John Noble Quotes

The media thinks that you have to make science sexy and concentrate on themes such as rivalry and the human issues.

Anything that promotes a kernel of science, even though it's exaggerated and hyped by Hollywood, I think is a step forward. We in the ivory tower ultimately have to realize that in some sense we have to sing for our supper.

I think science is a foreign land for many people, so I think of my role as an ambassador's job.

It is entirely possible to present science accurately and have a hit show.

I'd love to present a popular science programme because it's something I feel very passionate about.

The phrase ‘popular science’ has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.

I want to really focus on doing this two things I really would like to focus on science and the excitement of science and to help with science. So, that's my intention to focus my efforts there and I hope I will be able to do so.

Anything, even the conceptually most complex material, can be written for general audiences without any dumbing down. Of course you have to explain things carefully. This goes back to Galileo, who wrote his great books as dialogues in Italian, not as treatises in Latin. And to Darwin, who wrote The Origin of Species for general readers. I think a lot of people pick up Darwin's book and assume it must be a popular version of some technical monograph, but there is no technical monograph. That's what he wrote. So what I'm doing is part of a great humanistic tradition.

As an undergraduate, I did maths and physics. That doesn't make me a scientist. So I try to read and understand and talk to scientists.

People don't learn science in movies. You don't go to the movies thinking, 'I hope I learn some quantum mechanics this afternoon.' But on the other hand, movies are instrumental and influential in getting young people interested in science.

If you publish a scientific paper it is very hard to start a nationwide debate about something. If you do this in a movie, you can start a debate. We like to create a bridge between those two worlds - film and science.

Science shouldn't be just for scientists, and there are encouraging signs that it is becoming more pervasive in culture and the media.

Almost everyone shuts down when science becomes too technical; you've got to infuse it with entertainment and storytelling to make it effective. From high school on, science is taught in a very dry manner, which isn't as potent.

I hope I have helped to raise the profile of science and to show that physics is not a mystery but can be understood by ordinary people.

Science and fun cannot be separated.

We have to change the way people look at scientists. Today, they are the nerds, the geeks. Instead, we want some of the cool kids to say, 'Hey, this is all right.'

I read a lot of history for fun.

Somehow we must reintegrate the scientific with the popular and reconnect the future to the present. This is less a job for scientists, engineers, bureaucrats, and administrators and more a job for novelists, moviemakers, popularizers, and politicians.

I read widely - for news, the arts, science, for entertainment, and the value of being informed - and, as a fiction writer, I can't help transposing what I learn into the scenario for a novel or story.

Science is wonderful, science is important, and so are children, so are young people, and so what could be better than to write a science book for young people?

Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture.

We couldn't be happier that the show has encouraged kids to have an interest in science and math, but we don't try to do that. We just have fun, which is its own bold statement.

Science is not finished until it is communicated.

People want to have a good time, they want to party with their friends, but they also want to learn something.

We need to make science cool again.