John Desmond Bernal
John Desmond Bernal
John Desmond Bernal FRSwas a scientist and was a pioneer in X-ray crystallography in molecular biology. He also published extensively on the history of science. In addition, Bernal was a political supporter of Communism and wrote popular books on subjects connecting science and society...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth10 May 1901
CountryIreland
John Desmond Bernal quotes about
becomes elements employ factory greater increasing laboratory outside purely resemble routine technical tends
As experimentation becomes more complex, the need for the co-operation in it of technical elements from outside becomes greater and the modern laboratory tends increasingly to resemble the factory and to employ in its service increasing numbers of purely routine workers.
against expression heartless opium oppressed protest religion religious sentiment sigh
Religious suffering is at once the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world, as it is the soul of soulless condition. It is the opium of the people.
science essence long
It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof.
independent space atmosphere
As the scene of life would be more the cold emptiness of space than the warm, dense atmosphere of planets, the advantage of containing no organic material at all, so as to be independent of both these conditions, would be increasingly felt.
self realization life-is
Life is a partial, continuous, progressive, multiform and conditionally interactive self-realization of the potentialities of atomic electron states.
science would-be research
Her [Rosalind Franklin] devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end.
philosophy thinking confusion
One of the questions on which clarity of thinking is now most necessary is that of the relation between the methods of science and of Marxist philosophy. Although much has already been written on the subject, yet there is still an enormous amount of confusion and contradictory statement.
oil agriculture textiles
The central industry of modern civilisation, tending, because of its control over materials, to spread into and ultimately incorporate older industries such as mining, smelting, oil- refining, textiles, rubber, building, and even agriculture in respect to fertilizers and food processing.
communism ifs
If science were communism, was it also not possible that communism could itself become a science?
simple self ambitious
[In eighteenth-century Britain] engineers for the most began as simple workmen, skilful and ambitious but usually illiterate and self-taught. They were either millwrights like Bramah, mechanics like Murdoch and George Stephenson, or smiths like Newcomen and Maudslay.
science birth certain
We are still too close to the birth of the universe to be certain about its death.
science shrinking mysterious
The region of the mysterious is rapidly shrinking.
funny-inspirational learning ignorance
The full area of ignorance is not mapped. We are at present only exploring the fringes.
long way bitter
The only way of learning the method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience.