'A Scientist Alphabet' + Looking for Science Quotes

[jjhunter]

If anyone's in a playful mood, come drop by and add stanzas for your favorite scientists. (Alphabetical order optional.) Odd letters (1st, 3rd, etc.) are 5-7-5, even 7-7.

jjhunter: Haikai Fest: 'A Scientist Alphabet'

A's Avogadro
whose constant counts up one mole
he summed mass in gas

———
Speaking of scientists past and present, I'm doing a neat little side project at work where I find and evocatively write up a short quote about science or science culture (or 'relevant to science education') every two weeks or so on the little whiteboard by my desk.

I'd love to feature more quotes from scientists of color, past or present, and/or scientists who are women — any recommendations? So far I've done quotes from Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Maria Mitchell, Siddhartha Mukherjee re: Rudlof Virchow, Stephan Jay Gould, Atul Gawande, and Mario Livio (see all at tumblr).

[Text: “We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way norms and standards change.”—Atul Gawande]

This week’s quote comes from Atul Gawande’s article ‘Slow Ideas' (New Yorker, July 23rd 2013), which I highly recommend. For more about the author, check out Atul Gawande’s website. Photo & handwriting above are mine.

Admins, might I trouble you for a 'science history' or 'history of science' tag of some kind? Many thanks!

Comments

[shistavanenjedi]

How about Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall and Diane Fossy?

[cesy]

Jocelyn Bell-Burnell? Susan Greenfield?

[swordznsorcery]

Two of my favourite female scientists of the past are Dorothea Bate and Mary Somerville. Sadly Dorothea Bate doesn't seem to have left many quotes, unless you can count this one: "I do hate old men who try to make love to one and ought not to in their official positions."

Not inspirational really, but still horribly relevant given how many stories have been surfacing recently about sexual harassment in the sciences. A house fire around the time of her death seems to have destroyed many of her papers, which might explain the lack.

Mary Somerville, on the other hand, did leave a few quotes. A bit long-winded though:

"Who shall declare the time allotted to the human race, when the generations of the most insignificant insect also existed for unnumbered ages? Yet man is also to vanish in the ever-changing course of events. The earth is to be burnt up, and the elements are to melt with fervent heat - to be again reduced to chaos - possibly to be renovated and adorned for other races of beings."