A popular saying about science demonstrations has been printed on many gift items, such as T-shirts, posters and coffee mugs:
“If it moves, it’s biology.
If it smells, it’s chemistry.
If it doesn’t work, it’s physics.”
“The old saying applies: ‘If it moves, it’s biology. If it changes, it’s chemistry. If it doesn’t work, it’s physics’” was cited in a student essay in New Scientist in 1977. The authorship of the saying remains unknown.
Google Books
3 March 1977, New Scientist, pg. 525, col. 1:
The old saying applies: “If it moves, it’s biology. If it changes, it’s chemistry. If it doesn’t work, it’s physics.”
(Written by Tarun Stephen Weeramanthri of Perth, Western Australia.—ed.)
Google Books
Man and Mouse:
Animals in Medical Research
By William D. M. Paton
Oxford: Oxford University Press
1984
Pg. 90:
Sir Richard Doll has remarked, ‘There was a saying among my colleagues when I began the first year of preclinical studies to the effect that if it moves, it’s biology; if it changes colour, it’s chemistry; but if it doesn’t work, it’s physics. Some years later a friend added that if it sends you to sleep, it’s statistics.”
Google Books
Getting the Buggers Into Science:
How to Motivate Students in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Investigations
By Christine Farmery
London: Continuum
2005
Pg. 59:
There is an adage that says:
If it moves, it’s biology,
If it smells, it’s chemistry,
And if it doesn’t work, it’s physics.
Google Books
A Career in Statistics:
Beyond the Numbers
By Gerald J. Hahn and Necip Doganaksoy
Hoboken, NJ: John WIley & Sons, Inc.
2011
Pg. 9:
If it moves, it’s biology; if it stinks, it’s chemistry; if it doesn’t work, it’s physics; if it puts you to sleep, it’s statistics. —Anonymous student
Twitter
binary smasher
@kiwinerd
Old saying re experimental science demonstrations
If it moves, it’s biology.
If it smells, it’s chemistry.
If it doesn’t work, it’s physics.
2:18 PM - 5 Sep 2014
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“I read old books because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
•“I study old buildings because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
•“Due to personal reasons, I’m still going to be fluffy this summer” (4/18)
•“Do not honk at me. My life is worthless. I will kill us both” (bumper sticker) (4/18)
•Entry in progress—BP16 (4/18)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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