macarthur-fellows

"It has been a long-standing challege for to construct a theory of quantum gravity. String theory is the leading candidate for a quantum theory of gravity. General Relativity has the seeds of its own destruction in it, since smooth can evolve into singular field configurations ... Classically this is not a problem if the singularities are hidden behind s ... since this means that nothing can come out from the region containing the singularity. However, Hawking showed, under very general assumptions, that quantum mechanics implies that black holes emit particles ... In his approximation this radiation is exactly thermal and contains no information about the state of the black hole. This leads to the , since particles can fall in carrying information but what comes out is featureless thermal radiation ... Hawking argued that this would lead to non-unitary evolution, so that one of the basic principles of quantum mechanics would have to be modified."

"In most situations, the contradictory requirements of quantum mechanics and general relativity are not a problem, because either the quantum effects or the gravitational effects are so small that they can be neglected or dealt with by approximations. When the of spacetime is very large, however, the quantum aspects of gravity become significant. It takes a very large or a great concentration of mass to produce much spacetime curvature. Even the curvature produced near the sun is exceedingly small compared with the amount needed for quantum gravity effects to become apparent. Though these effects are completely negligible now, they were very important in the beginning of the big bang, which is why a quantum theory of gravity is needed to describe how the big bang started. Such a theory is also important for understanding what happens at the center of black holes, because matter there is crushed into a region of extremely high curvature. Because gravity involves spacetime curvature, a quantum gravity theory will also be a theory of quantum spacetime ..."

"These of are very powerful. Let us recall the situation in flat space. If we have a massive in flat space then we can always boost to a . In AdS it is the same: if we consider the oscillating trajectory of a massive particle then we can "boost" to a frame where the particle is at rest. Thus, the moving particle does not know that is moving and, despite appearances, there is no "center" in AdS. The is part of the (as in the ) and there are several choices of Hamiltonian. Once we choose a Hamiltonian ... then we have chosen a "center" and a notion of the , in which a particle sits at this "center.""

"Interestingly, both quantum entanglement and s date back to two articles written by Albert Einstein and his collaborators in 1935. On the surface, the papers seem to deal with very different phenomena, and Einstein probably never suspected that there could be a connection between them. In fact, entanglement was a property of quantum mechanics that greatly bothered the German physicist, who called it How ironic that it now may offer a to extend his relativity theory to the quantum realm."

"... spacetime as a concept leads to some … where the equations fail. This happens in the interiors of the black holes when spacetime somehow collapses ... And, also, most importantly it happened in the beginning of the Big Bang."

"s have a secret. While our research is motivated by a desire to reconstruct , it can also provide novel insights into fundamental cellular mechanisms in modern s. Studies of evolution reveal how the cell's component parts were “assembled” over time, how and why cells are vulnerable to disease and death, the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for fundamental cellular processes, and those mechanisms that distinguish the and of different lineages of organisms from each other. Studies of “evolutionary cell biology” promise to deepen our understanding of how cells function."

"... in the closing line of Darwin's ', he remarked on 'endless forms most beautiful', and he was referring to the incredible diversity of s ... much of his research and thinking had to with trying to understand: How do we get this diversity of s? And, there's been a great deal of progress in this regard, largely from the work of s, s, and s working together to try to understand what are molecular mechanistic underpinnings of the diversification of animal body plans. ... Animals are united by their shared ancestry. They all share a common ancestor … And, in fact, we know relatively little about the nature of that organism."

"The transition to that launched the evolution of animals from marks one of the most pivotal, and poorly understood, events in . Advances in and , and particularly the study of s, are yielding new insights into the biology of the unicellular progenitors of animals. and gene families critical for animal development (including s and s) evolved in protozoa before the origin of animals. Innovations in and expansions of certain gene families may have allowed the integration of cell behavior during the earliest experiments with multicellularity. The protozoan perspective on animal origins promises to provide a valuable window into the distant past and into the cellular bases of animal development."

"My research group studies microbial communities, primarily using cultivation-independent approaches such as genomics (metagenomics) and community proteomics."

"I am a Professor in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (see contact information below)."

"Many times people get wrong treatments or they are diagnosed much later."

"While AI imaging tools can certainly bring many benefits, they are not perfect. Their best utilisation will depend on how well they are integrated into the clinical pipeline."

"It is up to human experts to design safe and effective protocols."

"The big question is always, how do you deal with uncertainty."

"To bring AI-imaging tools into a clinical setting, it is essential to have the agreement of physicians."

