Bernd Heinrich

I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it.

Bernd Heinrich, Ph.D (born 19 April 1940) is a professor in the zoology department at the University of Vermont and is the author of a number of books about nature writing, zoology, ecology, and evolution.

Quotes

A Year in the Maine Woods (1995)

• I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing — to be sharp, yet open.
  • Wondering how golden-crowned kinglets, which eat insects from open branches, survive the Maine winters, in "December 11 : Wind", p. 150

• Conditions are seldom ideal, and if one waits long enough for ideal conditions one is just making excuses.
  • "December 11 : Wind", p. 152

External links

• Profile at PBS