Quotes About Science

religious traditions are no more reliable on questions of ethics than they have been on scientific questions generally.

But what about love, compassion, moral goodness, and self-transcendence? Many people still imagine that religion is the true repository of these virtues. To change this, we must talk about the full range of human experience in a way that is as free of dogma as the best science already is.

I]f the basic claims of religion are true, the scientific worldview is so blinkered and susceptible to supernatural modification as to be rendered nearly ridiculous; if the basic claims of religion are false, most people are profoundly confused about the nature of reality, confounded by irrational hopes and fears, and tending to waste precious time and attention--often with tragic results. Is this really a dichotomy about which science can claim to be neutral?

Our present policy on human stem cells has been shaped by beliefs that are divorced from every reasonable intuition we might form about the possible experience of living systems.

In our next presidential election, an actor who reads his Bible would almost certainly defeat a rocket scientist who does not. Could there be any clearer indication that we are allowing unreason and otherworldliness to govern our affairs?

APERITIVE  (APE'RITIVE)   adj.[from aperio, Lat. to open.]That which has the quality of opening the excrementious passages of the body.

in lexicography, as in other arts, naked science is too delicate for the purposes of life. The value of a work must be estimated by its use; it is not enough that a dictionary delights the critick, unless, at the same time, it instructs the learner; as it is to little purpose that an engine amuses the philosopher by the subtilty of its mechanism, if it requires so much knowledge in its application as to be of no advantage to the common workman.

ALKALI  (A'LKALI)   n.s.[The word alkali comes from an herb, called by the Egyptians kali; by us glasswort.] This

To ABDUCE  (ABDU'CE)   v.a.[Lat. abduco.]To draw to a different part; to withdraw one part from another.A word chiefly used in physic or science. And if we abduce the eye unto either corner, the object will not duplicate; for, in that position, the axis of the cones remain in the same plain, as is demonstrated in the optics delivered by Galen.Brown'sVulgar Errours,b. iii. c. 20.

A man may be accomplished in art, literature, and science, and yet, in honesty, virtue, truthfulness, and the spirit of duty, be entitled to take rank after many a poor and illiterate peasant.

Every other science presupposes intelligence as already existing and complete: the philosopher contemplates it in its growth, and as it were represents its history to the mind from its birth to its maturity.

I shall attack Chemistry, like a Shark.

Recent study of beetle digestive tracts has found more than 650 distinct yeasts, at least 200 of which were previously unidentified

As a result of the War on Bacteria, our bacterial context is rapidly shifting. One bacterium formerly ubiquitous in humans, Helicobacter pylori, which resides in the stomach, is now found in fewer than 10 percent of American children and may be headed toward extinction.62 H. pylori has been associated with humans for at least 60,000 years, and there is evidence that closely related bacteria have lived in the stomachs of mammals since their emergence 150 million years ago.

Rogerson, I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, where would I find the pelagic zone? In the open sea, he said. Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints.

I have watched enough science fiction films to accept that humanity's unchecked pursuit of learning will end with robots taking over the world.

Yes, there is a science to the aroma of sleeping women (AND TO THINK OF THE GIRLFRIEND i WAS TEMPTED TO BREAK UP WITH BECAUSE SHE SLEPT TOO MUCH) i now know, they nurtured her there: they slept in packs dreamt in cycles nursed her in shifts and became her on rotation.

Yes, there is a science to the aroma of sleeping women (and to think of the girlfriend I was tempted to break up with because she slept too much) i now know, they NURTURED here there: they slept in packs dreamt in cycles nursed her in shifts and became her ON ROTATION

But I quite like the way you can talk about science without necessarily using mathematics, but using metaphors instead.

Homeopathy seemed . . . both mathematical and poetic.

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate.

Natural science is either the description of forms (morphology) or the explanation of changes (etiology). Neither can afford us the information we chiefly desire.

Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding. These words are meant as conveniences until real understanding can be found. Sometimes understanding comes and the temporary words can be replaced with words that have more meaning. More often, however, the patch words will take on a life of their own and no one will remember that they were only intended to be placeholders.

Whenever you have money, reputations, power, ego, and complexity in play, it is irrational to assume you are seeing objective science.