Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question 'How?' but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question 'Why?'
Erwin ChargaffRead
You can stop splitting the atom; you can stop visiting the moon; you can stop using aerosols; you may even decide not to kill entire populations by the use of a few bombs. But you cannot recall a new form of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Scientific advancements can be reversed, but the creation of new life is irreversible.
Erwin Chargaff's quote emphasizes the profound impact of scientific discovery, particularly in genetics and biotechnology. While humanity has the ability to control and even undo certain technological and space exploration endeavors, the creation of new forms of life is a significant act that cannot be undone. This mirrors the gravity of our actions in science and underscores the responsibility that comes with such power.
Themes
ScienceLifeResponsibilityAdvancementCreation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would resonate well at a science conference when discussing the ethical considerations of genetic engineering.
More from Erwin Chargaff
All quotes →Science is now the craft of the manipulation, substitution and deflection of the forces of nature. What I see coming is a gigantic slaughterhouse, an Auschwitz, in which valuable enzymes, hormones, and so on will be extracted instead of gold teeth.
Erwin ChargaffRead
One of the most insidious and nefarious properties of scientific models is their tendency to take over, and sometimes supplant, reality.
Erwin ChargaffRead
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Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been.
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We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.
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What a deep faith in the rationality of the structure of the world and what a longing to understand even a small glimpse of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton to enable them to unravel the mechanism of the heavens in long years of lonely work!
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