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.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the uncertainty and exploratory nature of scientific theories.
In this quote, Saul Perlmutter highlights the idea that most scientists do not claim absolute certainty about their theories. Instead, they are primarily focused on expanding the range of possibilities and understanding the complexities of the universe, recognizing that there is much we still do not comprehend.
In practice
In a discussion about scientific theories at a conference.
The universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, we’ve got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, it’s one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe - maybe it’s countless other universes.
A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life.
There are two major challenges before Indian agriculture today: ecological and economical. The conservation of our basic agricultural assets such as land, water, and biodiversity is a major challenge. How to make agriculture sustainable is the challenge.
Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.
I'd like to see what fraction of things that chemists have figured out we could actually teach nature to do. Then we really could replace chemical factories with bacteria.
The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.
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