Half of what we know is wrong, the purpose of science is to determine which half.
Arthur KornbergRead
No matter how counter-intuitive it may seem, basic research has proven over and over to be the lifeline of practical advances in medicine.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Basic research is essential for making significant medical advancements.
Arthur Kornberg emphasizes the importance of fundamental research in medicine, asserting that practical breakthroughs and improvements in medical practices often stem from basic scientific inquiries. This highlights the necessity of investing in foundational studies, as they provide the groundwork for innovative solutions and medical advancements.
Themes
ResearchMedicineAdvancementScienceBasic
In practice
Example use cases
A scientist could use this quote in a presentation to advocate for funding basic research.
More from Arthur Kornberg
All quotes βAs in biomedical science, pioneering industrial inventions have not been mothered by necessity. Rather, inventions for which there was no commercial use only later became the commercial airplanes, xerography and lasers on which modern society depends.
Arthur KornbergRead
Similar quotes
The growth of our understanding of the world through science weakens some of the motivation which makes people believers. But that's not the same thing as saying they're incompatible. It's just that I think some of the traditional reasons for belief, going back thousands of years, are rather undermined.
Peter HiggsRead
Ninety-nine percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct.
E. O. WilsonRead
Tune your television to any channel it doesn't receive and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this ancient remnant of the Big Bang. The next time you complain that there is nothing on, remember that you can always watch the birth of the universe.
Bill BrysonRead
The recent developments in cosmology strongly suggest that the universe may be the ultimate free lunch.
Alan GuthRead
Although the theory of relativity makes the greatest of demands on the ability for abstract thought, still it fulfills the traditional requirements of science insofar as it permits a division of the world into subject and object (observer and observed) and, hence, a clear formulation of the law of causality.
Werner HeisenbergRead
The application of algebra to geometry ... has immortalized the name of Descartes, and constitutes the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences.
John Stuart MillRead