Brian Greene Quotations | Page 2

I've had various experiences where I've been called by Hollywood studios to look at a script or comment on various scientific ideas that they're trying to inject into a story.

I love it when real science finds a home in a fictional setting, where you take some real core idea of science and weave it through a fictional narrative in order to bring it to life, the way stories can. That's my favorite thing.

I think it's too fast to say that all sci-fi ultimately winds up having some place in science. On the other hand, imaginative minds working outside of science as storytellers certainly have come upon ideas that, with the passing decades, have either materialized of come close to materializing.

You almost can't avoid having some version of the multiverse in your studies if you push deeply enough in the mathematical descriptions of the physical universe.

When we benefit from CT scanners, M.R.I. devices, pacemakers and arterial stents, we can immediately appreciate how science affects the quality of our lives.

Time allows change to take place and the very evolution of the universe is what requires some conception of time. Mathematically can we write down a universe that doesn't have time? Sure. Do we think that would be realised in the larger reality that is out there? None of us take that possibility seriously.

But if you think about a practical implication of enriching your life and giving you a sense of being part of a larger cosmos and possibly being able to use this [gravitational waves] as a tool in the future maybe to listen not just to black holes colliding, but maybe listen to the big bang itself, those kind of applications may happen in the not too distant future.

General relativity is in the old Newtonian framework where you predict what will happen, not the probability of what will happen. And putting together the probabilities of quantum mechanics with the certainty of general relativity, that's been the big challenge and that's why we have been excited about string theory, as it's one of the only approaches that can put it together.

The beauty of string theory is the metaphor kind of really comes very close to the reality. The strings of string theory are vibrating the particles, vibrating the forces of nature into existence, those vibrations are sort of like musical notes. So string theory, if it's correct, would be playing out the score of the universe.

So many galaxies, so many planets out there in the universe circling so many stars... it just feels like there's a very good chance that there is another Earth-like planet out there that is able to support some kind of life similar to what we're familiar with.

You should never be surprised by or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high entropy state.

So: if you buy the notion that reality consists of the things in your freeze-frame mental image right now, and if you agree that your now is no more valid than the now of someone located far away in space who can move freely, then reality encompasses all of the events in spacetime.

According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.

Evidence in support of general relativity came quickly. Astronomers had long known that Mercury’s orbital motion around the sun deviated slightly from what Newton’s mathematics predicted. In 1915, Einstein used his new equations to recalculate Mercury’s trajectory and was able to explain the discrepancy, a realization he later described to his colleague Adrian Fokker as so thrilling that for some hours it gave him heart palpitations.

A watch worn by a particle of light would not tick at all. Light realizes the dreams of Ponce de Leon and the cosmetics industry: it doesn't age.

Understanding requires insight. Insight must be anchored.

When we benefit from CT scanners, M.R.I. devices, pacemakers and arterial stents, we can immediately appreciate how science affects the quality of our lives.

When you drive your car, E = mc2 is at work. As the engine burns gasoline to produce energy in the form of motion, it does so by converting some of the gasoline's mass into energy, in accord with Einstein's formula.

Assessing existence while failing to embrace the insights of modern physics would be like wrestling in the dark with an unknown opponent.

...quantum mechanics—the physics of our world—requires that you hold such pedestrian complaints in abeyance.

I’ve spent something like 17 years working on a theory for which there is essentially no direct experimental support.

Far from being accidental details, the properties of nature's basic building blocks are deeply entwined with the fabric of space and time.

I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.

When you know the answer you want, it is often all too easy to figure out a way of getting it.

Gravity is matter’s sugar daddy.

My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by questions they couldn't answer.

If string theory is right, the microscopic fabric of our universe is a richly intertwined multidimensional labyrinth within which the strings of the universe endlessly twist and vibrate, rhythmically beating out the laws of the cosmos.

When I give this talk to a physics audience, I remove the quotes from my 'Theorem'.

The revelation we've come to is that we can trust our memories of a past with lower, not higher, entropy only if the big bang - the process, event, or happening that brought the universe into existence - started off the universe in an extraordinarily special, highly ordered state of low entropy.

Einstein comes along and says, space and time can warp and curve, that's what gravity is. Now string theory comes along and says, yes, gravity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism - all together in one package, but only if the universe has more dimensions than the ones that we see.

Energy is the ultimate convertable currency.

I was holding [my four-year-old daughter] and I said, 'Sophia, I love you more than anything in the universe.' And she turned to me and said, 'Daddy, universe or multiverse?'

Cosmology is among the oldest subjects to captivate our species. And it’s no wonder. We’re storytellers, and what could be more grand than the story of creation?

