35 Gregory Benford Quotes for You to Enjoy

Gregory Benford

American Physicist

Born: Jan 30, 1941

Moon People Science Space Will You

Related authors: Brian Greene Edward Teller Freeman Dyson J. Robert Oppenheimer Lawrence M. Krauss Martin H. Fischer Michio Kaku Richard P. Feynman

In temperate zones, winter is the best insecticide; it keeps the bugs in check. The tropics enjoy no such respite, so plants there have developed a wide range of alkaloids that kill off nosy insects and animals. Gregory Benford

Best Winter Plants Insects Animals Enjoy Range Temperate Developed Check Bugs Off Keeps Wide Wide Range Zone

Electromagnetic theory and experiment gave us the telephone, radio, TV, computers, and made the internal combustion engine practical - thus, the car and airplane, leading inevitably to the rocket and outer-space exploration. Gregory Benford

'Star Trek' is notorious for looting the more thoughtful work of writers for their striking effects, leaving behind most of the thought and subtlety. Gregory Benford

Work Thought Trek Striking Thoughtful More Writers Most Looting Leaving Effects Behind Subtlety Notorious Star Star Trek

I've always felt that specialization is best left to the insects. Gregory Benford

Best Insects Felt Always Left Specialization

The simplest way to remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is to grow plants - preferably trees, since they tie up more of the gas in cellulose, meaning it will not return to the air within a season or two. Plants build themselves out of air and water, taking only a tiny fraction of their mass from the soil. Gregory Benford

Water Plants Soil Will Remove Build Trees Air Way Out More Only Simplest Main Taking Mass Since Return Tie Within Up Greenhouse Tiny Meaning Themselves Grow Season Carbon Carbon Dioxide Gas Two Fraction

In coastal waters rich in runoff, plankton can swarm densely, a million in a drop of water. They color the sea brown and green where deltas form from big rivers, or cities dump their sewage. Tiny yet hugely important, plankton govern how well the sea harvests the sun's bounty, and so are the foundation of the ocean's food chain. Gregory Benford

Food Water Drop Important Big Ocean Rich Waters Sun Sewage Cities Brown Food Chain Color Rivers Bounty Well How Govern Dump Green Hugely Tiny Where Form Sea Coastal Chain Foundation Million

Like the ocean, land plants hold about three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. While oceans take many centuries to exchange this mass with the air, flora take only a few years. Gregory Benford

As fandom grew more variegated, genzines reflected a broadening of interests, carrying personal columns of humor and reflection, science articles, amateur fiction, stylish gossip, and inevitably, thoughtful pieces on the future of fandom. Gregory Benford

Genre pleasures are many, but the quality of shared values within an ongoing discussion may be the most powerful, enlisting lifelong devotion in its fans. Gregory Benford

Quality Fans Values Pleasures Ongoing Lifelong Shared Powerful Most Most Powerful Genre Devotion Within Discussion May Many

Very little useful science got done in the space station. NASA never did the experiments needed to develop the technologies required for a genuine interplanetary expedition: centrifugal gravity to avoid bodily harm and a truly closed biosphere. Gregory Benford

Science Space Closed Station Never Develop Genuine Got NASA Truly Very Did Expedition Done Space Station Experiments Little Bodily Required Useful Avoid Gravity Technologies Needed Harm

Indeed, the history of 20th century physics was in large measure about how to avoid the infinities that crop up in particle theory and cosmology. The idea of point particles is convenient but leads to profound, puzzling troubles. Gregory Benford

History Physics Indeed Cosmology Crop About Point Troubles Idea Puzzling Leads Particle Particles How Up Convenient The History Of Century Measure Avoid Theory Large Large Measure Profound

Invoking nature with its implied supremacy ignores that many cultures have fundamentally differing ideas of even what nature is, much less how it should work. Gregory Benford

Work Nature Implied Invoking Ideas Supremacy How Cultures Much Should Ignores Less Many Even Differing Fundamentally

The Matrix itself is not some external evil, but rather an outcome of our own error, our karmic payoff of past actions. Not merely illusion, it is an allusion to a founding myth of our culture. Gregory Benford

Culture Illusion Evil Myth Past Own Our Outcome Some Rather Merely Error Matrix Itself Karmic Payoff Actions Founding External

My brother Jim and I shared a womb without a view for nine months. Gregory Benford

Jim Nine Nine Months Months Brother Shared Without Womb View

It turns out that if you optimize the performance of a car and of an airplane, they are very far away in terms of mechanical features. So you can make a flying car. But they are not very good planes, and they are not very good cars. Gregory Benford

Good You Car Flying Airplane Out Features Performance Terms Make Very Optimize Far Far Away Planes Turns Mechanical Away

I like audacious ideas. Gregory Benford

Like Ideas Audacious

Congress came to see NASA primarily as a jobs program, not an exploratory agency. Gregory Benford

Congress Jobs See Primarily NASA Came Agency Program

In science fiction, basic doubts featured prominently in the worlds of Philip K. Dick. I knew Phil for 25 years, and he was always getting onto me, a scientist. He was a great fan of quantum uncertainty, epistemology in science, the lot. Gregory Benford

Great Me Science Philip Worlds Uncertainty Featured Onto He Knew Science Fiction Quantum Always Scientist Years Lot Getting Fiction Fan Epistemology Doubts Basic Phil

Certainly I see no reason why society should prevent grieving parents from having a baby cloned from the cells of a dead child if they wish. Gregory Benford

Parents Wish Society Baby See Having Having A Baby Prevent No Reason Dead Child Cells Grieving Should Certainly Reason Why

I have an artificial left shoulder, wired back together after a softball accident. Gregory Benford

Together Accident Softball Back Wired Left Artificial After Shoulder

As we all saw in grade school, once you learn how to read a book, somebody is going to want to write one - that's how authors are made. Once we know how to read our own genetic code, someone is going to want to rewrite that 'text,' tinker with traits - play God, some would say. Gregory Benford

God You Book School Made Somebody Own Our Once Saw Say Would Some Someone Write Genetic Know Learn Read How Text Grade Grade School Traits Authors Tinker Going Rewrite Want Code Play

Terraforming our moon will take many decades and vast abilities. Before we can begin, we'll have to master the resources of our solar system - especially transporting raw masses over interplanetary distances. Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford Quotes

No more Gregory Benford quotes