Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
John C. MatherRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We may never fully understand the origins of everything, but we can continue to seek knowledge incrementally.
In this quote, John C. Mather emphasizes the idea that the quest for knowledge is ongoing and perhaps never complete. Rather than expecting to uncover a final answer to the mysteries of existence, we should aim to advance our understanding step by step, acknowledging that each discovery adds to our overall comprehension of the universe.
Themes
UnderstandingKnowledgeInquiryScienceCuriosity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about scientific advancement, you might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of ongoing research.
More from John C. Mather
All quotes βMany 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.
John C. MatherRead
Even your chin is made up of exploded stars.
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.
John C. MatherRead
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.
John C. MatherRead
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.
John C. MatherRead
Similar quotes
Chemistry is necessarily an experimental science: its conclusions are drawn from data, and its principles supported by evidence from facts.
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That is the way of the scientist. He will spend thirty years in building up a mountain range of facts with the intent to prove a certain theory; then he is so happy with his achievement that as a rule he overlooks the main chief fact of all-that all his accumulation proves an entirely different thing.
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Science fiction is not formulaic.
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When it comes down to it, the reason that science fiction endures is that it is, at its core, an optimistic genre. What it says at the end of the day is that there is a tomorrow, we do go on, we don't extinguish ourselves and leave the planet to the cockroaches.
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The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not, and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead. We all had this priceless talent when we were young. But as time goes by, many of us lose it. The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being.
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I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.
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