Two years probably. No more. ibid. dad
You have to fight for what you believe in tooth and nail or the buggers will stop you. ibid. tutor to Hawking
The physics is wrong. ibid. Hawking to Hoyle
Our perception of the universe is an illusion. They are connecting two of Europe’s largest telescopes … Perhaps the strangest idea in science: quantum entanglement … Can particles be connected as if they are joined together even if they are millions of miles apart? Einstein rejected the idea … Is Entanglement real? Einstein’s Quantum Riddle ***** BBC 2020
The electron is just a wave of fuzzy probability. ibid.
Quantum Physics: Its mathematics were elegant and beautiful. ibid.
The Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox: a seemingly magical effect … How could two particles act in unison? ibid.
The particles were fuzzy and undefined until the moment they were observed. ibid.
In theory this technique could be used to create a totally secure global communications network. These are the first steps of a completely unhackable quantum internet of the future. Made possible by quantum entanglement. ibid.
Scientific truth should be presented in different forms, and should be regarded as equally scientific whether it appears in the robust form and the vivid colouring of a physical illustration, or in the tenuity and paleness of a symbolic expression. James Clerk Maxwell
Consequences for society of lack of legal protection for scientists: block in information flow; depriving people of their democratic right to know; one-sided unbalanced debate; depriving people of their right to influence future; manipulation of public opinion; loss of democratic rights of calling wrongdoers to account; jeopardy of public health. Professor Susan Bardocz, Alternative View II conference, re the Sacking of Dr Putsztai
For the independence of science this is a very dangerous situation. Accepting money from the biochemical industry which has aggressively set out to dominate life and society makes scientists and science the servants of multinational companies. As they are most of the time outside democratic control and accountability, these big corporations may threaten our democratic institutions and corrupt politicians, civil servants and scientists. ibid.
When students learn scientific theories that conflict with earlier, naive theories, what happens to the earlier theories? Our findings suggest that naive theories are suppressed by scientific theories but not supplanted by them. Andrew Shtulman et al, published Cognition
The scientific process operates in two phases, the empirical and the statistical.
In the first phase, a scientist seeks uniform patterns in the universe based on empirical observations (‘empirical’ meaning based on data received by our senses, as this is, after all, the only means we have).
... The second phase of the scientific method ... a scientist must perform a series of tests that will either verify or refute his original hypothesis. This is where the statistical phase enters the picture.
After our scientist feels confident that he has obtained sufficient statistical evidence to support his theory ... he will disclose his findings to those around him, more specifically to the rest of the world’s scientific community.
Now it is the duty of the scientific community to review this person’s hypothesis by performing their own series of tests. This is necessary as the conclusions of one sole observer should never be accepted as adequate proof of anything.
... As this process continues, one by one, our ever-sceptical scientific community will conduct as many tests as it can think of before offering to support a theory. Only after a sufficient amount of supporting statistical data is obtained might the scientific community be willing to give credence to a theory. Rene Descartes, ‘Discourse on the Method of Properly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking the Truth in the Sciences’
I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain. Rene Descartes
In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei
Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes – I mean the universe – but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth. Galileo Galilei
April 11th 1862: I firmly believe that before many centuries more, Science will be the master of man. The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control. Some day Science will have the existence of mankind in his power, and the human race commit suicide by blowing up the world. Henry Brooks Adams
I want to see Science serve a useful purpose to improve the standard of living for all people. Norman Borlaug, agricultural scientist
The ideas of science germinate in a matrix of established knowledge gained by experiment; they are not lonesome thoughts, born in a rarefied realm where no researcher has ever gone before. Seth Shostak
Science as an intellectual exercise enriches our culture, and is in itself ennobling ... Though to the layman, the world revealed by the chemist may seem more commonplace, it is not so to him. Each new insight into how the atoms in their interactions express themselves in structure and transformations, not only of inanimate matter, but particularly also of living matter, provides a thrill. Henry Taube, speech at Nobel banquet December 1983