Quotes About Science

Of all the attempts over the centuries to place humans in distinct races, none succeeds.

DNA subtly changes over time via the genetic equivalents of typos—spelling mistakes which slip through due to inaccurate copyediting by the proteins that check the code after it has been replicated.

any action predicated solely on DNA sequence seems to me to be a high-risk endeavor, prone to specious failure.

We have no room for the mystical in science

Yes, the presentations and formal lectures at scientific meetings can be dreadfully important, but – and this is a trade secret – they can be breathtakingly boring. Sometimes

But in the bar, the real science gets scrutinized and the best ideas assembled. Lifelong collaborations and friendships are made, bitter squabbles and permanent enmities are forged.

In the human genome, in total, there are around 3 billion individual letters of DNA. Of the analogies of scale, the one that gets trotted out most frequently is that this is equivalent to some twenty standard-issue phone books, though when I use that in lectures these days most school kids have never seen a phone book.

All scientists need to be wrong as often as they can be, for that is the place from which we discover what is correct, and inch ever closer to the truth.

from the point of view of a geneticist, race does not exist. It has no useful scientific value.

In fact, sexual acts between members of the same sex abound in nature, in thousands of animals, and, for example, may well dominate male giraffe sexual encounters.

Just as important as what genetics can tell us is what it can't.

In science we look to Occam's razor (or scientific parsimony) to understand phenomena, the concept that the best hypothesis is the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

In the spirit of science, there really is no such thing as a 'failed experiment.' Any test that yields valid data is a valid test.

That's the show. it's like 5 minutes of science and then 10 minutes of me hurting myself.

We didn't set out to be educators or even scientists, and we don't purport that what we do is real science but we're demonstrating a methodology by which one can engage and satisfy your curiosity.

My portraits have a neutral appearance to them. Depending on the theme, achieving the appropriate balance is always an obstacle. Proportions, like everything else, require meticulous measurement. That is, how masculine, emotional, and expressive they may come across and were meant to be - as if working in a science lab.

She's all science-y, which is cool, especially for a girl. It should not matter. But it does. Cuz we're not living in the future yet and people really do stereotype.

On the other hand, there are people who seek a certain reality in religion and in doing so reach different sorts of supernatural experiences – inner experiences that give one a feeling of reality, accompanied by perceived unnatural phenomena, which science cannot (or does not wish to) explain.

Art and science were in German hands. Apart from the new artistic trash, which might easily have been produced by a negro tribe, all genuine artistic inspiration came from the German section of the population.

I am less desirous to explain phenomena than to establish their existence.

The determination of the average man is not merely a matter of speculative curiosity; it may be of the most important service to the science of man and the social system. It ought necessarily to precede every other inquiry into social physics, since it is, as it were, the basis. The average man, indeed, is in a nation what the centre of gravity is in a body; it is by having that central point in view that we arrive at the apprehension of all the phenomena of equilibrium and motion.

I saw an exhibition of paintings of alchemists once,' said Ruth. 'It used to be a popular setpiece. There was one I liked by Joseph Wright of Derby?of an alchemist who'd accidentally discovered phosphorus. He's just crouching there, staring in amazement at his test tube or alembic, or whatever you call it. A bloody good painting, actually.

I have often said that I am a passionate Darwinian when it comes to explaining why we exist.

One of the reasons I'm so passionate about science is that it wasn't correctly taught to me. I got excited at university.