Quotes About Research

Theorists can create all sorts of theories which go beyond the Standard Model. But there's not one bit of experimental evidence to point out which way you should go.

Conspiracy theories are good to look at and you can find yourself Googling things until 3 A.M.!

A good scientific theory is one which is falsifiable, which has not been falsified.

Never abandon a theory that explains something until you have a theory that explains more.

I have emphasized experiments more than theory. Of course, we need some theory when thinking of soft matter.

In so far as such a theory is empirically correct it will also tell us what empirical facts it should be possible to observe in a given set of circumstances.

For decades, my research was driven by outstanding problems in macroeconomics: mainly growth theory and employment theory.

My work on symmetries of string theory is on what is known as strong-weak coupling duality, or S-duality.

Don't confuse hypothesis and theory. The former is a possible explanation; the latter, the correct one. The establishment of theory is the very purpose of science.

Moreover, in the experimental sciences, the scientific fraternity must test a new theory to destruction, if possible.

If, as is the custom, I speak mainly about my own researches, I must say that I was fortunate in finding that not everything had yet been gleaned in the field of general thermodynamic radiation theory.

A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory.

The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever.

To me, what makes physics physics is that experiment is intimately connected to theory. It's one whole.

The process of writing 'The Innovator's Dilemma' entailed the developing a new theory. My colleagues, students and I have been improving that theory, and adding others to it, since that time.

As the new endogenous growth theory suggests, TFP growth is closely related to accumulation of the intangible capitals, such as human capital and research and development.

If you ask almost any of them, 'Do you stand behind your theory? Is this the answer?' I think almost everyone would say, 'No, no, no. I'm just trying to expand the range of possibilities.' We really don't know what's going on.

I started working and publishing in price theory by 1938.

You can't imagine how much detail we know about brains. There were 28,000 people who went to the neuroscience conference this year, and every one of them is doing research in brains. A lot of data. But there's no theory. There's a little, wimpy box on top there.

There can be theory but, you know, the problem is you've got to be able to test it. So theories are one thing, testing is another.

Evolution is a theory, and it's a theory that you can test. We've tested evolution in many ways. You can't present good evidence that says evolution is not a fact.

I can assure you that no string theorist would be interested in working on string theory if it were somehow permanently beyond testability. That would no longer be doing science.

I spent most of my career doing high-energy physics, quarks, dark matter, string theory and so on.

The funny thing is, I sometimes get the impression that some people outside of the field think that there's some element of security that we have in working on a theory that hasn't made any predictions that can be proven false. In a sense, we're working on something unfalsifiable.