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Scientists Quotes

Browse 131 quotes about Scientists.

Scientists Quotes

“Studiando, noi diventiamo tutti filosofi; dovrete dunque avvezzarvi, ogni volta che un risultato vi sorprende, specialmente quando questo risultato vi par nuovo, dovrete avvezzarvi, dico, a chiedere a voi stessi o ad altri: «Quale è la causa di ciò? Perché le cose succedono a questo modo?» E presto o tardi finirete sempre col trovare la risposta.”

ScienceStudyResearchScientistsResearch MethodologyStudying Science
Book:The Chemical History of a Candle: Enriched edition. Unlocking the Mysteries of Chemical Reactions in a Candle's Flame
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“One of the most curious consequences of quantum physics is that a particle like an electron can seemingly be in more than one place at the same time until it is observed, at which point there seems to be a random choice made about where the particle is really located. Scientists currently believe that this randomness is genuine, not just caused by a lack of information. Repeat the experiment under the same conditions and you may get a different answer each time.”

BelieveDifferentScienceConditionsInformationGenuineCuriousChoiceLocationConsequencesQuantum PhysicsRandomnessRandomScientistsRepeatObservedQuantum Field TheoryParticleElectronLocated
Book:The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science
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“That day, the great mind in neuroscience Michael A. Persinger, who is now a good friend of mine, made me realize that it was no other field of Science but Neuroscience that held the key to solving the quintessential problems of consciousness. He coaxed me into the science of the neurons and the rest as you know is history. Without Persinger, Naskar and Neuroscience would never have been linked together. Imbued with new knowledge, confidence and excessive curiosity, I officially turned my attention to one of the loftiest goals of modern science - understanding the biological nature of the human mind. That day on, I officially got into the world of Neuroscience.”

PsychologyPhysicsNeuroscienceNeuropsychologyScientistsScience Of MindNeuroscientists
Book:Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
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“For years the physicist Donna Strickland was not deemed notable enough for an entry. She finally got her place in Wikipedia on the day she won the Nobel Prize. Surely that cannot be what it takes to be remembered? No man is held to such a standard.”

SexismNobel PrizeFamous WomenScientistsMale PrivilegeNotable PeopleWomen ScientistsWikipedia NotabilitWikipedia UntrustworthyWoman In Society
Book:Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus
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“He was to tell André Malraux later: “Clemeneau used to say: ‘War is a much too serious business to be left to the military.’ And look what happened to Communism when the Communists got hold of it or to the Catholic Church in the hands of the clergy. We are rapidly approaching a point when it will no longer be possible to trust scientists with science.”

ScienceChurchCommunismIronyClergyScientistsThe GaspCommunistsCannot Be Trusted
Book:The Gasp
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“The fact that scientists do not consciously practice a formal methodology is very poor evidence that no such methodology exists. It could be said—has been said—that there is a distinctive methodology of science which scientists practice unwittingly, like the chap in Molière who found that all his life, unknowingly, he had been speaking prose.”

ScienceEvidenceProseMethodologyScientistsMoliereMolière
Book:Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought: Memoirs, American Philosophical Society
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“There is a curious idea among unscientific men that in scientific writing there is a common plateau of perfectionism. Nothing could be more untrue. The reports of biologists are the measure, not of the science, but of the men themselves. There are as few scientific giants as any other kind. In some reports it is impossible, because of inept expression, to relate the descriptions to the living animals. In some papers collecting places are so mixed or ignored that the animals mentioned cannot be found at all. The same conditioning forces itself into specification as it does into any other kind of observation, and the same faults of carelessness will be found in scientific reports as in the witness chair of a criminal court. It has seemed sometimes that the little men in scientific work assumed the awe-fullness of a priesthood to hide their deficiencies, as the witch-doctor does with his stilts and high masks, as the priesthoods of all cults have, with secret or unfamiliar languages and symbols. It is usually found that only the little stuffy men object to what is called "popularization", by which they mean writing with a clarity understandable to one not familiar with the tricks and codes of the cult. We have not known a single great scientist who could not discourse freely and interestingly with a child. Can it be that the haters of clarity have nothing to say, have observed nothing, have no clear picture of even their own fields? A dull man seems to be a dull man no matter what his field, and of course it is the right of a dull scientist to protect himself with feathers and robes, emblems and degrees, as do other dull men who are potentates and grand imperial rulers of lodges of dull men.”

Writers On WritingScientistsScience Communication
Book:The Log from the Sea of Cortez
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“But you can’t be a scientist if you’re uncomfortable with ignorance, because scientists live at the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos. This is very different from the way journalists portray us. So many articles begin, “Scientists now have to go back to the drawing board.” It’s as though we’re sitting in our offices, feet up on our desks—masters of the universe—and suddenly say, “Oops, somebody discovered something!” No. We’re always at the drawing board. If you’re not at the drawing board, you’re not making discoveries. You’re not a scientist; you’re something else. The public, on the other hand, seems to demand conclusive explanations as they leap without hesitation from statements of abject ignorance to statements of absolute certainty.”

ScienceIgnoranceScientistsDiscoveriesDrawing Conclusions
Book:Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
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“When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.”

ReasonScienceRecognitionProblemsFamousScientistsShannonEncoreInformation TheoryClaude E ShannonClaude Elwood ShannonClaude ShannonSterilize
Author:Richard Hamming
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“Look, I don't know what you are, but you're more than a geologist, if you are one at all. I've met lots of geologists on different projects like this, and they're all tiny sunburned men with fetishes for geodes. They wear floppy hats and carry baggies for soil samples around with them. ... And geologists don't make rocks disappear like you did the other night. They keep them and build little shrines to them.”

ScienceGeologyScientistsGeologistDruidsGeologists
Book:Tricked
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“We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always been that way. Even those history books enamored of the voyages of Christopher Columbus do not tell much about the builders of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria or about the principle of the caravel. These spacecraft their designers builders navigators and controllers are examples of what science and engineering set free for well-defined peaceful purposes can accomplish. Those scientists and engineers should be role models for an America seeking excellence and international competitiveness. They should be on our stamps.”

ScienceSpaceExplorationRole ModelsEngineeringScientists
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“Philosophers and scientists throughout the ages have been concerned with these questions. Still, the question is not only about posing the question but also about posing the right question and understanding the meaning of words and language. The right questions and good reasoning often lead to the correct answers, but we are dealing with how and when we establish the right concepts. Have we ever? How far are the concepts, beyond our words and language, from the intrinsic nature of what we try to describe and comprehend?”

WorldRealityTruthUniverseDejan StojanovicAbsoluteScientistsPhilosophers
Book:ABSOLUTE
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