26 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Origin of Helium

The helium which we handle must have been put together at some time and some place. We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place.
Folksonomies: science physics
Folksonomies: science physics
  1  notes

Eddington incorrectly assumes Helium could not be manufactured in stars because they are not hot enough, but argues that theorist should find a hotter place. Both wrong and insightful at once.

09 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 Scientists are Victims of Fashion

After all, we scientific workers ... like women, are the victims of fashion: at one time we wear dissociated ions, at another electrons; and we are always loth to don rational clothing; some fixed belief we must have manufactured for us: we are high or low church, of this or that degree of nonconformity, according to the school in which we are brought up—but the agnostic is always rare of us and of late years the critic has been taboo.
Folksonomies: todo culture fashion
Folksonomies: todo culture fashion
  1  notes

I don't fully understand this quote, but it is intriguing.