"What is the risk of getting a future disease."

"What is the efficacy of a certain treatment."

"I cannot imagine healthcare without a human physician in the loop."

"Today, we rely on humans who don't have this capacity to make predictions."

"How is a certain disease going to progress."

"I predict that as these imaging models continue to develop, a lot of low-level tasks will be delegated to AI."

"The ultimate responsibility for clinical decisions will remain with physicians."

"I think that in cancer and in many other diseases."

"It's all the matter of predictions."

"AI is not part of the curriculum in most medical schools."

"Many of today’s successful applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging focus on the automation of tasks that radiologists can do."

"As the field matures, I hypothesise that AI models will be able to answer many questions that are challenging for physicians."

"This lack of background makes it challenging for physicians to adopt and trust this new technology."

"Science is our century’s art."

"Ideas can only be met by ideas, and force by force."

"In my view, the task of the scholar is to learn, to criticize, and, wherever possible, to add to the store of valid knowledge."

"Novelty, originality, and creativity have no value if their products do not correspond to truth, to the contrary, they are harmful when they lead to false assertions.... We must separate our valid knowledge, that is documentable and objective from our religious, political and ideological preferences."

"Еvery intellectual in emigration, without exception, is damaged."

"[Structure does not] just sit there, constrain­ing actors by its formal characteristics, but recurrently poses problems to the actors, to which they must respond”. [At the same time, structure also provides a range of problem solving options for actors that will] generate both personal satisfaction and social respect."

"An androgynous mind was not a male mind. It was a mind attuned to the full range of human experience, including the invisible lives of women."

"So what do people see when they read that well-behaved women rarely make history? Do they imagine good-time girls in stiletto heels or do-good girls carrying clipboards and passing petitions? Do they envision an out-of-control hobbyist or a single mother taking down a drunk in a bar? I suspect that it depends on where they stand themselves."

"Well-behaved women seldom make history."

"Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental. People make history when they scale a mountain, ignite a bomb, or refuse to move to the back of the bus. But they also make history by keeping diaries, writing letters, or embroidering initials on linen sheets. History is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible. People make history by passing on gossip, saving old records, and by naming rivers, mountains, and children. Some people leave only their bones, though bones too make history when someone notices."

"It’s equal to five grocery-size bags full of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world"

"All successful grant applicants have gotten rejections. The way to guarantee that you won't get a grant is to not apply."

"The way to advance in the field of history is to do excellent research and writing and then get it published. This takes lots of time and the more experience you have, the easier it gets. But it is never easy."

"What it takes, at least from my experience, to do excellent work is long hours (not a hardship for me, I love my work), persistence, the willingness to take risks, to accept criticism, to stand by what you think if upon consideration, you believe you’re right, even if no one else believes it, and to head out into unknown places."

"[Why he is willing to suffer consequences from detractors for his research:] I don't covet what they covet."

"One of my secret obsessions [...] is to force people to have civil discourse. I spend hours doing it."

"I’m a big proponent of writing outside...I used to go to the Sonoma coast as a child, and it’s a wonderful place to write. There’s a lot of creativity to be mined in the ocean landscape because it’s always moving, always churning. It tones out some of the chaos of the brain. You hear that rush and pull of the ocean, and you’re lulled into a new rhythm for poetry."

"I’ve always loved birds. What bird-watching allows is to get out of yourself. The birds are not worried about news. They’re just breathing. They’re focusing on this moment. There’s a lesson to be learned from that."

"The intention I have around building a project is to see if I can do something that helps us not only reconnect with our humanity but helps us repair our relationship with the natural world. I think so often we forget that our relationship to the Earth is reciprocal. And I think we've not only felt very disconnected from one another, from our communities, but also from the planet, and that's how harm is done. And so I think that I would really love to figure out how, you know, through poetry we might be able to repair that relationship with the Earth, with nature."

"(Do you see a role that poetry can play in the fight against climate change?) Poets—incredible nature poets like Mary Oliver, Gabriela Mistral, or Audre Lorde—look deeply at the world and make us feel like we are connected. Poetry that addresses the natural world helps us repair that connection. When you are paying attention to something, it’s a way of loving something. How can we continue to hurt something that we love?"

"in this particularly hard moment, divided moment, poetry can really help us reclaim our humanity."

"displacement has been a common path for Jews throughout history; they’ve always been displaced from one place to another, through diaspora, through a sense of expulsion, not being welcome anymore, being truly forced out."