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.
I hope that some day the practice of producing cowpox in human beings will spread over the world - when that day comes, there will be no more smallpox.
You can make a stack high enough to reach the moon and back, and only then will you have used your 100 billion hamburgers. This is terrifying news to cows.
If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we're ever likely to do that is by going into space.
Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.
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.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.