Mike Brown Quotes & Sayings

Lilah did little more than sleep and eat and cry, which to me was the most fascinating thing in the entire universe. Why did she cry? When did she sleep? What made her eat a lot one day and little the next? Was she changing with time? I did what any obsessed person would do in such a case: I recorded data, plotted it, calculated statistical correlations. First I just wrote on scraps of paper and made charts on graph paper, but I very quickly became more sophisticated. I wrote computer software to make a beautifully colored plot showing times when Diane fed Lilah, in black; when I fed her, in blue (expressed mother's milk, if you must know); Lilah's fussy times, in angry red; her happy times, in green. I calculated patterns in sleeping times, eating times, length of sleep, amounts eaten.
Then, I did what any obsessed person would do these days; I put it all on the Web. — Mike Brown

I had a hunch. Officially, scientists don't work on hunches. We work on hypotheses and observations and plenty of evidence. Hunches don't get you research funding, tenure at your university, or access to the world's largest telescopes. But a hunch was all I had. — Mike Brown

It came down to the obvious point that all the union cared about was the money and these other things certainly didn't matter enough. It's a tremendous situation that they have and it has become burdensome for the teams. Yes, we're asking for some relief going forward. I don't think that was unreasonable. — Mike Brown

The risk that is involved in trusting is stepping forth with willingness with a knowing that you can lose something or fail, and doing it anyways — Mike Brown

It was becoming more and more clear that if the asteroids were the schools of minnows swimming among the pod of whales, then Pluto and the Kuiper belt objects were simply a previously overlooked collection of sardines swimming in a faraway sea. — Mike Brown

In 1997 I began working as an assistant professor at Caltech, and I realized that I didn't really know what I was doing. — Mike Brown

I was teaching introductory geology at Caltech for the first time. I'm not a geologist. I've never taken a single class in geology. If you gave me a handful of different types of rocks, chances are I could identify only a small number of them. I still get confused by the meanings of strike and dip. Luckily, most of my students didn't realize this. — Mike Brown

Enough, woman who needs no sleep! It is past my bedtime! But I will ponder your suggestions in the morning when I wake up, which will be long after you've already risen. — Mike Brown

The act of 'letting go' is actually very easy - it's effortless. Thinking about, talking about, and contemplating 'letting go' is hard. — Mike Brown

Discovery is exciting, no matter how big or small or close or distant ... — Mike Brown

You can't get away from yourself, but you can get yourself out of the way. — Mike Brown

After 'cat', Lilah next learned 'flower'. Flowers (scrunch up nose as if sniffing) were everywhere, first only outside on plants, but soon she generalized to flowers on her clothes or her shoes, or in pictures in books and magazines. I wanted to hook up wires and do experiments and comparisons and studies to understand it all.
'You want to do what?' Diane would say.
But really, who wouldn't? — Mike Brown

There is nothing particularly special about that location of the centre of mass. If you were to find yourself at the precise spot that is the centre of mass of the earth-moon system, the only thing unusual that you would notice is that there would be one thousand miles of rock on top of your head.
Pluto is only about twice the size of Charon, so if you put Pluto and Charon on the cosmic seesaw you would find that the balance point is a little bit outside Pluto, rather than inside it. Again, there is nothing particularly special going on there. If you were to find yourself at that precise spot, you would only notice that you were very, very cold and could no longer breathe. — Mike Brown

The original ancient Greek meaning of the word planet was simply wanderer, — Mike Brown

Rocky is a warrior, we've had a lot of great battles starting from when I was 16. He's a true team player, great fighter, and I have a ton of respect for him. — Mike Brown

For a successful strategy session, keep the food light, the lights bright, and drink caffeine all night. — Mike Brown

Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one of the joys of science. — Mike Brown

The word planet should be reserved for the small number of truly important things in the solar system. — Mike Brown

I lead horses to water and if they don't drink, then I drown them. — Mike Brown

Words simply mean what people think they mean when they say them. — Mike Brown

Let's not just make noise, let's make a difference. — Mike Brown

I'm sure there have been guys who didn't realize they had a concussion and just kept playing. It's a violent game. The head injuries are the most dangerous to play with. We're trained to play no matter what. If you can run, and you're able to focus and know your responsibilities, you're usually out there playing. You wouldn't have enough players if no one played hurt. Especially if you're, like, on special teams, you're going to do everything you can to stay in the game. — Mike Brown

Generating exciting new ideas burns 325 calories per hour and has no carbs. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. Rambling aimlessly about a point that someone has already made burns only 3 calories per hour. — Mike Brown

Pluto was part of their mental landscape, the one they had constructed to organize their thinking about the solar system and their own place within it. Pluto seemed like the edge of existence. Ripping Pluto out of that landscape caused what felt like an inconceivably empty hole. — Mike Brown

Most of the fathers were scientists. Most of the mothers were not. — Mike Brown

Her real name will come later, but her current code name is Petunia. — Mike Brown

Dear Dr. Ortiz - Congratulations on your discovery! We found the object, too, about six months ago and have been studying it in detail for the past few months. It has a few interesting properties that you might find interesting. Most interestingly, it has a satellite, and the orbital solution gives a system mass of about 28% of that of the Pluto-Charon system. It's still probably the biggest KBO around but it has a sufficiently high albedo that it is not quite as big or massive as Pluto. I've got a paper describing the satellite that, ironically, I was planning to submit tomorrow. I will forward the paper to you as I submit it. I am sure that I will get inquiries about your new object from different people; is there [or is there going to be] a website describing your survey or your discovery that I can point people to? Again, congratulations on a very nice discovery! — Mike Brown

I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, a thoroughly dedicated rocket town. The father of everyone I knew - mine included - was some sort of engineer working to build the Apollo rockets to send men to the moon. For a while as a child, I thought that when you grew up you became a rocket engineer if you were a boy and you married a rocket engineer if you were a girl; few other options in the world appeared to exist. — Mike Brown

Travel light and trust in serendipity. — Mike Brown

Finding something spherical in space indicates that you have found a place where gravity has taken over. — Mike Brown