The episode related here is based on a true story.
That’s
Temporal provincials were convinced that the present was the only time that mattered, and that anything that had occurred earlier could be safely ignored.
Life is too short, and DNA too long.
How many raptors are there? she said. I couldn’t tell for sure, when I saw them. I thought nine. I think there’s more, Malcolm said. I think eleven or twelve in all. Twelve? she said, glancing up at h...
Heisenberg uncertainty principle: that whatever you studied you also changed. In the end, it became clear that all scientists were participants in a participatory universe which did not allow anyone t...
G.K. Chesterton said (in a somewhat different context), If you believe in nothing, you’ll believe in anything. That
Because in the late twentieth century, you couldn't seriously ask other people to think that you believed in honor and truth, and the purity of the body, the defense of women, the sanctity of true lov...
Because complex animals can evolve their behavior rapidly. Changes can occur very quickly. Human beings are transforming the planet, and nobody knows whether it’s a dangerous development or not. So th...
A crisis is made by men, who enter into the crisis with their own prejudices, propensities, and predispositions. A crisis is the sum of intuition and blind spots, a blend of facts noted and facts igno...
Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!
The truest picture of life in the past incorporated the interplay of all aspects of life, the good and the bad, the strong and the weak. It was no good pretending anything else.
Understanding is a delaying tactic.
This wild animal must be different. By the way, he said, turning to Grant, if they’re all born females, how do they breed? You never explained that bit about the frog DNA. It’s not frog DNA, Grant sai...
The kids were probably with Grant. And if Grant was out in the park, well … what better person to get them safely through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert?
The Institute had explored the behavior of a great variety of complex systems—corporations in the marketplace, neurons in the human brain, enzyme cascades within a single cell, the group behavior of m...
Sitting in the deserted law offices, Sanders had the feeling that he was all alone in the world, with nobody but Fernandez and the encoraching darkness. Things were happening quickly; this person he h...
Science has always said that it may not know everything now but it will know, eventually. But now we see that isn’t true. It is an idle boast. As foolish, and as misguided, as the child who jumps off...
Safety is the last refuge of the scoundrel!
Pierce himself later said, It is the demeanor which is respected among these people. They know the look of fear, and likewise its absence, and any man who is not afraid makes them afraid in turn.