Quantum Mechanics is different. Its weirdness is evident without comparison. It is harder to train your mind to have quantum mechanical tuition, because quantum mechanics shatters our own personal, individual conception of reality

Experimental evidence is the final arbiter of right and wrong.

We do not know whether there are extra dimensions or multiverse. Let's go forward with the possible ideas that come out of the mathematics. It's hard for us to imagine a universe that would have no time at all.

In quantum mechanics there is A causing B. The equations do not stand outside that usual paradigm of physics. The real issue is that the kinds of things you predict in quantum mechanics are different from the kinds of things you predict using general relativity. Quantum mechanics, that big, new, spectacular remarkable idea is that you only predict probabilities, the likelihood of one outcome or another. That's the new idea.

The real question is whether all your pondering and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. That's what it all comes down to.

...things are the way they are in our universe because if they weren't, we wouldn't be here to notice.

That is, you can have nothingness, absolute nothingness for maybe a tiny fraction of a second, if a second can be defined in that arena, but then it falls apart into a something and an anti-something. And that something is then what we call the universe. But can we really understand that or put rigorous mathematics or testable experiments against that? Not yet. So one of the big holy grail of physics is to understand why there is something rather than nothing.

In essence, we string theorists have been trying to work out the score of the universe, the harmonies of the universe, the mathematical vibrations that the strings would play. So musical metaphors have been with us in science since the beginning.

But, as Einstein once said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”5

Physicists have come to realize that mathematics, when used with sufficient care, is a proven pathway to truth.

Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.

Most people don’t question the practice of eating meat. Many of these people care about animals and the environment, some deeply. But for some reason-force of habit, cultural norms, resistance to change-there is a fundamental disconnect whereby these feelings don’t translate into changes of behavior.

Free will is the sensation of making a choice. The sensation is real, but the choice seems illusory. Laws of physics determine the future.

Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding...

When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level

All you are is a bag of particles acting out the laws of physics. That to me is pretty clear.

I like to think that Einstein would look at string theory’s journey and smile, enjoying the theory’s remarkable geometrical features while feeling kinship with fellow travelers on the long and winding road toward unification.

I grew up going to mixed schools. In North Hollywood, where I was born and raised, it wasn't a real mixed area, but I never went to school there.

I cant remember when its been so long,

Jake finished close behind Ben White of eventual team champion Liverpool. Jake has been looking forward to this race against one of the top runners in New York and came away disappointed. I think this set back will fuel Jake to beat White next time.

I think individuals are enormously surprised by the progress. When you look around the world, it's a very rich but complex place. When you understand the physics behind it, you understand it's a few simple laws ... if these cutting-edge ideas are correct.

We had guys in the past who wanted to win; now we have guys who expect to win. It's an attitude shift in the way we think about ourselves.

We opened the second half again with a lot of energy and hustle.

What was the hardest part? All the media hype. We were together before she started doing the show. Everything we did became an article in something.

As the astounding vastness of the universe becomes obscured, there is a throwback to a vision of a universe that essentially amounts to earth, or one's country, or state or city. Perspective becomes myopic.

Right now we are facing adversity, but we just have to stick together. We have a chance to play in the tournament now and win. We have the team to do it.

A clear night sky and a little instruction allows anyone to soar in mind and imagination to the farthest reaches of an enormous universe in which we are but a speck. And there is nothing more exhilarating and humbling than that.

The observations are spectacular and the conclusions are stunning. It shows that galaxies are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky.

The observations are spectacular and the conclusions are stunning.

Everybody was calling us, People magazine, TV Guide, asking us to be on the cover or host this or that. NBC said they were developing a show for us.

I want my family and friends and everybody around me to be taken care of, and to enjoy their lives as much as I enjoy mine right now.

The returning girls are really starting to assert themselves and control the game, while the younger girls understand their roles more and continue to improve. This team is improving game by game and is ready for league play to begin.

I just want to keep doing good work. I want to grow with the craft in whatever I do. The whole famous side of it doesn't thrill me anymore.

I'm planning to buy a house in Lake Tahoe and live there, so I can work on my music. Then I'll keep this place for when I'm in town.

If you're just playing football for winning or losing, you're playing for the wrong reasons,

I love playing away games; it's one of my favorite things to do. You go to a packed stadium with crazy fans, and they're all yelling and screaming at you. The best thing, in my opinion, is to hear quiet in a full opposing stadium.

If you watch the games, it's really close,

His father was a great guy and was always a good fan. He loved Duke football, and he loved his son, which is why Jim is struggling with this so much. He loved his dad. We're all feeling for him right now, and we hope he gets through this tough time.

You don't have to search far to locate where the big bang occurred, for it took place where you are now as well as everywhere else; in the beginning, all locations we now see as separate were the same location.

The market rates are so out of control right now that to go into bid at this time of year is really difficult.