Janna Levin quotes

The simpler the insight, the more profound the conclusion. (Janna Levin)
I don't believe that math and nature respond to democracy. Just because very clever people have rejected the role of the infinite, their collective opinions, however weighty, won't persuade mother nature to alter her ways. Nature is never wrong. View quote
Janna Levin
To see some truths you must stand outside and look in. View quote
Janna Levin
I think there's a certain lyricism in the telling of a scientific story. View quote
Janna Levin
Topology and number theory are my faves. View quote
Janna Levin
Now, our Sun will not collapse to a black hole. It's actually not massive enough. View quote
Janna Levin
Ambiguity is very interesting in writing; it's not very interesting in science. View quote
Janna Levin
We have never observed infinity in nature. Whenever you have infinities in a theory, that's where the theory fails as a description of nature. And if space was born in the Big Bang, yet is infinite now, we are forced to believe that it's instantaneously, infinitely big. It seems absurd. View quote
Janna Levin
What we see of the universe is vast. We know that the universe is something like 90 billion light-years across. View quote
Janna Levin
There are faint stars in the night sky that you can see, but only if you look to the side of where they shine. They burn too weakly or are too far away to be seen directly, even if you stare. But you can see them out of the corner of your eye because the cells on the periphery of your retina are more sensitive to light. Maybe truth is just like that. You can see it, but only out of the corner of your eye. View quote
Janna Levin
It would be kind of magical if we were just happening to be able to see right to some boundary and then something crazy happened beyond that, like galaxies ceased to exist. I mean, that just seems nuts. (Janna Levin)
Black holes can bang against space-time as mallets on a drum and have a very characteristic song. View quote
Janna Levin
I'd like to convince you that the universe has a soundtrack and that soundtrack is played on space itself, because space can wobble like a drum. View quote
Janna Levin
People used to try to hijack quantum mechanics and its inherent mystery to cast a cloud around determinism, in the hope that free will could survive modern physics. But that never worked very well. Since when does random chance equal free will? The only salvation for volition is a soul and faith and you're not allowed to ask me about that. View quote
Janna Levin
It might seem limited to impose our human perception to try to deduce the grandest cosmic code. But we are the product of the universe and I think it can be argued that the entire cosmic code is imprinted in us. Just as our genes carry the memory of our biological ancestors, our logic carries the memory of our cosmological ancestry. We are not just imposing human-centric notions on a cosmos independent of us. We are progeny of the cosmos and our ability to understand it is an inheritance. View quote
Janna Levin
(By moving) I'm making sounds on the drums of spacetime"... "Space itself wobbles and rumbles like a drum... Black holes can bang on spacetime like mallets on a drum. View quote
Janna Levin
I would say the connection between art and science is very tenuous for me. It's just that I'm interested in both. I don't think that my interest in art affects the kind of science that I do. View quote
Janna Levin
The Earth isn't an infinite sheet that carries on for ever, but it doesn't have an edge, either. It's compact and connected. View quote
Janna Levin
We have to wonder, if there is a multiverse, in some other patch of that multiverse are there creatures? View quote
Janna Levin