Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
John C. MatherRead
My interest in science started quite early. My earliest school recollection, from age 6, is actually of mathematics, realizing that one could fill an entire page with digits and never come to the largest possible number, so I saw what was meant by infinity.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the author's early fascination with mathematics and the concept of infinity.
John C. Mather explains how his interest in science began at a young age, particularly through his understanding of mathematics. He recalls a profound realization about the endless possibilities inherent in numbers, which opened his eyes to the concept of infinity. This early encounter with mathematics not only sparked his curiosity but also laid the foundation for his later scientific pursuits.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of early education in STEM fields.
Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
Many of the problems facing the nation and the world today may only be solved if their technical elements are understood - climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure, to name just a few.
Even your chin is made up of exploded stars.
There's no such thing as saying that we'll ever find the ultimate cause of stuff. We can only work to push our understanding one step further.
Astronomers can look back in time. We can look at things as they used to be. We have an idea there was a Big Bang explosion 13.7 billion years ago. We have a story of how galaxies and stars were made. It's an amazing story.
We are discovering what the universe is really like, and it is totally magnificent, and one can only be inspired and awestruck by what we find.
Mathematics is one of the deepest and most powerful expressions of pure human reason, and, at the same time, the most fundamental resource for description and analysis of the experiential world.
As scientists, we track down all promising leads, and there's reason to suspect that our universe may be one of many - a single bubble in a huge bubble bath of other universes.
The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?
[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.
The best way to conduct research on a larger scale is to make sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing... The sooner the better - start talking to other people about what you're doing. Because that's what will stimulate things the fastest.
I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist.
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