This investigation has yielded an unanticipated result that reaction of cyanic acid with ammonia gives urea, a noteworthy result in as much as it provides an example of the artificial production of an organic, indeed a so-called animal, substance from inorganic substances.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the significance of synthesizing organic compounds from inorganic materials, marking a milestone in chemistry.
Friedrich Wohler's statement reflects a groundbreaking moment in the field of chemistry, where he discovered that cyanic acid can react with ammonia to produce urea. This result is particularly noteworthy because it demonstrates that organic compounds, typically associated with living organisms, can be artificially created from inorganic substances, challenging the previous belief that organic compounds could only originate from biological sources.
In practice
In a lecture about the history of chemistry, this quote can demonstrate the evolution of scientific understanding.
It was remarkable to see from space how predictable people are. Our homes and towns are almost all in places with moderate temperatures, and they generally have the same shape - a thinly occupied outer blob of suburb surrounding a densely populated core, all based around a ready source of water.
When I wrote 'Neuromancer', I had a list in my head of all the things the future was assumed to be which it would not be in the book I was about to write. In a sense, I intended 'Neuromancer', among other things, to be a critique of all the aspects of science fiction that no longer satisfied me.
For me, the level at which natural selection causes the phenomenon of adaptation is the level of the replicator - the gene.
At one point consciousness-altering devices like the microscope and telescope were criminalized for exactly the same reasons that psychedelic plants were banned in later years. They allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos.
We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.
Theory-free science makes about as much sense as value-free politics.
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