Nature's patterns sometimes reflect two intertwined features: fundamental physical laws and environmental influences. It's nature's version of nature versus nurture.

When you know the answer you want, it is often all too easy to figure out a way of getting it.

Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding.

Supersymmetry is a theory which stipulates that for every known particle there should be a partner particle. For instance, the electron should be paired with a supersymmetric 'selectron,' quarks ought to have 'squark' partners, and so on.

Most scientists like to operate in the context of economy. If you don't need an explanatory principle, don't invoke it.

So: if you buy the notion that reality consists of the things in your freeze-frame mental image right now, and if you agree that your now is no more valid than the now of someone located far away in space who can move freely, then reality encompasses all of the events in spacetime.

It's hard to teach passionately about something that you don't have a passion for.