1323 quotes by physicists for you to enjoy

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

In the end, postmodern art is obscene not because it is offensive, but because it is boring. Gregory Benford

Art Boring Postmodern Obscene Because End Offensive In The End

The thing that most critics miss about Faulkner is that his famous storytelling voice is, in fact, a standard Southern storytelling voice that is typical of the Gulf Coast - Mississippi, Alabama and so on. Gregory Benford

We hope we can slow or possibly reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Gregory Benford

Hope Slow Symptoms Possibly Alzheimer Reverse

It really helps if you know your subject matter immediately. I find that enormously useful because then you can concentrate on all the usual novelistic things - the character, the plot and so forth - and you don't have to spend an enormous amount of time learning another trade, essentially. Gregory Benford

Time Character You Learning Matter Enormous Spend Immediately Plot Find Concentrate Know Another Because Trade Subject Subject Matter Essentially Forth Then Really Your Useful Usual Helps Amount Things

Quotes by Physicists