For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If read more

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That's a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they're unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.

The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is responsible. Universes of virtually unlimited complexity can read more

The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is responsible. Universes of virtually unlimited complexity can be created in the form of computer programs.

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity read more

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who read more

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we [cell biologists] are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite read more

Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we [cell biologists] are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of violence and death, mobility, self-sacrifice and, yes, rococo sex.

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no read more

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the read more

A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under read more

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one read more

However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible.