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6ecb9f8 Statistically it was not greatly different than it had been for previous generations, but anecdotally it had become so prominent that every problem was noticed and remarked. The cognitive error called ease of representation thrust them into a space where every problem they witnessed convinced them they were in an unprecedented colapse. They were getting depressed. pessimism science science-fiction society Kim Stanley Robinson
b574650 The pollenless trees were genomed to repel bugs and birds; the stagnant air reeked of insecticide. life revolutionary science David Mitchell
23c6874 Like Cheyenne Mountain, today's fast good conceals remarkable technological advances behind an ordinary-looking facade. health science truth Eric Schlosser
da20778 Ordinary experience, from waking second to second, is in fact highly synthetic (in the sense of combinative or constructive), and made of a complexity of strands, past memories and present perceptions, times and places, private and public history, hopelessly beyond science's powers to analyse. It is quintessentially 'wild' ... unphilosophical, irrational uncontrollable, incalculable. phenomenology science John Fowles
20eac0a The fact that establishment scientists say something doesn't exist doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It only means that science has no effective way to measure it. inspirational-quotes intuition intuition-quotes laurie-nadel laurie-nadel-quotes power-of-thoughts quote-about-life quote-of-the-day quote-of-the-week quotes-twitter science wayne-dyer Laurie Nadel
36f1e20 "The man is mollified. The systematic juices leave off bubbling, the fires sink, the coals are scattered. But the anger is still there, apart. Energy is never lost; a primal law. -"Mad House" insanity science Richard Matheson
9bf72f8 "As the ninth-century legal scholar Malik ibn Anas, founder of the Maliki school of law, once quipped, "This religion is a science, so pay close attention to those from whom you learn it." islam religion science Reza Aslan
ff93de4 "There's the claim that the only progress made is in posing problems that scientists can answer. That philosophy never has the means to answer problems--it's just biding its time till the scientists arrive on the scene. You hear this quite often. There is, among some scientists, a real anti-philosophical bias. The sense that philosophy will eventually disappear. But there's a lot of philosophical progress, it's just a progress that's very hard to see. It's very hard to see because we see animal-rights bigotry human-rights philosophy prejudice progress science thinking thought Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
089156f The real point is this: We don't know where to go because we don't know what we are. Do you want to go back to living in a sewer-pipe? And eating other people's garbage? Because that's what rats do. But the fact is, we aren't rats anymore. We are something Dr. Schultz has made. Something new. jenner rats science Robert C. O'Brien
e275412 "Tatal meu mi-a povestit odata de un tovaras de detentie emaciat, din lagarul de concentrare de la Buchenwald, care era de formatie matematician. Poti spune unele lucruri despre oameni dupa ceea ce le vine in minte cand aud cuvantul "pi". Pentru un "matematician", "pi" reprezinta raportul dintre circumferinta si diametrul unui cerc. Daca l-as fi intrebat pe tatal meu, care avea doar sapte clase, ar fi spus ca "pi" este o placinta rotunda, cu mere. Intr-o zi, in pofida discrepantei dintre ei, detinutul matematician i-a dat tatalui meu sa rezolve o enigma matematica. Tatal meu s-a gandit la ea timp de cateva zile, dar nu a reusit sa-i dea de capat. Cand s-a intalnit din nou cu matematicianul, i-a cerut solutia. Omul nu a vrut sa i-o dea, zicandu-i ca trebuie s-o gaseasca el insusi. Dupa catva timp, tatal meu l-a rugat din nou, dar omul tinea la secretul sau ca la ochii din cap. Tatal meu a incercat sa-si ignore curiozitatea, dar nu a putut. Inconjurat de duhoare si moarte, el a facut o obsesie pentru cunoasterea raspunsului. Pana la urma, celalalt detinut i-a propus un targ - el ii va dezvalui solutia enigmei in schimbul coltului lui de paine. Nu stiu ce greutate avea tatal meu atunci, dar cand trupele americane au eliberat lagarul, el cantarea 38 de kilograme. Cu toate acestea, dorinta lui de a sti a fost atat de puternica, incat a renuntat la paine in schimbul raspunsului. Aveam aproapre douazeci de ani cand tatal meu mi-a povestit episodul acesta, care a avut un impact enorm asupra mea. Familia tatalui meu pierise, bunurile ii fusesera confiscate, el insusi era infometat, emaciat si batut. Nazistii il despuiasera de tot ce era palpabil, si totusi imboldul lui de a gandi, de a rationa si de a cunoaste supravietuise. Desi era intemnitat, mintea ii era libera sa cutreiere, si asa a si facut. Am inteles atunci ca a cauta cunoasterea este cea mai omeneasca dintre toate dorintele si ca, oricat de diferite ar fi circumstantele noastre, pasiunea mea de a intelege lumea a fost stimulata de acelasi instinct ca si a tatalui meu." human-evolution science Leonard Mlodinow
