” Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that’s the result of 400 years of science, right? I mean, in the 18th century, in the 18th century you could become an expert on any field of science in an afternoon by going to a library, if you could find the library, right? “
” In the 19th century, if you had a basement lab, you could make major scientific discoveries in your own home. Right? Because there was all this science just lying around waiting for somebody to pick it up. “
” We’re interested in things that have big teeth, and you can see the evolutionary value of that, and you can also see the practical consequences by watching ‘Animal Planet.’ You notice they make very few programs about gerbils. It’s mostly about things that have big teeth. “
” Dating Game’ wasn’t social commentary, political analysis, Shakespearean-level drama or even blunt-force comedy. It was just the televised equivalent of meeting someone at a bar. But it appealed to our most basic Darwinian instinct: selecting a good mate. You can’t go wrong when a show’s premise is hard-wired into human DNA. “
” It will be the mother of all telescopes, and you can bet it will do for astronomy what genome sequencing is doing for biology. The clumsy, if utilitarian, name of this mirrored monster is Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST. You can’t use it yet, but a peak in the Chilean Andes has been decapitated to provide a level spot for placement. “
” The principal reason for the universe’s poker face is that its constituents are far away. Stars careen through space, and galaxies spin at speeds thousands of times faster than a jet plane. But given their distance, you’d need the patience of Job to notice much change in their appearance or position. “
” It’s always a tough call deciding whether, as a scientist, you should argue publicly with the creationists. It’s a dilemma that I encounter frequently in another subject area: Does it make sense to bandy words with someone from the UFO community? “
” We’ve accounted for 95 percent of all the stars in the Milky Way. The other 5 percent are big, bright stars – the kind that dominate the night sky, but are lamentably both rare and short-lived. If biology’s your thing, you can forget those guys. “
” It’s the default premise in science: If you observe something in nature only once, you assume that what you’ve seen is typical. That’s because ‘typical’ is just another way of saying ‘most probable. “
” Everything you see is filtered through your visual system (imperfect) and your brain (also imperfect, despite what your mom told you). Witness testimony is the worst kind of evidence in science. “
All 10 Seth Shostak Quotes about You in picture
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