Science

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Interpreting scientific research literature

Author unknown

What was said	What was meant
It has long been known that...	I haven't bothered to look up the reference, but...
Of great theoretical and practical importance...	Interesting to me...
While it has not been possible to provide definite answers to these questions...	The experiment didn't work out, but I figured I could at least get a publication...
The operant conditioning method was chosen to study the problem.	The guy across the hall already had the equipment set up.
Three of the samples of Group A were chosen for study...	The others didn't make sense...
Typical/selected results are shown...	The best/only results are shown...
Agreement with the theoretical prediction is excellent/good/satisfactory.	Agreement is fair/poor/imaginary.
It is suggested/believed/proposed that...	I think that...
It is generally agreed that...	The guy across the hall thinks so, too.
It is clear that much additional work will be required before a complete understanding...	I don't understand it.
Unfortunately, a quantitative theory that accounts for these results has not yet been formulated.	I can't think of one and neither has the guy across the hall.
Correct within an order of magnitude.	Wrong.
Thanks are due to Sam Zebeard for assistance with the experiments and to Jane Glotz for valuable discussions...	Zebeard did the work; Glotz explained it.

Scientific quotes

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I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Sir Issac Newton

Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.

Vera Rubin

Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.

Samuel Butler

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in confederacy against him.

Jonathan Swift

The thinking of a genius does not proceed logically. It leaps with great ellipses. It pulls knowledge from god knows where.

Dorothy Thompson

It requires a very unusual mind to make an analysis of the obvious.

Alfred North Whitehead

The demonstration that no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery, and known forms of force can be united in a practical machine by which man shall fly long distances through the air seems to the writer as complete as it is possible for the demonstration of any physical fact to be.

Professor Simon Newcomb, 1903

Policy is sabotage originating in higher echelons.

Maurice Ewing

Correlation does not imply causation.

elementary statistics

Experiment and theory often show remarkable agreement when performed in the same laboratory.

Daniel Bershader

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut

Computer scientist

Any research organization requires generous measures of the following:

1. Social space for personal initiative and creativity.

2. Time for ideas to grow to maturity.

3. Openness to debate and criticism.

4. Hospitality towards novelty.

5. Respect for specialized expertise.

John Ziman, Prometheus Bound: Science in a Dynamic Steady State

Cambridge University Press, 1994

Quotes from Albert Einstein

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity...and I'm not sure about the universe.

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend upon the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.

Everything should be made as simple as possible...but not simpler.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science.

The pioneers of a warless world are the young men who refuse military service.

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Last modified 1/31/10