Population and consumption are no more separable in producing environmental damage than the length and width of a rectangle can be separated in producing its area—both are equally important. —Biologist Paul Ehrlich, speaking with Stanford University News about the revelation that Earth’s seven-billionth citizen was born in late October (Oct. 26, 2011)
Google has enough capacity to do all of genomics in a day. —Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory computational biologist Michael Schatz, as quoted in the New York Times article, “A Genome Deluge” (Dec. 1, 2011)
The public, and especially the political class, cherry-picks its science. If a scientist finds a promising treatment for AIDS or cancer, then he is a hero; if he warns about overpopulation, climate change, or toxic contamination of the environment, then he risks either being ignored or, worse, being subjected to ridicule. Such negative incentives reduce to a handful the number of scientists who are willing to speak out. —John Terborgh in a review of Tim Flannery’s book Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet (NY Review of Books, Oct. 13, 2011)
To read the full, original article click on this link: Speaking of Science | The Scientist
