In my relativity theory I set up a clock at every point in space, but in reality I find it difficult to provide even one clock in my room.
Interpretation
Einstein reflects on the complexity of measuring time in theoretical physics compared to practical challenges.
In this quote, Albert Einstein highlights the paradox of theoretical physics, where one can conceive of intricate models like relativity with precise tools for measuring time at every point in space, yet faces the practical difficulty of even having a single clock available in his own space. This underscores the gap between theoretical understanding and practical application, emphasizing the challenges that scientists face when trying to translate complex theories into the tangible world.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture on the challenges of theoretical vs practical science.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
Time... is an essential requirement for effective research. An investigator may be given a palace to live in, a perfect laboratory to work in, he may be surrounded by all the conveniences money can provide; but if his time is taken from him he will remain sterile.
In evolution, as in all areas of science, our knowledge is incomplete. But the entire success of the scientific enterprise has depended on an insistence that these gaps be filled by natural explanations, logically derived from confirmable evidence. Because "intelligent design" theories are based on supernatural explanations, they can have nothing to do with science.
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.
Back in my days as a chemistry student, I used to be quite a technocrat. I was firmly convinced that scientists would have cornered God and photographed Him in color by 1951.
One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage.
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
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