What does The Scientist mean?

Coldplay: The Scientist Meaning

Album cover for The Scientist album cover

Song Released: 2002


Covered By: Willie Nelson


The Scientist Lyrics

Come up to meet you,
Tell you I'm sorry,
You don't know how lovely you are.

I had to find you,
Tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart.

Tell me your secrets,
Ask me your questions,
Oh, let's go back to the start....

  1. anonymous
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    Jun 14th 2007 !⃝

    For me this song resonates with the struggle a scientist has when trying to understand some problem, something which perhaps noboby else has seen before. And when you find it, it is lovely. Well that how I felt: Tet. Asym., 1988, 9, 2925

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 14th 2007 !⃝

    Well I think that this song is a love story between a Andalucian-Cordobesan donkey and a Toxorhynchites mosquito. This is a really passionate song, with a lot of emotional loading. The misquito bit the donkey, but soon after he realized that he loved her (the donkey) he regreted it. But the scientist came along, and saw what happened. And the mosquito asked the scientist if there was any way that he could put the donkey's blood back into his true love, because he wanted her completely, and wanted her to be whole, so he could love every part of her. When it talks about pulling the pieces apart, it means that the mosquito would allow the scientist to pull it apart and take the donkey's blood back so she could be whole again. When it talks about running circles it's talking about the mosquito flying around the donkey all day admiring her sweet, sweet smell of old stinky ass, and rotting poo poo, that mesmorized the overwhelmed mosquito. When it talks about going "oh, take me back to the start," it really means that the mosquito wishish it was a better person, so that when it was reincarnated it would come back as a donkey. And finally when it's talking about guessing at numbers and figures, pulling the puzzles apart, it means the mosquito and the scientist are finding a way to change his body parts so that it is compatible with that of the donkey, for romantic mating purposes. Then lastly, "Questions of science, science and progress," implies that the scientist was successful in finding a "replacement" part, and is now ready for surgery. ....and we don't need to discuss what "no one ever said it would be so hard" means. I'd rather not go there. ;)

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  3. anonymous
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    May 18th 2007 !⃝

    I agree with most of the above interpretations, because it will mean something different to everyone.

    To me, it is about losing someone in your life, and whether it is by death or not is irrelevant. It can also be either a serious relationship between a man and a woman or just a friendship.

    Here is my personal experience:
    Today is May 18th, and I am a sophomore in high school. The seniors at my school only have 7 days left. Recently, I have really been getting to know some of the seniors at my school. There are 4 (1 guy and 3 girls) that I have sort of become friends with through seeing them everyday in one of my classes. I have been in the same class as them all year, but I feel that I am just getting to know them now. Last night, I listened to the song and it brought me to tears. I was thinking of what it would be like on their last day; shaking each one's hand, giving them each a hug or a pat on the back, saying a few things, and watching them walk away and out of my life, possibly forever. I wish that I could "go back to the start" and get to know them better.

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 23rd 2007 !⃝

    I personally believe that the song is about a man who has just made a major mistake and therefore caused the breaking up of he and the love of his life. He is still trying to figure out what went wrong, but is over-analyzing the situation and not necessarily relying on his gut instinct. He wants everything to go back to what it once was so that he can undo the mistakes he made and revive the relationship.

    The video proves my point. Chris Martin goes backwards...back in time...to save his girlfriend/fiancee/wife/etc. from dying in a car crash.

    Everyone has different opinions, and I'm sure that mine is just as worthless to all of you as the next one. Do we really have to define the song?

  5. anonymous
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    Mar 29th 2007 !⃝

    Actually, you're all wrong, about the 2nd verse anyway. The lyrics were based on a short story named "The Birthmark" By Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story is about a beautiful woman who's only flaw is a small birthmark on her cheek. She marries a scientist, who dislikes the mar on her face and, over the course of a few years, resolves to remove it. Once he finally finds a cure for the mark, his beautiful wife's birthmark fades, but when she wakes up she informs the scientist that she is dying. Hawthorne later wrote the novel "the Scarlet Letter". This song also has some ties to that book as well.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 28th 2007 !⃝

    So this is what I think. Obviously this is the after math of a true love relationship

    The guy is trying to tell his lover that they don't know how much they really mean to them and they're truely amazing.

    The guy knows he has to find his lover to tell them what he's been thinking what he's been pulling apart about them to solve his questions
    he also wants to show them that they can trust him have their old talks about their secrets,aspirations etc. It reminds him of how they used to be and he misses it and yearns for this.

    He keeps running in circles of confusion and questions and once he thinks he has the right answers he finds he doesn't or they just create more questions
    He says "it's only science apart" indicating that love is complicated like science you may never find the right answers but only theorys
    He remembers though that no one ever said love was easy
    it's something you have to fight for.

    That's why it's a shame for them to part by just walking away.
    "I was just guessing,
    At numbers and figures,
    Pulling the puzzles apart.

