At no period of [Michael Faraday's] unmatched career was he interested in utility. He was absorbed in disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in later periods, physical riddles. As far as he cared, the question of utility was never raised. Any suspicion of utility would have restricted his restless curiosity. In the end, utility resulted, but it was never a criterion to which his ceaseless experimentation could be subjected.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge over practical utility in scientific exploration.
Abraham Flexner reflects on Michael Faraday's scientific career, illustrating that Faraday's primary motivation was not the practical application of his discoveries, but rather a relentless pursuit of understanding the fundamental mysteries of the universe. The quote highlights how Faraday's focus on exploration and curiosity led to significant advancements in both chemistry and physics, suggesting that true innovation often arises from inquisitiveness rather than a desire for immediate utility.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of scientific inquiry, this quote can be used to illustrate how curiosity drives innovation.
We feel strongly that the spirit characteristic of America at its noblest, above all the pursuit of higher learning, cannot admit of any conditions as to personnel other than those designed to promote the objects for which this institution is established, and particularly with no regard whatever to accidents of race, creed, or sex.
It's inevitable that we'll have some form of designer children, fueled not just by the science but by parents' hard-wired desire to give their children every advantage.
No longer is science asked to understand the world, or to improve any part of it. It is asked instead to immediately justify everything that happens... spectacular domination has cut down the vast tree of scientific knowledge in order to make itself a truncheon.
Wherever modern Science has exploded a superstitious fable or even a picturesque error, she has replaced it with a grander and even more poetical truth.
In evolution, as in all areas of science, our knowledge is incomplete. But the entire success of the scientific enterprise has depended on an insistence that these gaps be filled by natural explanations, logically derived from confirmable evidence. Because "intelligent design" theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.
Those who study the stars have God for a teacher.
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.
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