The landed classes neglected technical education, taking refuge in classical studies; as late as 1930, for example, long after Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge had discovered the atomic nucleus and begun transmuting elements, the physics laboratory at Oxford had not been wired for electricity. Intellectual neglect technical education to this day.[Describing C.P. Snow's observations on the neglect of technical education.]

~ Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes Atoms Baron C P Snow Baron Snow C P Snow Cambridge Charles Percy Snow Education Ernest Rutherford Nucleus Oxford Physics Rutherford Science Study

I feel very strongly indeed that a Cambridge education for our scientists should include some contact with the humanistic side. The gift of expression is important to them as scientists; the best research is wasted when it is extremely difficult to discover what it is all about ... It is even more important when scientists are called upon to play their part in the world of affairs, as is happening to an increasing extent.

~ William Lawrence Bragg

William Lawrence Bragg Cambridge Expression Humanism Research Science Scientists

Bottled, was he? Said Colonel Bantry, with an Englishman's sympathy for alcoholic excess. Oh, well, can't judge a fellow by what he does when he's drunk? When I was at Cambridge, I remember I put a certain utensil - well - well, nevermind.

~ Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie Alcohol Cambridge Embarassment Englishman Humor Humour Sympathy Utensil

One day at Fenner's (the university cricket ground at Cambridge), just before the last war, G. H. Hardy and I were talking about Einstein. Hardy had met him several times, and I had recently returned from visiting him. Hardy was saying that in his lifetime there had only been two men in the world, in all the fields of human achievement, science, literature, politics, anything you like, who qualified for the Bradman class. For those not familiar with cricket, or with Hardy's personal idiom, I ought to mention that “the Bradman class” denoted the highest kind of excellence: it would include Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Newton, Archimedes, and maybe a dozen others. Well, said Hardy, there had only been two additions in his lifetime. One was Lenin and the other Einstein.

~ C.p. Snow

C.p. Snow Albert Einstein Archimedes Bradman Class Cambridge Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Einstein G H Hardy Godfrey Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy Isaac Newton Lenin Leo Tolstoy Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Literature Newton Politics Science Shakespeare Tolstoy Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Vladimir Lenin William Shakespeare

He smelled of cigarettes and whiskey, the smell of Cambridge and youth.

~ Lily King

Lily King Cambridge Cigarettes Whiskey Youth

When I achieved the European record for reciting pi in 2004, this captured the imagination of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in Cambridge, and he finally diagnosed me with Asperger's that year.

~ Daniel Tammet

Daniel Tammet Me Year Cambridge