I can say, if I like, that social insects behave like the working parts of an immense central nervous system: the termite colony is an enormous brain on millions of legs; the individual termite is a mobile neurone.
Lewis ThomasRead
Well, biology today as I see it has an amiable look - quite different from the 19th-century view that the whole arrangement of nature is hostile, 'red in tooth and claw.' That came about because people misread Darwin's 'survival of the fittest.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
Biology is often perceived positively today, contrasting with the more hostile interpretations of nature in the past.
In this quote, Lewis Thomas highlights a shift in perception regarding biology and nature. He contrasts the contemporary view, which finds beauty and harmony in biological arrangements, with the grim interpretation from the 19th century that emphasized nature's brutality. This misinterpretation stems from a misunderstanding of Darwinian concepts, particularly the phrase 'survival of the fittest,' which is often misused to portray life as a relentless struggle rather than a complex and cooperative system.
Themes
BiologyNatureSurvivalDarwinPerceptionHarmony
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech at a science conference to emphasize the positive aspects of biological studies.
More from Lewis Thomas
All quotes →I suggest that the introductory courses in science, at all levels from grade school through college, be radically revised. Leave the fundamentals, the so-called basics, aside for a while, and concentrate the attention of all students on the things that are not known.
Lewis ThomasRead
I maintain, despite the moment's evidence against the claim, that we are born and grow up with a fondness for each other, and we have genes for that. We can be talked out of it, for the genetic message is like a distant music, and some of us are hard-of-hearing. Societies are noisy affairs, drowning out the sound of ourselves and our connection.
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Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.
Lewis ThomasRead
It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.
Lewis ThomasRead
In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.
Lewis ThomasRead
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