On Exponential Growth (2020-)

"Exponentially growing systems are prevalent in nature, spanning all scales from biochemical reaction networks in single cells to food webs of ecosystems. How exponential growth emerges in nonlinear systems is mathematically unclear. […] The emergence of exponential growth from a multivariable nonlinear network is not mathematically intuitive. This indicates that the network structure and the flux functions of the modeled system must be subjected to constraints to result in long-term exponential dynamics." (Wei-Hsiang Lin et al, "Origin of exponential growth in nonlinear reaction networks", PNAS 117 (45), 2020)

"With cloud data lakes you typically pay for what you use, so your costs always align with your data volumes. Since there is only a single storage layer, less data movement across different systems, availability settings, and decoupled storage versus compute, you have isolated and minimized costs for just data storage. For greater cost allocation, most cloud data lakes offer buckets, or containers (filesystems, not to be confused with application containers), to store different layers of the data (e.g., raw versus transformed data). These containers allow you to have finer-grained cost allocation for different areas of your organization. Since data sources and volumes are growing exponentially, it is extremely important to allocate and optimize costs without limiting the volume or variety of data that can be stored." (Bennie Haelen & Dan Davis, "Delta Lake: Up and Running - Modern Data Lakehouse Architectures with Delta Lake", 2023)

"In effect, AI is transforming the entire globe into a gigantic meta-brain – a vast, interconnected web of intelligence, continuously fed by humans, AI models, robots, self-driving cars, and autonomous systems of every kind. As this process accelerates, critical data density reaches unprecedented levels, driving AI into a self-reinforcing spiral of perpetual improvement, where each new insight compounds into an unstoppable force of exponential progress." (Lars Tvede et al, "Hyperintelligence How the Universe Engineers Its Own Mind", 2025

"When we explore the mathematics behind the natural world, we encounter a fascinating phenomenon: the principle of combinatorial complexity. This principle explains the exponential increase in possibilities that arise when we combine even a small number of elements." (Lars Tvede et al, "Hyperintelligence How the Universe Engineers Its Own Mind", 2025)

"While the universe as a whole tends towards greater disorder, there are local, pinched pockets where complexity spontaneously increases. And such processes can, as we have seen, continue even over billions of years and come a very long way. We live in such a pocket, and the complexity in it is growing exponentially – and on some fronts hyperexponentially." (Lars Tvede et al, "Hyperintelligence How the Universe Engineers Its Own Mind", 2025)

On Exponential Growth (-1989)

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist." (Kenneth E Boulding, "General Systens Theory - The skeleton of science", Management Science Vol.2 (3), 1956)

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." (Albert A Bartlett, "Arithmetic, Population and Energy", 1969)

"However, and conversely, our models fall far short of representing the world fully. That is why we make mistakes and why we are regularly surprised. In our heads, we can keep track of only a few variables at one time. We often draw illogical conclusions from accurate assumptions, or logical conclusions from inaccurate assumptions. Most of us, for instance, are surprised by the amount of growth an exponential process can generate. Few of us can intuit how to damp oscillations in a complex system." (Donella H Meadows, "Limits to Growth", 1972) 

"Taking no action to solve these problems is equivalent of taking strong action. Every day of continued exponential growth brings the world system closer to the ultimate limits of that growth. A decision to do nothing is a decision to increase the risk of collapse." (Donella Meadows et al, "The Limits to Growth", 1972) 

"Every day of continued exponential growth brings the world system closer to the ultimate limits of that growth." (Mihajlo D Mesarovic, "Mankind at the Turning Point", 1974)

"The world's present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin. […] Despite their inherent incompatibilities, these two systems during the last two centuries have had one fundamental characteristic in common, namely exponential growth, which has made a reasonably stable coexistence possible. But, for various reasons, it is impossible for the matter-energy system to sustain exponential growth for more than a few tens of doublings, and this phase is by now almost over. The monetary system has no such constraints, and according to one of its most fundamental rules, it must continue to grow by compound interest." (Marion K Hubbert, "Two Intellectual Systems: Matter-energy and the Monetary Culture", [seminar] 1981)

"In fact, in all those cases in which the initial state is given with limited precision (if we assume that the space-time is continuous this is always the case because a generic point turns out to be completely specified only by an infinite amount of information, for example by an infinite string of numbers), we can observe a situation in which, when time becomes large, two trajectories emerge from the 'same' initial point. So, even though there is a deterministic situation from a mathematical point of view (the uniqueness theorem for ordinary differential equations is not in question), nevertheless the exponential growth of errors makes the time evolution self-independent from its past history and then nondeterministic in any practical sense." (David Ruelle, "Chaotic Evolution and Strange Attractors: The statistical analysis of time series for deterministic nonlinear systems", 1989)

📓On Literature: On Noise (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"And now the trumpets terribly, from far,

With rattling clangor, rouse the sleepy war.

