IMS2012 International Microwave Symposium

Beliefs

• "Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it is consistent with the laws of nature." (Michael Faraday)
• "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." (Thomas Edison)

Thoughts

• "I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything." (Nikola Tesla)
• "I could never accept findings based almost exclusively on mathematics. It ain't ignorance that causes all the trouble in this world. It's the things people know that ain't so." (Edwin H. Armstrong)
• "You learn with your hands, not with your head. How people get any exposure to the fundamentals of engineering and physics in these days, I often wonder." (John R. Pierce)
• "There is no fruitful science without interdisciplinarity. When you want to be a narrow-minded nerd, leave science and seek employment in a post office!" (Richard R. Ernst)

Advice

• "The combined results of several people working together is often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone." (John Bardeen)
• "An experimentalist should not be unduely inhibited by theoretical untidyness. If he insists in having every last theoretical T crossed before he starts his research the chances are that he will never do a significant experiment." (Robert H. Dicke)
• "Try simplest cases." (William Shockley)

Funny

• "Why should I refuse a good dinner simply because I don't understand the digestive processes involved." [reply when criticised for his daring use of operators before they could be justified formally.] (Oliver Heaviside)
• "The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat." (Albert Einstein)

Predictions

• "I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application." (Heinrich Hertz)
• "Radio has no future." "X-rays will prove to be a hoax." (Lord Kelvin)
• "Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever." (Thomas Edison)
• "While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility." (Lee De Forest)
• "There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be be shattered at will." (Albert Einstein)
• "There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States." (Tunis A. M. Craven)

 

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