Scientist Quotes - Page 35

• If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months. ... There was a Twilight Zone episode like this in which scientists fake an alien threat in order to achieve world peace. Well, this time, we don't need it, we need it in order to get some fiscal stimulus.

  Paul Krugman

  Twilight, Order, Space

  "Paul Krugman Calls for Space Aliens to Attack Earth Requiring Massive Defense Buildup to Stimulate Economy". "Fareed Zakaria GPS", www.newsbusters.org. August 14, 2011.

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• In any case it is not normal to put into the satisfaction of mere curiosity the amount of time and effort that scientists put into their work.

  Theodore Kaczynski

  Effort, Curiosity, Satisfaction

  The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski (2005). “The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future”, p.39, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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• For us scientists, on the other wing, life is not quite so simple. Because we learn the unknown. Unlike, hah-hah, our esteemed friends the philosophers, who learn the unknowable.

  Ken MacLeod

  Simple, Wings, Philosopher

  Ken MacLeod (2012). “Learning The World: A novel of first contact”, p.48, Hachette UK

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• How scientists go about their job: and it's a process, it's a question of asking questions, respecting observation, respecting experiment, having tentative explanations and then testing them.... There is a problem sometimes with how we teach science at schools. Because we sometimes teach it as if it has been chiseled in stone.

  Paul Nurse

  Jobs, School, Asking Questions

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• Ever since Sir Isaac Newton's times, scientists have worked in the same sort of way: They show a great respect for experiment and observation, They don't cherry pick data, They take a skeptical approach to what they do. And then scientists work together to get a consensus as to what should be believed And that generates very reliable knowledge and that reliable knowledge drives innovation

  Paul Nurse

  Data, Innovation, Working Together

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• No scientist ever believes that he has the final answer or the ultimate truth on anything.

  Carroll Quigley

  Believe, Finals, Answers

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• Even today few scientists and perhaps even fewer nonscientists realize that science is a method and nothing else.

  Carroll Quigley

  Today, Realizing, Method

  Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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• If in heroic conduct, whether of warriors, philosophers or scientists, we see what is of essential nature, then we know that all heroism groups itself around a supreme value. This has always been the idea of honour, spiritual and mental. But the idea of honour, like its corporeal representatives, was involved in a war of soul and spirit against the values represented by alien races or the offspring of racial chaos.

  Alfred Rosenberg

  Spiritual, War, Ideas

  "The Myth of the Twentieth Century". Book by Alfred Rosenberg, 1930.

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• We hackers are a playful bunch; we'll hack anything, including language, if it looks like fun (thus our tropism for puns). Deep down, we like confusing people who are stuffier and less mentally agile than we are, especially when they're bosses. There's a little bit of the mad scientist in all hackers, ready to discombobulate the world and flip authority the finger - especially if we can do it with snazzy special effects.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Fun, People, Mad

  "Guest Editorial: World Domination". www.linuxjournal.com. January 1, 2000.

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• When I look back on it, I think, "Why didn't you stop the cruelty earlier?" To stand back was contrary to my upbringing and nature. When I stood back as a noninterfering experimental scientist, I was, in a sense, as drawn into the power of the situation as any prisoners and guards.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Thinking, Looks, Cruelty

  "Finding Hope in Knowing the Universal Capacity for Evil " by Claudia Dreifus, www.nytimes.com. April 3, 2007.

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• People don't want to see wrinkles, because if they see wrinkles in actors then they have to face that they have wrinkles, too. They'd rather see perfection up there. And so then you get rocket scientists who are 22 years old.

  Stephanie Zimbalist

  Wrinkles, Years, Perfection

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• English stupidity is an organism so primitive that it is apparently impossible to kill off. It reminds me of Physarum Polycephalum, the gigantic slime mould recently bred by scientists at Bonn. Bright yellow and about two millimetres thick, this monocellular creature--neither plant nor animal--grew to a size of 10 square yards before the scientists took fright and froze it. It can smell its favourite food, and move towards it at a speed of up to two centimetres an hour. This favourite food is porridge.