The soldiers' shouts succeed the brazen sounds;

And heaven, from pole to pole, the noise rebounds." (Virgil, "Aeneid", 29–19 BC)

"There was no wind; there was no passing shadow on the deep shade of the night; there was no noise. The city lay behind him, lighted here and there, and starry worlds were hidden by the masonry of spire and roof that hardly made out any shapes against the sky. Dark and lonely distance lay around him everywhere, and the clocks were faintly striking two."(Charles Dickens, "Dombey and Son", cca. 1848)

"Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought." (Arthur Schopenhauer, "Parerga and Paralipomena", ["On Noise"] 1851)

"Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity." (Jane Austen, "Northanger abbey, and Persuasion", 1853)

"Never had the sky been more studded with stars and more charming, the trees more trembling, the odor of the grass more penetrating; never had the birds fallen asleep among the leaves with a sweeter noise; never had all the harmonies of universal serenity responded more thoroughly to the inward music of love; never had Marius been more captivated, more happy, more ecstatic." (Victor Hugo, "Saint Denis", 1887)

"Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid." (Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar", 1897)

"Real miracles make little noise! Essential events are so simple!" (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Letter to a Hostage", 1943)

"It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise." (Eric Hoffer, The New York Times, 1971)

"There are millions of chords. There are millions of numbers. And everyone forgets the one that is a zero. But without the zero, numbers are just arithmetic. Without the empty chord, music is just noise." (Terry Pratchett, "Soul Music", 1994)

"She had come to Aka to learn how to sing this world's tune, to dance its dance; and at last, she thought, away from the city's endless noise, she was beginning to hear the music and to learn how to move to it." (Ursula K Le Guin, "Hainish Cycle: The Telling", 2000)

"Well, all information looks like noise until you break the code." (Neal Stephenson, "Snow Crash", 2003)

See more quotes on noise in spiritual writings, Data Science, Systems Engineering, Graphical Representation, Business Intelligence

Cecil Powell - Collected Quotes

"Coming out of space and incident on the high atmosphere, there is a thin rain of charged particles known as the primary cosmic radiation." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"For the investigation of the cosmic radiation, it is necessary to solve two principal technical problems: First, to detect the radiation, to determine the masses, energy and transformation properties of the particles of which it is composed, and to study the nuclear transmutations which they produce. Second, to develop methods of making such observations throughout the atmosphere and at depths underground." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"In the first class are found the trigger mechanisms such as the Geiger counter and the scintillation counter. Such devices record the instants of pas sage of individual particles through the apparatus. Their most important advantages are (a) that they allow observations to be made of great statistical weight; and (b) that the relationship in time of the instants of passage of associated particles can be established. With modern instruments of this type, the time interval between the arrival of two charged particles can be  measured even although this is as small as one or two hundredths of a micro second. These devices have made possible contributions of the greatest importance to our knowledge of the subject, and they have proved especially valuable when the nature of the physical processes being studied has been well understood." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"In the second class of detectors are the devices for making manifest the tracks of particles; namely, the Wilson expansion chamber and the photo graphic plate. These instruments have the particular advantage, amongst others, that they allow a direct and detailed insight into the physical pro cesses which accompany the passage of charged particles through matter. On the other hand, it is arduous to employ them to obtain observations of great statistical weight. The two classes of instruments thus provide complemen tary information, and each has made a decisive contribution." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"The detailed study of the 'mass spectrum' of the incoming nuclei has an important bearing on the problem of the origin of the primary particles; but it is complicated by the fact that, because of their large charge, the particles rapidly lose energy in the atmosphere by making atomic and nuclear collisions." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"Today the study of the cosmic radiation is, in essence, the study of nuclear physics of the extreme high-energy region. Although the number of in coming particles is very small in comparison with those which are produced by the great machines, most of them are much more energetic than any which we can yet generate artificially; and in nuclear collisions they produce effects which cannot be simulated in the laboratory. The study of the resulting transmutations is therefore complementary to that which can be made at lower energies with the aid of the cyclotrons and synchrotrons." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"We are only at the beginning of our penetration into what appears to be a rich field of discovery. Already, however, it seems certain that our present theoretical approach has been limited by lack of essential information; and that the world of the mesons is far more complex than has hitherto been visualized in the most brilliant theoretical speculations. The fast protons and α-particles generated by the cyclotrons are not sufficiently energetic to pro duce these more massive mesons, but this may become possible when the proton synchrotrons now under construction come into operation." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1940-1949)

