If all science were wiped out, what few words would we pass on?

On September 2nd, a fire engulfed the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, destroying decades worth of scientific and archeological findings. Multiple floors of the museum were blazing orange and in a few hours most of the museum was gutted.

“Two hundred years of work, research and knowledge have been lost.” - Brazil President Michel Temer

What if some cataclysmic event resulted in wiping out of all scientific knowledge? This seems less unlikely each year - what with the threats of climate change looming over our heads. How would humans redevelop the knowledge we have today?

Will an apple fall on the right man or woman’s head, and how long will it take for him to rewrite the critical F=G(M1*M2)/d2 ?

If we had to pass on one sentence to the next generation, basis which they would rediscover all the things that we know, what would it be? Richard Feynman had thought about this 50 odd years ago, and had a very specific answer.

“All things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.”

This statement he said, contained the most amount of information in the fewest number of words, and would enable humans to recover their wealth of knowledge about the way the universe works.

The physicist had his biases, so we’re curious to know what single reductive sentence other fields of science would choose to pass on to the next generation.