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to bolster up human free will, though his principle, which applies exclusively to the behavior of electrons and is the direct result of microphysical measurement techniques, has nothing to do with human freedom of choice. It is far safer and wiser that the physicist remain on the solid ground of theoretical physics itself and eschew the shifting sands of philosophic extrapolations.”

PhilosophyWisdomScienceDangerousWeakSafetyPhysicsFree WillQuantum MechanicsFreedom Of ChoiceDeterminismScientistsTheoretical PhysicsUncertainty PrincipleHeisenbergWerner Heisenberg
Book:Nouvelles perspectives en microphysique
Create image

“I believe in a world in which science is the key for supporting the development of a happy future for humanity. So, I advocate for such a situation in which scientists would speak louder. If science is silent, there is no way to solve high priority problems at a global level, such as: the gap between developed and undeveloped countries, poverty, limited energy resources, limited food and even drinking water (especially related to the population growth phenomenon), global warming and rapid climate changes, etc.”

SciencePovertyClimate ChangeDrinking WaterScientistsPopulation Growth
Author:Eraldo Banovac
Create image

“There were dozens of theories about what it was, that dome. Every scientist in the world, it seemed, had made a pilgrimage to the site. Tests had been conducted, measurements taken. They had tried drilling through it. Under it. Had flown over it. Had dug beneath it. Had approached it by submarine. Nothing worked. Every species of doomsayer from Luddite to End Times nut had had his say. It was a judgment. On America’s technological obsession, on America’s moral failure. This. That. Something else. Then the twins had popped out. Just like that. First Emma. Then, a few minutes later, Anna. Alive and well at the exact moment of their fifteenth birthday. They told tales of life inside the bowl. What they called the FAYZ. Connie Temple’s heart had swelled with pride for what she had learned of her son, Sam. And crashed into despair with tales of her other son, her unacknowledged child, Caine. Then, nothing. No other kids arrived for a while. Black despair settled over the families as they realized that it would be only these two. Months passed. Many lost faith. How could kids survive alone? But then, the Prophetess had reached into their dreams. One night Connie Temple had a lurid, incredible dream. She’d never had such a detailed dream. It was terrifying. The power of it took her breath away. There was a girl in that dream. This girl spoke to her in the dream. It’s a dream, the girl said. Yes, just a dream, Connie had answered. Not just a dream. Never say “just” a dream, the girl had corrected. A dream is a window to another reality. Who are you? Connie had asked. My name is Orsay. I know your son. Connie had been about to say, Which one? But some instinct stopped her. The girl did not look dangerous. She looked hungry. Do you have a message for Sam? the girl asked. Yes, Connie said. Tell him to let them go. Let them go. Let them go off into the red sunset.”

DreamFaithPrideDespairLet GoAnnaEmmaMessageScientistsSam TempleTheoriesCaine SorenFayzProphetessNurse TempleOrsayConnie TempleSurivive
Book:Lies
Create image

“Wanasayansi wanaamini kuwa Yesu atarudi tarehe 29 Julai 2016. Tarehe hiyo kitu kikubwa sana kitatokea katika dunia yetu kitakachosababisha tetemeko kubwa la ardhi, litakalosababishwa na kubadilika kwa ncha za dunia, tendo litakalosababisha mionzi ya gama kutoka kwenye jua ifike duniani na kuua kila kitu kinachoonekana katika uso wa dunia hii. Watakatifu watafufuka na kumlaki Kristo mawinguni, ambaye anakuja kuwachukua wateule na kumweka Shetani kifungoni kwa miaka 1000. Hayo yote, wanasema, yatatokea ndani ya siku 11 kuanzia leo. Yaani, kusini mwa dunia kutakuwa kaskazini mwa dunia, kaskazini mwa dunia kutakuwa kusini mwa dunia. Kitendo hicho kitafanya dunia ikose kinga ya sumaku iitwayo ‘magnetosphere’ ambayo hukinga dunia dhidi ya mionzi ya gama kutoka kwenye jua. Mionzi hiyo hugonga ukuta wa ‘magnetosphere’ kila baada ya dakika 8 kwa mwendokasi wa kilometa milioni 1080 kwa saa; na kusambazwa katika ncha za dunia ambapo aghalabu huchanganyikana na oksijeni na kutengeneza kitu kinaitwa ‘aurora’, au mwanga wa ncha, ambacho ni maajabu mengine ya angani. Mwaka 2012 wanasayansi walisema ncha za dunia zingebadilika lakini hazikubadilika. Je, muda umefika sasa wa kuwaamini wanasayansi? Biblia ni chuo cha Mungu. Soma Biblia kupata maarifa.”

