In chemistry, one's ideas, however beautiful, logical, elegant, imaginative they may be in their own right, are simply without value unless they are actually applicable to the one physical environment we have--in short, they are good only if they work! I personally very much enjoy the very special challenge which this physical restraint on fantasy presents.
~Robert Burns Woodward
I liked that quote so much (found here) that I read it aloud to my wife. She immediately snarked that "only a man would even think to write such a thing."
Full context:
ReplyDeleteI love crystals, the beauty of their form--and their formulation; liquids, dormant, distilling, sloshing!; the fumes; the odors--good and bad; the rainbow of colors; the gleeming of vessels, of every size, shape and purpose. Much as I might think about chemistry, it would not exist for me without these physical, visual, tangible, sensuous things...
[I}n chemistry, one's ideas, however beautiful, logical, elegant, imaginative they may be in their own right, are simply without value unless they are actually applicable to the one physical environment we have--in short, they are good only if they work! I personally very much enjoy the very special challenge which this physical restraint on fantasy presents.