Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
Claude BernardRead
We must alter theory to adapt it to nature, but not nature to adapt it to theory.
Interpretation
Theories should be adjusted to reflect natural phenomena rather than forcing nature to fit our theories.
Claude Bernard emphasizes the importance of aligning scientific theories with the realities of nature. Instead of trying to reshape natural occurrences to fit pre-existing theories, we should develop our understanding of theories based on observations and facts derived from nature itself. This approach fosters a more accurate comprehension of the scientific world.
In practice
During a scientific conference discussing the latest research findings.
Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
When a physician is called to a patient, he should decide on the diagnosis, then the prognosis, and then the treatment. ... Physicians must know the evolution of the disease, its duration and gravity in order to predict its course and outcome. Here statistics intervene to guide physicians, by teaching them the proportion of mortal cases, and if observation has also shown that the successful and unsuccessful cases can be recognized by certain signs, then the prognosis is more certain.
The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.
When it comes to how neuroscience could help the wider public, the worst thing is when we make advances in, say, mindfulness, and then decide that everybody can potentially think their way to curing themselves or develop their own psycho-neuro-immune mechanisms for boosting cancer defenses.
Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility... It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission.
I really like science because it seems to be that place where you get the big picture, everything connects.
Mankind will not forever remain on Earth but, in the pursuit of light and space, will first timidly emerge from the bounds of the atmosphere and then advance until he has conquered the whole of circumsolar space.
It is one of the more striking generalizations of biochemistry - which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical textbooks - that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature.
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