Alan Stern Quotes

One of the distinguishing features of anything that aspires to the name of science is the reproducibility of experimental results.

Measurements, observations, descriptions can only be considered scientific when they are independently confirmed by other people.

I am not here concerned with intent, but with scientific standards, especially the ability to tell the difference between a fact, an opinion, a hypothesis, and a hole in the ground.

Science has authority, not because of white coats, or titles, but because of precision and transparency: you explain your theory, set out your evidence, and reference the studies that support your case.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

Science is objective. And in my view we cannot take any experimental results seriously except in the light of good explanations of them.

Science is based on the possibility of objectivity, on the possibility of different people checking out for themselves the observations made by others. Without that possibility, there is no empirical principle capable of deciding between different arguments and theories.

I love science. I hate supposition, superstition, exaggeration and falsified data. Show me the research, show me the results, show me the conclusions - and then show me some qualified peer reviews of all that.

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority.

As a scientist, you're not supposed to make decisions without the data.

When you're getting your facts from people, consider the way that they are being given to you.

You don't want to come out with anything that's wrong, of course, in a scientific, you know, a major scientific announcement, and so you're being so careful trying to check, well maybe it's this, maybe it's that, you're looking at every possible thing.

The scientific method actually correctly uses the most direct evidence as the most reliable, because that's the way you are least likely to get led astray into dead ends and to misunderstand your data.

But a science is exact to the extent that its method measures up to and is adequate to its object.

A scientist... must accept the results of experiment, and nothing but the results of experiment.

The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.

Subjectivism is not an absolute principle; it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for sound methodology.

Every form of evidence has its flaws …

Go with the science!.

That's the nice thing about the field of science - the test of time sorts out the truth.

When we make decisions based on factors other than the available empirical evidence, we are less than objective, which means we are no longer acting as scientists.

We have the right to our own opinions, but not our own facts.

Observations always involve theory.

Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.