Maalaga Blogger Template

Science Stupidity Serendipity and Salavation

Scientist QuotePedia

Considering the dearth of quotes by scientists of our generation, I started collecting quotes by various scientists during their talks, conferences or similar events.
After getting the consent by the respective scientist to use their quote, I will keep posting the new quotes and hope to increase our repertoire of elegant thoughts.
(Anyone can use these quotes but the corresponding scientist author should also be mentioned alongwith it. The quote remains sole property of scientist and society)

Trypansomiac qutoes

1. I know this is the last presentation, you all must be waiting for the beer outside.
I will try to make my talk worth listening than the wait for beer.
(Quotes at the start of presentation at Trypanosome Microsymposium, Brussels)
2. Don’t worry! There are not 109 slides, I just didn’t delete many.
(quoted during his talk at trypanosome microsymposium, Brussels)
3. All the day people were knocking genes in and out. We are struggling to just knock down our gene.
(quoted while talking about difficulty in getting their gene of interest knocked down, at trypansome microsymposium, Brussels)

How can you prevent it from going there there there and there!
Prof.Maria Laura Bolognesi
(talking about medicines that act on many sites and lead to side effects, quoted during Trypanosome microsymposium, Brussels)

1. I just retired 10 years ago!
(She took retirement just to devote major time on RESEARCH relieving from other academic responsibilities,quoted during Trypanosome microsymposium, Brussels)

2. I ALWAYS enjoy small meetings like this one.
(Quoted about Trypanosome microsymposium, Brussels)
Prof.Linda Gilmore

Posted by Vishal Kalel at 11:57 AM 0 comments

Quoting my own quotes!

I am die hard fan of scientists who write something more than just manuscripts. one of such marvels is "I wish I had made you angry earlier" a "Fantastic!" book by Chemistry Nobel laureate Max Perutz. I always had this pride in fact that chemistry nobel is won mostly by research in biology field. (also it is the reason why I chose chemistry for my Bachelors though I love biology). Exploratory gave me access to NCL library in Pune during my bachelors. Apart from the lenghty naps in NCL gardens, Most of the time I spent was on reading non scientific material like biographies. "Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life" was one of them which really made me incline towards appreciation of elegant lady scientists.

During masters degree I was fortunate to have Prof.S.R.Gadre to teach us FORTRAN programming. The only lecture I could enjoy beyond anything. Though I didnt get his one rupee prize which he would offer to person who answers his question, my imagination could play only during his lectures. I started collecting quotes by famous scientists as well as general quotes in those days. I would go to Jaykar library in the newspaper archive section (I doubt any student even knows it exists). There I would collect all old newspapers especially Asian Age which featured collection of quotes everyday. Times of India Sunday edition also had such column but in after many years I realised that they are just repeating a certain set.

I collected only those quotes or thoughts which were very unique and with subtle meanings. Most of these Quotes are by Einstein. Maybe media just doesent spread quotes by other scientists!
But nowadays I found a new source of quotes about science or scientist. Myself!
I started unknowingly few years before by writing my first Quote "Present will be past in the future"
The thought seems very absurd and not unique. But for me it still signifies coherence of universe, the eternal cycle. The frequency of my mind playing has increased dramatically here in Germany, the land of great scientists and thinkers. Why should it be the legacy of quotes by scientists who have passed away?

Here I will be posting my quotes. crazy people might understand them easily
(for intelligent people I will add an explanation to make them understand)

"Doing science is following signs"
(The quote has actually two different meaning. word "Signs" is phonetically similar to "Science.
"Doing science is following SIGNS" and "Doing science is following SCIENCE"
The second meaning signifies the morale for scientists that doing real science means you have to follow it too.)

"To have a great idea, one must have 100 good ideas and 1000 silly ideas.. plus a crazy mind still thinking for more!

"I am a way!"
(a simple mistyped spacebar in "Away" changed the whole meaning)

More I read, I realise Lesser I know.
(I just realised how ignorant I am about my knowledge and also amazed by the beauty of science people developed over years! )


Books are my best friends, because they don't get bored of me!

Books are my best friends, because they cannot run away from me!

Saturday night. no beer.. no halloween... no trace of sleepiness.... reading research papers!!
(The passion for science cannot be forced, but can arise on its own in proper environment)

Nowadays scientists are meniac for high-throughput experiments and getting dozens of crystal structures. Thank god, I can still IMAGINE without any of them.

If at first you don't succeed..... Dont mind!
But at thousand and first time if you still dont succeed.. There is second Eddison in the making....!!!

To err is human.
to keep erring is also human..
But to learn from your errors is.... scientist!!

People work years at workbench, produce tonnes of articles and move science by inches..
I will prefer sitting quiet and with an idea move the entire science by miles!

Many people do donkeywork, but no donkey does human work.

I know I think. Does this cow or that tree knows it?
(Conclusion of late night 3 hour discussion with friends on consciousness, maybe beer effect!)

We are fastly evolving into apes!
(Vishal's theory of D'evolution!)

Doing experiments very carefully might make you miss some great discovery.
(Thought it might yield a paper or so..)

A PhD is a cruel way of science to make more PhD's.

Ironically Man made Gods!

more coming soon....

Posted by Vishal Kalel at 1:12 PM 4 comments

Theorems on scientific thinking


1. Silver hypothesis
A bottle of shaving cream was lying on my wash basin for many months. I would watch it every now and then while passing across it. The bottle was named “Silver” in (obviously) silver letters. I was so used to watch it every now and then like many other things around me. On one day while I was shaving, I just had a closer look on the bottle and to my utter shock the name on the bottle was “Sliver”!
In science, some things may go unnoticed for years. Having just a closer look would help in clear and straightforward understanding of things looking disguisingly simple.

2. Simply complex rule
Simple phenomena may be complex in nature while Complex phenomena can be explained by a simple principle

3. Analogy rule
Beauty of science doesn’t lie in the questions it asks about nature but about finding the answers to those questions hidden in nature itself. When one sees at atomic level (a few femtometers, angstronomical scale in my words) it seems electrons are moving around the nucleus. On going up the same scale in some astronomical units, planetary motion seems perfectly similar to atomic model. (I don’t remember which model was established first!)
While drudging in one field, focusing full attention on one highly specific topic in science might yield negligible advances, looking out for a simple analogy between things happening around with the problem in hand will simplify the problem itself.

4. Crowd model of competition in science
Every now and then I feel I found a nice topic for my (on the brink of failure) PhD till the next moment I search Pubmed to find almost two dozen papers on it. If a topic seems promising many groups would start working on it leading to stiff competition in that field. Some groups do dare to think outside the box to find an offshoot where it seems nobody has explored it. Walking straight on this path may seem highly secure due to absence of competitors; it might land up in a big stumble on next few steps to realize that now going back seems impossible.
Keep track of track on which you are walking and even on its sides and keep looking ahead too!
(I am preparing pictorial depiction of this hypothesis designed by me while walking on Ruhr-University U-Bahn platform)

5. Diminished principality hypothesis
Attaching too much importance to one thing or process, might bias ourselves to neglect the remaining ones. Consider A is controlling B,C,D and so on, in diminished principality hypothesis anything other than A is assumed to be controlling others instead of A. The hypothesis is applied to all the variables in question and in end one realizes B controls A,C,D so on…… Isnt it funny!

More silly stuff coming soon..!
Posted by Vishal Kalel at 5:53 PM 0 comments