The scientists who attack mainstream religion, rather than striving for peaceful coexistence with it, damage science, and also weaken the fight against fundamentalism.
Martin ReesRead
It's becoming clear that in a sense the cosmos provides the only laboratory where sufficiently extreme conditions are ever achieved to test new ideas on particle physics. The energies in the Big Bang were far higher than we can ever achieve on Earth. So by looking at evidence for the Big Bang, and by studying things like neutron stars, we are in effect learning something about fundamental physics.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The cosmos serves as a unique laboratory for exploring fundamental physics under extreme conditions.
In this quote, Martin Rees emphasizes the importance of cosmic events, such as the Big Bang and neutron stars, as essential for advancing our understanding of fundamental physics. He points out that the extreme conditions present in these cosmic phenomena are unparalleled on Earth, allowing scientists to test and explore theories in particle physics that would otherwise remain unexamined.
Themes
CosmosParticle PhysicsBig BangNeutron StarsFundamental Physics
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on astrophysics, this quote can illustrate the significance of cosmic studies.
More from Martin Rees
All quotes →Let me say that I don't see any conflict between science and religion. I go to church as many other scientists do. I share with most religious people a sense of mystery and wonder at the universe and I want to participate in religious ritual and practices because they're something that all humans can share.
Martin ReesRead
In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The universe exists because we are aware of it.
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Collective human actions are transforming, even ravaging, the biosphere - perhaps irreversibly - through global warming and loss of biodiversity.
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It is astonishing that human brains, which evolved to cope with the everyday world, have been able to grasp the counterintuitive mysteries of the cosmos and the quantum.
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The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification of cosmos and quantum are surely among science's great 'open frontiers.' These are parts of the intellectual map where we're still groping for the truth - where, in the fashion of ancient cartographers, we must still inscribe 'here be dragons.'
Martin ReesRead
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