The big bang, the most cataclysmic event we can imagine, on closer inspection appears finely orchestrated.
George SmootRead
I always think of space-time as being the real substance of space, and the galaxies and the stars just like the foam on the ocean.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Space-time is the fundamental reality, while galaxies and stars are mere surface phenomena.
In this quote, George Smoot emphasizes the significance of space-time as the core fabric of the universe, suggesting that while galaxies and stars are visible and tangible, they are merely superficial aspects of a deeper, more complex reality. By likening stars and galaxies to the foam on an ocean, he highlights how the vastness of space-time underpins everything we observe in the cosmos, illustrating the relationship between the fundamental forces of nature and the structures it gives rise to.
Themes
SpaceTimeUniverseGalaxiesStarsCosmosSubstance
In practice
Example use cases
In a documentary about the universe, using this quote can illustrate the nature of space and time.
More from George Smoot
All quotes →Similar quotes
All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them.
Peter NorvigRead
If you can’t program it, you haven’t understood it.
David DeutschRead
The essence of mathematics lies precisely in its freedom.
Georg CantorRead
A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man who plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Scientists must venture outside their comfort zones to show the public how cool - and how important - their work really is.
Francis CollinsRead
Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap - it is all in the mind.
Stephen HawkingRead