The word 'universe' is obviously not intended to have a plural, but science has evolved in such a way that we need a plural noun for something similar to what we ordinarily call our universe.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the concept of the universe and how scientific understanding has led to the need for a broader terminology.
Leonard Susskind's quote highlights the evolution of scientific thought and the limitations of traditional language. As science progresses, especially in the realm of cosmology and theoretical physics, our understanding of the universe expands, necessitating the use of a plural term to describe multiple universes or dimensions that might exist beyond the observable universe. This points to the expanding boundaries of knowledge and the challenges of accurately describing complex scientific concepts.
In practice
In a scientific conference discussing the theories of multiverses.
Extra dimensional theories are sometimes considered science fiction with equations. I think that's a wrong attitude. I think extra dimensions are with us, they are with us to stay, and they entered physics a long time ago. They are not going to go away.
A lot of my research time is spent daydreaming - telling an imaginary admiring audience of laymen how to understand some difficult scientific idea.
Man - life in general - seems irrelevant to the workings of the universe: a mere smudge of water, grease, and carbon on a pinpoint planet circling a star of no special consequence.
I was going to engineering school but fell in love with physics.
Why is there space rather than no space? Why is space three-dimensional? Why is space big? We have a lot of room to move around in. How come it's not tiny? We have no consensus about these things. We're still exploring them.
Science now finds itself in paradoxical strife with society: admired but mistrusted; offering hope for the future but creating ambiguous choice; richly supported yet unable to fulfill all its promise; boasting remarkable advances but criticized for not serving more directly the goals of society.
I think the next century will be the century of complexity.
Anyone who can contemplate quantum mechanics without getting dizzy hasn't understood it.
The investigation of nature is an infinite pasture-ground where all may graze, and where the more bite, the longer the grass grows, the sweeter is its flavor, and the more it nourishes.
In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.
My study is NOT as a climatologist, but from a completely different perspective in_x000D_ which I am an expert … For decades, as a professional experimental test engineer, I have analyzed experimental data and watched others massage and present data. I became a cynic; My conclusion - 'if someone is aggressively selling a technical product who's merits are dependent on complex experimental data, he is likely lying'. That is true whether the product is an airplane or a Carbon Credit.
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