The Joy of Being Wrong

It does happen. I have previously told the story of a respected elder statesman of the Zoology Department at Oxford when I was an undergraduate. For years he had passionately believed, and taught, that the Golgi Apparatus (a microscopic feature of the interior of cells) was not real: an artefact, an illusion. Every Monday afternoon it was the custom for the whole department to listen to a research talk by a visiting lecturer. One Monday, the visitor was an American cell biologist who presente...

 Scientists are Good Citizens

Let me make it clear that I do not think the major function of any school is to produce scientists. The major function of our schools is to aid in the production of good citizens. It is true, I think, that scientists are usually very good citizens,— they mind their own business, they pay at least as much attention to civic duties as the average man does, they do not enrich themselves at others' expense, they and their families rarely become public charges, and the more violent crimes are pr...