"We all know that chance, fortune, fate or destiny - call it what you will - has played a considerable part in many of the great discoveries in science. We do not know how many, for all scientists who have hit on something new have not disclosed exactly how it happened." (Alexander Fleming, [Nobel lecture] 1945) 

"It may be that while we think we are masters of the situation we are merely pawns being moved about on the board of life by some superior power." (Alexander Fleming, [Nobel lecture] 1945)

"A simple calculation shows that from the classical theory follows that we should find a broadening of the beam with the maximum intensity on the place of the beam without field. However, from the quantum theory follows that we should find there no intensity at all, and deflected molecules on both sides. The beam should split up in two beams corresponding to the two orientations of the magnet. The experiment decided in favor of the quantum theory." (Otto Stern, "The method of molecular rays", [Nobel lecture], 1946)

"The classical theory is a grandiose conception. The same fundamental laws govern the movements of the stars, the fall of this piece of chalk, and the fall of molecules. But it turned out that the extrapolation to the molecules did not hold in some respects. The theory had to be changed in order to describe the laws governing the movements of the molecules and even more of the electrons. And it was at this point that the molecular ray method proved its value. Here the experiment did not just check the results of the theory on which there was practically no doubt anyway, but gave a decisive answer in cases where the theory was uncertain and even gave contradictory answers." (Otto Stern, "The method of molecular rays", [Nobel lecture], 1946)

"The essential point is that the classical theory and the quantum theory predict quite differently the behavior of the atomic magnets in a magnetic field. The classical theory predicts that the atomic magnets assume all possible directions with respect to the direction of the magnetic field. On the other hand, the quantum theory predicts that we shall find only two directions parallel and antiparallel to the field ( new theory, the old one gave also the direction perpendicular to the field)." (Otto Stern, "The method of molecular rays", [Nobel lecture], 1946)

"Art and science can best grow and develop in a society which cherishes freedom and which shows respect for the needs, the happiness and the dignity of human beings." (Carl Cori, [Nobel lecture] 1947)

"Now the most striking feature of the atmospheric air at high levels is that it is ionized, and for that reason the spherical shell surrounding the earth at the levels with which we are concerned is called the ionosphere. It has, of course, been suspected for many years that when there is an aurora1 display, yielding intense luminosity, the upper atmosphere must be strongly ionized like the gas in a Geissler tube." (Edward V Appleton, "The ionosphere", [Nobel lecture" 1947) 

"On the practical side of applications, ionospheric research has provided the basic ideas underlying the development of practical radiolocation of solid objects, for both the pulse-modulation and the frequency-modulation methods of measuring the distance of a reflecting surface by radio means have been used in the techniques of radar. Also, since we now have a fair understanding of the way in which the ionization in the reflecting layers varies through the day, through the season, and through the sunspot cycle, it is possible to forecast what I may call the 'ionospheric weather' some time ahead. There has thus developed, on the practical side, the subject of 'ionospheric forecasting' by which it is possible to forecast, say, three months ahead, the most suitable wavelengths for use at any time of the day, over any distance of transmission, at any part of the world. In this way, scientific work conducted in the first instance with the object of exploring the wonders of the world around us, is now indicating how nation can speak unto nation with greater clarity and certainty." (Edward V Appleton, "The ionosphere", [Nobel lecture" 1947)

