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Thomas Gold
(22 May 1920 - 22 Jun 2004)
Austrian-British-American astronomer known for an offbeat steady-state theory of the universe, naming the magnetosphere and explaining pulsars.
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Science Quotes by Thomas Gold (4 quotes)
~~[Unverified, Dubious]~~ A theorist can explain any correlation, and its inverse.
— Thomas Gold
Quoted, as hearsay without citation, by Virginia Trimble contributing as a reader giving an answer to a 'Last Word' Question, New Scientist (3 Nov 2007), 196, No. 2628, 97. Webmaster, as yet, has found no primary print source for verification, so the text may be misquoted, and who said it may be incorrect. This is, in fact, the only source that, as yet, Webmaster has found. With only one known source, it is not going to be identified here even as “Attributed.” Nevertheless a number of online quote collections feature the quote, without making clear that the citation is not a verified primary source. However, it may have been spoken in a difficult to find radio or TV program. The quote is included here only so it can be linked to this caution. Please make contact if you know of any primary source.
In choosing a hypothesis there is no virtue in being timid. I clearly would have been burned at the stake in another age.
— Thomas Gold
As quoted, without citation, in Adam Bernstein, 'Theoretical Astrophysicist Thomas Gold Dies at 84', Washington Post (26 Jun 2004), B06.
In no subject is there a rule, compliance with which will lead to new knowledge or better understanding. Skilful observations, ingenious ideas, cunning tricks, daring suggestions, laborious calculations, all these may be required to advance a subject. Occasionally the conventional approach in a subject has to be studiously followed; on other occasions it has to be ruthlessly disregarded. Which of these methods, or in what order they should be employed is generally unpredictable. Analogies drawn from the history of science are frequently claimed to be a guide; but, as with forecasting the next game of roulette, the existence of the best analogy to the present is no guide whatever to the future. The most valuable lesson to be learnt from the history of scientific progress is how misleading and strangling such analogies have been, and how success has come to those who ignored them.
— Thomas Gold
'Cosmology', in Arthur Beer (ed.), Vistas in Astronomy (1956), Vol. 2, 1722.
No scientific subject holds more surprises for us than biology. Foremost is the surprise that life exists at all.
— Thomas Gold
In The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels (2013), 1.
See also:
- 22 May - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Gold's birth.
- The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels, by Thomas Gold. - book suggestion.
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) -- 
