Daniel A. Vallero

“Humility is fundamental in science. I recall during an update meeting with my PhD committee at Duke saying that I thought I would be ready to defend my dissertation in May. The unflappable engineering professor, Aarne Vesilind, said he agreed, but year was I talking about?”

“You often hear that the language of science is mathematics. I don't completely agree with the article. I don't think it is a definite article. Mathematics is "a" language of science. But, it is only "a" language of science. The language of science is English. The language of science is Spanish.”

“Scientific advances can wreak havoc with social values. What appears to be advanced thinking at times turns out to be retrograde attempts at dehumanization. Advances in technology can be used to commoditize human beings. Genetic fetal testing, for example, can be used to screen against the "unfit".”

“Moral relativism is an easy and sloppy way to deal with personhood.”

“Since the 1980's, we have been concerned about acceptable risk, but I believe that we have now entered the era of acceptable uncertainty.”