Status Updates From Cantonate

In 1926 it was possible for people who were not very good to solve important problems, but now people who are very good cannot find important problems to solve.

"To achieve anything really worthwhile in research,” .., “it is necessary to go against the opinions of one’s fellows. To do so successfully, not merely becoming a crackpot, requires fine judgment, especially on long-term issues that cannot be settled quickly."

...there was a place called school that I must attend willy nilly—a place where you were obliged to think about matters prescribed by a ‘teacher,’ not about matters decided by yourself—I was appalled.

Between the ages of five and nine, I was almost perpetually at war with the education system . . .

Along the way came many surprises. For instance, prior to the year 2000, biologists believed that the human genome contained about one hundred thousand protein-coding genes. Findings from the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium published in October 2004 reduced the estimate to fewer than twentyfive thousand—only a little more than the gene count of the simple roundworm C. elegans

no vital forces, only chemical bonds, underlie life

"...in spite of its inherent complexity, biology is, at its core, molecular science augmented by the theory of evolution."

holy crap I can't finish this. I think I picked it up because it was a recommendation from the New York Times. The person clearly lied. It's like a grumpy science thesis.