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Quotes by Physicists
Quotes by Physicists
Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually having the answer.
Brian Greene
Best
Sometimes
Our
Having
Attaining
Answer
Question
Familiarity
Substitute
Deepest
Actually
The universe is incredibly wondrous, incredibly beautiful, and it fills me with a sense that there is some underlying explanation that we have yet to fully understand. If someone wants to place the word 'God' on those collections of words, it's OK with me.
Brian Greene
Beautiful
God
Me
Words
Word
Sense
Universe
Incredibly
Those
OK
Collections
Some
Someone
Underlying
Understand
Wondrous
Wants
Place
Explanation
Fully
Fills
In my own research when I'm working with equations, I never feel like I really understand what I'm doing if I'm solely relying on the mathematics for my understanding. I need to have a visual picture in my mind. I'm constantly translating from the math to some intuitive mind's-eye picture.
Brian Greene
Mathematics
Mind
Picture
Understanding
Own
Research
Solely
Visual
Constantly
Intuitive
Some
My Own
Relying
Never
Feel
Like
Understand
Equations
Doing
Math
Translating
Really
Working
Need
Our eyes only see the big dimensions, but beyond those there are others that escape detection because they are so small.
Brian Greene
Eyes
Big
Others
Our
Those
Dimensions
Detection
See
Only
Small
Beyond
Because
Escape
Every moment is as real as every other. Every 'now,' when you say, 'This is the real moment,' is as real as every other 'now' - and therefore all the moments are just out there. Just as every location in space is out there, I think every moment in time is out there, too.
Brian Greene
Time
You
Space
Every
Think
Too
Other
Say
Location
Out
Real
Just
Moment
Moments
Therefore
Now
Black holes provide theoreticians with an important theoretical laboratory to test ideas. Conditions within a black hole are so extreme, that by analyzing aspects of black holes we see space and time in an exotic environment, one that has shed important, and sometimes perplexing, new light on their fundamental nature.
Brian Greene
Time
Nature
Sometimes
Light
Space
Black
Important
Analyzing
Extreme
Black Hole
See
Black Holes
Environment
New
Ideas
Shed
Within
Test
Provide
Perplexing
Conditions
Exotic
Laboratory
Space And Time
Hole
Holes
Aspects
Theoretical
Fundamental
How can a speck of a universe be physically identical to the great expanse we view in the heavens above?
Brian Greene
Great
Universe
Above
Physically
Identical
How
Expanse
Heavens
View
Speck
No matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you're going to fail.
Brian Greene
You
Matter
Try
Relativity
General
General Relativity
Cat
Fail
How
Going
Teach
Your
Hard
Many different planets are many different distances from their host star; we find ourselves at this distance because if we were closer or farther away, the temperature would be hotter or colder, eliminating liquid water, an essential ingredient for our survival.
Brian Greene
Survival
Water
Colder
Our
Distance
Distances
Ourselves
Would
Would-Be
Find
Temperature
Host
Hotter
Because
Were
Liquid
Closer
Essential
Different
Ingredient
Planets
Farther
Many
Star
Away
Relativity challenges your basic intuitions that you've built up from everyday experience. It says your experience of time is not what you think it is, that time is malleable. Your experience of space is not what you think it is; it can stretch and shrink.
Brian Greene
Time
You
Challenges
Experience
Space
Think
Everyday
Relativity
Says
Built
Up
Malleable
Your
Shrink
Basic
Stretch
I wouldn't say that 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' is a book on cosmology. Cosmology certainly plays a big part, but the major theme is our ever-evolving understanding of space and time, and what it all means for our sense of reality.
Brian Greene
Time
Reality
Book
Space
Big
Understanding
Sense
Our
Say
Fabric
Cosmology
Cosmos
Part
Major
Big Part
Space And Time
Theme
Means
Certainly
Plays
There's a picture of my dorm room in the college yearbook as the most messy, most disgusting room on the Harvard campus, where I was an undergraduate.
Brian Greene
College
Picture
Harvard
Most
Undergraduate
Messy
Yearbook
Campus
Disgusting
Where
Dorm
Room
I think math is a hugely creative field, because there are some very well-defined operations that you have to work within. You are, in a sense, straightjacketed by the rules of the mathematics. But within that constrained environment, it's up to you what you do with the symbols.
