QuoteProject
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Ernest Rutherford
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote implies that all sciences ultimately stem from physics, while some areas are merely about gathering data without deeper understanding.

Ernest Rutherford's quote suggests a hierarchy within the scientific disciplines, arguing that true science revolves around the principles of physics. It contrasts active scientific inquiry with merely collecting facts or data, implying that gathering information without interpretation or underlying principles does not contribute to true scientific understanding. This reflects the importance of fundamental theories that connect different branches of science.

Themes

SciencePhysicsDataUnderstandingKnowledge

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on the importance of core scientific principles.

More from Ernest Rutherford

That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is stamp collecting.
Ernest RutherfordRead
The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.
Ernest RutherfordRead
I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity.
Ernest RutherfordRead
Now I know what the atom looks like.
Ernest RutherfordRead
If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.
Ernest RutherfordRead
Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist.
Ernest RutherfordRead

Similar quotes

Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.
Wernher Von BraunRead
The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper
E. O. WilsonRead
A cardinal principle that we must not stray from - no exceptions - is that your genetic information is your business in terms of who sees it. Nobody should be gaining access to that information without your explicit permission, and nobody should be requiring you to take a genetic test unless you decide that that's what you want to do.
Francis CollinsRead
When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion - the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right.
Isaac AsimovRead
Artificial selection turned the wolf into the shepherd, and the wild grasses into wheat and corn. In fact, almost every plant and animal that we eat today was bred from a wild, less edible ancestor. If artificial selection can work such profound changes in only ten or fifteen thousand years, what can natural selection do operating over billions of years? The answer is all the beauty and diversity of life.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
Ants make up two-thirds of the biomass of all the insects. There are millions of species of organisms and we know almost nothing about them.
E. O. WilsonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.