It is hard to look at the tumor and not come away with the feeling that one has encountered a powerful monster in its infancy
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead
Science is among the most profoundly human of our activities. Far from being subsumed by the dehumanising effects of technology, science, in fact, remains our last stand against it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science is a deeply human activity that should not be overshadowed by technology's dehumanizing effects.
Siddhartha Mukherjee's quote emphasizes the intrinsic value of science as a quintessentially human endeavor. Rather than allowing technology to diminish our humanity, science serves as a beacon of human intellect and morality, protecting our essence and fostering our understanding of the world.
Themes
ScienceHumanityTechnologyKnowledgeMorality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of STEM education, this quote can highlight the human aspects of scientific inquiry.
More from Siddhartha Mukherjee
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One day, I had a patient who was going through chemotherapy who came to me and said, 'I'm going to go on with what I'm doing, but I need you to tell me what it is that I'm fighting.'
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Nearly every one of the genes that turns out to be a key player in cancer has a vital role in the normal physiology of an organism. The genes that enable our brains and blood cells to develop are implicated in cancer.
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It remains an astonishing, disturbing fact that in America - a nation where nearly every new drug is subjected to rigorous scrutiny as a potential carcinogen, and even the bare hint of a substance's link to cancer ignites a firestorm of public hysteria and media anxiety - one of the most potent and common carcinogens known to humans can be freely bought and sold at every corner store for a few dollars.
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It felt—nearly twenty-five hundred years after Hippocrates had naively coined the overarching term karkinos—that modern oncology was hardly any more sophisticated in its taxonomy of cancer.
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead
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