"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."--Stephen Jay Gould, died OTD 2002.
Brian Greene
1,864 posts
Brian Greene
@bgreene
Theoretical Physicist, Author, Co-founder @WorldSciFest, Professor of Mathematics & Physics, Columbia University
- "The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan, born OTD 1934
- Just announced: First ever direct image of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Another triumph for the Event Horizon Telescope.
- Visualizations of Einstein's general relativity often show space warping only "underneath" an object--this visual is better:
GIF - Einstein's discovery, ensconced mathematically OTD in 1915, is that matter warps the spacetime through which it moves, and that warping is what we perceive as gravity.
GIF - General relativity's central feature of mass warping spacetime is often illustrated in 2d--here's a nice attempt to visualize it in 3d.
GIF - The observable universe is 93 billion light-years across. So far, no human has ventured farther than 1.3 light-seconds from Earth.
- The observable universe extends for about 92 billion light-years. No human has ventured farther from Earth than 1.29 light-seconds.
- "It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."--Carl Sagan, died OTD 1996.
- On this date in 1915, Albert Einstein completes the general theory of relativity, giving us one of the most beautiful equations ever conceived (LHS describes the curvature of spacetime, RHS describes the matter and energy in spacetime).
- It is deeply sad that the very same species which revealed the secrets of the atom, peered back to nearly the big bang, and grasped the mysteries of warped spacetime can be so horrifically cruel and barbaric.
- Pi Day: The day Albert Einstein joined the world and now also the day that Stephen Hawking left.
- We spend our lives floating on a sea of repelling electrons. We never actually touch anything.
- Why I was drawn to mathematics: its truths seemed eternal. Why I've focused on physics: its truths speak to reality.