Progress in science comes when experiments contradict theory.
Progress in science occurs in fits and starts, and paradigm shifts occur when evidence can be marshaled to support a new point of view.
New directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than by new concepts. The effect of a concept-driven revolution is to explain old things in new ways. The effect of a tool-driven revolution is to discover new things that have to be explained.
It's a blessing in a scientific career - the almost daily thrill of scientific discovery.
Our users are trapeze artists, high school football coaches - I got cornered by a couple of theoretical physicists who said Dropbox lets them collaborate across the world and share their experiments' results. They were raving about how it's driving their research.
The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research.
Qatar is giving 2.8% of our GDP to research. This is something again that is a breakthrough, as nobody was even thinking of research as a tool or component for advancement in this part of the world.
I think that many of my ideas are correct, but I'll bet you, before my death other discoveries will be made that will prompt me to alter various ideas I have about human evolution.
The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.
Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field.
Above all things expand the frontiers of science: without this the rest counts for nothing.
I think that we scientists are seeking an understanding of the natural world. We come in various types - chemists and physicists and biologists and such - and we all have the same goal. We are making progress.
In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the field.
It is one of our most exciting discoveries that local discovery leads to a complex of further discoveries.
In general, scientific progress calls for no more than the absorption and elaboration of new ideas- and this is a call most scientists are happy to heed.
It has pleased no less than surprised me that of the many studies whereby I have sought to extend the field of general chemistry, the highest scientific distinction that there is today has been awarded for those on catalysis.
Every scientist dreams of doing something that can help the world.
