The Symbol And The Metaphor Are As

It Is Often Said That The Progression From Simple To Complex Runs Counter To The Normal Statistics Of Chance That Are Formalized In The Second Law Of Thermodynamics. Strictly Speaking, We Could Avoid This Criticism Simply By Insisting That The Second Law Does Not Apply To Living Systems In The Environment In Which We Find Them. For The Second Law Applies Only When There Is No Overall Flow Of Energy Into Or Out Of A System, Whereas All Living Systems Are Sustained By A Net Inflow Of Energy.

You Will Die But The Carbon Will Not; Its Career Does Not End With You. It Will Return To The Soil, And There A Plant May Take It Up Again In Time, Sending It Once More On A Cycle Of Plant And Animal Life.

By The Worldly Standards Of Public Life, All Scholars In Their Work Are Of Course Oddly Virtuous. They Do Not Make Wild Claims, They Do Not Cheat, They Do Not Try To Persuade At Any Cost, They Appeal Neither To Prejudice Nor To Authority, They Are Often Frank About Their Ignorance, Their Disputes Are Fairly Decorous, They Do Not Confuse What Is Being Argued With Race, Politics, Sex Or Age, They Listen Patiently To The Young And To The Old Who Both Know Everything. These Are The General Virtues Of Scholarship, And They Are Peculiarly The Virtues Of Science.

Knowledge Is An Unending Adventure At The Edge Of Uncertainty.

There Is No Absolute Knowledge. And Those Who Claim It, Whether They Are Scientists Or Dogmatists, Open The Door To Tragedy.