“One of the great sources of employment for people with Ph.D.s in geometry is the animation industry.” PeopleSourceIndustryEmploymentAnimationGeometry Author:Margaret Wertheim
“It turns out that hyperbolic structures are very common in nature, and the place where lots of people encounter them is coral reefs. Sea slugs, and a lot of other organisms with frilly forms, are biological manifestations of hyperbolic geometry, which is also found in the structure of lettuce leaves and kales, and some species of cactus.” PeopleCommonManifestationGeometry Author:Margaret Wertheim
“I don't know of any science writing going on in women's magazines, unless you count medical stories about things like breast cancer. I still think there's a huge problem about how we can actively engage a wider range of women. I'm not saying women must be a separate audience - I'm just responding to the reality that the majority of people who do read science magazines are male. That's not a value judgment; it's a statistical fact.” PeopleThinkingWritingProblemRealityValuesAudienceJudgmentCancerMedicalBreast Cancer Author:Margaret Wertheim
“I have an abiding interest in how ordinary people produce knowledge, and what it means for individuals to know the world. I thought I'd be a theoretical physicist because I love physicists' views of the world - I find general relativity and quantum theory thrilling - but I have always felt uneasy with the idea of an Ultimate Truth. One of the functions of science is to help us instrumentally; it helps us to build things like microchips and GPS satellites. But another function of science in the modern world is to help us feel "at home in the universe".” PeopleWorldMeanHelpingHomeUniverseIndividualInterestModernUltimatePhysicistOrdinary PeopleTheoreticalUneasyQuantum Theory Author:Margaret Wertheim
“This is what I call the "cosmological problem" of science. Science has the instrumental function that has given us computers and so on, but its cosmological function is to give us a picture of the world we inhabit as human beings, and on that level it's failing a vast number of people.” PeopleWorldGivingProblemFailingComputer Author:Margaret Wertheim
“When you're in a room with twenty people who've all got the True Theory of the universe, it's difficult to know what to do. And the paradox is that so much important science is now being done by huge teams. With Higgs boson, for example, it's estimated there were around ten thousand scientists and engineers involved in building the machines that made this discovery possible.” PeopleImportantDoneUniverseDifficultTeamBuildingScientistParadox Author:Margaret Wertheim
