Quotes About Science

To deny objective truths is to be scientifically illiterate, not to be ideologically principled.

Last I had kept count, there were fifty-six moons among the planets in the solar system. Then I woke up one morning to learn that another dozen had been discovered around Saturn. After that incident, I decided to no longer keep track. All I care about now is whether any of them would be fun places to visit or to study

These philosophically fun ideas usually satisfy nobody. Nonetheless, they remind us that ignorance is the natural state of mind for a research scientist. People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe.

The Physics of Immortality

Personally, I am quite comfortable with chemicals, anywhere in the universe. My favorite stars, as well as my best friends, are all made of them.

Nebulium was simply the signature of ordinary oxygen doing extraordinary things.

For generations, Americans have expected something new and better in their lives with every passing day—something that will make life a little more fun to live and a little more enlightening to behold. Exploration accomplishes this naturally. All we need to do is wake up to this fact.

Indeed, the very word "galaxy" derives from the Greek galaxias, "milky.

At this point, the particles came in two types, called quarks—which rhymes with marks—and leptons. Quarks are quirky beasts. You'll never catch a quark all by itself; it will always be clutching others nearby. I'm sure you have at least one friend or classmate who behaves similarly. Quarks are like those kids who never want to do anything alone, not even walk to the restroom.

Since everything warmer than absolute zero radiates heat, detecting infrared at a distance means, in principle, detecting everything.

helium became the first and only element in the chemist's Periodic Table to be discovered someplace other than Earth. Okay

going through a wormhole or (as we shall see) by going around a cosmic string.

There's nothing like the right telescope in the right hands of the right person at the right time for the right price.

So by looking in X-rays, you are seeing aspects of nature which we did not even suspect existed but which are very important in the formation, evolution, and dynamics of the structures in the universe.

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe it.

most planets inhabited by intelligent observers are likely to be smaller than Earth

The Coma cluster is also what we call a "relaxed" system. Please resist the image of a group of galaxies kicking back and listening to smooth jazz.

Astrophysics teaches us that we're not the center of the world.

Nowadays our mobile phones relay microwaves.

Detecting without seeing was now a scientific reality.

One thing quarks do have going for them: all their names are simple—something chemists, biologists, and especially geologists seem incapable of achieving when naming their own stuff.

after the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.

we shouldn't reshape our science just to avoid confusing the public