Members in the Media

"I don't think anybody's going to get the whole story. I am presenting some difficult subjects, like extra spatial dimensions. It's a little hard to visualize."
—John Schwarz, Caltech, on giving a public lecture about string theory, Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2004

"I do what works. I see what causes people to fall asleep."
—Carl Wieman, University of Colorado, on giving public lectures, Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2004

"If the universe was finite, and had a size of about 4 billion to 5 billion light-years, then light would be able to wrap around the universe, and with a big enough telescope we could view the Earth just after it solidified and when the first life formed. Unfortunately, our results rule out this tantalizing possibility."
—Neil Cornish, Montana State University, SPACE.com, May 24, 2004

''I'm a theoretical physicist, and there are some problems for which there aren't any theories. You can only understand that science through simulations.''
—Raymond Orbach, DOE Office of Science, Business Week, June 7, 2004

"I always like to say that one of the compelling things about doing science is that all of us live with the knowledge that there is an ultimate truth and our mistakes will be discovered."
—Persis Drell, SLAC, San Jose Mercury News, June 1, 2004

"It's tough to get an animal to lie still for 40 minutes. It's tough enough to get people to do it."
—Craig Woody, Brookhaven, on a device he's developing called RatCAP, a compact PET scanner for awake lab rats, Newsday, May 31, 2004

"Always assume this is your last clear night on the telescope. Set aside time for things you'd be embarrassed not to have done."
—John Huchra, Harvard, on selecting projects for the Hubble telescope, New York Times, May 25, 2004

"Maybe it's my age, but I'm really beginning to think I know what it feels like to be the Hubble telescope. One faces a finite future."
—Robert Kirshner, Harvard, New York Times, May 25, 2004

"The equations that govern a violin string are pretty close to the equations that govern the strings we talk about in string theory. So although the notion of strings is metaphorical, it's pretty close."
—Brian Greene, Columbia University, New York Times, May 25, 2004

"The cloudier the earth, the brighter the earthshine, and changing cloud cover is an important element of changing climate. Earthshine is a good sentinel, a good diagnostic tool for climate change."
—Steve Koonin, Caltech, San Francisco Chronicle, May 28, 2004