Stephen Chu
(28 Feb 1948 - )
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Science Quotes by Stephen Chu (10 quotes)
Education in my family was not merely emphasized, it was our raison d'être. Virtually all of our aunts and uncles had Ph.D.'s in science or engineering, and it was taken for granted that the next generation of Chu's were to follow the family tradition. When the dust had settled, my two brothers and four cousins collected three MDs, four Ph.D.s and a law degree. I could manage only a single advanced degree.
— Stephen Chu
For the better part of my last semester at Garden City High, I constructed a physical pendulum and used it to make a 'precision' measurement of gravity. The years of experience building things taught me skills that were directly applicable to the construction of the pendulum. Twenty-five years later, I was to develop a refined version of this measurement using laser-cooled atoms in an atomic fountain interferometer.
Outcome of high school physics teacher, Thomas Miner, encouraging Chu's ambitious laboratory project.
Outcome of high school physics teacher, Thomas Miner, encouraging Chu's ambitious laboratory project.
— Stephen Chu
I approached the bulk of my schoolwork as a chore rather than an intellectual adventure. The tedium was relieved by a few courses that seem to be qualitatively different. Geometry was the first exciting course I remember. Instead of memorizing facts, we were asked to think in clear, logical steps. Beginning from a few intuitive postulates, far reaching consequences could be derived, and I took immediately to the sport of proving theorems.
— Stephen Chu
If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade.
— Stephen Chu
If there is a regulation that says you have to do something�whether it be putting in seat belts, catalytic converters, clean air for coal plants, clean water�the first tack that the lawyers use, among others things, and that companies use, is that it's going to drive the electricity bill up, drive the cost of cars up, drive everything up. It repeatedly has been demonstrated that once the engineers start thinking about it, it's actually far less than the original estimates. We should remember that when we hear this again, because you will hear it again.
— Stephen Chu
In the summer after kindergarten, a friend introduced me to the joys of building plastic model airplanes and warships. By the fourth grade, I graduated to an erector set and spent many happy hours constructing devices of unknown purpose where the main design criterion was to maximize the number of moving parts and overall size. The living room rug was frequently littered with hundreds of metal "girders" and tiny nuts and bolts surrounding half-finished structures. An understanding mother allowed me to keep the projects going for days on end.
— Stephen Chu
Just refrigerator efficiency saves more energy than all that we're generating from renewables, excluding hydroelectric power... I cannot impress upon you how important energy efficiency is. It doesn't mean you eat lukewarm food and your beers are lukewarm. You can still have it; you just make a better thing
— Stephen Chu
Science is really about describing the way the universe works in one aspect or another in all branches of science�how a life-form works, how this works, how that works. ... You have to have a natural curiosity for that.
— Stephen Chu
Suppose you had a small electrical fire and... a structural engineer [looked] at your home�s wiring [and] reports that the wiring is 'shot' and there is a 50% chance that your house would burn down in the next few years unless you replace all the wiring. The job will cost $20,000... so you get an independent assessment. The next engineer agrees with the first warning. You can either continue to shop for additional evaluations until you find the one engineer in 1,000 that is willing to give you the answer you want, 'Your family is not in danger' or you can change the wiring.
Comparing the urgency of action on climate change to a problem with electrical wiring in a house.
Comparing the urgency of action on climate change to a problem with electrical wiring in a house.
— Stephen Chu
Sustainable energy is the equivalent of the U.S. moon shot.
— Stephen Chu