WorldJesusChristKnowledgeSunBibleSatanOxygenScientistsSaintsDuniaShetaniWondersAurora2012BibliaEarthquakeYesuMaarifaJuaKristoWanasayansiOksijeni1000 YearsMaajabuMiaka 1000WatakatifuElectsMwaka 2012Wateule1080 Million Kilometers Per Hour29th July 20168 MinutesChuo Cha MunguDakika 8Gamma Rays RadiationsGod S CollegeKaskazini Mwa DuniaKilometa Milioni 1080 Kwa SaaKinga Ya SumakuKusini Mwa DuniaMagnetosphereMionzi Ya GamaMwanga Wa NchaNcha Za DuniaNorthern WorldSouthern WorldTarehe 29 Julai 2016Tetemeko La ArdhiWorld Poles
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“Kuna mambo yanatokea hapa ulimwenguni ambayo yanafanya nikiri uwepo wa Mungu kwa asilimia kubwa. Wanasayansi wanasema ulimwengu ulianzishwa na mlipuko wa ‘Big Bang’, uliotokea takribani miaka bilioni 14 iliyopita, kutoka katika kitu kidogo zaidi kuliko ncha ya sindano, lakini hawatuambii nini kilisababisha mlipuko huo utokee au hicho kitu kidogo kuliko ncha ya sindano kilitoka au kilikuwa wapi. Wanaendelea kusema kuwa baada ya ‘Big Bang’ kutakuwepo na ‘Big Crunch’, ambapo ulimwengu utarudia hali yake ya awali ya udogo kuliko ncha ya sindano, na kila kitu kinachoonekana leo ulimwenguni hakitaonekana tena. Hapo sasa ndipo utata unapokuja. Mlipuko wa ‘Big Bang’ ulipotokea ulimwengu ulilipuka na kusambaa pande zote nne za ulimwengu kwa mwendokasi wa zaidi ya kilometa milioni 2 kwa saa, mpaka hivi leo unavyoonekana na bado unaendelea kusambaa. Kutokana na dhana ya ‘Big Crunch’, wanasayansi wanaamini ulimwengu utapanuka ila baadaye utapungua mwendo na utarudi mwanzo kabisa mahali ulipolipukia. Lakini mwaka 1995 wanasayansi hao hao waligundua kitu. Ulimwengu – badala ya kupungua mwendo wa kupanuka kama wanasayansi walivyokuwa wakitabiri – sasa unaongeza mwendo, tena kwa mwendokasi ambao haujawahi kutokea. Hiki ni nini kinachosababisha ulimwengu uongeze mwendokasi kiasi hicho badala ya kuupunguza? Hicho ni nini ambacho ulimwengu unapanukia? Wanasayansi hawana jibu. Wanasingizia kitu kinaitwa ‘dark matter’, maada ambayo haijawahi kuonekana, kwamba ndicho kinachosababisha ulimwengu uongeze mwendokasi kwa kiwango hicho ambacho hakijawahi kutokea; na hicho ambacho ulimwengu unapanukia wanahisi ulimwengu wetu unapanukia katika ulimwengu mwingine, kwa mujibu wa dhana nyingine kabisa iitwayo ‘multiverse’ au ‘meta-universe’. Kuna kitu kinaitwa ‘Higgs boson’ – chembe ndogo inayosemekana kuhusika na uzito (‘mass’) wa chembe ndogo 16 zilizomo ndani ya atomu, kasoro chembe ya mwanga, iliyopotea mara tu baada ya mlipuko wa ulimwengu wa ‘Big Bang’ miaka bilioni 13.7 iliyopita katika kipindi kilichoitwa ‘epoch’ – ambayo ilianza kutafutwa katika maabara za CERN, Uswisi, toka mwaka 1964, maabara ambazo kazi yake kubwa ni kutengeneza mazingira ya mwanzo kabisa ya mlipuko wa ‘Big Bang’, kusudi wanasayansi waone kama wanaweza kubahatisha kuiona na kuidhibiti hiyo bosoni. Bosoni itakapopatikana wanasayansi watajua siri ya ‘dark matter’, watajua jinsi ulimwengu unavyofanya kazi na jinsi ulivyoumbwa na jibu la kitendawili cha ‘Standard Model’ litapatikana. Hiyo ni kazi ngumu. Ndiyo maana ‘Higgs boson’ mwaka 1993 iliitwa ‘The God Particle’. Yaani, wanasayansi wanahisi kuna muujiza wa Kimungu na huenda wasiipate kabisa hiyo bosoni. Wanasema waliipata mwaka 2013. Lakini hiyo waliyoipata bado ina utata. Kutokana na kushindwa huko kwa sayansi na historia, kutokana na kushindwa kwa sayansi kutengeneza binadamu au mnyama, kutokana na miujiza iliyorekodiwa katika vitabu vitakatifu; naamini, Mungu yupo.”

