Margaret Wertheim Quotes & Sayings

In the Pythagorean system, thinking about numbers, or doing mathematics, was an inherently masculine task. Mathematics was associated with the gods, and with transcendence from the material world; women, by their nature, were supposedly rooted in this latter, baser realm. — Margaret Wertheim

If I could do anything in my life and be remembered for anything, I would like to be remembered for helping the world see the value of physical engagement with ideas. — Margaret Wertheim

Though women are no longer barred from university laboratories and scientific societies, the idea that they are innately less suited to mathematical science is deeply ingrained in our cultural genes. — Margaret Wertheim

All gradients of reality, all existential distinctions, have finally been annihilated. — Margaret Wertheim

One of the great sources of employment for people with Ph.D.s in geometry is the animation industry. — Margaret Wertheim

Computers are very powerful tools, but in the simulated world of the computer, everything has to be calculated. — Margaret Wertheim

Nature doesn't feel compelled to stick to a mathematically precise algorithm; in fact, nature probably can't stick to an algorithm. — Margaret Wertheim

When I was a physics major in the late 1970s, my very few fellow female students and I had high hopes that women would soon stand equal with men in science. But progress has proved slower than many of us imagined. — Margaret Wertheim

Wave particle duality is a core feature of our world. Or rather, we should say, it is a core feature of our mathematical descriptions of our world. But what is critical to note here is that, however ambiguous our images, the universe itself remains whole and is manifestly not fracturing into schizophrenic shards. It is this tantalizing wholeness and the thing itself that drives physicists onward like an eternally beckoning light that seems so teasingly near. It is always out of reach. — Margaret Wertheim

Female physicists, astronomers and mathematicians are up against more than 2,000 years of convention that has long portrayed these fields as inherently male. — Margaret Wertheim