No new creation or destruction of matter is within the reach of chemical agency. We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen.
Interpretation
Matter cannot be created or destroyed through chemical processes, similar to how planets cannot be added or removed from the solar system.
This quote by John Dalton asserts the principle of conservation of mass, which states that during a chemical reaction, the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products. Dalton emphasizes the impossibility of creating or destroying matter at a fundamental level, reinforcing the understanding that matter is neither generated nor eliminated, akin to the fixed nature of celestial bodies within our solar system.
In practice
This quote can be used in a science class when discussing the laws of chemistry.
Matter, though divisible in an extreme degree, is nevertheless not infinitely divisible. That is, there must be some point beyond which we cannot go in the division of matter. ... I have chosen the word “atom” to signify these ultimate particles.
The first colony on Mars is not going to be built by a private company. How are you going to make money? You're not.
[Marijuana] doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works... [I]t is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana. We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
Imaginary time is a new dimension, at right angles to ordinary, real time.
As mechanistic biologists, we are hoping that by understanding how the virus works at the molecular level, we will be able to predict with more accuracy how it will evolve.
Biomimicry is basically taking a design challenge and then finding an ecosystem that's already solved that challenge, and literally trying to emulate what you learn.
There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance.
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