Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
My wonder button is being pushed all the time.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a constant sense of curiosity and fascination with the universe.
Carl Sagan's quote reflects his profound enthusiasm for exploration and discovery in the vastness of the universe. The phrase 'wonder button' symbolizes the innate curiosity that drives us to seek answers and understand the mysteries of existence. For Sagan, this sense of wonder is a continuous experience, urging us to embrace our curiosity and engage with the wonders of science and nature throughout life.
In practice
In a speech about science education, you could say, 'Like Carl Sagan, I hope to inspire students whose wonder button is being pushed all the time.'
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I hold to be great guns.
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.
It is my supposition that the Universe in not only queerer than we imagine, is queerer than we can imagine.
Science does not know its debt to imagination.
This afternoon, I've arranged for this ceremony to be illuminated by solar power.
Even though I knew pretty early that I was going to be a scientist, it wasn't the science that interested me in science fiction; it was the vision of future societies that, for better or worse, would be radically different from our own.
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