The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Hooke’s interest in microscopy eventually dwindled. His peripatetic intellect needed to roam widely, and he returned to optics, mechanics, and physics. Indeed, Hooke’s interest in virtually everything may have been his critical failing. The Royal Society’s motto, Nullius in verba, translated loosely as “Take no one’s word for evidence,” was his personal mantra. He loped from one scientific discipline to the next, offering potent insights, believing no one’s word, claiming dominion over critical parts of a science, but never asserting complete authority over any one subject. He had built himself on the model of the Aristotelian philosopher-scientist—an inquirer into all matters of the world, an adjudicator of all evidence—rather than the contemporary vision of the scientist as the authority on a single subject, and his reputation suffered as a result.

Epistemic hubris