“Tal vez merezca la pena indicar que en la época en que Leavitt y Canno...” — Bill Bryson Quote

“Tal vez merezca la pena indicar que en la época en que Leavitt y Cannon estaban deduciendo las propiedades fundamentales del cosmos de tenues manchas de estrellas lejanas en placas fotográficas, el astrónomo de Harvard William H. Pickering, que podía mirar cuantas veces quisiera por un telescopio de primera, estaba elaborando su 《trascendental teoría 》, según la cual, las manchas oscuras de la Luna estaban causadas por enjambres de insectos en su migración estacional.”

“In essence what relativity says is that space and time are not absolute but relative both to the observer and the thing being observed, and the faster one moves the more pronounced these effects will become. We can never accelerate ourselves to the speed of light, and the harder we try(the faster we go) the more distorted we become, relative to an outside observer.”

“I've been wanting to do a book about baseball for the longest time, and nobody will let me do it. It's the one thing from America I really miss.”

“There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do.”

“One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them - that they've not just become museums the way they do in the United States.”

“Trigonometry lets you use some known quantities about a triangle to determine its unknown quantities, we will interrupt ourselves right now because we can already hear you muttering, “Come on, when am I ever gonna use this?” Here is when you are going to use this: in navigation, astronomy, music, number theory, engineering, electronics, physics, architecture, optics, statistics, cartography, and more. You already need it just to build a proper sundial, hence the unofficial slogan of trigonometry: “Okay, fine, I guess this is actually pretty important after all.” Trigonometry deals only with right triangles (triangles with two edges that meet at 90 degrees, and we mark that angle with a little square), but since any non-right triangle can be divided into two right triangles (try it; it’s true), that’s not going to be a problem.”

“One has to grow old to understand the functioning of science. Then one may remember the papers which a long time ago aroused great interest and one may compare them to the present-day textbooks. [...] History becomes smooth, too smooth in writing. Right starts are forgotten, wrong expeditions into the desert disappear without a trace. Only a few papers will be cited.”

“As the manufacturing base at home hollows out, human talent withers. If scientists are beset by constant worry about landing the next short-term contract, the prospects for profound discovery will not be auspicious.”

“While Humans of Cannabis in a Renaissance of Hope is filled with stories of hope, it is also a reminder of the work that remains. Thousands of people remain incarcerated in the United States for cannabis-related offenses, even as legalization sweeps across the country. The fight for justice and equity is far from over.”