The stages from Watson and Crick's 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, to working out how DNA coded for proteins, to the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, all absorbed enormous quantities of intelligence, labour and instrumental ingenuity.
Less visible but also hugely important has been the development of the ability to integrate and analyze vast quantities of intelligence from many sources and determine precise locations of friendly and enemy elements.
But it's the quantity, not the quality" of intelligence that sets us apart.
But when he took into account all the evidence available to him, including a "considerable quantity" of secret intelligence that was not aired in open court, he found "that the FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by [Nikolai] Patrushev [head of the security service in 2006] and also by President Putin".
The F.B.I. was unable to translate, let alone analyze, what must have been a very small amount of intelligence data available before 9/11, compared with the vast quantity collected by the National Security Agency now.
You will find political masters absorbing copious quantities of raw intelligence and forming their own estimates and evaluations of the situation.
Those led to think of intelligence as a fixed quantity took the easy way out: They didn't persist on tasks in the wake of poor performance, and they avoided taking on new challenges later.
The quantities of supplies and intelligence from the captured documents revealed that at least 3,000 Japanese troops were on the island and apparently planning an attack.
The clue, it said, was information uncovered on Syria's procurement of "a large quantity of graphite," a material that American intelligence officials have said was central to the reactor's operation.
Perhaps in ascending order of intelligence?
