Contrary to what I once thought, scientific progress did not consist simply in observing, in accurately formulating experimental facts and drawing up a theory from them. It began with the invention of a possible world, or a fragment thereof, which… — Francois Jacob Copy Share Image
“What man seeks, to the point of anguish, in his gods, in his art, in his science, is meaning. He cannot bear the void.… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
Contrary to what I once thought, scientific progress did not consist simply in observing, in accurately formulating experimental facts and drawing up a theory… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
For me, this world of questions and the provisional, this chase after an answer that was always put off to the next day, all… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
“To produce a valuable observation, one has first to have an idea of what to observe, a preconception of what is possible. Scientific advances… — François Jacob Copy Share
It is natural selection that gives direction to changes, orients chance, and slowly, progressively produces more complex structures, new organs, and new species. Novelties… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
It is hope that gives life meaning. And hope is based on the prospect of being able one day to turn the actual world… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
Myths and science fulfill a similar function: they both provide human beings with a representation of the world and of the forces that are… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
One of the deepest functions of a living organisms is to look ahead... to produce future. — Francois Jacob Copy Share
The game was that of continually inventing a possible world, or a piece of a possible world, and then of comparing it with the… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
The Place of No Shadows, in Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine (1990) In our Universe, matter is arranged in a hierarchy of structures by… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
In today’s vastly expanded scientific enterprise, obsessed with impact factors and competition, we will need much more night science to unveil the many mysteries… — Francois Jacob Copy Share
