Along the way I discovered that science was not the straightforward pursuit of truth one learned about in school. It, too, was full of interpretation, nuance, even ideology,

in science as in politics I was unable to embrace any totalizing ideology.

Two half-truths do not make a truth, and two half-cultures do not make a culture.

My mother sat a vigil for the Rosenbergs; my oxymoronic father was a Jewish racist. I had uncles who were Taft Republicans, and communist cousins,

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it

In all science error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last