The word 'universe' is obviously not intended to have a plural, but science has evolved in such a way that we need a plural noun for something similar to what we ordinarily call our universe.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the concept of the universe and how scientific understanding has led to the need for a broader terminology.
Leonard Susskind's quote highlights the evolution of scientific thought and the limitations of traditional language. As science progresses, especially in the realm of cosmology and theoretical physics, our understanding of the universe expands, necessitating the use of a plural term to describe multiple universes or dimensions that might exist beyond the observable universe. This points to the expanding boundaries of knowledge and the challenges of accurately describing complex scientific concepts.
In practice
In a scientific conference discussing the theories of multiverses.
Extra dimensional theories are sometimes considered science fiction with equations. I think that's a wrong attitude. I think extra dimensions are with us, they are with us to stay, and they entered physics a long time ago. They are not going to go away.
A lot of my research time is spent daydreaming - telling an imaginary admiring audience of laymen how to understand some difficult scientific idea.
Man - life in general - seems irrelevant to the workings of the universe: a mere smudge of water, grease, and carbon on a pinpoint planet circling a star of no special consequence.
I was going to engineering school but fell in love with physics.
Why is there space rather than no space? Why is space three-dimensional? Why is space big? We have a lot of room to move around in. How come it's not tiny? We have no consensus about these things. We're still exploring them.
The time has come when scientific truth must cease to be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life of the world.
From the point of view of basic physics, the most interesting phenomena are, of course, in the new places, the places where the rules do not work - not the places where they do work! That is the way in which we discover new rules.
Water is the key to dealing with the twin challenges of poverty and growth.
Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there's no turning back from science. The early warnings about technological dangers also come from science.
When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.
New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.