#thesis

Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter. ↗

— Arthur Eddington

#hypothesis #matter #may #probably #process

Experiments were not attempted at that time, we did not believe in the usefulness of the concept anyway, and I finished my thesis in 1962 with a feeling like an artist balancing on a high rope without any interested spectators. ↗

— Richard Ernst

#anyway #artist #attempted #balancing #believe

It is because of this sea between us. The earth has never, up to now, separated us. But, ever since yesterday, there has been something in this nonetheless real, perfectly Atlantic, salty, slightly rough sea that has cast a spell on me. And every time I think about Promethea, I see her crossing this great expanse by boat and soon, alas, a storm comes up, my memory clouds over, in a flash there are shipwrecks, I cannot even cry out, my mouth is full of saltwater sobs. I am flooded with vague, deceptive recollections, I am drowning in my imagination in tears borrowed from the most familiar tragedies, I wish I had never read certain books whose poison is working in me. Has this Friday, perhaps, thrown a spell on me? But spells only work if you catch them. I have caught the Tragic illness. If only Promethea would make me some tea I know I would find some relief. But that is exactly what is impossible. And so, today, I am sinning. I am sinking beneath reality. I am weighted down with literature. That is my fate. Yet I had the presence of mind to start this parenthesis, the only healthy moment in these damp, feverish hours. All this to try to come back to the surface of our book... Phone me quickly, Promethea, get me out of this parenthesis fast!) ↗

— Hélène Cixous

#despair #drowning #imagination #parenthesis #sea

I am not here concerned with intent, but with scientific standards, especially the ability to tell the difference between a fact, an opinion, a hypothesis, and a hole in the ground. ↗

— Serge Lang

#am #between #concerned #difference #especially

What is required of a working hypothesis is a fine capacity for discrimination. ↗

— Jean-Francois Lyotard

#discrimination #fine #hypothesis #required #working

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective. ↗

— Edward Teller

#believe #believes #effective #everyone #fact

As has repeatedly been stated, the underlying hypothesis, which in a number of cases has been supported by direct experimental evidence, is that each gene controls the production, function, and specificity of a particular enzyme. ↗

— Edward Lawrie Tatum

#cases #controls #direct #each #enzyme

What better model of a synthesis than a nocturnal dream? Dreams simplify, don't they? ↗

— Manuel Puig

#dream #dreams #model #nocturnal #simplify

The fact that we don't keep repeating tests in the same arena is not because the probability of the hypothesis showing its falsity in other arenas goes up after it has passed tests in one arena. ↗

— Robert Nozick

#arena #arenas #because #fact #falsity

See,' said (Liberty Hyde) Bailey, 'how the leaves of this small plant stand forth extended to bathe themselves in the light. ... THese leaves will die. They will rot. They will disappear into the universal mold. The energy that is in them will be released to reappear, the ions to act again, perhaps in the corn on the plain, perhaps in the body of a bird. The atoms and the ions remain or resurrect; the forms change and flux. We see the forms and mourn the change. We think all is lost; yet nothing is lost. The harmony of life is never ending.' The economy of nature provides that nothing be lost. ↗

— Russell Lord

#anthropology #archaeology #gaia-hypothesis #history #change