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Ernst Mayr Quotes about Science

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All interpretations made by a scientist are hypotheses, and all hypotheses are tentative. They must forever be tested and they must be revised if found to be unsatisfactory. Hence, a change of mind in a scientist, and

All interpretations made by a scientist are hypotheses, and all hypotheses are tentative. They must forever be tested and they must be revised if found to be unsatisfactory. Hence, a change of mind in a scientist, and particularly in a great scientist, is not only not a sign of weakness but rather evidence for continuing attention to the respective problem and an ability to test the hypothesis again and again.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Forever, Mind

A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature.

Ernst Mayr
Nature, Science, Community
Ernst Mayr (1982). “The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance”, p.273, Harvard University Press

The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.

Ernst Mayr
Nature, Science, Men

A species consists of a group of populations which replace each other geographically or ecologically and of which the neighboring ones integrate or hybridise wherever they are in contact or which are potentially capable of doing so (with one or more of the populations) in those cases where contact is prevented by geographical or ecological barriers.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Groups, Population

A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which promote or guarantee reproductive isolation when the external barriers break down.

Ernst Mayr
Character, Science, Population
Ernst Mayr (1988). “Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist”, p.442, Harvard University Press

Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Population, Isolation
Ernst Mayr (1970). “Populations, Species, and Evolution: An Abridgment of Animal Species and Evolution”, p.56, Harvard University Press

Biology can be divided into the study of proximate causes, the study of the physiological sciences (broadly conceived), and into the study of ultimate (evolutionary) causes, the subject of natural history.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Causes, Study
Ernst Mayr (1982). “The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance”, p.67, Harvard University Press

It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Curiosity, Branches
Ernst Mayr (1982). “The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance”

The reduced variability of small populations is not always due to accidental gene loss, but sometimes to the fact that the entire population was started by a single pair or by a single fertilized female. These 'founders' of the population carried with them only a very small proportion of the variability of the parent population. This 'founder' principle sometimes explains even the uniformity of rather large populations, particularly if they are well isolated and near the borders of the range of the species.

Ernst Mayr
Loss, Science, Parent
Ernst Mayr (1942). “Systematics and the Origin of Species, from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist”, p.237, Harvard University Press

Two forms or species are sympatric, if they occur together, that is if their areas of distribution overlap or coincide. Two forms (or species) are allapatric, if they do not occur together, that is if they exclude each other geographically. The term allopatric is primarily useful in denoting geographic representatives.

Ernst Mayr
Science, Two, Together

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