Quotes
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1
“The world which we
inhabit is composed of the materials, not of the earth which was the immediate
predecessor of the present, but of the earth which, in ascending from the
present, we consider as the third, and which had preceded the land that was above
the surface of the sea, while our present land was yet beneath the water of the
ocean.” (p63)
This was a quote by geologist James Hutton (18th century) about something related to plate tectonic. I tried to read this quote many times and still failed to understand what he was talking about. Although this text is old, it still bears relevance today. Whenever I read something in a scientific journal, I get the same confused and perplexed feeling I get when reading the passage by James Hutton. For example, the article on the confirmation of gravity wave last week. The language was not made for the general public and I was very confused after I finished reading the article. This quote stands in contrast to the writing style of Bill Bryson and it represents what an average scientific publication might be like.
This was a quote by geologist James Hutton (18th century) about something related to plate tectonic. I tried to read this quote many times and still failed to understand what he was talking about. Although this text is old, it still bears relevance today. Whenever I read something in a scientific journal, I get the same confused and perplexed feeling I get when reading the passage by James Hutton. For example, the article on the confirmation of gravity wave last week. The language was not made for the general public and I was very confused after I finished reading the article. This quote stands in contrast to the writing style of Bill Bryson and it represents what an average scientific publication might be like.
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2
“Much of California will
float off and become a kind of Madagascar of the Pacific. Africa will push
northward into Europe, squeezing the Mediterranean out of existence and
thrusting up a chain of mountains of Himalayan majesty running from Paris to
Calcutta. Australia will colonize the islands to its north and connect by some
isthmian umbilicus to Asia” (p182)
It is impossible to imagine drastic transformation in the landscape of Earth, but it will change in the next millions of years. The power of plate tectonic is immense. The quote is significant because it demonstrates how the Earth will move on after we are gone. The power of plate tectonic poses questions, although the answer does not have to come for millions of years. What will happen to the people of Italy, Greece, and Turkey? What will happen to California and its climate? Those are hard questions and not easily answerable. All we know for sure is that Earth will change and we just have to adapt.
It is impossible to imagine drastic transformation in the landscape of Earth, but it will change in the next millions of years. The power of plate tectonic is immense. The quote is significant because it demonstrates how the Earth will move on after we are gone. The power of plate tectonic poses questions, although the answer does not have to come for millions of years. What will happen to the people of Italy, Greece, and Turkey? What will happen to California and its climate? Those are hard questions and not easily answerable. All we know for sure is that Earth will change and we just have to adapt.
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3
“The Sun is ninety-three million miles
away. To move a couple of thousand feet closer to it is like taking one step
closer to a bushfire in Australia when you are standing in Ohio,” (p258)
The simile by Bill Bryson demonstrated the vastness of the universe and how little we have explored of it. The furthest distance a human has been away from Earth was to the moon. The vastness of the solar system should leave your jaw-dropped. It is impossible to grasp the size and scale and we, as humans, may never explore beyond the boundary of the solar system, let alone the entire universe. The quote is important because it demonstrates the limitations of our capabilities and how far we still have to go to fully understand the universe. We have just taken one small step into exploration of the cosmos and have not taken the giant leap forward.
The simile by Bill Bryson demonstrated the vastness of the universe and how little we have explored of it. The furthest distance a human has been away from Earth was to the moon. The vastness of the solar system should leave your jaw-dropped. It is impossible to grasp the size and scale and we, as humans, may never explore beyond the boundary of the solar system, let alone the entire universe. The quote is important because it demonstrates the limitations of our capabilities and how far we still have to go to fully understand the universe. We have just taken one small step into exploration of the cosmos and have not taken the giant leap forward.
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4
“Humans are here
today because our particular line never fractured—never once at any of the
billion points that could have erased us from history.” (p349)
This was said by Stephen Jay Gould, an American scientist, and was quoted by Bill Bryson. If you trace you family back 64 generations to the time of Roman Empire, your existence depended on the reproductive success of 118 individuals, that’s 1 followed by 18 zeros (p398). If you go even further back, to the time multi-celled organisms first appeared. The tiniest deviation from evolution would mean you probably might be a sand worm right now. This quote was significant because it showed human existences were and always will be fragile. For all you know, the super volcano under Yellowstone will become active again in the next couple seconds and you and the human race are about to be killed off. If this does not make you treasure your life, nothing will.
This was said by Stephen Jay Gould, an American scientist, and was quoted by Bill Bryson. If you trace you family back 64 generations to the time of Roman Empire, your existence depended on the reproductive success of 118 individuals, that’s 1 followed by 18 zeros (p398). If you go even further back, to the time multi-celled organisms first appeared. The tiniest deviation from evolution would mean you probably might be a sand worm right now. This quote was significant because it showed human existences were and always will be fragile. For all you know, the super volcano under Yellowstone will become active again in the next couple seconds and you and the human race are about to be killed off. If this does not make you treasure your life, nothing will.
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5
“It was a little, I gathered,
like following a road randomly out of London and finding that eventually it
ends at John O’Groats, and concluding from this that anyone in London must
therefore have come from the north of Scotland…..In this sense, according to
Harding, every gene is a different highway, and we have only barely begun to
map the routes” (p465)
This analogy summarized pretty much every single scientific principle out there. It began with a single minded approach (John O’Groats) that was eventually challenged by someone. They produced their own theory, which was in turn challenged by someone else. In this way, tons of “highways” were built and new “highways” constantly appear on the map. An example of this analogy would the theory of plate tectonic. The orginal theory was that continents have never moved since creation (p175). Alfred Wegner proposed the theory of plate tectonic because of fossil evidence on different continents. This was challenged by a theory that claimed there used to be “bridges” between different continents (the whole map of earth was one large landmass with no ocean). Although the process of scientific discovery may seem weird and ludicrous, it worked.
This analogy summarized pretty much every single scientific principle out there. It began with a single minded approach (John O’Groats) that was eventually challenged by someone. They produced their own theory, which was in turn challenged by someone else. In this way, tons of “highways” were built and new “highways” constantly appear on the map. An example of this analogy would the theory of plate tectonic. The orginal theory was that continents have never moved since creation (p175). Alfred Wegner proposed the theory of plate tectonic because of fossil evidence on different continents. This was challenged by a theory that claimed there used to be “bridges” between different continents (the whole map of earth was one large landmass with no ocean). Although the process of scientific discovery may seem weird and ludicrous, it worked.