As a theoretician, I am proud to be part of a counter revolution... discovering that quantum field theory language was not dead and finished but had not really been explored thoroughly enough.
Peter HiggsRead
When the basic status of a theory is clear, and all that needs to be cleared are details, you can collaborate. But if the main structure of a hypothesis isn't established, and you want to change the paradigm - like it was the case in the 1960s - it's better to work alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Collaboration is effective when foundational theories are clear; otherwise, individual work is preferable.
Peter Higgs emphasizes the importance of having a solid foundational understanding of a theory before collaborating with others. If the fundamental elements of a hypothesis are not well-established, particularly when significant paradigm shifts are at stake, it may be more advantageous to develop ideas independently to prevent confusion and conflict.
Themes
CollaborationTheoryScienceParadigmHypothesis
In practice
Example use cases
In a scientific conference discussing research methodologies.
More from Peter Higgs
All quotes →The growth of our understanding of the world through science weakens some of the motivation which makes people believers. But that's not the same thing as saying they're incompatible. It's just that I think some of the traditional reasons for belief, going back thousands of years, are rather undermined.
Peter HiggsRead
I was an embarrassment to the department when they did research assessment exercises. A message would go round the department: 'Please give a list of your recent publications.' And I would send back a statement: 'None.'
Peter HiggsRead
Similar quotes
When I was 16 years old, I assembled a 2.3 million electron volt beta particle accelerator. I went to Westinghouse, I got 400 pounds of translator steel, 22 miles of copper wire, and I assembled a 6-kilowatt, 2.3 million electron accelerator in the garage.
Michio KakuRead
We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.
Edgar MitchellRead
There are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end ofthe search for the ultimate laws of nature.
Stephen HawkingRead
The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.
John Von NeumannRead
According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.
Brian GreeneRead
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Claude BernardRead