In any finite region of space, matter can only arrange itself in a finite number of configurations, just as a deck of cards can be arranged in only finitely many different orders. If you shuffle the deck infinitely many times, the card orderings must necessarily repeat.

There's no way that scientists can ever rule out religion, or even have anything significant to say about the abstract idea of a divine creator.

The number of e-mails and letters that I get from choreographers, from sculptors, from composers who are being inspired by science is huge.

Understanding requires insight. Insight must be anchored.

When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level

I have long thought that anyone who does not regularly - or ever - gaze up and see the wonder and glory of a dark night sky filled with countless stars loses a sense of their fundamental connectedness to the universe.

The central idea of string theory is quite straightforward. If you examine any piece of matter ever more finely, at first you'll find molecules, atoms, sub-atomic particles. Probe the smaller particles, you'll find something else, a tiny vibrating filament of energy, a little tiny vibrating string.