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

— Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

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Notes from Wikiquote

No conclusion could be more appropriate today. | "Soft Matter" Nobel lecture (9 December 1991)

More quotes by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

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.

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.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.