Brian Switek · 320 pages
Rating: (575 votes)
“This area produces a protein given the whimsical name Sonic Hedgehog,”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“If an organised body is not in the situation and circumstances best adapted to its sustenance and propagation, then, in conceiving an indefinite variety among the individuals of that species, we must be assured, that, on the one hand, those which depart most from the best adapted constitution, will be most liable to perish, while, on the other hand, those organised bodies, which most approach to the best constitution for the present circumstances, will be best adapted to continue, in preserving themselves and multiplying the individuals of their race.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“In order to approximate dinosaurian physiology, the trio of scientists carried out the unenviable task of sticking thermometers in the cloacae of American alligators.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“the difficulties of making temperature experiments [on fully grown alligators] would be great and can be best left to the imagination.”)”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“Distinguishing the first true birds from their feathered dinosaur relations has become increasingly difficult. If we define birds as warm-blooded, feathered, bipedal animals that lay eggs, then many coelurosaurs are birds, so we have to take another approach.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“As new discoveries continued to accumulate it became apparent that almost every group of coelurosaurs had feathered representatives, from the weird secondarily herbivorous forms such as Beipiaosaurus to Dilong, an early relative of Tyrannosaurus. It is even possible that, during its early life, the most famous of the flesh-tearing dinosaurs may have been covered in a coat of dino-fuzz.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“The places paleontologists looked for fossils and how those fossils have been interpreted have been influenced by politics and culture, reminding us that while there is a reality that science allows us to approach the process of science is a human endeavor.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
“You know, nice guys finish last, don't you?"
"I guess I'll finish last.”
― Jalpa Williby, quote from Chaysing Dreams
“What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does.”
― Richard Feynman, quote from QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
“She remembered a word he'd often used, karuna-one of the Buddha's words, Pali for compassion, for the immanence of all living things in each other, for the attraction of life for its likeness. A time will come, he had said to the girls, when you too will discover what this word karuna means, and from that moment on, your lives will never again be the same.”
― Amitav Ghosh, quote from The Glass Palace
“How could that be a choice? When someone insults me, it makes me angry.” “If that’s true, then your feelings will always be at the mercy of others.”
― Catherine M. Wilson, quote from The Warrior's Path
“Do you love him?"
Deryn swallowed, then pointed at the screen. "He makes me feel like that. Like flying.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Goliath
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