Members in the Media

For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects of human behavior.”
Albert-Lázló Barabási, Northeastern University, on his study tracking people’s movement through cell phone data, Associated Press, June 5, 2008

“Every time you break an egg or spill a glass of water you’re learning about the Big Bang,”
Sean Carroll, Caltech, BBC News Online, June 6, 2008

“We’re covering an energy range that almost hasn’t been explored. We say we’re working on the extremes of the universe. Gamma rays are the extreme.”
David J. Thompson, NASA, on NASA’s GLAST telescope, Baltimore Sun, June 9, 2008

“We’ve done the calculation. By midcentury, I think, we’ll have a functioning majority.”
Rush Holt, on the growing number of physicists in Congress, The New York Times, June 10, 2008

“They say, ‘I am glad you are there, but I think you are crazy.’ ”
Vern Ehlers, on fellow scientists’ reaction to his being in Congress, The New York Times, June 10, 2008

“The result is certainly funny, but the process seems reasonable. I don’t know of any previous attempts to make diamonds from drinks.”
Rudolf Pfeiffer, University of Vienna, on a process for making diamond thin films from tequila, New Scientist, June 20, 2008

“It’s a trick that nobody has ever used and nobody has ever come up with because the belief was this would never work.”
Andrea Damascelli, University of British Columbia, on a way to control and study electrons on the surface of superconductors, Vancouver Sun, June 24, 2008

 “Fortune 500 companies are cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency all over the world.”
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, Northwest Arkansas Times, June 24, 2008

“Lots of theories are going to pop up–it’s like a crime scene, and everyone wants to have a hand in solving the mystery. It’s fun to speculate.”
Mark Boslough, Sandia National Laboratories, on the mysterious Tunguska explosion in Siberia in 1908, Space.com, July 4, 2008

“Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on.”
Lyn Evans, CERN, on fears that the LHC will produce black holes that will swallow Earth, Associated Press, June 28, 2008

“Tremendous progress has been made, much higher technical performance, for much lower cost.”
John Deutch, MIT, on solar power, The Boston Globe, July 11, 2008

“People cannot believe it. They think that we must have pasted a picture inside the end of the telescope.”
Bassem Sabra, Notre Dame University, on a public astronomy event, The Daily Star (Lebanon) July 15, 2008

“It’s kind of like finding your friend’s name in some ancient hieroglyphics.”
Peter Meyers, Princeton University, on a mysterious coded letter sent to Fermilab that appears to refer to physicist Frank Shoemaker, The Chicago Tribune, July 10, 2008

“The question since then has been, ‘Where does the solar wind stop? Where is this termination shock?’ What we’ve learned is, it certainly goes a lot farther out than anyone thought and it behaves differently than almost anyone believed.”
Stamatios Krimigis, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Sun, July 17, 2008

“SLAC’s record is pretty distinguished, and with the university’s offer of a license to use the Stanford name, what more do they need? I’m really bewildered.”
Burt Richter, SLAC, on the Department of Energy’s plan to rename SLAC and trademark the new name, San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 2008

“We desperately need it, and I personally think it’s not there yet. You have to look at starts with a grain of salt, especially starts where they say, ‘It’s around the corner, and by the way, can you pay half the bill?’ ”
Steven Chu, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, on plans for converting garbage to fuel, The New York Times, July 24, 2008

“There are more theories of the glass transition than there are theorists who propose them. It just can get so controversial and so many loud arguments, and I don’t want to get involved with that myself.”
David Weitz, Harvard University,  The New York Times, July 29, 2008