Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
John C. MatherRead
My interest in science started quite early. My earliest school recollection, from age 6, is actually of mathematics, realizing that one could fill an entire page with digits and never come to the largest possible number, so I saw what was meant by infinity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the author's early fascination with mathematics and the concept of infinity.
John C. Mather explains how his interest in science began at a young age, particularly through his understanding of mathematics. He recalls a profound realization about the endless possibilities inherent in numbers, which opened his eyes to the concept of infinity. This early encounter with mathematics not only sparked his curiosity but also laid the foundation for his later scientific pursuits.
Themes
ScienceMathematicsInfinityCuriosityChildhood
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of early education in STEM fields.
More from John C. Mather
All quotes →Many of the problems facing the nation and the world today may only be solved if their technical elements are understood - climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure, to name just a few.
John C. MatherRead
Even your chin is made up of exploded stars.
John C. MatherRead
There's no such thing as saying that we'll ever find the ultimate cause of stuff. We can only work to push our understanding one step further.
John C. MatherRead
Astronomers can look back in time. We can look at things as they used to be. We have an idea there was a Big Bang explosion 13.7 billion years ago. We have a story of how galaxies and stars were made. It's an amazing story.
John C. MatherRead
We are discovering what the universe is really like, and it is totally magnificent, and one can only be inspired and awestruck by what we find.
John C. MatherRead
Similar quotes
If we use our fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful, and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations. The heat of the sun's rays represents an immense amount of energy vastly in excess of waterpower...The sun's energy controlled to create lakes and rivers for motive purposes and transformation of arid deserts into fertile land.
Nikola TeslaRead
Science merely amplifies the capabilities of human beings. Science gives us the ability to do ill and to do good more than we had, and to question science in this respect is like questioning whether people ought to have two hands or just one, because with two hands they could do more evil than they can with just one.
Steven WeinbergRead
We need to look at NASA, not as a handout, but as an investment.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
It's an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock's tail was thus formed but ... most people just don't get it - I must be a very bad explainer
Charles DarwinRead
[Marijuana] doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works... [I]t is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana. We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
Sanjay GuptaRead
Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.
Arno Allan PenziasRead