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