Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the pursuit of simplicity and order in both nature through science and in human thought through mathematics.
Edward Teller points out the parallel efforts of science and mathematics in their quests for understanding. Science seeks to uncover the underlying logic and simplicity present in the natural world, while mathematics strives to impose a structure and clarity on human reasoning, suggesting that both fields aim for an elegant and coherent worldview that simplifies complexity.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of STEM education, I quoted, 'Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature.'
In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago ... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning.
The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.
The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.
Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.
If the experience of science teaches anything, it's that the world is very strange and surprising. The many revolutions in science have certainly shown that.
If you ask almost any of them, 'Do you stand behind your theory? Is this the answer?' I think almost everyone would say, 'No, no, no. I'm just trying to expand the range of possibilities.' We really don't know what's going on.
Science is now the craft of the manipulation, substitution and deflection of the forces of nature. What I see coming is a gigantic slaughterhouse, an Auschwitz, in which valuable enzymes, hormones, and so on will be extracted instead of gold teeth.
Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.
The missing link in cosmology is the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.