Brian Greene
Work
Mathematics
You
Creative
Sense
Field
Think
Rules
Some
Constrained
Environment
Operations
Because
Within
Math
Up
Very
Hugely
Symbols
I believe we owe our young an education that captures the exhilarating drama of science.
Brian Greene
Education
Science
Young
Believe
Drama
Our
Exhilarating
Owe
Captures
We're on this planet for the briefest of moments in cosmic terms, and I want to spend that time thinking about what I consider the deepest questions.
Brian Greene
Time
Thinking
Consider
Spend
Cosmic
About
Terms
Questions
Want
Planet
Moments
Deepest
The idea that there could be other universes out there is really one that stretches the mind in a great way.
Brian Greene
Great
Mind
Other
Way
Out
Could
Idea
Great Way
Really
Universes
I think it's too fast to say that all sci-fi ultimately winds up having some place in science. On the other hand, imaginative minds working outside of science as storytellers certainly have come upon ideas that, with the passing decades, have either materialized of come close to materializing.
Brian Greene
Science
Think
Too
Other
Minds
Say
Some
Winds
Having
Outside
Come
Ideas
Sci-Fi
Passing
Ultimately
Hand
Up
Close
Decades
Either
Place
Storytellers
Working
Certainly
Fast
Imaginative
Science is very good at answering the 'how' questions. 'How did the universe evolve to the form that we see?' But it is woefully inadequate in addressing the 'why' questions. 'Why is there a universe at all?' These are the meaning questions, which many people think religion is particularly good at dealing with.
Brian Greene
Good
Religion
Science
People
Think
Universe
Addressing
Evolve
See
Particularly
Dealing
How
Answering
Questions
Very
Did
Form
Which
Inadequate
Meaning
Many
Why
I think the relationship between memory and time is a very deep and tricky one, to tell you the truth. I don't consider memory another sense. I do consider memory that which allows us to think that time flows.
Brian Greene
Truth
Time
Relationship
You
Memory
Sense
Think
Consider
Tell
Tricky
Between
Another
Very
Which
Us
Deep
Flows
I'd say many features of string theory don't mesh with what we observe in everyday life.
Brian Greene
Life
Everyday Life
Everyday
String
String Theory
Say
Features
Observe
Mesh
Theory
Many
Over the centuries, monumental upheavals in science have emerged time and again from following the leads set out by mathematics.
Brian Greene
Time
Mathematics
Science
Monumental
Out
Emerged
Following
Leads
Over
Again
Centuries
Set
When you buy a jacket, you pick the size to ensure it fits. Similarly, we live in a universe in which the amount of dark energy fits our biological make-up. If the amount of dark energy were substantially different from what we've measured, the environmental conditions would be inhospitable to our form of life.
Brian Greene
Life
Environmental
Buy
You
Dark
Energy
Live
Universe
Our
Ensure
Would
Would-Be
Similarly
Pick
Were
Conditions
Fits
Jacket
Substantially
Different
Size
Form
Which
Measured
Amount
Biological
To tell you the truth, I've never met anybody who can envision more than three dimensions. There are some who claim they can, and maybe they can; it's hard to say.
Brian Greene
Truth
You
Three
Met
Say
Claim
Dimensions
Tell
Some
More
Never
Envision
Than
Maybe
Anybody
Hard
Who
Oftentimes, if you're talking to a seasoned interviewer who asks you a question, they may do a follow-up if they didn't quite get it. It's rare that they'll do a third or fourth or fifth or sixth follow-up, because there's an implicit, agreed-upon decorum that they move on. Kids don't necessarily move on if they don't get it.
Brian Greene
You
Rare
Move On
Interviewer
Kids
Follow-Up
Implicit
Talking
Because
Question
Get
Quite
May
Move
Oftentimes
Sixth
Ask
Fifth
Decorum
Who
Seasoned
Necessarily
Fourth
Third
The absolute worst thing that you ever can do, in my opinion, in bringing science to the general public, is be condescending or judgmental. It is so opposite to the way science needs to be brought forth.
Brian Greene
Needs
You
Science
Way
Worst
Worst Thing
Brought
General
Absolute
General Public
Judgmental
Opinion
Opposite
Condescending
In My Opinion
Public
Forth
Ever
Thing
Bringing
For me it's been very exciting to contribute to the public's understanding of how rich and wondrous science is.
Brian Greene
Me
Science
Understanding
Rich
Exciting
How
Been
Very
Contribute
Wondrous
Public
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