"The simplest explanation was that a neutral particle had collided with a nucleus and ejected two mesons, but this was rejected since one would expect to find very many more of such cases occurring in the lead plate in the gas. As these were not found, it was concluded that the forked track did not represent a collision process at all, but a case of spontaneous integration of an unstable particle." (Patrick M S Blackett, "Cloud chamber researches in nuclear physics and cosmic radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1948) 

🏅Nobel Lectures (1980-1989)

"At any one time there is a natural tendency among physicists to believe that we already know the essential ingredients of a comprehensive theory. But each time a new frontier of observation is broached we inevitably discover new phenomena which force us to modify substantially our previous conceptions. I believe this process to be unending, that the delights and challenges of unexpected discovery will continue always." (Val Logsdon, [Nobel lecture] 1980)

"Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous. In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. And, alas, a temptation to pronounce it, similar to an acute itching, becomes an obsession which doesn't allow one to think of anything else. That is why a poet chooses internal or external exile. It is not certain, however, that he is motivated exclusively by his concern with actuality. He may also desire to free himself from it and elsewhere, in other countries, on other shores, to recover, at least for short moments, his true vocation - which is to contemplate Being." (Czeslaw Milosz, [Nobel lecture] 1980) 

"Cognitive introspective psychology and related cognitive science can no longer be ignored experimentally, or written off as 'a science of epiphenomena', nor either as something that must, in principle, reduce eventually to neurophysiology. The events of inner experience, as emergent properties of brain processes, become themselves explanatory causal constructs in their own right, interacting at their own level with their own laws and dynamics. The whole world of inner experience (the world of the humanities) long rejected by 20th century scientific materialism, thus becomes recognized and included within the domain of science."(Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"Earlier contentions that the right hemisphere is not even conscious largely gave way by the mid seventies to an intermediate position conceding that the mute hemisphere may be conscious at some lower elemental levels, but claiming that it lacks the higher, reflective, self-conscious kind of inner awareness that is special to the human mind and is needed, so it is said, to qualify the right conscious system as a 'self' or 'person'. Self awareness in particular is reported, on the basis of mirror tests mainly, to be a predominantly human attribute and is rated by developmental as well as by evolutionary standards to be a highly advanced phase of conscious awareness." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"One of the more important things to come out of the split-brain work, as an indirect spin-off, is a revised concept of the nature of consciousness and its fundamental relation to brain processing. The key development here is a switch from prior non-causal, parallelist views to a new causal, or 'interactionist' interpretation that ascribes to inner experience an integral causal control role in brain function and behavior. In effect, and without resorting to dualist views, the mental forces and properties of the conscious mind are restored to the brain of objective science from which they had long been excluded on materialist-behaviorist principles." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"Where there used to be a chasm and irreconcilable conflict between the scientific and the traditional humanistic views of man and the world, we now perceive a continuum. A unifying new interpretative framework emerges with far reaching impact not only for science but for those ultimate value-belief guidelines by which mankind has tried to live and find meaning." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture] 1981)

"There are almost unlimited possibilities for making discoveries and to uncover the unknown. It is in the nature of the discovery that it can not be planned or programmed. On the contrary it consists of surprises and appears many times in the most unexpected places. However, the basis of the discovery is imagination, careful reasoning and experimentation where the use of knowledge created by those who came before is an important component." (Bengt I Samuelsson, [Nobel speech] 1982) 

"A black hole partitions the three-dimensional space into two regions: an inner region which is bounded by a smooth two-dimensional surface called the event horizon; and an outer region, external to the event horizon, which is asymptotically flat; and it is required (as a part of the definition) that no point in the inner region can communicate with any point of the outer region. This incommunicability is guaranteed by the impossibility of any light signal, originating in the inner region, crossing the event horizon. The requirement of asymptotic flatness of the outer region is equivalent to the requirement that the black hole is isolated in space and that far from the event horizon the space-time approaches the customary space-time of terrestrial physics." (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"It is the great glory of the quest for human knowledge that, while making some small contribution to that quest, we can also continue to learn and to take pleasure in learning." (William A Fowler, [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"The mathematical theory of black holes is a subject of immense complexity; but its study has convinced me of the basic truth of the ancient mottoes 'The simple is the seal of the true' and 'beauty is the splendor of truth.'" (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"Turning to the physical properties of the black holes, we can study them best by examining their reaction to external perturbations such as the incidence of waves of different sorts. Such studies reveal an analytic richness of the Kerr space-time which one could hardly have expected. This is not the occasion to elaborate on these technical matters. Let it suffice to say that contrary to every prior expectation, all the standard equations of mathematical physics can be solved exactly in the Kerr space-time. And the solutions predict a variety and range of physical phenomena which black holes must exhibit in their interaction with the world outside." (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"To apply tools of science, physicians must learn to think like scientists. They must acquire technical ability, taste in evaluating experiments, and a sense of creative adventure." (Michael S Brown, [Nobel  lecture] 1985)

