In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade.
Vera RubinRead
Nobody ever told us all matter radiated. We just assumed it did.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the assumption that all matter emits radiation without prior explicit guidance on the subject.
Vera Rubin's quote emphasizes the often unchallenged assumptions we make about scientific concepts. It reflects a broader theme in science where certain insights or truths are understood or accepted not through direct instruction, but through exploration and reasoning, illustrating the nature of scientific discovery and the importance of questioning our existing beliefs.
Themes
MatterRadiationAssumptionsScienceDiscovery
In practice
Example use cases
In a science class discussing the properties of matter.
More from Vera Rubin
All quotes βWe need senators who have studied physics and representatives who understand ecology.
Vera RubinRead
There was just nothing as interesting in my life as watching the stars every night.
Vera RubinRead
I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe.
Vera RubinRead
I had the usual friends who pointed out constellations of stars. But it really was watching the stars. It was getting some sense of the motion of the earth. I found it a remarkable thing.
Vera RubinRead
I think the question is, are there women and have there been women who want to do science and could be doing great science, but they never really got the opportunity?
Vera RubinRead
Similar quotes
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
Claude BernardRead
As someone who flew two space capsules and twice landed in the ocean, I can attest from personal experience how much logistics work is needed to get you home.
Buzz AldrinRead
Mathematics, the non-empirical science par excellence . . . the science of sciences, delivering the key to those laws of nature and the universe which are concealed by appearances.
Hannah ArendtRead
On Friday the 13th, April 2029, an asteroid large enough to fill the Rose Bowl as though it were an egg cup will fly so close to Earth that it will dip below the altitude of our communication satellites. We did not name this asteroid Bambi. Instead, we named it Apophis, after the Egyptian god of darkness and death.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
Not to leave planet Earth would be like castaways on a desert island not trying to escape...Sending humans to other planets ... will shape the future of the human race in ways we don't yet understand, and may determine whether we have any future at all.
Stephen HawkingRead
Every work of science great enough to be well remembered for a few generations affords some exemplification of the defective state of the art of reasoning of the time when it was written; and each chief step in science has been a lesson in logic.
Charles Sanders PeirceRead