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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.
Martin Rees
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Human brains are surprising in their ability to understand complex scientific concepts despite evolving for basic survival.

This quote highlights the remarkable capacity of the human brain to comprehend intricate and abstract ideas about the universe and quantum physics, which are far beyond our everyday experiences. It emphasizes how our cognitive abilities have transcended mere survival skills, allowing us to engage with profound scientific truths that challenge our typical understanding of reality.

Themes

Human BrainCosmosQuantumUnderstandingMysteries

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture about the wonders of the universe, one might mention this quote to inspire students about the potential of human intelligence.

More from Martin Rees

The scientists who attack mainstream religion, rather than striving for peaceful coexistence with it, damage science, and also weaken the fight against fundamentalism.
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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.
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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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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.'
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