Wheel Quotes (3)

Gyroscope, n.: A wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to rotate about one or both of two axes perpendicular to each other and the axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the direction of the axis of spin.
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (8th Ed., 1973), 513. (Webmaster comments: A definition which is perfectly easy to understand. Right?)
See also:  |  Apparatus (2)  |  Axis (2)  |  Definition (32)

INVENTOR, n. A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  173-174.
See also:  |  Civilization (46)  |  Humour (91)  |  Inventor (17)  |  Spring (2)

Mapping the human genome has been compared with putting a man on the moon, but I believe it is more than that. This is the outstanding achievement not only of our lifetime, but in terms of human history. A few months ago I compared the project to the invention of the wheel. On reflection, it is more than that. I can well imagine technology making the wheel obsolete. But this code is the essence of mankind, and as long as humans exists, this code is going to be important and will be used.
Quoted in the press release 'The first draft of the Book of Humankind has been read', 26 Jun 2000. On the Sanger Institute web site at www.sanger.ac.uk/HGP/draft2000/mainrelease.shtml
See also:  |  Achievement (35)  |  History (69)  |  Human Genome (7)  |  Invention (93)  |  Mankind (38)  |  Moon (37)  |  Technology (41)

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