MatterGodLightScienceDeathUniverseI BelieveAnimalHistorySunMassHumanJesus ChristMiracleSpeedSundayStableMondayBirdsHistoriaMessiahGod ExistsEpochMunguSwitzerlandScientistsBig BangMultiverseHoly BooksDark MatterYesu KristoAtom2013UlimwenguBinadamuYale University1964JoshuaKifo1993Big CrunchCernHiggs BosonJua1995WanasayansiBosonYoshuaJumapiliMidwivesNdegeStandard ModelAtomuMnyamaMwangaFirst CenturyJumatatuMaria MagdalenaMasihiMwaka 1995Sayansi333 PropheciesKarne Ya KwanzaKitendawiliMaria MagdaleneMungu YupoNaaminiSix Years OldTabiri 333Uzito14 Billion Years Ago2 Million Kilometers Per Hour4000 KkBosoniChuo Kikuu Cha YaleJumanne Tarehe 22 JulaiJumapili Tarehe 22 SeptembaKilometa Milioni 2 Kwa SaaMaadaMeta UniverseMiaka Bilioni 14 IliyopitaMuujizaMwaka 1964Mwaka 1993Mwaka 2013Mwaka 4000 KkMwendokasiProfesa C A TottenSunday 22nd SeptemberThe God ParticleTuesday 29th JulyUmri Wa Miaka SitaUswisiVitabu VitakatifuWakungaZizi La Ng Ombe
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“Wanasayansi wana uwezo wa kupeleleza hadi kipindi cha karne ya kwanza ambapo Yesu aliishi, alikufa, alifufuka na alipaa kwenda mbinguni, na wana uwezo wa kujua mambo mengi kwa hakika yaliyofanyika katika kipindi hicho na hata katika kipindi cha kabla ya hapo. Kuna miujiza ambayo Yesu aliifanya ambayo haiko ndani ya Biblia. Kwa mfano, Biblia inasema Yesu alizaliwa ndani ya zizi la ng’ombe wakati sayansi inasema alizaliwa nje ya zizi la ng’ombe; na muujiza wa kwanza kuufanya ambao hauko ndani ya Biblia ni kutembea mara tu baada ya kuzaliwa, na watu na ndege wa angani kuganda kabla ya kuzaliwa Masihi na kabla ya wakunga kufika kumsaidia Maria Magdalena kujifungua. Akiwa na umri wa miaka sita, sayansi inasema, Yesu alikuwa akicheza na mtoto mwenzake juu ya paa la nyumba ya jirani na mara Yesu akamsukuma mwenzake kutoka juu hadi chini na mwenzake huyo akafariki papo hapo. Watu walipomsonga sana Yesu kwa kumtuhumu kuwa yeye ndiye aliyesababisha kifo cha mwenzake, na kwamba wangemfungulia mashtaka, Yesu alikataa katakata kuhusika na kifo hicho. Lakini walipozidi kumsonga, aliusogelea mwili wa rafiki yake kisha akamwita na kumwambia asimame. Yule mtoto alisimama! Huo ukawa muujiza mkubwa wa kwanza wa Yesu Kristo, kufufua mtu nje ya maandiko matakatifu. Kuna mifano mingi inayodhihirisha uwepo wa Mungu ambayo wanasayansi hawawezi hata kuipatia majibu. Tukio la Yoshua kusimamisha jua limewashangaza wanasayansi hadi nyakati za leo. Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 70 wanasayansi walijaribu kurudisha muda nyuma kwa kompyuta kuona kama kweli wangekuta takribani siku moja imepotea kama ilivyorekodiwa katika Biblia. Cha kushangaza, cha kushangaza mno, walikuta saa 23 na dakika 20 zimepotea katika mazingira ambayo hawakuweza na hawataweza kuyaelewa. Walipochunguza vizuri walikuta ni kipindi cha miaka ya 1500 KK (Jumanne tarehe 22 Julai) ambacho ndicho tukio la Yoshua la kusimamisha jua na kusogeza mwezi nyuma digrii 10, ambazo ni sawa na mzunguko wa dakika 40, lilipotokea. Kwa kutumia elimu ya wendo, elimu ya kupanga miaka na matukio ya Kibiblia, dunia iliumbwa Jumapili tarehe 22 Septemba mwaka 4000 KK. Hata hivyo, mahesabu ya kalenda yanaonyesha kuwa Septemba 22 ilikuwa Jumatatu (si Jumapili) na kwamba kosa hilo labda lilisababishwa na siku ya Yoshua iliyopotea. Hayo yote ni kwa mujibu wa Profesa C. A. Totten, wa Chuo Kikuu cha Yale, katika kitabu chake cha ‘Joshua’s Long Day and the Dial of Ahaz: A Scientific Vindication and a Midnight Cry’ kilichochapishwa mwaka 1890. Kama hakuna Mungu iliwezekanaje Yoshua aombe jua lisimame na jua likasimama kweli? Iliwezekanaje Yesu aseme atakufa, atafufuka na atapaa kwenda mbinguni na kweli ikatokea kama alivyosema? Ndani ya Biblia kuna tabiri 333 zilizotabiri maisha yote ya Yesu Kristo hapa duniani na zote zilitimia – bila kupungua hata moja. Utasemaje hapo hakuna Mungu? Mungu yupo, naamini, sijui. Tukio la Yesu kufa, kufufuka na kupaa kwenda mbinguni si la vitabu vitakatifu pekee, hata sayansi inakubaliana na hilo.”

