I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.
Interpretation
The universe is intricately designed to amaze and perplex those who study it.
Arthur C. Clarke's quote suggests that the universe operates in a way that continually surprises astronomers and scientists, highlighting the complexity and wonder of the cosmos. It implies that despite our advancements in understanding, there is always more to discover, and this ongoing astonishment fuels the curiosity and passion of those who study the stars and planets.
In practice
In a speech about scientific exploration, one might say, 'As Arthur C. Clarke noted, the universe is designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.'
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
The nuclear industry has this amazing record, even equipment from generations one and two. But nuclear mishaps tend to come in these big events - Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now Fukushima - so it's more visible.
I give them experiments and they respond with speeches.
The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal.
Science is not formal logic-it needs the free play of the mind in as great a degree as any other creative art. It is true that this is a gift which can hardly be taught, but its growth can be encouraged in those who already posses it.
nd now that man's history has been for the first time systematically considered as a whole, and has been found to be, like all other phenomena, subject to invariable laws, the preparatory labours of modern Science are ended.
When it comes to how neuroscience could help the wider public, the worst thing is when we make advances in, say, mindfulness, and then decide that everybody can potentially think their way to curing themselves or develop their own psycho-neuro-immune mechanisms for boosting cancer defenses.
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