“The laws of physics and chemistry are statistical throughout.”
Erwin Schrödinger book What Is Life?
What Is Life? (1944)
“Our knowledge of physics only takes us back so far. Before this instant of cosmic time, all the laws of physics or chemistry are as evanescent as rings of smoke.”
The Infinite Cosmos, Page 3
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Joseph Silk8
British-American astronomer 1942Related quotes
Paul Dirac (1902–1984) theoretical physicist
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Vol. 123, No. 792 http://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1929.0094 (6 April 1929) <br class="br">Context: The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble. It therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation.
“So far as we know, all the fundamental laws of physics, like Newton’s equations, are reversible.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist
volume I; lecture 46, "Ratchet and Pawl"; section 46-5, "Order and entropy"; p. 46-8
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)
Akshay Agrawal (1998) Serial Social Entrepreneur
About working with MIT and JPL on an Ocean Eddy Simulation Visualization tool https://web.archive.org/web/20180518011711/https://designmattersatartcenter.org/proj/seeing-the-unseen/
Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) physical chemist
Part 2; Cited in: Evgenii Rudnyi (2013).
Thermodynamics of Evolution (1972)
J. R. Partington (1886–1965) British chemist
Introduction
Higher Mathematics for Chemical Students (1911)
Context: As an instance of the remarkably far-reaching effect which a single mathematico-physical concept has had upon the development of chemical theory, one has but to recall the state of chemistry just before the revival of Avogadro's law by Cannizzaro, to be impressed by its confusion. Relying solely upon their "chemical instinct," the leaders of the various schools of chemical thought had developed each his own theoretical system.... a host of... conceptions strove for supremacy. The strife was stilled, order and unity were restored, as soon as Avogadro's great idea was seen in its true light, and the concept of the molecule was introduced into chemistry. A formula which had required pages of reasoning from a purely chemical standpoint to establish, and that insecurely, was fixed by a single numerical result.
Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) physical chemist
Source: Time, Structure and Fluctuations (1977), p. 1; Introduction.
Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist
Source: The Nature of the Physical World (1928), Ch. 13 Reality
Context: The mind-stuff is not spread in space and time. But we must presume that in some other way or aspect it can be differentiated into parts. Only here and there does it arise to the level of consciousness, but from such islands proceeds all knowledge. The latter includes our knowledge of the physical world. <!-- p. 277