b442a25 Fewer than eight hundred Americans earn a Ph.D. in physics each year. Worldwide, the number is probably in the thousands. And yet from this small pool comes the discovery and innovation that shapes the way we live and think. From X-rays, lasers, radio waves, transistors, atomic energy--and atomic weapons--to our view of space and time, and the nature of the universe, all this has arisen from this dedicated pool of individuals. To be a physicist is to have an enormous potential to change the world. influence physics science Leonard Mlodinow
ad0ed9a Live for the future. A cosmic history read out of signs so subtle and mathematical that only the effort of a huge transtemporal group of powerful minds could ever have teased it out; but then those who came later could be given the whole story, with its unexplored edges there to take off into. human-story progress science Kim Stanley Robinson
8d560a7 A lot of who you were in middle age was determined before you had a chance to manipulate, control, or eve understand the things around you. It was no mystery, he thought, why some old people's minds returned to their youth; the wonder of those years, the discoveries, the first experience with the dirty secret of death, and the first stirrings of lust and love were indelible, drawn in luminous colors on clean canvas. Indeed, the first sex act was so mind-boggling that most people could still remember it clearly twenty, thirty, sixty years later. humor inspirational life love lust old romance science sex wisdom Nelson DeMille
a05db45 Der wesentliche Punkt ist hier, dass Menschen mit szientistischem Gedankengut wie Atkins oder Dawkins nicht unterscheiden zwischen Mechanismus und Urheberschaft. creation creationism dawkins religion science scientism John C. Lennox
0ae0554 As the historian Edward Grant explained, 'It is indisputable that modern science emerged in the seventeenth century in Western Europe and nowhere else'. ... The crucial question is: Why? My answer to this question is as brief as it is unoriginal: Christianity depicted God as a rational, responsive, dependable, and omnipotent being and the universe as his personal creation, thus having a rational, lawful, stable structure, awaiting human comprehension. science world-history Rodney Stark
7faf2bf The second or third time I watched Stamets show a video of a Cordyceps doing its diabolical thing to an ant--commandeering its body, making it do its bidding, and then exploding a mushroom from its brain in order to disseminate its genes--it occurred to me that Stamets and that poor ant had rather a lot in common. Fungi haven't killed him, it's true, and he probably knows enough about their wiles to head off that fate. But it's also true that this man's life--his brain!--has been utterly taken over by fungi; he has dedicated himself to their cause, speaking for the mushrooms in the same way that Dr. Seuss's Lorax speaks for the trees. He disseminates fungal spores far and wide, helping them, whether by mail order or sheer dint of his enthusiasm, to vastly expand their range and spread their message. brain cordyceps fungus science stamets Michael Pollan
65c36d0 Of course, I reject atheism because I believe Christianity to be true. But I also reject it because I am a scientist. How could I be impressed with a worldview that undermines the very rationality we need to do science? Science and God mix very well. It is science and atheism that do not mix. christianity science John C. Lennox
4956162 Det er ikke sikkert at alkohol dreper alle sykdomsbasiller. Nar det gjelder neshorneri, vet man ikke noe forelobig. cure health rhinoceros science Eugène Ionesco
aa34709 When facts are treated as if they were opinions, when there is no universal standard by which to determine truth in law, in science, in scholarship, or in the reporting of events of the day, the world becomes a place where lies become true, where people can believe what they want to believe, where there is no possibility of reaching any conclusion not predetermined by those who interpret the official, divinely inspired text. dominionism fanaticism religion science truth Chris Hedges
b985de4 "So perhaps spiritual experience is simply what happens in the space that opens up in the mind when "all mean egotism vanishes." Wonders (and terrors) we're ordinarily defended against flow into our awareness; the far ends of the sensory spectrum, which are normally invisible to us, our senses can suddenly admit. While the ego sleeps, the mind plays, proposing unexpected patterns of thought and new rays of relation. The gulf between self and world, that no-man's-land which in ordinary hours the ego so vigilantly patrols, closes down, allowing us to feel less separate and more connected, "part and particle" of some larger entity. Whether we call that entity Nature, the Mind at Large, or God hardly matters. But it seems to be in the crucible of that merging that death loses some of its sting." psychology science spiritual Michael Pollan
