48 Martin Rees Quotes for You to Enjoy

Martin Rees

British Scientist

Born: Jun 23, 1942

Life People Science Space Will World

Related authors: Alfred Russel Wallace Arthur Eddington Derek Harold Richard Barton Gregory Bateson Humphry Davy John Sulston Mary Leakey Thomas Browne

If you represent the Earth's lifetime by a single year, say from January when it was made to December, the 21st-century would be a quarter of a second in June - a tiny fraction of the year. But even in this concertinaed cosmic perspective, our century is very, very special: the first when humans can change themselves and their home planet. Martin Rees

Home You Change Perspective Made First Single Year Our Earth Say Would Would-Be Cosmic Lifetime Quarter Very June Represent December Tiny January Century Themselves Planet Special Even Second Humans Fraction

Over most of history, threats have come from nature - disease, earthquakes, floods, and so forth. But the worst now come from us. We've entered a geological era called the anthropocene. This started, perhaps, with the invention of thermonuclear weapons. Martin Rees

The scientific community should work as hard as possible to address major issues that affect our everyday lives such as climate change, infectious diseases and counterterrorism; in particular, 'clean energy' research deserves far higher priority. And science and technology are the prime routes to tackling these issues. Martin Rees

Work Technology Change Science Science And Technology Energy Community Research Everyday Everyday Lives Our Address Possible Tackling Clean Clean Energy Higher Counterterrorism Prime Major Particular Scientific Climate Priority Climate Change Issues Affect Infectious Diseases Far Should Hard Lives Deserves Routes

I'm a technological optimist in that I do believe that technology will provide solutions that will allow the world in 2050 to support 9 billion people at an acceptable standard of living. But I'm a political pessimist in that I am concerned about whether the science will be appropriately applied. Martin Rees

Technology Science People World Political Will Pessimist Believe Living Solutions About Allow Support Concerned Acceptable Am Provide Optimist Whether Standard Billion Technological Applied

Maybe the search for life shouldn't restrict attention to planets like Earth. Science fiction writers have other ideas: balloon-like creatures floating in the dense atmospheres of planets such as Jupiter, swarms of intelligent insects, nano-scale robots and more. Martin Rees

Life Science Space Insects Other Earth Restrict More Writers Attention Like Ideas Science Fiction Science Fiction Writers Robots Dense Intelligent Jupiter Maybe Fiction Fiction Writers Planets Search Floating Creatures

The first arrival of earthly life on another celestial body ranks as an epochal event not only for our generation, but in the history of our planet. Neil Armstrong was at the cusp of the Apollo programme. This was a collective technological effort of epic scale, but his is the one name sure to be remembered centuries hence. Martin Rees

Life History Generation Collective First Our Our Generation Earthly Our Planet Scale Ranks Neil Only Remembered Name Armstrong Another Sure Arrival His Effort Celestial The History Of Cusp Centuries Epic Apollo Planet Body Event Hence Technological Programme

From the growth of the Internet through to the mapping of the human genome and our understanding of the human brain, the more we understand, the more there seems to be for us to explore. Martin Rees

Internet Understanding Our Seems More Through Genome Understand Brain Human Human Brain Us Explore Mapping Growth

And we should keep our minds open, or at least ajar, to concepts on the fringe of science fiction. Flaky American futurologists aren't always wrong. They remind us that a superintelligent machine is the last instrument that humans may ever design - the machine will itself take over in making further steps. Martin Rees

Science Will Design Our Minds Further Machine Take Open Wrong Remind Steps Over Concepts Instrument Science Fiction Always Making Least Itself Fringe American May Fiction Us Should Keep Ever Humans Last

Ever since Darwin, we've been familiar with the stupendous timespans of the evolutionary past. But most people still somehow think we humans are necessarily the culmination of the evolutionary tree. No astronomer could believe this. Martin Rees

People Past Believe Think Tree Astronomer Evolutionary Darwin Somehow Could Since Most Still Culmination Been Familiar Ever Necessarily Humans

One of President Obama's first acts was to give a massive boost to America's scientific community. Martin Rees

First Community President Boost Obama Give Massive Scientific America Acts

Given the scale of issues like global warming and epidemic disease, we shouldn't underestimate the importance of a can-do attitude to science rather than a can't-afford-it attitude. Martin Rees

Attitude Science Scale Rather Given Like Global Underestimate Importance Global Warming Issues Can-Do Than Disease Epidemic Warming

