Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Steinbeck , John and Ricketts , Edward F. (2009-07-08), Sea of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, Penguin Books, Retrieved on 2012-06-23
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  • Folksonomies: nature

    Memes

    23 JUN 2012

     The Problem With a Good Hypthesis

    There is one great difficulty with a good hypothesis. When it is completed and rounded, the corners smooth and the content cohesive and coherent, it is likely to become a thing in itself, a work of art. It is then like a finished sonnet or a painting completed. One hates to disturb it. Even if subsequent information should shoot a hole in it, one hates to tear it down because it once was beautiful and whole. One of our leading scientists, having reasoned a reef in the Pacific, was unable for ...
    Folksonomies: science hypothesis
    Folksonomies: science hypothesis
      1  notes

    Is that it is like a work of art and we are afraid to harm it.

    23 JUN 2012

     What Drives the Mind of a Science Writer?

    The design of a book is the pattern of reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer. This is completely understood about poetry or fiction, but it is too seldom realized about books of fact. And yet the impulse which drives a man to poetry will send a man into the tide pools and force him to report what he finds there. Why is an expedition to Tibet undertaken, or a sea bottom dredged? Why do men, sitting at the microscope, examine the calcareous plates of a sea cucumber and give th...
      1  notes

    We understand that fictional books are crafted to present a worldview, but we forget the same is true of nonfiction.

    23 JUN 2012

     We Must Act Without All the Facts

    It is not enough to say that we cannot know or judge because all the information is not in. The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A child's world spreads only a little beyond his understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts outward immeasurably. An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of new questions. So we draw worlds and fit them like tracings against the world about us, and crumple them when we find they do not fit and draw new ones.
    Folksonomies: information data action
    Folksonomies: information data action
      1  notes

    Just as children operate without all the data, we cannot use a lack of data to excuse inaction.

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