a99d675 What is it precisely, that they are doing when they are doing science. Are they refining their instruments for observation or discovering new aspects of reality? science Rebecca Goldstein
1d3a763 "To measure market needs, I would watch carefully what customers do, not simply listen to what they say. Watching how customers actually use a product provides much more reliable information than can be gleaned from a verbal interview or a focus group. Thus, observations indicate that auto users today require a minimum cruising range (that is, the distance that can be driven without refueling) of about 125 to 150 miles; most electric vehicles only offer a minimum cruising range of 50 to 80 miles. Similarly, drivers seem to require cars that accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than 10 seconds (necessary primarily to merge safely into highspeed traffic from freeway entrance ramps); most electric vehicles take nearly 20 seconds to get there. And, finally, buyers in the mainstream market demand a wide array of options, but it would be impossible for electric vehicle manufacturers to offer a similar variety within the small initial unit volumes that will characterize that business. According to almost any definition of functionality used for the vertical axis of our proposed chart, the electric vehicle will be deficient compared to a gasolinepowered car. This information is not sufficient to characterize electric vehicles as disruptive, however. They will only be disruptive if we find that they are also on a trajectory of improvement that might someday make them competitive in parts of the mainstream market. innovation science technology Clayton M Christensen
b6c67cd "Eureka!"s like the one Archimedes had when he stepped in a bathtub and suddenly realized the answer to the problem of testing metals' density are few and far between, and mostly it's just trying and failing and trying something else, feeding in data and eliminating variables and staring at the results, trying to figure out where you went wrong." science Connie Willis
508c997 When the neglect is severe, the patient may behave almost as if one half of the universe had abruptly ceased to exist in any meaningful form.... Patients with unilateral neglect behave not only as if nothing were actually happening in the left hemispace, but also as if nothing of any importance could be expected to occur there. nonfiction science Oliver Sacks
4ea4ac3 Researchers may have some conscious or unconscious bias, either because of a strongly held prior belief or because a positive finding would be better for their career. (No one ever gets rich or famous by proving what doesn't cause cancer.) science statistics Charles Wheelan
ad59697 Pero la vida no sabe a donde se dirige. No tiene un plan a largo plazo. No tiene una finalidad en mente. No tiene una finalidad en mente. No hay mente que abrigue una finalidad. (...) La vida es derrochadora, ciega, indiferente en este nivel a las nociones de justicia. science Carl Sagan e Ann Druyan
b2b77b7 Our tests, our approaches...are ridiculously inadequate. They only show us deficits, they do not show us powers; they only show us puzzles and schemata, when we need to see music, narrative, play, a being conducting itself spontaneously in its own natural way. science Oliver Sacks
d21aa66 We must respect that silence and make our decisions and judgments based upon science and fact and simple old-fashioned common sense - a commodity absent for too long from those in governmental elevatia, where its employ would do us all much good. facts government judgments science Mark Dunn
c139406 A union of literary and scientific cultures - there was not the dissociation of sensibility that was so soon to come ... Davy himself was writing (and sometimes publishing) a good deal of poetry at the time; his notebooks mix details of chemical experiments, poems, and philosophical reflections all together; and these did not seem to exist in separate compartments in his mind. childhood literature science science-and-arts Oliver Sacks
77f4af6 It takes a special energy, over and above one's creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled. It is a gamble as all creative projects must be, for the new direction may not turn out to be productive at all. creativity science Oliver Sacks
