“Too much equipment can be, however, something that hampers scientific development.”

— Georg von Békésy

in My experiences in different laboratories, autobiographical speech by von Békésy published in Fizikai Szemle 1999/5. 166.o. http://www.kfki.hu/fszemle/archivum/fsz9905/bekesy.html
Context: Too much equipment can be, however, something that hampers scientific development. I had the feeling that if there is no equipment present, everybody is forced to simplify his ideas in such a way that the experiments become simple. If there is too much equipment available, he can attack any experiment immediately since all the difficulties will be overcome by putting more money in the equipment. In the long run, some of the equipment becomes so complicated that it is difficult to see how all the parts interact.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Too much equipment can be, however, something that hampers scientific development." by Georg von Békésy?

Georg von Békésy 3

Hungarian physicist 1899–1972

Related quotes

“None of us are ever equipped, for general purposes, to perceive reality in all of its forms. The pyramid gestalts can do this, and we help the pyramid gestalts perform this feat. But as a rule we must pick and choose. There is too much for any consciousness to digest except those so highly developed that even I know little of them.”

Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer

Session 297, Page 138
The Early Sessions: Sessions 1-42, 1997, The Early Sessions: Book 7

“Out-of-date theories are not in principle unscientific because they have been discarded. That choice, however, makes it difficult to see scientific development as a process of accretion.”

Thomas Kuhn book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), I. Introduction: A Role of History

“The prevailing anarchy in production could quickly be replaced by scientific utilization of national equipment”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

Property (1935)
Context: The prevailing anarchy in production could quickly be replaced by scientific utilization of national equipment if the basic industries were transferred from private to public ownership and if all other industries were subjected to drastic public regulation. And this procedure offers the only possible escape from the industrial chaos of the competitive struggle, on the one hand, and from the calamitous exploitation of the people by semi-monopolistic private industry, on the other.