Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Series)

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Within the chemically rich liquid oceans, by a mechanism yet to be discovered, organic molecules transitioned to self-replicating life.

Among all constants, the speed of light is the most famous. No matter how fast you go, you will never overtake a beam of light. Why not? No experiment ever conducted has ever revealed an object of any form reaching the speed of light. Well-tested laws of physics predict and account for that fact. I know these statements sound closed-minded. Some of the most bone-headed, science-based proclamations in the past have underestimated the ingenuity of inventors and engineers: “We will never fly.” “Flying will never be commercially feasible.” “We will never split the atom.” “We will never break the sound barrier.” “We will never go to the Moon.” What they have in common is that no established law of physics stood in their way.

The power and beauty of physical laws is that they apply everywhere, whether or not you choose to believe in them. In other words, after the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.

We don’t know who’s next in the genius sequence, but we’ve now been waiting nearly a century for somebody to tell us why the bulk of all the gravitational force that we’ve measured in the universe—about eighty-five percent of it—arises from substances that do not otherwise interact with “our” matter or energy. Or maybe the excess gravity doesn’t come from matter and energy at all, but emanates from some other conceptual thing. In any case, we are essentially clueless.