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Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Quotes

1932–2007 France

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (October 24, 1932 – May 18, 2007) was a French physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991.

France
Academics
Nobel laureates
Physicists

Random Pierre-Gilles de Gennes quote

5 quotes

The real point of honor [for a scientist] is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

In our days, when we are spoilt with exceedingly complex toys, such as nuclear reactors or synchrotron sources, I particularly like to describe experiments of this Franklin style to my students.

The real point of honor … is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

The final lines are not mine: they come from an experiment on soft matter, after Boudin… An English translation might run like this

A dense film of a conventional surfactant is quite impermeable. On the other hand, a dense film of Janus grains always has some interstices between the grains, and allows for chemical exchange between the two sides; "the skin can breathe". This may possibly be of some practical interest.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.