Home > Work > This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
21 " New England has lower background radiation, Colorado is much higher, "
― John Brockman , This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
22 " Mark Twain said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, it’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so. "
23 " You may know that a prisoner’s guilt is independent of whether you’re hungry or not, but she’ll still seem like a better parole candidate when you’ve recently had a snack. "
24 " yet cancer rates in New England are higher than in Colorado—an inverse effect. "
25 " philosophers are premature ejaculators who decant too soon, spilling their seminal genius to no effect. "
26 " Some places in the world, such as Ramsar, Iran, have a tenfold higher background radiation, "
27 " but no higher cancer rates have been discovered there. "
28 " Since string theorists have failed to propose any way to confirm string theory experimentally, string theory should be retired, "
29 " field linguists (they’re like field biologists with really good microphones) "
30 " Human beings are the unequivocal world champions of niceness. We act kindly not only toward people who belong to our own social groups or can reciprocate our generosity but also toward strangers thousands of miles away who will never know we helped them. All around the world, people sacrifice their resources, well-being, and even their lives in the service of others. "
31 " people judge people as less moral when they act altruistically and gain in the process than when they gain from clearly nonaltruistic behavior. "
32 " new ideas take over a vacuum formerly occupied by no well-articulated idea at all. That happens for either of two reasons: new ideas responding to new information made possible by new measurements, or else responding to new “outlooks.” (Among historians of science, the term used rather than the inadequate English term “outlook” is the German Fragestellung—literally, the posing of a question, but more broadly meaning a worldview from which that question can arise.) "
33 " people view “tainted altruism” as worse than no altruism at all. "
34 " Information is a measure of uncertainty reduced. "
35 " new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. "
36 " in its quest to prove itself as the supreme form of secular knowledge, science has inadvertently elevated itself into a theology. "
37 " Science is not a practice so much as an ideology. "
38 " seminary students in a rush were far less likely to help a stranger than were seminary students who weren’t late, in the experiment performed by John M. Darley and Dan Batson). "
39 " The story emerging from these studies is not yet complete, but it has already led to fascinating insights. Thanks to its microbes, a baby can better digest its mother’s milk. And your ability to digest carbohydrates relies to a significant extent on enzymes that can be made only by genes present not in you but in your microbiome. "
40 " Filters fail when they know us too well and when they don’t know us well enough. "