Martin Lewis Perl

"I always look for colleagues who are smart, and who know a lot in many fields. The obvious advantage is that he or she may be able to solve the problem that has produced trouble in your work. Also sma…"

"It is always a good plan for a speculative experimenter to have two experiments going, or at least one going and one being built."

"The best colleagues are those who will think about your ideas, who will talk with you and offer insight, constructive criticism. No one needs to be crushed for having a new idea."

"The experimenter dealing with nature faces an outside and often hard world. Natures' curriculum cannot be changed."

"Experimental science is a craft and an art, and part of the art is knowing when to end a fruitless experiment. There is a danger of becoming obsessed with a fruitless experiment even if it goes nowher…"

"For every good idea, expect to have five, ten, twenty wrong or useless ideas. You cannot avoid the bad ideas if you keep your imagination free. There is no spam filter for bad ideas."

"You may turn a bad idea into a good idea — don't kill the bad idea prematurely. A bad idea can evolve into a good idea."

"Common elements of creativity are originality and imagination. Creativity is intertwined with the freedom to design, to invent and to dream. In engineering and science a creative idea is useful only i…"