Stuart Firestein Quotes

#1. Being a scientist requires having faith in uncertainty, finding pleasure in mystery, and learning to cultivate doubt. There is no surer way to screw up an experiment than to be certain of its outcome.

Stuart Firestein

#2. In other words, scientists don't concentrate on what they know, which is considerable but also miniscule, but rather on what they don't know. The one big fact is that science traffics in ignorance, cultivates it, and is driven by it.

Stuart Firestein

#3. Persistence in the face of failure is of course important, but it is not the same thing as dedication or passion. Persistence is a discipline that you learn; devotion is a dedication you can't ignore.

Stuart Firestein

#4. Knowledge is a big subject. Ignorance is bigger. And it is more interesting.

Stuart Firestein

#5. Ignorance follows knowledge, not the other way around.

Stuart Firestein

#6. Failures provide a certain kind of feedback that is then used in a process we call error correction. With this simple loop in place, knowing that something doesn't work can be as valuable as knowing that it does. Of course once again there are

Stuart Firestein

#7. Daniel Wolpert, of Cambridge University, is fond of pointing out that IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer is capable of beating a grand master at the game of chess, but no computer has yet been developed that can move a chess piece from one square to another as well as a 3-year-old child.

Stuart Firestein

#8. If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent. - Alan Turing

Stuart Firestein

#9. Failure is also a test of dedication. It is a way to measure what you are passionate about and how deep that passion runs and how dependable it is. Science may seem methodical but it demands passion.

Stuart Firestein