Friday, September 16, 2011

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi was Hungarian.
No, no he was not an Alig. Aligarh Movement is about getting connected with modern sciences. And hence scientists also. A. S.-G. is one such significant name in science.
He got Nobel Prize in 1937 for Physiology or Medicine. Died in 1986.
Participated in World War II resistance and also dabbled in Hungarian politics.
He is credited with the discovery of Vitamin C.
Ah! There we feel connected.
Today's Google page is  dedicated to him.

And here are the wonderful quotes from him.

(1) The real scientist . . . is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take

(2) Here we stand in the middle of this new world with our primitive brain, attuned to the simple cave life, with terrific forces at our disposal, which we are clever enough to release, but whose consequences we cannot comprehend.

(3) A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill if you don't eat it.

(4) Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money.

(5) Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.

(6) Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.

(7) A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.   
Your poor Alig is wary of quotable quotes. For good reasons. A quotable quote might easily take you out of the fold of Islam. The problem with quotable quotes is that they all look appealing to intellect.  They might be allowed (halal) or forbidden (haram). You see there is some joy in sin-initially. That is why people commit them. To cut the long story short we must be very careful with quotes from modern world. Do not propagate them before checking their validity. And please, please have an eye on what your child is learning in his or her school. When maturity settles in then it will be quite difficult to clean their mind of the wrong ideas picked up through quotable quotes. We'll conclude with one example. Your child in told in the school that God helps those who help themselves. The Holy Qur'an says that Allah(SWT) helps those who help Him. The two things are not the same. To the best of our knowledge above quotes from the Nobel Laureate are trouble free.

And that is the end of Our Call for now with all Praise due to the Lord of the worlds.