No matter how counter-intuitive it may seem, basic research has proven over and over to be the lifeline of practical advances in medicine.
Arthur KornbergRead
Half of what we know is wrong, the purpose of science is to determine which half.
Interpretation
Science helps us discern truth from misconception.
This quote emphasizes the idea that our current understanding of the world is often flawed and incomplete. Science serves as a tool to sift through this knowledge, highlighting what is accurate and what is not, encouraging a continuous quest for truth and understanding in a world full of uncertainties.
In practice
In a scientific conference to emphasize the importance of questioning our assumptions.
No matter how counter-intuitive it may seem, basic research has proven over and over to be the lifeline of practical advances in medicine.
As in biomedical science, pioneering industrial inventions have not been mothered by necessity. Rather, inventions for which there was no commercial use only later became the commercial airplanes, xerography and lasers on which modern society depends.
The ride to orbit was impressive, as it always is. But once I got on board the space station, it really felt like I was visiting an old home; it felt very comfortable.
In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.
We were staring at the origin of a piece of our own bodies inside this 375-million-year-old fish. We had a fish with a wrist.
I don't believe that the ultimate theory will come by steady work along existing lines. We need something new. We can't predict what that will be or when we will find it because if we knew that, we would have found it already!
Perhaps in ten thousand years, the starry sky that humankind gazes upon will remain empty and silent. But perhaps tomorrow we'll wake up and find an alien spaceship the size of the Moon parked in orbit.
As in nature, all is ebb and tide, all is wave motion, so it seems that in all branches of industry, alternating currents - electric wave motion - will have the sway.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.