MatterGodLightScienceDeathUniverseI BelieveAnimalHistorySunMassHumanJesus ChristMiracleSpeedSundayStableMondayBirdsHistoriaMessiahGod ExistsEpochMunguSwitzerlandScientistsBig BangMultiverseHoly BooksDark MatterYesu KristoAtom2013UlimwenguBinadamuYale University1964JoshuaKifo1993Big CrunchCernHiggs BosonJua1995WanasayansiBosonYoshuaJumapiliMidwivesNdegeStandard ModelAtomuMnyamaMwangaFirst CenturyJumatatuMaria MagdalenaMasihiMwaka 1995Sayansi333 PropheciesKarne Ya KwanzaKitendawiliMaria MagdaleneMungu YupoNaaminiSix Years OldTabiri 333Uzito14 Billion Years Ago2 Million Kilometers Per Hour4000 KkBosoniChuo Kikuu Cha YaleJumanne Tarehe 22 JulaiJumapili Tarehe 22 SeptembaKilometa Milioni 2 Kwa SaaMaadaMeta UniverseMiaka Bilioni 14 IliyopitaMuujizaMwaka 1964Mwaka 1993Mwaka 2013Mwaka 4000 KkMwendokasiProfesa C A TottenSunday 22nd SeptemberThe God ParticleTuesday 29th JulyUmri Wa Miaka SitaUswisiVitabu VitakatifuWakungaZizi La Ng Ombe
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“He was indeed the epitome of contemporary scientists who, like Mathieu and Einstein himself, as soon as they had achieved some decisive scientific triumph, would start immediately to sign every possible protest against its consequences, running in circles and tearing their hair, whining that theirs was “labor of love,” a pure, disinterested pursuit and that, in Kaiser Wilhelm’s words after he saw the carnage of the First World War, which he had started, “ich habe das nicht gewollt,” that “this is not what I wanted.” Mathieu hated them almost as much as he hated himself. He was one of them, a full ranking member of the club, and this awareness was eating him alive. His only trace of dignity lay in the fact that he was not lying to himself about it. He knew that research, scientific pursuit was a compulsion, and inner must, and an addiction and that the attitude that consists in passing the buck to society as far as the practical consequences of ”pure,” “disinterested,” scientific accomplishment were concerned was mere whitewash, alibi and a refusal to acknowledge both responsibility and self indulgence.”

