Quotes About Science

On average, human brains have shrunk some 10 percent in size over the last 20,000 years,

This kind of event is so rare as to be the stuff of myth. Modern science has never managed to verify that it has ever truly occurred. Ever! And yet we have just witnessed not just one instance, but two. Two! And both happening at the exact moment when we were in the middle of...

Embarrassment has no place in scientific method!" Walter said brusquely.

If I can get some student interested in science, if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program, then my job's been done.

The world is my country, science is my religion.

How serious can a movie about time-traveling robots be? You want it to be cool and fun.

When there is contradiction between what science knows and what religion believes, there can be no compromise; religion must yield.

Here is where Darwin's ideas encountered the strongest resistance, lasting up to the present day; they implied a lack of purpose in nature.

Evolution is not a theory, contrary to what is often stated, sometimes even by scientists. Evolution is a fact. It was a theory two centuries ago, when Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin first proposed it, just as heliocentrism was a theory in the days of Copernicus and Galileo. Evolution is no longer a theory, just as heliocentrism is no longer a theory; it is a fact.

As long as the origin of life can't be explained in natural terms, the hypothesis of an instant divine creation of life cannot objectively be ruled out.

Intelligent design is simply not a scientific theory. Science is based on the working hypothesis that things are naturally explainable. This may or may not be true. But the only way to find out is to make every possible effort to explain things naturally. Only if one fails—assuming failure can ever be definitely established—would one be entitled to state that what one is studying is not naturally explainable.

L'intelligence humaine, dit Auguste Comte, passe successivement par trois états : L'état théologique ou fictif (êtres divins) ; L'état métaphysique ou abstrait (nature, être) ; L'état scientifique ou positif (observation, empirisme).

Moreover, in order to show forth her wisdom and the excellence of her mind to the centuries to come, she [Nicostrata/Carmentis] worked and studied so hard that she invented her own letters, which were completely different from those of other nations, that is, she established the Latin alphabet and syntax, spelling, the difference between the vowels and consonants, as well as a complete introduction to the science of grammar.

Toute science construit son objet. Ceci signifie que non seulement son contenu théorique mais les limites et la définition de son champ d'application, son domaine même, loin de préexister à la discipline, en sont une création.

We've established a Washington State Academy of Sciences that will enable us to make decisions based on science about what is right for our state, meaning the quality of our lives will get better.

How strange it seemed to me that the whole answer might lie in the particular combination of atoms contained in those tiny, aspirin-like tablets. As recently as a few years before, science had split some of those atoms and unleashed a giant force. There in my hand lay another series of atoms, which in their way might set off another explosion--one I hoped would not be a destructive force but would help to make me a whole person.

The answer to the problem must not lie in sleeping pills and suicides that look like accidents, or in jail sentences, but rather in life and the freedom to live it. Yes, in considering the possibilities of removing and transplanting, perhaps science is reaching beyond the acceptance of current medical practice, but does that justify refusing to do it? Where would the world be without the Pasteurs and Ehrlichs to reach out and do the impossible?

You may discover that a certain sequence of letters in your autosomal DNA is typically found in someone with Finnish heritage or Korean ancestry. Only a few years ago the world of science was turned upside down when it was discovered that in ancient times two nonhuman species contributed to the human genome.

While all living things affect the evolution of other living things simply by virtue of trying to stay alive, humans interact with the biological evolution of other species in a much more complex and powerful fashion because of one ability: language. Nothing occurs on the human scale without language. No language means no agriculture, no animal farming, no science.

If every chunk of DNA were halved with every generation, the result would be a rather neat picture of proportionately shrinking segments that matched an expanding fan of cousins. But if the cut and shuffle of DNA down through the generations is not a smooth, even process and relatively large chunks of DNA may be passed on through generations more or less unchanged, it has some interesting implications for what DNA can tell us about the past.

Better: DNA, History, and Health The

Or, as Razib Khan, a geneticist and science blogger, put it, culture is chunky, whereas genes are creamy.

There is something splendid about innocence; but what is bad about it, in turn, is that it cannot protect itself very well and is easily seduced. Because of this, even wisdom - which otherwise consists more in conduct than in knowledge - still needs science, not in order to learn from it but in order to provide access and durability for its precepts.

The history of any scientific concept—energy, atom, gene, cancer, memory—is one of increased differentiation and sophistication until it can be explained in a quantitative and mechanistic manner at a lower, more elemental level.