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Quotes of the Day for 8 April 2004 - Biology

Okay, after chemistry and physics I should have known the biologists would want their turn. I enjoyed biology back in high school, or at least I enjoyed the biology teachers. I managed to spend an amazing amount of time testing water in swamps, sifting bugs out of dirt, and building aquaria, largely because I didn't have to deal with the nonsense that ruled the rest of the school. So here are some thoughts on Biology, which probably concludes our little series.

A thing is right if it tends to preserve the stability, integrity, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong if it tends otherwise.
     - Aldo Leopold, 1887 - 1948

If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.
     - J. B. S. Haldane, 1892 - 1964

The "control of nature" is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man.
     - Rachel Carson, 1907 - 1964

Physics investigates the essential nature of the world, and biology describes a local bump. Psychology, human psychology, describes a bump on the bump.
     - Willard Van Orman Quine, 1908 - 2000

It is a monstrous abuse of the science of biology to teach it only in the laboratory. Life belongs in the fields, in the ponds, on the mountains, and by the seashore.
     - James G. Needham, 1888 - 1957

Trying to determine the structure of a protein by UV spectroscopy was like trying to determine the structure of a piano by listening to the sound it made while being dropped down a flight of stairs.
     - Francis Crick

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