The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'.

If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice.

If you build a better mousetrap, you will catch better mice.

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware read more

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.

Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it. -Max Frisch.

Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it. -Max Frisch.

Man's fear of ideas is probably the greatest dike holding back human knowledge and happiness.

Man's fear of ideas is probably the greatest dike holding back human knowledge and happiness.

It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the read more

It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand. -Galileo Galilei.

We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the read more

We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.

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.

If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done.

If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done.