Saul Perlmutter

thumb|Saul Perlmutter in 2024 Saul Perlmutter (born September 22, 1959) is an American astrophysicist. For his contribution to the discovery of dark energy via the study of supernovae, he received in 2006 the Shaw Prize Shaw Prize in Astronomy and in 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics. Quotes Less than a century ago we had no idea that there was more to the universe than our own Milky Way. the immense size of the universe, the fact that it is expanding, the fact that it is populated with such things as Supernova exploding stars – all this and more had to be discovered before we could do the work that led us to contemplate an Dark energy unknown form of energy that accounts for more than two-thirds of everything there is. Measuring the acceleration of the cosmic expansion using supernovae December 8, 2011 Nobel Lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/perlmutter-lecture.pdf (quote from p. 27) Not only does it swallow anything that comes too near it but no one lives to tell the tale ... there are footprints leading in, and no footprints leading out ... If black holes weren’t real, I think the science-fiction writers would have wanted to invent them. as quoted by Rivka Galchen in: Black holes are even weirder than you imagined The New Yorker March 30, 2024 https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/black-holes-are-even-weirder-than-you-imagined Having that bit of diabolical contrariness is a weird pleasure of being a scientist. You’re always trying to figure out, “OK, how could I be fooling myself into a wrong conclusion?” Because the more you get those things right, the more chances you have of catching the universe doing something that our brains never would’ve imagined.Scientists build out of what seems like a stance of weakness. So, one might think it’s terrible that scientists are always discovering new ways that they’re wrong, or it’s terrible that they’re only probabilistically sure of facts. But that’s really where scientists’ superpower has come from. We have been able to figure out amazing solutions to problems or surprises about the world. Much of that can be traced back to being willing to be wrong and being comfortable with finding the ways you’re wrong. And for this purpose, you want to build strong relationships with people who are going to tell you when you’re wrong, who will disagree with you, or who compete with you. They’re your best bet at figuring out where you’re making a mistake. XL 4 Summer 2024 This Is Also a Time of Great Possibility and Great Capability (Saul Perlmutter interviewed by Molly Galvin) Issues in Science and Technology https://issues.org/interview-saul-perlmutter/ External links Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Astronomers from the United States Category:Cosmologists Category:Physicists from the United States Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Nobel laureates from the United States Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:People from Illinois Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society