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James Bryant Conant
(26 Mar 1893 - 11 Feb 1978)
American educator and scientist who became a central figure in organizing American science
for WW II, including the development of the atomic bomb
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“Science emerges from the other
progressive activities of man to the extent that
new concepts arise from experiments and observations, and that the
new concepts in turn lead to further experiments and observations.”
— James Bryant Conant
as quoted by Marshall Bates
in The Nature of Natural History (1950), p.4
in The Nature of Natural History (1950), p.4
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) --