Brian Greene quotes - page 4

In essence, we string theorists have been trying to work out the score of the universe, the harmonies of the universe, the mathematical vibrations that the strings would play. So musical metaphors have been with us in science since the beginning. (Brian Greene)
In any finite region of space, matter can only arrange itself in a finite number of configurations, just as a deck of cards can be arranged in only finitely many different orders. If you shuffle the deck infinitely many times, the card orderings must necessarily repeat. View quote
Brian Greene
The absolute worst thing that you ever can do, in my opinion, in bringing science to the general public, is be condescending or judgmental. It is so opposite to the way science needs to be brought forth. View quote
Brian Greene
String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense. View quote
Brian Greene
I would say in one sentence my goal is to at least be part of the journey to find the unified theory that Einstein himself was really the first to look for. View quote
Brian Greene
If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake. View quote
Brian Greene
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. View quote
Brian Greene
The main challenge that television presents is that I have a tendency to say things with a great deal of precision and accuracy. Often a description of that sort, which will work in a book because people can read it slowly - they can turn the pages back and so on - doesn't really work on TV because it interrupts the flow of the moving image. View quote
Brian Greene
When we benefit from CT scanners, M.R.I. devices, pacemakers and arterial stents, we can immediately appreciate how science affects the quality of our lives. View quote
Brian Greene
Writing for the stage is different from writing for a book. You want to write in a way that an actor has material to work with, writing in the first person not the third person, and pulling out the dramatic elements in a bigger way for a stage presentation. View quote
Brian Greene
You should never be surprised by or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high entropy state. (Brian Greene)
The revelation we've come to is that we can trust our memories of a past with lower, not higher, entropy only if the big bang - the process, event, or happening that brought the universe into existence - started off the universe in an extraordinarily special, highly ordered state of low entropy. View quote
Brian Greene
Falsifiability for a theory is great, but a theory can still be respectable even if it is not falsifiable, as long as it is verifiable. View quote
Brian Greene
Relativity challenges your basic intuitions that you've built up from everyday experience. It says your experience of time is not what you think it is, that time is malleable. Your experience of space is not what you think it is; it can stretch and shrink. View quote
Brian Greene
How can a speck of a universe be physically identical to the great expanse we view in the heavens above? View quote
Brian Greene
I enjoy reading blogs, but am not interested in having my spurious thoughts out there. View quote
Brian Greene
So many galaxies, so many planets out there in the universe circling so many stars... it just feels like there's a very good chance that there is another Earth-like planet out there that is able to support some kind of life similar to what we're familiar with. View quote
Brian Greene
As every parent knows, children begin life as uninhibited, unabashed explorers of the unknown. From the time we can walk and talk, we want to know what things are and how they work - we begin life as little scientists. View quote
Brian Greene
All species of particles are unified in superstring theory since each arises from a different vibrational pattern executed by the same underlying entity. View quote
Brian Greene
Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules and brush the edge of acceptability in the search for solutions. View quote
Brian Greene
Some people think that the big bang is an explanation of how the universe began, its not. The big bang is a theory of how the universe evolved from a split second after whatever brought it into existence. (Brian Greene)
Like modern and classical music, it's not that one approach is right and the other wrong – the methods one chooses to use are largely a matter of taste and training. View quote
Brian Greene
Superstring theory starts off by proposing a new answer to an old question: what are the smallest, indivisible constituents of matter? View quote
Brian Greene
Most scientists like to operate in the context of economy. If you don't need an explanatory principle, don't invoke it. View quote
Brian Greene
I think it's too fast to say that all sci-fi ultimately winds up having some place in science. On the other hand, imaginative minds working outside of science as storytellers certainly have come upon ideas that, with the passing decades, have either materialized of come close to materializing. View quote
Brian Greene