HumanityHuman NatureScientistsSelf IndulgenceIrresponsibilityThe GaspSciencPure ScienceScientific PursuitsTrue Science
Author:Romain Gary
Create image

“Doctors, professors, and scientists were unknowingly assimilating incorrect or half-true information in order to regurgitate it to the populace. Because the populace held these professions in the highest regard, their disseminated information was believed as if it was coming out of the mouth of gods.”

WisdomDoctorsLabelsAgendasProfessorsScientistsBeasts Of SuccessSocietal EngineeringSocietal ManipulationEducational Programming
Book:The Beasts of Success
Create image

“So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The 'vacuum' will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labor of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific.”

ReasonTruthLawScienceReligionUniversePoliticsPrinciplesAtheismEnlightenmentIslamStupidityBritainFundamentalismMonarchyNewtonSoulsRevelationCredulityScientistsDarwinRepublicanismCopernicusBritish Monarchy2010GalileoKhalil GibranTuringErnest RutherfordBritish Royal FamilyFrancis CrickHouse Of HanoverJoseph PriestleyBritish ScientistsCharles Prince Of Wales
Author:Christopher Hitchens
Create image

“Whether plagues are managed quickly doesn't just depend on hardworking doctors and scientists. It depends on people who like to sleep in on weekends and watch movies and eat French fries and do the fantastic common things in life, which is to say, it depends on all of us. Whether a civilization fares well during a crisis has a great deal to do with how the ordinary, nonscientist citizen responds. A lot of the measures taken against plagues discussed in this book will seem stunningly obvious. You should not, for instance, decide diseased people are sinners and burn them at a literal or metaphorical stake, because it is both morally monstrous and entirely ineffective. But them a new plague crops up, and we make precisely the same mistakes we should have learned from three hundred years ago.”

ScientistsSinnersPlaguesBurned At The Stake
Book:Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
Create image

“In 1988, a cave explorer named Véronique Le Guen volunteered for an extreme experiment: to live alone in an underground cavern in southern France without a clock for one hundred and eleven days, monitored by scientists who wished to study the human body's natural rhythms in the absence of time cues. For a while, she settled into a pattern of thirty hours awake and twenty hours asleep. She described herself as being "psychologically completely out of phase, where I no longer know what my values are or what is my purpose in life." When she returned to society, her husband later noted, she seemed to have an emptiness inside her that she was unable to fully express. "While I was alone in my cave I was my own judge," she said. "You are your own most severe judge. You must never lie or all is lost. The strongest sentiment I brought out of the cave is that in my life I will never tolerate lying." A little more than a year later, Le Guen swallowed an overdose of barbiturates and lay down in her car in Paris, a suicide at age thirty-three.”

