We need senators who have studied physics and representatives who understand ecology.
Vera RubinRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the vastness of what we don't know compared to what we do, likening our understanding of the universe to early education.
Vera Rubin compares the balance of dark and light matter in a spiral galaxy to our own understanding of knowledge and ignorance. She suggests that although we have made significant progress in learning about the universe, we are still at a very basic level of comprehension, much like students in third grade, highlighting the vast gaps in our knowledge and the importance of continuing to learn.
In practice
In a classroom discussion about the limits of human knowledge.
We need senators who have studied physics and representatives who understand ecology.
Nobody ever told us all matter radiated. We just assumed it did.
There was just nothing as interesting in my life as watching the stars every night.
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.
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.
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?
The question of whether or to what extent human activities are causing global warming is not a matter of ideology, let alone of belief. The issue is simply one of risk management.
The fact that you can remember yesterday but not tomorrow is because of entropy. The fact that you're always born young and then you grow older, and not the other way around like Benjamin Button - it's all because of entropy. So I think that entropy is underappreciated as something that has a crucial role in how we go through life.
Chimps can do all sorts of things we thought that only we could do - like tool-making and abstraction and generalisation. They can learn a language - sign language - and they can use the signs. But when you think of our intellects, even the brightest chimp looks like a very small child.
The central idea of string theory is quite straightforward. If you examine any piece of matter ever more finely, at first you'll find molecules, atoms, sub-atomic particles. Probe the smaller particles, you'll find something else, a tiny vibrating filament of energy, a little tiny vibrating string.
The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it.
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
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