James Bryant Conant Quotes
… new concepts arise from experiments and observations, and … the new concepts in turn lead to further experiments and observations.
James Bryant Conant, 1893-1978, U. S. High Commissioner for Germany, President, Harvard University, The Nature of Natural History, 1950
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This quotation illustrates and important aspect of science. Specifically, that theory, something ephemeral and impractical to the layman, has immense practical power in developing great scientific and technological breakthroughs. The result of this breakthrough was large lenses that could make lights more powerful and make lighthouses much more safe. Even the atomic bomb was really developed from theory and then engineered for practical use.
This quotation is used by some of those demonstrating that “Creation Science” is not science, as it is a set of facts, with no experimental verification.
This is a very important quotation because it illustrates a large difference between ideological politics and science and scientific thinking. As an example, one of the must fundamental rules of conservative Republicans at the beginning of the 21st century was that “If taxes are raised, the economic consequences will be that growth and development of jobs will slow. In the last 6 years of Ronald Reagan’s administration, he raised taxes. Yet the economy grew. In the early years of the Clinton administration income tax rates were increased, and America had the greatest growth rate in modern times as well as a balanced budget with a surplus. There have been a few other examples of “exceptions” to this “rule.” There were also many examples where the rule held. However, from a scientific point of view, with the FIRST exception the rule (principle) was invalidated. Yet Republicans continue to use and quote the rule which is clearly untrue. The scientist would likely have amended the rule to reflect reality: “In many cases, raising income tax rates will often slow economic growth.” However, politicians commonly state principles and rules despite the fact that there are exceptions. As for the statement “the exception proves the rule” there are few as absurd. One exception means no valid rule.
James Bryant Conant was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1916. During World War I he served in the U.S. Army, working on the development of poison gases, especially Lewisite. He became an assistant professor of chemistry at Harvard in 1919 and the Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1929. He researched the physical structures of natural products, particularly chlorophyll, and he was one of the first to explore the sometimes complex relationship between chemical equilibrium and the reaction rate of chemical processes. He studied the biochemistry of oxyhemoglobin providing insight into the disease methemoglobinemia, helped to explain the structure of chlorophyll, and contributed important insights that underlie modern theories of acid-base chemistry.