ScienceLyingPurposeValuesStudySocietyReturnSolitudeSuicideAloneClockAwakeEmptinessLiveTolerateLieHuman BodyJudgeScientistsExperimentOverdoseExpressAsleepPatternExtremeExplorerCaveUndergroundPhaseRhythmsSettledMonitoredBarbituratesCave ExplorerVolunteered
Book:The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
Create image

“Lazima kuna mtu, si kitu, mwenye akili ya kupindukia, aliyeanzisha kila kitu kinachoonekana ulimwenguni. Mwaka 1995 wanasayansi waligundua kitu kilichowashtua kuliko kitu kingine chochote kile katika historia ya uwepo wao. Waligundua kuwa ulimwengu unaongeza mwendo wa kupanuka katika pande zote nne za ulimwengu – kwa mwendokasi wa maili milioni mbili kwa saa! Nini kinasababisha ulimwengu uongeze mwendo kiasi hicho badala ya kuupunguza? Ni nini hicho ambacho ulimwengu unapanukia? Mpaka sayansi ijibu maswali hayo na mengineyo mengi, kama vile kitendawili cha ‘standard model’ na chembe ya ‘boson’ inayofanya kila kitu ulimwenguni kuwa na uzito, nitaendelea kuamini kuna Mtu anayesababisha yote hayo kutokea.”

UniverseScientistsUlimwenguHiggs Boson1995WanasayansiStandard ModelMwaka 1995Maili Milioni Mbili Kwa SaaTwo Million Miles Per Hour
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“Sayari yetu hujulikana kama Dunia na jua letu hujulikana kama Sol. Dunia imo ndani ya mfumo wa jua wa Sol. Mfumo wa jua wa Sol umo ndani ya mfumo wa jua wa Sol Sector au Solar Interstellar Neighborhood, kwenye wenzo wa Orion wa falaki ya Njiamaziwa, wenye mifumo ya jua zaidi ya 40 ikiwemo Alpha Centauri, Nemesis, Procyon na Sirius. Solar Interstellar Neighborhood imo ndani ya falaki ya Njiamaziwa yenye nyenzo nne zinazozunguka kwa pamoja na falaki nzima. Falaki ya Njiamaziwa imo ndani ya kishada (‘cluster’) chenye zaidi ya falaki 55 ikiwemo Andromeda, Leo A, M32 na Triangulum, kinachojulikanacho kama ‘the Local Galactic Group’. ‘The Local Galactic Group’ imo ndani ya mfumo wa kishada kikubwa zaidi kiitwacho Virgo Supercluster, chenye makundi zaidi ya 100 ya falaki. Virgo Supercluster imo ndani ya mfumo mwingine mkubwa zaidi wa vishada uitwao Laniakea (Local Supercluster) wenye vishada zaidi ya 500 vya falaki. Hapo ndipo mwisho wa ulimwengu wetu unaoweza kuonwa na wanasayansi wetu. Kutoka duniani mpaka Laniakea ni umbali wa kilometa bilioni trilioni 250, miaka bilioni 13.8 iliyopita.”

EarthUniverseSunSolar SystemPlanetScientistsDuniaClustersNemesisSiriusSolAndromedaUlimwenguJuaWanasayansiClusterAlpha CentauriSayariLaniakeaFour ArmsLocal SuperclusterSol SectorSolar Interstellar NeighborhoodVirgo Supercluster13 8 Billion Years Ago250 Billion Trillion Kilometers55 GalaxiesFalaki 55Falaki Ya NjiamaziwaKilometa Bilioni Trilioni 250KishadaLeo AM32Mfumo Wa JuaMiaka Bilioni 13 8 IliyopitaNyenzo NneProcyonThe Local Galactic GroupThe Milky Way GalaxyThe Orion ArmTriangulumVishadaWenzo Wa Orion
Author:Enock Maregesi
Create image