"All science is based on models, and every scientific model comprises three distinct stages: statement of well-defined hypotheses; deduction of all the consequences of these hypotheses, and nothing but these consequences; confrontation of these consequences with observed data." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988

"However, mathematics is not and cannot be anything more than a tool, and all my work rests on the conviction that, in its use, the only two really fruitful stages in the scientific approach are, firstly, a thorough examination of the initial hypotheses; and secondly, a discussion of the meaning and empirical relevance of the results obtained. What remains is but tautological calculation, which is of interest only to the mathematician, and the mathematical rigour of the reasoning can never justify a theory based on postulates if these postulates do not correspond to the true nature of the observed phenomena." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988) 

"The use of even the most sophisticated forms of mathematics can never be considered as a guarantee of quality. Mathematics is, and can only be, a means of expression and reasoning. The real substance on which the economist works remains economic and social. Indeed, one must avoid the development of a complex mathematical apparatus whenever it is not strictly indispensable. Genuine progress never consists in a purely formal exposition, but always in the discovery of the guiding ideas which underlie any proof. It is these basic ideas which must be explicitly stated and discussed." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988)

"The submission to observed or experimental data is the golden rule which dominates any scientific discipline. Any theory whatever, if it is not verified by empirical evidence, has no scientific value and should be rejected. This is true, for example, of the contemporary theories of general economic equilibrium." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1930-1939)

"More than one way for doing the same thing is provided by the natural constitution of the nervous system. This luxury of means of compassing a given combination seems to offer the means of restitution of an act after its impairment or loss in one of its several forms." (Charles Sherrington, "Inhibition as a Coordinative Factor", [Nobel lecture] 1932) 

"I should like here to discuss the simpler kinds of particles and to consider what can be inferred about them from purely theoretical arguments. The simpler kinds of particle are: (i) the photons or light-quanta, of which light is composed; (ii) the electrons, and the recently discovered positrons (which appear to be a sort of mirror image of the electrons, differing from them only in the sign of their electric charge) ; (iii) the heavier particles - protons and neutrons." (Paul A M Dirac, "Theory of Electrons and Positrons", [Nobel lecture] 1933) 

"If we accept the view of complete symmetry between positive and negative electric charge so far as concerns the fundamental laws of Nature, we must regard it rather as an accident that the Earth (and presumably the whole solar system), contains a preponderance of negative electrons and positive protons. It is quite possible that for some of the stars it is the other way about, these stars being built up mainly of positrons and negative protons. In fact, there may be half the stars of each kind. The two kinds of stars would both show exactly the same spectra, and there would be no way of distinguishing them by present astronomical methods." (Paul A M Dirac, "Theory of Electrons and Positrons", [Nobel lecture] 1933) 

"Matter has been found by experimental physicists to be made up of small particles of various kinds, the particles of each kind being all exactly alike. Some of these kinds have definitely been shown to be composite, that is, to be composed of other particles of a simpler nature. But there are other kinds which have not been shown to be composite and which one expects will never be shown to be composite, so that one considers them as elementary and fundamental."  (Paul A M Dirac, "Theory of Electrons and Positrons", [Nobel lecture] 1933) 

"To get an interpretation of some modern experimental results one must suppose that particles can be created and annihilated. Thus if a particle is observed to come out from another particle, one can no longer be sure that the latter is composite. The former may have been created. The distinction between elementary particles and composite particles now becomes a matter of convenience. This reason alone is sufficient to compel one to give up the attractive philosophical idea that all matter is made up of one kind, or perhaps two kinds of bricks." (Paul A M Dirac, "Theory of Electrons and Positrons", [Nobel lecture] 1933) 

