Our criteria is that it's okay to invest in companies so long as they stop lobbying in Washington, stop exploring for new hydrocarbons, and sit down with every one else to plan to keep 80 percent of the reserves in the ground.
Bill MckibbenRead
In a small lab, if you make a mistake, you can go in the next day and fix it. But here, when you are committed to spending a hundred thousand or a million dollars, you can't fix it later. You need to have a system of checks and balances internally. In particle physics, that's just part of the structure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mistakes in large-scale projects are more costly and harder to fix than in smaller ones, necessitating a robust system of checks.
This quote emphasizes the importance of careful planning and internal systems of checks and balances in high-stakes environments, particularly in the field of particle physics. Unlike smaller experiments where errors can be corrected quickly, larger projects require thorough oversight to avoid costly mistakes that cannot be easily rectified.
Themes
MistakeSystemChecksBalancesParticlePhysics
In practice
Example use cases
In a scientific conference discussing best practices for research funding and oversight.
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