  Neal Ascherson

  Moving, Animal, Two

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• Although humans have existed on this planet for perhaps 2 million years, the rapid climb to modern civilization within the last 200 years was possible due to the fact that the growth of scientific knowledge is exponential; that is, its rate of expansion is proportional to how much is already known. The more we know, the faster we can know more. For example, we have amassed more knowledge since World War II than all the knowledge amassed in our 2-million-year evolution on this planet. In fact, the amount of knowledge that our scientists gain doubles approximately every 10 to 20 years.

  Michio Kaku

  War, Years, Civilization

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• Like music or art, mathematical equations can have a natural progression and logic that can evoke rare passions in a scientist. Although the lay public considers mathematical equations to be rather opaque, to a scientist an equation is very much like a movement in a larger symphony. Simplicity. Elegance. These are the qualities that have inspired some of the greatest artists to create their masterpieces, and they are precisely the same qualities that motivate scientists to search for the laws of nature. LIke a work of art or a haunting poem, equations have a beauty and rhythm all their own.

  Michio Kaku

  Art, Passion, Mathematical Equations

  Michio Kaku (1995). “Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension”, p.130, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Contempt for science could perhaps depend on the fact that, science hasn't been able to solve any of our basic problems, for example the environmental pollution or the problems with HIV and AIDS. This is the worst disease of our time, and scientists are lost. I believe that many people are disappointed with science when the answers we need are not delivered.

  Bjorn Ulvaeus

  Believe, People, Environmental

  "Björn Ulvaeus Speaks on Humanism". iheu.org. July 14, 2006.

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• I believe that science is best left to scientists, that you cannot have managers or directors of science, it's got to be carried out and done by people with ideas, people with concepts, people who feel in their bones that they want to go ahead and develop this, that, or the other concept which occurs to them.

  Mark Oliphant

  Believe, Ideas, People

  "Portraits in Science". Book by Ann Moyal, 1994.

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• Regardless of what Einstein had come up with, it is very possible that a few hundred years into the future some scientist comes up with something that they have spotted in the universe that we have no idea exists today.

  George Noory

  Years, Ideas, Today

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• For many years I was the youngest among my mathematical friends. It makes me melancholy to realize that I now have become the oldest in most groups of scientists.

  Stanislaw Ulam

  Years, Groups, Realizing

  "Adventures of a Mathematician" by Stanislaw Ulam, Third Edition, (p. 37), 1991.

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• The freedom to make and admit mistakes is at the core of the scientific process. If we are asked to forswear error, or worse, to say that error means fraud, then we cannot function as scientists.

  Robert Pollack

  Truth, Freedom, Mistake

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• If an artist and a scientist have a common point, it is probably in the need for some kind of imaginative thinking to interpret the material they have.

  Catherine Yass

  Artist, Thinking, Needs

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• A scientist is only a human being, a particle in the whole universe. How can the observations and logic of a particle measure the life and size of a phenomenon that is limitless?

  Avtarjeet Singh Dhanjal

  Size, Logic, Limitless

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• In addition to the social pressures from the scientific community there is also at work a very human trait of individual scientist. I call it the law of the instrument , and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. It comes as no particular surprise to discover that a scientist formulates problems in a way which requires for their solution just those techniques in which he himself is especially skilled.

  Abraham Kaplan

  Boys, Law, Giving

  Abraham Kaplan (2017). “The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioural Science”, p.56, Routledge

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• Once one realizes that magick works, and that it works based on scientific factors, the next step is to hone one's skill to reach repetitive success. What makes magick so interesting is that because we are individuals, the combination that unlocks the door to success will vary from person to person, yet the main thrust of the work operates on a specific set of scientific formulas that our scientists are only now beginning to fathom. The mystery, then, lies within each of us.

  Silver RavenWolf

  Lying, Doors, Skills

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• Faith just doesn't have anything to do with what I'm doing as a scientist. It's nice if you can believe in God, because then you see more of a purpose in things. Even if you don't, though, it doesn't mean that there's no purpose. It doesn't mean that there's no goodness. I think that there's a virtue in being good in and of itself. I think that one can work with the world we have.

  Lisa Randall

  Faith, Nice, Believe

  "The Discover Interview: Lisa Randall". Interview with Corey S. Powell, discovermagazine.com. July 29, 2006.

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• The days are over when technology can be advanced in laboratories by individual scientists alone. Now you need an army of lawyers to negotiate the hazardous terrain of interlocking patents. Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Army, Technology, Innovation

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world”, Century

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