"A living cell requires energy not only for all its functions, but also for the maintenance of its structure. Without energy life would be extinguished instantaneously, and the cellular fabric would collapse." (Albert Szent-Györgyi,"Oxidation, Energy Transfer, and Vitamins", [Nobel lecture] 1937) 

"The goddess of learning is fabled to have sprung full-grown from the brain of Zeus, but it is seldom that a scientific conception is born in its final form, or owns a single parent. More often it is the product of a series of minds, each in turn modifying the ideas of those that came before, and providing material for those that come after. The electron is no exception." (George P Thomson, "Electronic Waves", [Nobel lecture] 1937)

"Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it is well known that the first and most important step towards its solution was made only nineteen years ago by the late Lord Rutherford, who started the method of the nuclear bombardments." (Enrico Fermi, [Nobel lecture] 1938) 

"No individual is alone responsible for a single stepping stone along the path of progress, and where the path is smooth progress is most rapid." (Ernest Lawrence, [Nobel lecture], 1939)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1900-1909)

"The circle within which the individual research worker, especially as an experimenter, can distinguish himself is continually shrinking in size. Consequently the progress of science today is not so much determined by brilliant achievements of individual workers, but rather by the planned collaboration of many observers." (Emil Fischer, "Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group", [Nobel lecture] 1902)

"[...] the veil behind which Nature has so carefully concealed her secrets is being lifted where the carbohydrates are concerned. Nevertheless, the chemical enigma of Life will not be solved until organic chemistry has mastered another, even more diffi cult subject, the proteins, in the same way as it has mastered the carbohydrates." (Emil Fischer, "Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group", [Nobel lecture] 1902)

"Essentially only one thing in life interests us: our psychical constitution, the mechanism of which was and is wrapped in darkness. All human resources, art, religion, literature, philosophy and historical sciences, all of them join in bringing light in this darkness." (, Ivan P Pavlov,"Physiology of Digestion", [Nobel lecture] 1904) 

"Each new discovery leaves in the brains of men seeds which make it possible for an ever-increasing number of minds of new generations to embrace even greater scientifi c concepts." (Alfred Nobel, "The Neuron Doctrine - Theory and Facts", [Nobel lecture] 1906) 

"[...] as for physics, it has developed remarkably as a precision science, in such a way that we can justifiably claim that the majority of all the greatest discoveries in physics are very largely based on the high degree of accuracy which can now be obtained in measurements made during the study of physical phenomena. [... Accuracy of measurement] is the very root, the essential condition, of our penetration deeper into the laws of physics - our only way to new discoveries." (K Bernhard Hasselberg, [Nobel Lecture] 1907)

"We must never, therefore, let ourselves fall into the way of thinking “ignorabimus” (“We shall never know”), but must have every confi dence that the day will dawn when even those processes of life which are still a puzzle today will cease to be inaccessible to us natural scientists." (Edward Buchner,"Cell-Free Fermentation", [Nobel lecture] 1907)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1910-1919)

"Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction." (Theodore Roosevelt, [Nobel lecture] 1910)

"Theories cannot claim to be indestructible. They are only the plough which the ploughman uses to draw his furrow and which he has every right to discard for another one, of improved design, after the harvest." (Paul Sabatier, "The Method of Direct Hydrogenation by Catalysis" [Nobel lecture] 1912) 

"The regularities in the phenomena which physical science endeavors to uncover are called the laws of nature. The name is actually very appropriate. Just as legal laws regulate actions and behavior under certain conditions but do not try to regulate all action and behavior, the laws of physics also determine the behavior of its objects of interest only under certain well-defined conditions but leave much freedom otherwise." (Eugene P Wigner, "Events, Laws of Nature, and Invariance principles", [Nobel lecture] 1914)

"The importance of accurate knowledge in a case of this sort was foreseen long ago by Plato, who perhaps drew his inspiration from yet more ancient knowledge, coming from wise men of the Far East. As I have often quoted, he said: “If from any art that which concerns weighing and measuring and arithmetic is taken away, how little is left of that art!” The implication of this wise saying as regards the study of atomic weights is clear; any increase in the accuracy of the determination of these quantities must of necessity add greatly to our insight into the profound mysteries with which chemistry has to deal." (Theodore W Richards,"Atomic Weights", [Nobel lecture] 1914) 

