During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the increasing specialization in scientific knowledge over time.
Isaac Asimov points out that during the century following Isaac Newton's discoveries, an individual could potentially gain a comprehensive understanding of all scientific fields. However, by the year 1800, the exponential growth of scientific knowledge made it impossible for any one person to master all disciplines, emphasizing the necessity for specialization in modern science.
In practice
In a lecture on the evolution of scientific understanding, this quote can illustrate the increasing complexity of modern science.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally, and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing
There is a great difference between discoveries and inventions. With discoveries, one can always be skeptical, and many surprises can take place. In the case of inventions, surprises can really only occur for people who have not had anything to do with it.
A lot of scientists hate writing. Most scientists love being in the lab and doing the work and when the work is done, they are finished.
'Closed timelike curve' is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past.
It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.
A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.
The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable to all those branches of thought in which the essential features are expressible with numbers.
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