A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the evolution of scientific terminology and the challenges in naming new discoveries.
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi's quote reflects the complex process of assigning names to scientific discoveries, illustrating how various names are proposed, rejected, and eventually settled upon. It underscores the collaboration between scientists and editors in the world of academic publishing, as well as the importance of clarity in scientific communication, as seen in the eventual acceptance of 'ascorbic acid' for what we commonly know as Vitamin C.
Themes
ScienceDiscoveryNamingCollaborationAscorbic Acid
In practice
Example use cases
During a scientific conference on vitamin research, this quote could be used to illustrate the history of naming compounds.
More from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
All quotes →Science has helped us to understand and master ourselves, creating an elevated new form of human life, the wealth and beauty of which cannot be pictured today by the keenest imagination.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
It is impossible to encircle the hips of a girl with my right arm and hold her smile in my left hand, then proceed to study the two items separately. Similarly, we can not separate life from living matter, in order to study only living matter and its reactions. Inevitably, studying living matter and its reactions, we study life itself
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
The real scientist is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Similar quotes
What works most effectively for quelling disease outbreaks like Ebola is not quarantining huge populations. What works is focusing on and isolating the sick and those in direct contact with them as they are at highest risk of infection. This strategy worked with SARS, and it worked during the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Tom FriedenRead
If we think of our chromosomes - they carry our genetic material - as being like shoelaces, I work on the plastic tips at the end that protect them.
Elizabeth BlackburnRead
When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity ? And why turbulence ? I really believe he will have an answer for the first.
Werner HeisenbergRead
If we examine the accomplishments of man in his most advanced endeavors, in theory and in practice, we find that the cell has done all this long before him, with greater resourcefulness and much greater efficiency.
Albert ClaudeRead
People who dismiss science in favor of religion sometimes confuse the challenge of rigorously understanding the world with a deliberate intellectual exclusion that leads them to mistrust scientists and, to their detriment, what they discover.
Lisa RandallRead
Only six men in the world know about relativity. I am not one of them. When I ask them to explain, they confused me.
Albert EinsteinRead