Listening to last week’s Scientific American podcast I was particularly struck by a quote that was mentioned in one of the reports. In the podcast the quote was given as “chance favours the prepared mind” and attibuted to Louis Pasteur but looking it up online it seems that the original quote was more along the lines of “In the field of observation, chance favours the prepared mind”. This longer quote reflects Pasteur’s work as an scientist and rings true in my mind, but the shorter quote has more wider applicability as a statement of the familiar idea that “we make our own luck”. Anyway, I liked the quote and I certainly believe it to be true so I thought I’d lay it down as an entry on this site.
Tim O'Hare 