We journalists... are also extremely impressed with scientists, and we will, frankly, print just about any wacky thing they tell read more

We journalists... are also extremely impressed with scientists, and we will, frankly, print just about any wacky thing they tell us, especially if it involves outer space.

It sounds paradoxical to say the attainment of scientific truth has been effected, to a great extent, by the help read more

It sounds paradoxical to say the attainment of scientific truth has been effected, to a great extent, by the help of scientific errors

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great
scientist. They are wrong: it is read more

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great
scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a read more

I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.

A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an read more

A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved,
science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, read more

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved,
science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and
form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute read more

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say that there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

And computers are getting smarter all the time: scientists tell us that soon they will be able to talk to read more

And computers are getting smarter all the time: scientists tell us that soon they will be able to talk to us. (By they I mean computers: I doubt scientists will ever be able to talk to us.)

May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure read more

May every young scientist remember... and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure of his apparatus to give consistent results may once or twice in a lifetime conceal an important discovery.