Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Interpretation
Science often yields great insight with minimal factual input.
Mark Twain highlights the intriguing nature of science, emphasizing that even a small amount of factual information can lead to extensive and profound speculation. This reflects the idea that curiosity and imagination can turn limited facts into expansive understanding and theories, showcasing science as a field rich with possibilities derived from basic observations.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of inquiry, one might use this quote to illustrate how curiosity drives scientific discovery.
Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.
Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.
Information: the negative reciprocal value of probability.
The human race has a yearning to explore. That's part of our biological and psychological makeup.
You know, entropy is associated thermodynamically, in systems involving heat, with disorder. And in an analogous way, information is associated with disorder, which seems paradoxical. But when you think about it, a bit of information is a surprise. If you already knew what the message contained, there would be no new information in it.
Researchers keep identifying new species, but they have no idea about the life cycle of a given species or its other hosts. They cut open an animal and find a new species. Where did it come from? What effect does it have on its host? What is its next host? They don't know and they don't have time to find out, because there are too many other species waiting to be discovered and described.
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