    Questions of science,
    Science and progress,
    Do not speak as loud as my heart. "
    this retells us of him trying to find those why? questions.trying to pull every detail apart.to find why he feels in such a way.He relates love to science again it progresses but ultimately the thing that speaks the loudest is your heart.
    he wants the lover to feel the same way that they're still deeply in love with each other so that they can rush back to the start to make things better.
    he ends with a repeat of the chourus restating the things that he simply wants he cuts to the chase

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 19th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about how love is such an individual feeling. Love is not something that can be measured by a scientist or that has any sort of statistical data.
    "Do not speak as loud as my heart"

    Also, it has to do with how when relationships fail to succeed and the person has no idea why it didn't work. They'll pull away at all the puzzle pieces, try to analyze everything, but when it comes down to it, love can not be quantified!

    When I first heard this song, I had recently broken up with a girl and I'm pretty sure I cried a little. Whatta wimp.

    Keith

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 14th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about losing someone close to you....what the singer is trying to say is that he is basically trying to see the scientific aspect of why things went wrong but nothing adds up...he wants to start fresh where everything was ok and their was no loss...."Nobody said it was easy its such a shame for us to part.....i wanna rush to the start..." I think it sums it up...

  9. anonymous
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    Mar 10th 2007 !⃝

    Sorry still me (the scientist), I just guess :

    "Come up to meet you, Tell you I’m sorry, You don’t know how lovely you are" (sure, it's about a girl firstly, but it's for the scientist too, the different man so alone in the world, he wants to meet one, and say that he's sorry for him because he was apart of this world)

    "Tell me your secrets, And ask me your questions, Aww let’s go back to the start" (sure it's for a girl, he wants to know her, but it's for the scientist, he want's to know how he lives like that, "secrets", he want's to know all of him (the sentimental alone different man) from the start to the end.).

    "I was just guessing at numbers and figures
    Pulling the puzzles apart." (Sure it's about a girl, but it's too about the scientist, he wants to know if he really knows all of the world, of the life, "numbers and figures" : all these things the other can't know and understand).

    "Questions of science, science and progress
    Don't speak as loud as my heart." (He's out of the course.).

  10. anonymous
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    Mar 10th 2007 !⃝

    A scientist is a different man... That's it, a different man. A man who can thinks very hard and during a long time, maybe during his entire life. A man who can explain what he feels, and who is able to feel many things in a same time.
    I saw me in this song. I can't. Coldplay is a scientist group because they have understand the life. And when you understand the life like they have did... You're a scientist. You're finished, mutilated by the differents ways you think, but you can't stop to think. I'm so sad.

  11. anonymous
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    Jan 17th 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song can be used a few ways. I just lost my daughter recently, she was a still born baby. And I feel that this song works perfectly for the situation I have been through. Especially the part about "Questions of science, science and progress, they don't speak as loud as my heart." Because I have been given statistics about how often this happens and rationalizations, but none of it has "spoken as loud" as the feelings in my heart.

    I think that this song can be used for the sudden breaking up of a relationship, especially through death, and the singer trying to use logic to define his feelings which are all confused and mixed up.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 16th 2007 !⃝

    To me, it's about a man that breaks up with his girlfriend for logical reasons. As he thinks about their shared experiences from the beginning, he regrets losing the emotional connection, but stands by his decision with a heavy heart.

  13. anonymous
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    Jan 13th 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song can relate to one of my personal experiences. Several years ago, I dated this girl who was in my class for about a year or so. I always rarely did anything with her, even though I loved her a lot. To sum up my relationship, I took her for granted. I didn't realise how much she meant to me until I had to move away from the city where we lived in. I was totally devastated, whenever I listen to this song, I always think of her and our estranged relationship, wishing I could "go back to the start"

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 25th 2006 !⃝

    i dunno what chris wanted it to mean or the reason why he wrote the song, but I suppose it could mean many things. It all depends on your point of view.
    to me, this song came to mean something I could relate to on the last day of school because the guy I liked was moving to another town and maybe I'd never c him again. I had never really gotten to know him because we didn't talk much n sometimes you sorta feel like it's your fault and all. Because we didn't talk much, all I knew about him I had obtained by just looking at him and guessing or what I heard about him.

    If you consider all of these facts, the song makes sense:

    "Come up to meet you, Tell you I’m sorry, You don’t know how lovely you are" (the feeling guilty for doing something wrong part n how you wanna let him know that you love him)

    "Tell me your secrets, And ask me your questions, Aww let’s go back to the start" (wanna get to know the guy and how you wish you could go back to the start to do this because now it's too late because he's leaving)

    "I was just guessing at numbers and figures
    Pulling the puzzles apart." (this is about the not knowing him and just guessing by what you saw part)

    "Questions of science, science and progress
    Don't speak as loud as my heart." (This is about how time already went by and that's just the way time works, it can't be stopped and it can't be rewound and science is not able to turn back time but your heart is by memories)

    The rest I think you can relate to pretty well
    wow ..i wrote a lot

  15. anonymous
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    Nov 30th 2006 !⃝

    i think tis song is about someone who had his relationship ended by his gf, and she's like a dying figure in her head because her character in his image is disappearing. He tried to rationalize the matter and tried to figure the problem but he cant. all he knows his heart is pained. He begged the girl to begin the relationship all over from the start.




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