d3521a9 As a species we are a predominantly intelligent and exploratory animal, and beliefs harnessed to this fact will be the most beneficial for us. A belief in the validity of the acquisition of knowledge and a scientific understanding of the world we live in, the creation and appreciation of aesthetic phenomena in all their many forms, and the broadening and deepening of our range of experiences in day-to-day living, is rapidly becoming the 'religion' of our time. Experience and understanding are our rather abstract god-figures, and ignorance and stupidity will make them angry. Our schools and universities are our religious training centres, our libraries, museums, art galleries, theatres, concert halls and sports arenas are our places of communal worship. At home we worship with our books. newspapers. magazines, radios and television sets. In a sense, we still believe in an after-life, because part of the reward obtained from our creative works is the feeling that, through them, we will 'live on' after we are dead. Like all religions, this one has its dangers, but if we have to have one, and it seems that we do, then it certainly appears to be the one most suitable for the unique biological qualities of our species. Its adoption by an ever-growing majority of the world population can serve as a compensating and reassuring source of optimism to set against the pessimism (...) concerning our immediate future as a surviving species. belief immortality literature religion science Desmond Morris
e17c362 [photography]... wanted to understand, to master for myself, all the processes involved, and to manipulate them in my own way. childhood photography science Oliver Sacks
be58650 I was on the shy side at school (one school report called me 'diffident') and Braefield had added a special timidity, but when I had a natural wonder... I lost all my diffidence, and freely approached others, all my fear forgotten. curiosity science shyness Oliver Sacks
7c0c913 Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. science technology wonder Paul Theroux
0463d30 When the farmer bores the tap hole into the trunk, the tree sends sap to heal the wound. Sure enough, by the next spring, only an extremely observant and knowledgeable person can find the old tap scars. When the wind blows, the tree senses that a branch might break. A broken branch is a much more serious wound than a little clean tap hole in the trunk. Therefore, the tree withholds the sap from the tap hole in case it needs to rush a bunch of sap to a broken limb somewhere. Once the wind subsides, the sap starts flowing again through the little tap hole. Sentient beings, anyone? You bet. Fearfully and wonderfully made. plant-life science Joel Salatin
4b9251c "And I often dream of chemistry at night, dreams that conflate the past and the present, the grid of the periodic table transformed to the grid of Manhattan. [...] Sometimes, too, I dream of the indecipherable language of tin (a confused memory, perhaps, of its plaintive "cry"). But my favorite dream is of going to the opera (I am Hafnium), sharing a box at the Met with the other heavy transition metals--my old and valued friends--Tantalum, Rhenium, Osmium, Iridium, Platinum, Gold, and Tungsten." manhattan science Oliver Sacks
103304a The dangers that we face are part of the process, now well underway, of the unification of the planet--in language, culture, science, and commerce. They are both driven by the identical technological advances--this critical and delicate time coincides with the widespread availability of nuclear weapons. At the present rate of change, it seems likely that in the period between now and 2061, the turning point for the human species will have been reached. If we survive until then, our passage to the next apparition of Halley's Comet should be comparatively easy. That perihelion passage will be in March 2134, when the comet will make an unusually close encounter with the Earth. It will come as close as 0.09AU or 14 million kilometers, less than half the distance of the 1910 encounter. It will then be brighter than the brightest star. If there are those to do the commemorating, the years 2061 and 2134 should be celebrated for the courage, intelligence, and common purpose of a species forced by urgent necessity to come to its senses. comet human-species humanity inspirationalal science survival Carl Sagan Ann Druyan
3ab57d6 You know, the aspirants believe this is the only true existence. That everything outside is an illusion, a shadow play created by the ancestor gods to cradle us until we can build our own tailored reality and Upload into it. That's comforting, isn't it. science singularity theology transhumanism Richard K. Morgan
4a4b2f0 To this day, scientists know of only two layers of sediment 'broadly distributed across several continents that exhibit coeval abundance peaks in a comprehensive assemblage of cosmic impact markers, including nanodiamonds, high-temperature quenched spherules, high-temperature melt-glass, carbon spherules, iridium and aciniform carbon.' These layers are found at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary 65 million years ago, when it has long been agreed that a gigantic cosmic impact in the Gulf of Mexico caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, and at the Younger Dryas Boundary 12,800 years ago. cosmic-impact science younger-dryas Graham Hancock
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