George Smoot Quotes

United States, Astrophysicist
February 20, 1945

George Fitzgerald Smoot III is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and one of two contestants to win the US$1 million prize on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".

With something like Chernobyl, the public reaction was Oh, my God, science has really done wrong.

George Smoot
- Done
- Reactions
- Chernobyl
I played football and ran track in junior high, but by high school I was getting serious about my studies.

George Smoot
- School
- Football
- Serious

The big bang, the most cataclysmic event we can imagine, on closer inspection appears finely orchestrated.

George Smoot
- Imagine
- Bigs
- Events
I always think of space-time as being the real substance of space, and the galaxies and the stars just like the foam on the ocean.

George Smoot
- Space
- Substance
- Galaxies
People have contemplated the origin and evolution of the universe since before the time of Aristotle. Very recently, the era of speculation has given way to a time of science.

George Smoot
Both my parents instilled an interest in science and mathematics.

George Smoot
But every day I go to work I'm making a bet that the universe is simple, symmetric, and aesthetically pleasing — a universe that we humans, with our limited perspective, will someday understand.

George Smoot
There is no doubt that a parallel exists between the big bang as an event and the Christian notion of creation from nothing.

George Smoot
- Christian
- Doubt
- Creation

I think we all want to know where we came from and how we fit into the world, but some of us need to know how it all works in great detail.

George Smoot
My name is George Smoot III, and I AM smarter than a fifth-grader.

George Smoot
- Names
- Smarter