Lisa Randall
I don't necessarily make much art myself, but after I wrote 'Warped Passages,' I was fortunate to get involved a little in the art world. I got invited to write a libretto for what we called a projective opera, and I also got invited to curate an art exhibit.
I really like that my work is getting more people interested in science.
What makes me different as a scientist is that I'm kind of imaginative. The ideas just happen.
If you are a responsible scientist, you are going to present your new results in a paper, and maybe if, over time, things are established, and it's prime time for the public to hear about it, then you include it in a book.
When I came to Harvard, I was debating between math and science, and I guess I thought in the end I wanted something that could connect to the real world. I liked puzzle-solving and connections.
I do try to do high-impact work, and I try to think of ideas people haven't thought about that have broad implications, but I don't restrict myself to that. I try to work on things that I find interesting.
Harvard freshmen are smart, interested, and excited, and it's fun hearing their different perspectives and stuff that they will share.
When it comes to the world around us, is there any choice but to explore?Collection: Choices
It's hubris to think that the way we see things is everything there is.Collection: Thinking
The universe has its secrets. Extra dimensions of space might be one of them. If so, the universe has been hiding those dimensions, protecting them, keeping them coyly under wraps. From a casual glance, you would never suspect a thing.Collection: Space
Basically, I wasn't properly socialized, so it made sense to do physics.Collection: Physics
We certainly don't yet know all the answers. But the universe is about to be pried open.Collection: Answers
You might find it hard to imagine gravity as a weak force, but consider that a small magnet can hold up a paper clip, even though the entire earth is pulling down on it.Collection: Paper
Speculation and the exploration of ideas beyond what we know with certainty are what lead to progress.Collection: Ideas
One of the nice things about math and science is it’s obvious, you get the answer or you don’t get the answer.Collection: Nice
Faith just doesn't have anything to do with what I'm doing as a scientist. It's nice if you can believe in God, because then you see more of a purpose in things. Even if you don't, though, it doesn't mean that there's no purpose. It doesn't mean that there's no goodness. I think that there's a virtue in being good in and of itself. I think that one can work with the world we have.Collection: Faith
I think it's a problem that people are considered immoral if they're not religious. That's just not true. If you do something for a religious reason, you do it because you'll be rewarded in an afterlife or in this world. That's not quite as good as something you do for purely generous reasons.Collection: Religious
Secrets of the cosmos will begin to unravel. I, for one, can't wait.Collection: Waiting
Science is a combination of theory and experiment and the two together are how you make progress.Collection: Two
We should figure out how to do this so that some parents don't feel disenfranchised, angry and upset. It says a lot about the state of where we are in the city, the role of parents and the reality of small school and combining schools.Collection: School
When people try to use religion to address the natural world, science pushes back on it, and religion has to accommodate the results. Beliefs can be permanent, but beliefs can also be flexible. Personally, if I find out my belief is wrong, I change my mind. I think that's a good way to live.Collection: Thinking
I did not set out to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs. I'm a particle physicist, and I was actually thinking about dark matter along with some collaborators.Collection: Dark
Sometimes models are surprisingly smart.Collection: Smart
All the normal matter in the Milky Way disc is denser than the dark matter that surrounds it.Collection: Dark
I'm not creating the universe. I'm creating a model of the universe, which may or may not be true.Collection: Creating
If such external influences are intrinsic to religion, then logic and scientific thought dictate that there must be a mechanism by which this influence is transmitted. A religious or spiritual belief that involves an invisible undetectable force that nonetheless influences human actions and behavior or that of the world itself produces a situation in which a believer has no choice but to have faith and abandon logic--or simply not care.Collection: Spiritual
Maybe dark matter is denser than we usually assume, kind of like the Milky Way plane.Collection: Dark
Scientists actively approach the door to knowledge—the boundary of the domain of what we know. We question and explore and we change our views when facts and logic force us to do so. We are confident only in what we can verify through experiments or in what we can deduce from experimentally confirmed hypotheses.Collection: Doors
Probably if you look like Tyra Banks, it probably is hard, even if you are really smart, for people to take - it surprises some.Collection: Smart
You have to be careful when you use beauty as a guide. There are many theories people didn't think were beautiful at the time but did find beautiful laterand vice versa. I think simplicity is a good guide: The more economical a theory, the better.Collection: Beautiful
There are many aspects of time we just do not understand. That’s the thing about writing a popular book: You realize the things you understand because for those you can give a really simple explanation. But some things about time I just don’t know how to give simple explanations for, even though I can tell you mathematically what’s going on.Collection: Book
When I was in school I liked math because all the problems had answers. Everything else seemed very subjective.Collection: School
Although I was first drawn to math and science by the certainty they promised, today I find the unanswered questions and the unexpected connections at least as attractive.Collection: Math
Our hypotheses are initially rooted in theoretical consistency and elegance, but...ultimatel y it is experiment not rigid belief that determines what is correct.Collection: Consistency
Physics has entered a remarkable era. Ideas that were once the realm of science fiction are now entering our theoretical and maybe even experimental grasp. Brand-new theoretical discoveries about extra dimensions have irreversibly changed how particle physicists, astrophysicists, and cosmologists now think about the world. The sheer number and pace of discoveries tells us that we've most likely only scratched the surface of the wondrous possibilities that lie in store. Ideas have taken on a life of their own.Collection: Lying
I had this illusion that if I kind of dressed badly that I wouldn't stand out. You know, so I actually went out of my way to not look different to the extent I could.Collection: Different