Steven Chu Quotes

Quotes about:

• As the saying goes, the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones; we transitioned to better solutions. The same opportunity lies before us with energy efficiency and clean energy.

  Steven Chu

  Lying, Science, Opportunity

  Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees, energy.gov. February 1, 2013.

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• I've always been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, who articulated his Dream of an America where people are judged not by skin color but "by the content of their character." In the scientific world, people are judged by the content of their ideas. Advances are made with new insights, but the final arbitrator of any point of view are experiments that seek the unbiased truth, not information cherry picked to support a particular point of view.

  Steven Chu

  Dream, Kings, Truth

  48 Copy quote

• Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.

  Steven Chu

  Europe, Energy, Gasoline

  "Times Tough for Energy Overhaul" by Neil King Jr. and Stephen Power, www.wsj.com. December 12, 2008.

  46 Copy quote

• Education in my family was not merely emphasized, it was our raison d'etre.

  Steven Chu

  My Family, Raison D'etre

  Steven Chu - Biographical, www.nobelprize.org. 1997.

  56 Copy quote

• Sustainable energy is the equivalent of the U.S. moon shot.

  Steven Chu

  Moon, Energy, Sustainable Energy

  8 Copy quote

• If I were emperor of the world, I would put the pedal to the floor on energy efficiency and conservation for the next decade.

  Steven Chu

  Energy, World, Dinosaurs

  7 Copy quote

• Just refrigerator efficiency saves more energy than all that we're generating from renewables, excluding hydroelectric power... I cannot impress upon you how important energy efficiency is. It doesn't mean you eat lukewarm food and your beers are lukewarm. You can still have it; you just make a better thing

  Steven Chu

  Mean, Beer, Important

  7 Copy quote

• While we cannot accurately predict the course of climate change in the coming decades, the risks we run if we don't change our course are enormous. Prudent risk management does not equate uncertainty with inaction.

  Steven Chu

  Running, Risk, Climate

  Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees, energy.gov. February 01, 2013.

  9 Copy quote

• So imagine a world 6 degrees warmer. It's not going to recognize geographical boundaries. It's not going to recognize anything. So agriculture regions today will be wiped out.

  Steven Chu

  Agriculture, Degrees, World

  "Earth Day 2009: Obama Energy Chief Lays Out Climate Doomsday Scenario". www.huffingtonpost.com. May 20, 2009.

  17 Copy quote

• Pick the right sized pot, don't pick a pot five times bigger, twice as big.

  Steven Chu

  Pot, Bigs, Bigger

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• The atoms become like a moth, seeking out the region of higher laser intensity.

  Steven Chu

  Atoms, Lasers, Intensity

  "Lasers Slow Atom for Scrutiny". The New York Times, July 13, 1986.

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• Science is really about describing the way the universe works in one aspect or another in all branches of science-how a life-form works, how this works, how that works. ... You have to have a natural curiosity for that.

  Steven Chu

  Science, Curiosity, Branches

  8 Copy quote

• I approached the bulk of my schoolwork as a chore rather than an intellectual adventure.

  Steven Chu

  Travel, Adventure, Intellectual

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• I called my mother up when they announced the Nobel Prize, waiting until 7 in the morning. She said, "That's nice - and when are you going to see me next?"

  Steven Chu

  Mother, Morning, Nice

  "The Science Guy". www.nytimes.com. April 16, 2009.

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• I'm the least-educated person in my immediate family. My two other brothers have multiple advanced degrees, and I only have one. [...] Actually, now that I've got a Nobel Prize, I feel equal.

  Steven Chu

  Brother, Two, Degrees

  Interview with Spencer Michels in "The NewsHour" on PBS, May 2, 2007.

  9 Copy quote

• Suppose you had a small electrical fire and... a structural engineer [looked] at your home's wiring [and] reports that the wiring is "shot" and there is a 50% chance that your house would burn down in the next few years unless you replace all the wiring. The job will cost $20,000... so you get an independent assessment. The next engineer agrees with the first warning. You can either continue to shop for additional evaluations until you find the one engineer in 1,000 that is willing to give you the answer you want, "Your family is not in danger" or you can change the wiring.

  Steven Chu

  Jobs, Home, Independent

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• I think the Caribbean countries face rising oceans and they face increase in the severity of hurricanes. This is something that is very, very scary to all of us. The island states in the world represent - I remember this number - one-half of 1 percent of the carbon emissions in the world. And they will - some of them will disappear.

  Steven Chu

  Country, Ocean, Thinking

  "Earth Day 2009: Obama Energy Chief Lays Out Climate Doomsday Scenario". www.huffingtonpost.com. May 20, 2009.

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• The biggest gains, in terms of decreasing the country's energy bill, the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere, and our dependency on foreign oil, will come from energy efficiency and conservation in the next 20 years. Make no doubt about it. That's where everybody who has really thought about the problem thinks the biggest gains can be and should be.

  Steven Chu

  Country, Thinking, Years

  "Steven Chu, Obama's Point Man on Energy, Says Conservation Is "Sexy". Interview with Kent Garber, www.usnews.com. March 19, 2009.

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• What the American family does not want is to pay an increasing fraction of their budget, their precious dollars, for energy costs.

  Steven Chu

  Energy, Doe, Dollars

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• For the better part of my last semester at Garden City High, I constructed a physical pendulum and used it to make a "precision" measurement of gravity. The years of experience building things taught me skills that were directly applicable to the construction of the pendulum. Twenty-five years later, I was to develop a refined version of this measurement using laser-cooled atoms in an atomic fountain interferometer.

  Steven Chu

  Education, Science, Garden

  "Steven Chu - Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. 1997.

  7 Copy quote

• In the summer after kindergarten, a friend introduced me to the joys of building plastic model airplanes and warships. By the fourth grade, I graduated to an erector set and spent many happy hours constructing devices of unknown purpose where the main design criterion was to maximize the number of moving parts and overall size. The living room rug was frequently littered with hundreds of metal “girders” and tiny nuts and bolts surrounding half-finished structures. An understanding mother allowed me to keep the projects going for days on end.

  Steven Chu

  Summer, Mother, Moving

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• Education in my family was not merely emphasized, it was our raison d'être. Virtually all of our aunts and uncles had Ph.D.s in science or engineering, and it was taken for granted that the next generation of Chu's were to follow the family tradition. When the dust had settled, my two brothers and four cousins collected three MDs, four Ph.D.s and a law degree. I could manage only a single advanced degree.

  Steven Chu

  Brother, Cousin, Uncles

  Steven Chu - Biographical, www.nobelprize.org. 1997.

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• Switching to light-coloured roofs and roadways would have the equivalent effect on greenhouse gas emissions to taking one billion cars off the road for eleven years.

  Steven Chu

  Light, Years, Car

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• My physics teacher, Thomas Miner was particularly gifted. To this day, I remember how he introduced the subject of physics. He told us we were going to learn how to deal with very simple questions such as how a body falls due to the acceleration of gravity.

  Steven Chu

  Teacher, Fall, Simple

  26 Copy quote

• Coal is my worst nightmare.

  Steven Chu

  Worst Nightmares, Energy, Coal

  "Nightmare On Coal Street". www.desmogblog.com. December 19, 2008.

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