Faced with a new mutation in an organism, or a fundamental change in its living conditions, the biologist … - George Wald

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George Wald

Faced with a new mutation in an organism, or a fundamental change in its living conditions, the biologist is frequently in no position whatever to predict its future prospects. He has to wait and see. For instance, the hairy mammoth seems to have been an admirable animal, intelligent and well-accoutered. Now that it is extinct, we try to understand why it failed. I doubt that any biologist thinks he could have predicted that failure. Fitness and survival are by nature estimates of past performance.

Fundamental, Future, Living, Science, Survival, Thinking

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We already know enough to begin to cope with all the major problems that are now threatening human life and much of the rest of life on earth. Our crisis is not a crisis of information; it is a crisis of decision of policy and action.

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[Attributing the origin of life to spontaneous generation. ] However improbable we regard this event, it will almost certainly happen at least once. . . . The time. . . is of the order of two billion years. . . . Given so much time, the "impossible" becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One only has to wait: time itself performs the miracles.

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The great questions are those an intelligent child asks and, getting no answers, stops asking.

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Since we have had a history, men have pursued an ideal of immortality.

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So-called defense now absorbs sixty per cent of the national budget, and about twelve per cent of the Gross National Product.

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