Sunday 22 August 2010

The Principle of "limited sloppiness"

The Principle of "limited sloppiness": If you are too sloppy, then you never get reproducible results, and then you never can draw any conclusions. But if you are just a little sloppy, then when you see something startling you….nail it down.

Max Delbrück (1906-1981)

Cited in The road to Stockholm: Nobel Prizes, science, and scientists.  By István Hargittai p 92.