17 Quotes by Kip S. Thorne

Everything likes to live where it will age the most slowly, and gravity pulls it there.

Warping begets warping in a nonlinear, self-bootstrapping manner. This is a fundamental feature of Einstein’s relativistic laws, and so different from everyday experience. It’s somewhat like a hypothetical science-fiction character who goes backward in time and gives birth to herself.

An explosion in space makes no sound, as there is no air to transmit the sound waves.

Some segments of this book may be rough going. That’s the nature of real science. It requires thought. Sometimes deep thought. But thinking can be rewarding. You can just skip the rough parts, or you can struggle to understand.

But ours is not a dystopia. Life is still tolerable and in some ways pleasant, with little amenities such as baseball continuing. However, we no longer think big. We no longer aspire to great things. We aspire to little more than just keeping life going.

No matter how hard we may try, we can only travel forward. The relativistic laws guarantee it.

Revolutions that upend established scientific truth are exceedingly rare. But when they happen, they can have profound effects on science and technology.

How could human civilization decline so far, yet seem so normal in many respects? And is it scientifically possible that a blight could wipe out all edible.