Janna Levin Quotations

We have never observed infinity in nature. Whenever you have infinities in a theory, that's where the theory fails as a description of nature. And if space was born in the Big Bang, yet is infinite now, we are forced to believe that it's instantaneously, infinitely big. It seems absurd.

Topology and number theory are my faves.

Sam Harris fearlessly describes a moral and intellectual emergency precipitated by religious fantasies--misguided beliefs that create suffering, that rationalize violence, that have endangered our nation and our future. His argument for the morality, the honesty, and the humility of atheism is galvanizing. It is a relief that someone has spoken so frankly, with such passion yet such rationality. Now when the subject arises, as it inevitably does, I can simply say: Read Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation.

There are faint stars in the night sky that you can see, but only if you look to the side of where they shine. They burn too weakly or are too far away to be seen directly, even if you stare. But you can see them out of the corner of your eye because the cells on the periphery of your retina are more sensitive to light. Maybe truth is just like that. You can see it, but only out of the corner of your eye.

To see some truths you must stand outside and look in.

The simpler the insight, the more profound the conclusion.

I don't believe that math and nature respond to democracy. Just because very clever people have rejected the role of the infinite, their collective opinions, however weighty, won't persuade mother nature to alter her ways. Nature is never wrong.

I think there's a certain lyricism in the telling of a scientific story.

Forever is a very long time, especially the bit towards the end.

Now, our Sun will not collapse to a black hole. It's actually not massive enough.

I'd like to convince you that the universe has a soundtrack and that soundtrack is played on space itself, because space can wobble like a drum.

I would say the connection between art and science is very tenuous for me. It's just that I'm interested in both. I don't think that my interest in art affects the kind of science that I do.

We have to wonder, if there is a multiverse, in some other patch of that multiverse are there creatures?

Black holes can bang against space-time as mallets on a drum and have a very characteristic song.

Ambiguity is very interesting in writing; it's not very interesting in science.

The Earth isn't an infinite sheet that carries on for ever, but it doesn't have an edge, either. It's compact and connected.