Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
John C. MatherRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding technical aspects is crucial to solving major global issues.
John C. Mather emphasizes the importance of grasping the technical components behind pressing problems such as climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure. He suggests that comprehensive solutions require not just awareness of these issues, but also a deep understanding of their underlying technical elements, implying that without this knowledge, effective resolutions are unlikely.
Themes
TechnicalProblemsSolutionsUnderstandingScience
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about climate policy, one might quote Mather to emphasize the need for scientific literacy.
More from John C. Mather
All quotes →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
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.
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
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Nobody spends any money on smallpox unless they worry about a bio-terrorist recreating it.
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It is mistaken to claim that global problems will be solved more quickly if only researchers would abandon their quest to understand the universe and knuckle down to work on an agenda of public or political concerns. These are not 'either/or' options - indeed, there is a positive symbiosis between them.
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The Earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides, is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars.
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If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part.
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