Textbook Wisdom

A simple example [of thermodynamics] is the observation that coffee, if left to its own devices, after a while assumes room temperature.

These bibliometric descriptions are undoubtedly measures of a scientist’s positioning within the scientific community, but they bear no obligatory relation to the usefulness of the underlying work. However, they are comfortable targets for scientists and handy yardsticks for funding agencies.

scent is an emotional catalyst. In our increasingly pressured society smell is the emotional sense, fragrance the key to managing the, often turbulent, human psyche.

To avoid boredom, save time and minimize problems, use computer programs to optimize the design, selection and placement of oligonucleotide primers.

Process modeling is both an art and a science. Creativity is required to make simplifying assumptions that result in a appropriate model. [...] The failure to choose an appropriate set of simplifying assumptions invariably leads to (1) rigorous but excessively complicated models or (2) overly simplistic models.

To develop the techniques of signal and systems analysis it is necessary to establish an analytical framework that captures the intuitive notions of signals and systems.

Because many of the concepts are similar (but not identical), by treating them in parallel, insight and intuition can be shared and both the similarities and differences become better focused. Furthermore, as will be evident as we proceed through the material, there are some concepts that are inherently easer to understand in one framework than the other and, once understood, the insight is easily transferable.

Which of these systems to purchase is a matter of personal choice, but is is sensible for a laboratory to use only one type of apparatus. This type of standardization makes it easier to compare the results obtained by different workers and allows parts of broken apparatuses to be scavanged and reused.

For students who are confronted with the theory of linear, time-invariant systems for the first time, the subject unfortunately can prove difficult, and, if the required and deserved academic progress does not materialise, the subject might be downright unpopular. This could be due to the abstract nature of the subject area coupled with the deductive and unclear presentation in some lectures. However, since failure to learn the fundamentals of systems theory would have catastrophic repercussions for many subsequent subjects, the student must persevere.

It might be thought that a universal list of accepted colours could be agreed but unfortunately this has not happened at the time of writing.

Becoming enamored of the mathematical results of chemical analysis is symptomized by the unyielding insistence on analytical specifications.

How often in life does one find such an opportunity to simultaneously reduce cost and improve quality?

The bleak days of the 1930s forced the chocolate scientist and the chocolate artist into a partnership of survival which proved to each the ancient truth that the greatest form of independence is interdepedence.