Any living cell carries with it the experience of a billion years of experimentation by its ancestors.
Max DelbruckRead
A strong feeling of adventure is animating those who are working on bacterial viruses, a feeling that they have a small part in the great drive towards a fundamental problem in biology.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the excitement and importance of scientific exploration, particularly in the field of biology.
Max Delbruck emphasizes the thrill and significance scientists feel while researching bacterial viruses, suggesting that their contributions are integral to understanding major biological challenges. This sense of adventure motivates them to participate in the broader quest for knowledge in biology and the mysteries of life.
In practice
In a speech about scientific exploration at a conference, one could mention this quote to inspire young scientists.
Any living cell carries with it the experience of a billion years of experimentation by its ancestors.
I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.
No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even then be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement? On the contrary, has not science the noble privilege of carrying on its controversies without personal quarrels?
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.
Perception plays a vital role in the diagnosis of bipolar illness. Symptoms are perceived through the categories of psychiatric medicine at a given moment in history, categories which are continually shifting and being named or renamed.
Physics has a history of synthesizing many phenomena into a few theories.
After that cancellation [of the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas, after $2 billion had been spent on it], we physicists learned that we have to sing for our supper. ... The Cold War is over. You can't simply say "Russia!" to Congress, and they whip out their checkbook and say, "How much?" We have to tell the people why this atom-smasher is going to benefit their lives.
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