Astrophysicist Quotes

If you're really successful at bullshitting, it means you're not hanging around enough people smarter than you.

The problem in society is not kids not knowing science.

The problem is adults not knowing science. They outnumber kids 5 to 1, they wield power, they write legislation. When you have scientifically illiterate adults, you have undermined the very fabric of what makes a nation wealthy and strong.

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

Dreams about the future are always filled with gadgets.

Claiming there is no other life in the universe is like scooping up some water, looking at the cup and claiming there are no whales in the ocean.

Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.

Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this is Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshiping.

We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.

We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.

Need a distraction today? Not only does 12 + 1 = 11 + 2, but the letters "twelve plus one" rearrange to give you "eleven plus two."

Today, scientists sound the alarm on other environmental dangers.

Vested interests still hire their own scientists to confuse the issue. But in the end, nature, will not be fooled.

Perhaps these ancient observatories like Stonehenge perennially impress modern people because modern people have no idea how the Sun, Moon, or stars move. We are too busy watching evening television to care what's going on in the sky.

Santa knows Physics: Of all colors, Red Light penetrates fog best.

That's why Benny the Blue-nosed reindeer never got the gig.

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

The molecules that comprise our body are traceable to the crucibles of the centers of stars.These atoms and molecules are in us because, in fact, the universe is in us. And, we are not only figuratively, but literally, stardust.

A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery.

There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.

Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. There’s no wild cows.

To learn more about science, turn off your electronic device and go outside and look around a bit. Nature is calling you. Go on. The internet will still be here.

One thing in life is for certain, the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.

I love the smell of the universe in the morning.

Why can't we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What's our excuse?

To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of bullshit.

Countless women are alive today because of ideas stimulated by a design flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a total solar eclipse is a spectacle.

Darwin's theory of evolution is a framework by which we understand the diversity of life on Earth. But there is no equation sitting there in Darwin's 'Origin of Species' that you apply and say, 'What is this species going to look like in 100 years or 1,000 years?' Biology isn't there yet with that kind of predictive precision.

No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don't ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.

You don't want to raise a kid in a culture where the kid who asks the most questions is annoying. You want a culture where the kid who asks the most questions gets awards and gets another piece of cake.

On Friday the 13th, April 2029, an asteroid large enough to fill the Rose Bowl as though it were an egg cup will fly so close to Earth that it will dip below the altitude of our communication satellites. We did not name this asteroid Bambi. Instead, we named it Apophis, after the Egyptian god of darkness and death.

I love being wrong because that means in that instant, I learned something new that day.

The theory of evolution, like the theory of gravity, is a scientific fact.

Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.

Whether or not you can never become great at something, you can always become better at it. Don't ever forget that! And don’t say “I’ll never be good”. You can become better! and one day you’ll wake up and you’ll find out how good you actually became.

I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth.

If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.

I don't have an issue with what you do in the church, but I'm going to be up in your face if you're going to knock on my science classroom and tell me they've got to teach what you're teaching in your Sunday school. Because that's when we're going to fight.

If factual information upsets you, then you are creating a world that is not embracing objective truths, and that's not how you advance a democracy.

We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.

I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people's politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true.

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.

If the Sun exploded, we wouldn't know about it for 8 minutes and 20 seconds.

Light and gravity take that long to reach us. Then we would vaporize.

Somehow it's O.K. for people to chuckle about not being good at math. Yet if I said, 'I never learned to read,' they'd say I was an illiterate dolt.

When Students cheat on exams it's because our School System values grades more than Students value learning.

Extreme skepticism and extreme gullibility are two equal ways of not having to think at all. And I don't think I'm the first to say that.

Imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine

I try to show the public that chemistry, biology, physics, astrophysics is life.

It is not some separate subject that you have to be pulled into a corner to be taught about.

Once upon a time, people identified the god Neptune as the source of storms at sea. Today we call these storms hurricanes.... The only people who still call hurricanes acts of God are the people who write insurance forms.

The depth of experience fine wine can bring to a dinner, particularly a bottle that has been through the past 100 years, makes you take stock of your own life.

So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy.

Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'

Just to settle it once and for all: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, laid by a bird that was not a chicken.

If you need to invoke your academic pedigree or job title for people to believe what you say, then you need a better argument.