It might seem paradoxical that the biggest scientific instruments of all are needed in order to probe the very smallest things in nature. The micro-world is inherently 'fuzzy' - the sharper the detail we wish to study, the higher the energy that is required and the bigger the accelerator that is needed. Martin Rees

Nature Wish Energy Paradoxical Detail Fuzzy Seem Higher Smallest Study Sharper Accelerator Instruments Scientific Very Probe Order Bigger Biggest Might Required Inherently Things Needed

The Cern laboratory in Geneva was set up in 1955 to bring together European scientists who wished to pursue research into the nuclear and sub-nuclear world. Physicists then had greater clout than other scientists because the memory of their role in the Second World War was fresh in people's minds. Martin Rees

War Together Memory People World Research Other Minds Physicists Pursue Had Wished Geneva Greater Because Fresh Scientists Up Laboratory Than Role Clout Then Who European Nuclear Second Bring World War Set Second World War

If we ever established contact with intelligent life on another world, there would be barriers to communication. First, they would be many light years away, so signals would take many years to reach them: there would be no scope for quick repartee. There might be an IQ gap. Martin Rees

Life Communication World Light First Signals Would Would-Be Take Contact Reach Another Repartee Years Scope Quick Intelligent Intelligent Life Established Them Might Barriers Many Gap Away Ever

Darwin and his successors taught us how our biosphere evolved, and thereby transformed our conception of humanity's place in nature. In the twenty-first century, space scientists are setting Darwin in a grander cosmic context - probing the origins of Earth, stars, atoms and the universe itself. Martin Rees

Nature Humanity Space Atoms Stars Universe Setting Our Earth Evolved Cosmic Darwin Conception How Context Scientists His Itself Taught Probing Place Transformed Grander Century Us Thereby Twenty-First Origins

Ironically, it is only when disaster strikes that the shuttle makes the headlines. Its routine flights attracted less media interest than unmanned probes to the planets or the images from the Hubble Telescope. The fate of Columbia (like that of Challenger in 1986) reminded us that space is still a hazardous environment. Martin Rees

Fate Space Strikes Telescope Only Hazardous Columbia Environment Reminded Headlines Like Disaster Attracted Makes Still Hubble Than Ironically Interest Us Planets Less Flights Media Challenger Routine Images Shuttle

It would be sad if the expertise built up during the 40 years of the U.S. and Russian manned programmes were allowed to dissipate. But abandoning the shuttle, and committing to new launch vehicles and propulsion systems, is actually a prerequisite for a vibrant manned programme. Martin Rees

Sad Programmes Dissipate Abandoning Systems Launch Would Would-Be Russian Allowed Vehicles New Built Were Years Up Committing Vibrant Expertise Manned Prerequisite Actually Shuttle Programme

The lives of those such as Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are plainly of interest in their own right, as well as for the light they shed on the way these great scientists worked. But are 'routine' scientists as fascinating as their science? Here I have my doubts. Martin Rees

Great Science Light Own Way Those Charles Darwin Well Shed Scientists Einstein Interest Plainly Worked Doubts Fascinating Lives Routine Right Albert Albert Einstein Here

The Blair government perhaps ranks as the best the U.K. has had for 50 years. It cannot match the scale of Attlee's reforms, but has a fine record of constitutional reform and economic competence. In my own areas - science and innovation - there have been well-judged and effective changes. Martin Rees

Government Best Science Innovation Own Changes Scale Ranks Fine Record Constitutional My Own Blair Economic Area Had Perhaps Match Been Years Effective Reform Reforms Cannot Competence

Just as there are many Jews who keep the Friday ritual in their home despite describing themselves as atheists, I am a 'tribal Christian,' happy to attend church services. Martin Rees

Home Happy Church Tribal Christian Jews Despite Atheists Ritual Attend Am Friday Just Themselves Who Many Describing Keep Services

Everything, however complicated - breaking waves, migrating birds, and tropical forests - is made of atoms and obeys the equations of quantum physics. But even if those equations could be solved, they wouldn't offer the enlightenment that scientists seek. Each science has its own autonomous concepts and laws. Martin Rees

Science Physics Complicated Made Atoms Own Birds Waves Everything Those Solved Seek Laws Tropical Could Concepts Quantum Equations Quantum Physics Scientists However Forests Offer Autonomous Breaking Even Each Enlightenment

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