To live in the hearts we leave behind is to live forever. - Carl Sagan

Може би някой ще изтълкува това мое твърдение като твърде широко, но аз смятам, че правим наука всеки път когато критикуваме самите себе си и проверяваме идеите си спрямо околния свят. Обратното - когато сме самодоволни и безкритични към себе си, когато не правим разлика между очаквания и факти, тогава рискуваме да се плъзнем към псевдонаука и суеверие.

Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

The astonishing fact is that similar mathematics applies so well to planets and to clocks. It needn’t have been this way. We didn’t impose it on the Universe. That’s the way the Universe is. If this is reductionism, so be it.