Brian Greene Quotes
-
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.
-
Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.
-
Our eyes only see the big dimensions, but beyond those there are others that escape detection because they are so small.
-
Einstein's theory of relativity does a fantastic job for explaining big things. Quantum mechanics is fantastic for the other end of the spectrum - for small things.
-
One of the strangest features of string theory is that it requires more than the three spatial dimensions that we see directly in the world around us. That sounds like science fiction, but it is an indisputable outcome of the mathematics of string theory.
-
String theory is not the only theory that can accommodate extra dimensions, but it certainly is the one that really demands and requires it.
-
There may have been many big bangs, one of which created our universe. The other bangs created other universes.
-
All mathematics is is a language that is well tuned, finely honed, to describe patterns; be it patterns in a star, which has five points that are regularly arranged, be it patterns in numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 that follow very regular progression.
-
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.
-
There may be many Big Bangs that happened at various and far-flung locations, each creating its own swelling, spatial expanse, each creating a universe - our universe being the result of only one of those Big Bangs.
-
There are many of us thinking of one version of parallel universe theory or another. If it's all a lot of nonsense, then it's a lot of wasted effort going into this far-out idea. But if this idea is correct, it is a fantastic upheaval in our understanding.
-
Over the centuries, monumental upheavals in science have emerged time and again from following the leads set out by mathematics.
-
I may be a Jewish scientist, but I would be tickled silly if one day I were reincarnated as a Baptist preacher.
-
Even when I wasn't doing much 'science for the public' stuff, I found that four or five hours of intense work in physics was all my brain could take on a given day.
-
Physics grapples with the largest questions the universe presents. 'Where did the totality of reality come from?' 'Did time have a beginning?'
-
We know that if supersymmetric particles exist, they must be very heavy; otherwise we would have spotted them by now.
-
Very much, string theory is simply a work in progress. What we are inching toward every day are predictions that within the realm of current technology we hope to test. It's not like we're working on a theory that is permanently beyond experiment. That would be philosophy.
-
The idea that there could be other universes out there is really one that stretches the mind in a great way.
-
If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake.
-
I would say in one sentence my goal is to at least be part of the journey to find the unified theory that Einstein himself was really the first to look for.
-
I can't stand clutter. I can't stand piles of stuff. And whenever I see it, I basically just throw the stuff away.
-
I've seen children's eyes light up when I tell them about black holes and the Big Bang.
-
In any finite region of space, matter can only arrange itself in a finite number of configurations, just as a deck of cards can be arranged in only finitely many different orders. If you shuffle the deck infinitely many times, the card orderings must necessarily repeat.
-
The real reason why general relativity is widely accepted is because it made predictions that were borne out by experimental observations.