“To prove to an indignant questioner on the spur of the moment that the work I do was useful seemed a thankless task and I gave it up. I turned to him with a smile and finished, 'To tell you the truth we don't do it because it is useful but because it's amusing.' The answer was thought of and given in a moment: it came from deep down in my mind, and the results were as admirable from my point of view as unexpected. My audience was clearly on my side. Prolonged and hearty applause greeted my confession. My questioner retired shaking his head over my wickedness and the newspapers next day, with obvious approval, came out with headlines 'Scientist Does It Because It's Amusing!' And if that is not the best reason why a scientist should do his work, I want to know what is. Would it be any good to ask a mother what practical use her baby is? That, as I say, was the first evening I ever spent in the United States and from that moment I felt at home. I realised that all talk about science purely for its practical and wealth-producing results is as idle in this country as in England. Practical results will follow right enough. No real knowledge is sterile. The most useless investigation may prove to have the most startling practical importance: Wireless telegraphy might not yet have come if Clerk Maxwell had been drawn away from his obviously 'useless' equations to do something of more practical importance. Large branches of chemistry would have remained obscure had Willard Gibbs not spent his time at mathematical calculations which only about two men of his generation could understand. With this trust in the ultimate usefulness of all real knowledge a man may proceed to devote himself to a study of first causes without apology, and without hope of immediate return.”

ReasonSciencePurposeUnderstandingKnowledgeStudyDiscoveryChemistryAmusingPragmaticScientistsDiscoveriesPracticalElectromagnetismApplicationsJames Clerk MaxwellJames MaxwellWillard GibbsPractical Application
Author:A.V. Hill
Create image

“The sciences have two extremities which meet. The first is the ignorance in which men find themselves at birth. The second is that attained by great souls. They have surveyed whatever man can know, find that they know all, meet in that same ignorance whence they started. It is a clever ignorance, which knows itself. Those among them who, having emerged from the first ignorance, have been unable to achieve the other & have some smattering of this self-satisfied knowledge, pose as experts. The latter do not disturb people, are no more mistaken in their judgments on everything than others. The masses, the skilled, make up the retinue of a nation. The others, who respect it, are equally respected by it.”

ScienceHumilityHubrisScientistsIntellectuals
Book:Maldoror and the Complete Works
Create image

“It is very easy to grow tired at collecting; the period of a low tide is about all men can endure. At first the rocks are bright and every moving animal makes his mark on the attention. The picture is wide and colored and beautiful. But after an hour and a half the attention centers weary, the color fades, and the field is likely to narrow to an individual animal. Here one may observe his own world narrowed down until interest and, with it, observation, flicker and go out. And what if with age this weariness becomes permanent and observation dim out and not recover? Can this be what happens to so many men of science? Enthusiasm, interest, sharpness, dulled with a weariness until finally they retire into easy didacticism? With this weariness, this stultification of attention centers, perhaps there comes the pained and sad memory of what the old excitement was like, and regret might turn to envy of the men who still have it. Then out of the shell of didacticism, such a used-up man might attack the unwearied, and he would have in his hands proper weapons of attack. It does seem certain that to a wearied man an error in a mass of correct data wipes out all the correctness and is a focus for attack; whereas the unwearied man, in his energy and receptivity, might consider the little dross of error a by-product of his effort. These two may balance and produce a purer thing than either in the end. These two may be the stresses which hold up the structure, but it is a sad thing to see the interest in interested men thin out and weaken and die. We have known so many professors who once carried their listeners high on their single enthusiasm, and have seen these same men finally settle back comfortably into lectures prepared years before and never vary them again. Perhaps this is the same narrowing we observe in relation to ourselves and the tide pool—a man looking at reality brings his own limitations to the world. If he has strength and energy of mind the tide pool stretches both ways, digs back to electrons and leaps space into the universe and fights out of the moment into non-conceptual time. Then ecology has a synonym which is ALL.”

AgeScienceEcologyWearinessScientists
Book:The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Create image

“Humans spent thousands of years looking up at the stars and wondering what was out there. You guys never saw stars at all but you still worked space travel. What an amazing people you Eridians must be. Scientific geniuses.' The knot in the tape comes loose, recoils wildly, and smacks Rocky's hand. He shakes the affected hand in pain for a moment, then continues messing with the tape measure. 'Yeah, you're definitely a scientist.”

AliensSpace TravelClumsyAlienScientistsAndy WeirProject Hail MaryRockyRyland GraceCuriousity
Book:Project Hail Mary
Create image