There is an overwhelming body of evidence that says we are warming our planet. But complexity allows for confusion and for alternative theories to develop. The only solution is to look at all the evidence as a whole. I think some extreme sceptics decide what to think first and then cherry-pick the data to support their case. We scientists have to acknowledge we now operate in a world where point of view, not peer review, hold sway. ibid.
Critics have objected on several grounds, from safety issues to environmental concerns. The GM debate once again raises the question of public trust in Science. There is a gap between the fears of some sections of the public, and the opinion of scientists that what they are doing is both useful and safe. ibid.
We scientists hadn’t gone out there and asked what bothered the public. We hadn’t talked to them about the issue. We’d not had dialogue with them. Scientists had forgotten that we don’t operate in a bubble. We cannot take the public for granted. We have to talk to them. We have to communicate the issues. We have to earn their trust if Science really is going to benefit society. ibid.
Trust no-one. Trust only what the experiments and the data tell you. We have to continue to use that approach if we are to solve problems like Climate Change. ibid.
Scientists have got to get out there. They have to be open about everything they do. They do have to talk to the media. Even if it does sometimes put their reputation at doubt. Because if we do that, it will be filled by others who don’t understand the science, and who may be driven by politics or ideology. This is far too important to be left to the polemicists and commentators in the media. Scientists have to be there too. ibid.
We have a set of physical laws that we know from laboratory experiments work; we use these laws to formulate a theory; we use that theory to make predictions, then we compare and then we compare these predictions with observations. Horizon: Of Big Bangs, Stick Men and Galactic Holes, Carlos Frenk, BBC 1991
Anything that you come up with has to be corroborated, not just by one measurement, one experiment, but by many different groups – that’s the essence of the scientific method – repeatability, rigour, accuracy and relevance. Horizon: Is Everything We Know About the Universe is Wrong? Carlos Frenk, BBC 2009
Who the President turns to for advice will have profound consequences for us all. The future of human life on the planet may depend on it. Horizon: The President’s Guide to Science, BBC 2008
If you had £10 million to make one change to the world, what would that be? This week a prize fund is launched. Horizon: The £10 Million Challenge, Professor Alice Roberts, BBC 2014
Respond: Stephen Hawking has not yet disproved God’s role in creation: The existence of the universe cannot be explained by science alone ... The skills that make one good at physics are not necessarily the skills that one make good at philosophy. Philip Goff, University of Hertfordshire, article The Guardian
Scientists should never claim something is absolutely truth. You should never claim perfect or total or 100% because you never ever get there. Beautiful Minds: Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, BBC 2011
Science doesn’t always go forward ... Sometimes you discover the picture you thought you had, that everybody thought we had, actually turns out to be wrong. ibid.
With the space race, science had acquired an air of glamour: inspiring a new generation of scientists. ibid.
Science has been named, developed, interpreted by white males for decades. And women view the conventional wisdom from a slightly different angle. And that sometimes means they can clearly point to flaws in the logic, gaps in the argument. They can give a different perspective of what Science is. ibid.
You just keep pursuing question after question after question. ibid.
Science is a quest for understanding. A search for truth it seems to me is full of pitfalls. ibid.
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience. Albert Einstein, The Laws of Science and the Laws of Ethics, 1950
Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe. Albert Einstein, attributions inc Humphry Davy
In science, moreover, the work of the individual is so bound up with that of his scientific predecessors and contemporaries that it appears almost as an impersonal product of his generation. Albert Einstein, cited The Scientific Monthly June 1921
Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. Albert Einstein, cited The New York Times 16th February 1931
Still, there are moments when one feels free from one’s own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being. Albert Einstein, letter 9th January 1939
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. Albert Einstein, letter 7th January 1943
The theoretician is forced, ever more, to allow himself to be directed by purely mathematical, formal points of view in the search for theories, because the physical experience of the experimenter is not capable of leading us up to the regions of the highest abstraction. Albert Einstein, cited Ideas and Opinions, 1954
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein, cited Life 2nd May 1955
Some recent work by E Fermi and L Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. Albert Einstein, letter to Franklin Roosevelt 1939
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. Albert Einstein, cited New York Times 25th May 1946
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? Albert Einstein
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Albert Einstein
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts. Albert Einstein, apocryphal attribution
It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure. Albert Einstein
One may say, ‘the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.’ Albert Einstein, article ‘Physics & Reality’, attributions & variations inc Kant
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. Albert Einstein, interview Viereck, 1929
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. Albert Einstein
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike – and yet it is the most precious thing we have. Albert Einstein
One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought. Albert Einstein
The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it. Neil deGrasse Tyson
I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody’s easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method. Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah’s ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it’s about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers. Neil deGrasse Tyson