If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.
Kip ThorneRead
We're going to need a definitive quantum theory of gravity, which is part of a grand unified theory - it's the main missing piece.
Interpretation
A complete understanding of gravity is essential for unifying physics into a comprehensive theory.
Kip Thorne emphasizes the necessity of developing a definitive quantum theory of gravity as a critical component for establishing a grand unified theory in physics. This implies that without a robust understanding of how gravity operates at quantum levels, the quest for a cohesive framework explaining all fundamental forces and particles remains incomplete.
In practice
In a physics seminar discussing the future of theoretical physics.
If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.
I think that the future of the human race is to spread through the universe, and now is the time that we should be laying the foundations for that.
Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity.
'Closed timelike curve' is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past.
If you think that the distance from the Earth to the nearest planet where we could live comfortably... is being, like, from New York to Australia... what we've achieved so far, in going to the moon, that's about two-and-a-half inches. So that's the challenge.
A big misconception is that a black hole is made of matter that has just been compacted to a very small size. That's not true. A black hole is made from warped space and time.
Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics.
One factor that has remained constant through all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of the mathematical imagination.
The space station is the most unique laboratory we've ever built. The reason we have it is to do research on materials, people, medical matters, pharmaceuticals - the possibilities are nearly endless.
I take no pleasure in the fact that the scientific predictions Iβve relayed to popular audiences turn out to be true.
I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.
The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.