"An indispensable hypothesis, even though still far from being a guarantee of success, is however the pursuit of a specific aim, whose lighted beacon, even by initial failures, is not betrayed." (Max Planck, "The Genesis and Present State of Development of the Quantum Theory", [Nobel lecture] 1918)

"[...] even if the radiation formula should prove itself to be absolutely accurate, it would after all be only an interpolation…it would still only have, within the signifi cance of a happily chosen interpolation formula, a strictly limited value. For this reason, I busied myself, from then on, that is, from the day of its establishment, with the task of elucidating a true physical character for the formula [...]" (Max Planck, "The Genesis and Present State of Development of the Quantum Theory", [Nobel lecture] 1918)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1920-1929)

"[...] generally speaking it is better, where possible in natural science, to study objects of research independently of the accidents of their historical development." (Walther Nernst,"Studies in Chemical Thermodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1920) 

"As scientific men we have all, no doubt, felt that our fellow men have become more and more satisfying as fish have taken up their work which has been put often to base uses, which must lead to disaster. But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance. On our plane, knowledge and ignorance are the immemorial adversaries. Scientific men can hardly escape the charge of ignorance with regard to the precise effect of the impact of modern science upon the mode of living of the people and upon their civilisation. For them, such a charge is worse than that of crime." (Frederick Soddy, [Nobel lecture] 1922)

"Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this [atomic] energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dreams of science fi ction; but the remote possibility must always be considered that the energy once liberated will be completely uncontrollable and by its intense violence detonate all neighboring substances. In this event the whole of the hydrogen on the earth might be transformed at once and the success of the experiment published at large to the universe as a new star." (Francis W Aston,"Mass Spectra and Isotopes", [Nobel lecture] 1922) 

"Those whose lives are so filled with the romance of discovery, whose years are a holiday of exploration, do not need, do not deserve, payment for their toil. Their work itself is adequate reward, they have more happiness already than their share…" (Archibald V Hill, [Nobel lecture] 1922)

"A prominent literary writer recently spoke of the electron as 'only the latest scientific hypothesis which will in its turn give way to the abra-ca-da-bra of tomorrow." (Robert A Millikan, "The Electron and the Light-Quant from the Experimental Point of View", [Nobel lecture] 1923) 

"Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment." (Robert A Millikan, "The Electron and the Light-Quant from the Experimental Point of View", [Nobel Lecture] 1923)

"The fundamental laws of chemistry which are well known to you and which are laws of discontinuity (discontinuity between chemical species, and discontinuous variation according to the 'multiple proportions' in the composition of species made from the same simple bodies) then become immediately clear: they are imposed solely by the condition that the molecule constituting a compound contains a necessarily whole number of atoms of each of the simple bodies combined in this compound." (Jean-Baptiste Perrin, "Discontinuous Structure of Matter", [Nobel lecture] 1926)

"We are, finally, forced to think that each grain only follows the portion of liquid surrounding it, in the same way that an indicating buoy indicates and analyses the movement all the better if it is smaller: a float follows the movement of the sea more faithfully than a battleship. We obtain from this an essential property of what is called a liquid in equilibrium: its repose is only an illusion due to the imperfection of our senses, and what we call equilibrium is a certain well-defined permanent system of a perfectly irregular agitation. This is an experimental fact in which no hypothesis plays any part." ("Discontinuous Structure of Matter", [Nobel lecture] 1926)

"The benefits of science are not only material ones. The truths that science teaches are of common interest the world over. The language of science is universal, and is a powerful force in bringing the peoples of the world closer together." (Arthur Compton, [Nobel lecture] 1927) 

"And this is the ultimate lesson that our knowledge of the mode of transmission of typhus has taught us: Man carries on his skin a parasite, the louse. Civilization rids him of it. Should man regress, should he allow himself to resemble a primitive beast, the louse begins to multiply again and treats man as he deserves, as a brute beast." (Charles Nicolle, "Investigations on Typhus", [Nobel lecture] 1928) 

"Any scientific problem must be attacked by research into detail; the natural scientist did not win his victories until he left meditation on the great riddles of the world and began a careful study of special problems; our knowledge - of more general associations and of far-reaching laws - has grown out of the results of such research." (Hans von Euler, "Fermentation of Sugars and Fermentative Enzymes", [Nobel lecture] 1929)