Chemistry is necessarily an experimental science: its conclusions are drawn from data, and its principles supported by evidence from facts.
Interpretation
Chemistry relies on experimental data and evidence to establish its principles and conclusions.
In this quote, Michael Faraday emphasizes the empirical nature of chemistry as a science. He asserts that chemistry is not just a theoretical discipline; instead, it requires rigorous experimentation and evidence-based conclusions to support its principles. This highlights the importance of observation and data in the scientific method, ensuring that chemistry remains rooted in factual reality rather than speculation.
In practice
In a science class discussion on the scientific method, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of experimental data.
I think chemistry is being frittered away by the hairsplitting of the organic chemists; we have new compounds discovered, which scarcely differ from the known ones and when discovered are valueless-very illustrations perhaps of their refinements in analysis, but very little aiding the progress of true science.
I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.
It is on record that when a young aspirant asked Faraday the secret of his success as a scientific investigator, he replied, 'The secret is comprised in three words- Work, Finish, Publish.'
When I consider the multitude of associated forces which are diffused through nature - when I think of that calm balancing of their energies which enables those most powerful in themselves, most destructive to the world's creatures and economy, to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation, I rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the beneficence, and grandeur, beyond our language to express, of the Great Disposer of us all.
Water is to me, I confess, a phenomenon which continually awakens new feelings of wonder as often as I view it.
It is right that we should stand by and act on our principles; but not right to hold them in obstinate blindness, or retain them when proved to be erroneous.
So, influenced by these advisors and this hope, I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work, as they had long besought me to do.
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.
I always think of space-time as being the real substance of space, and the galaxies and the stars just like the foam on the ocean.
The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.
We're always, by the way, in fundamental physics, always trying to investigate those things in which we don't understand the conclusions. After we've checked them enough, we're okay.
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
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