Asimov Quote?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 11/20/06, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <taylor-blake at nc.rr.com> wrote:
>
> I understand that the following is frequently attributed to Isaac Asimov:
>
> "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
> discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
>
> Trouble is, despite some searching, I've not been able to track down a
> source for it.  I'd like to check his _Book of Science and Nature
> Quotations_, but I don't have ready access to this work.
>
> Any clues as to whether this is something he observed?

The folks at rec.arts.sf.written, who are usually quite good at
tracking these things down, came up empty when the query appeared in
2001:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_frm/thread/5fa1564f45663783/

Someone suggested it was in an essay reprinted in the Asimov anthology
_The Edge of Tomorrow_, but it didn't turn up there (despite the
inclusion of an essay entitled "The Eureka Phenomenon").

Could be apocryphal-- It's been floating around in "quote of the day"
files since at least 1987:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sources.games/msg/c3c83c971a5192a5

--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org