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Barbara Ehrenreich
(26 Aug 1941 - 9 Jan 2022)
American writer who studied theoretical physics but changed interest to cell biology, started teaching, then turned to full-time writing, as a frequent contributor to a number of magazines, and publishing many books.
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Science Quotes by Barbara Ehrenreich (9 quotes)
“Would you like to see my genome?” will become a common invitation to intimacy—and a warning that you are about to be presented with one thousand telephone books saying “ACCCTGATTAAATC” and the like.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'A Surge of Phallic Science', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1989), 8. Collected in The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1990, 1991), 260.
From an entertainment point of view, the Solar System has been a bust. None of the planets turns out to have any real-estate potential, and most of them are probably even useless for filming Dune sequels.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
I used to get so depressed about the environment. … But I feel much better since I joined my Environmental Grief Counseling Group, which is a wonderful New Age approach to gaining the personal serenity you need in a world of melting ice caps, shrinking rain forests, and toxic lakes.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'Stop Beaching, Think Positive', Mother Jones Magazine (Oct 1988), 14, No. 8, 8.
If that’s how it [the Big Bang] all started, then we might as well face the fact that what’s left out there is a great deal of shrapnel and a whole bunch of cinders (one of which is, fortunately, still hot enough and close enough to be good for tanning).
— Barbara Ehrenreich
On searching for evidence of the Big Bang. From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267. The quote continues with “Trying to find some sense and order in this mess…” also on this page.
Imagine spending four billion years stocking the oceans with seafood, filling the ground with fossil fuels, and drilling the bees in honey production—only to produce a race of bed wetters!
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'Stop Beaching, Think Positive', Mother Jones Magazine (Oct 1988), 14, No. 8, 8. [Note: drilling = training, like math drill.]
Somewhere, deep within the human genome, a tiny voice calls out, “Copy me, copy me!”
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'A Surge of Phallic Science', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1989), 8. Collected in The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1990, 1991), 258.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, to us insiders) has so far only proved that no matter what you beam up—the Pythagorean theorem, pictures of attractive nude people, etc.—the big 800 number in the sky does not return calls.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
Thus will the fondest dream of Phallic science be realized: a pristine new planet populated entirely by little boy clones of great scientific entrepreneurs—thousands of James D. Watsons, perhaps, or Edward Teller—free to smash atoms, accelerate particles, or, if they are so moved, build pyramids—without any social relevance or human responsibility at all.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
In 'A Surge of Phallic Science', Mother Jones Magazine (Jan 1989), 8. Collected in The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1990, 1991), 260-261.
Trying to find some sense and order in this mess [the Big Bang] may be as futile as trying to … reconstruct the economy of Iowa from a bowl of popcorn.
— Barbara Ehrenreich
On searching for evidence of the Big Bang. From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267. The quote begins with, “If that’s how it all started…” also on this page.
See also:
- Barbara Ehrenreich - context of quote “The big 800 number in the sky does not return calls” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
- Barbara Ehrenreich - context of quote “The big 800 number in the sky does not return calls” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
