New England Diary

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Agassiz’s ‘three stages of scientific truth’

Louis Agassiz, in 1870, at Harvard

A collection of bird specimens at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, which used to be named for Louis Agassiz.

“Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next they say it has been discovered before. Lastly they say they always believed it.”

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“I cannot afford to waste my time making money.”

― Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Swiss-born American biologist and geologist and Harvard professor. He was among the first scientists to discover the impact of ice ages.

Depiction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet covering most of Canada and the northern United States.