Felix Alba-Juez

“The existence of both (electron and pebble) depends upon the context created by our thoughts, our language, our theories, and our interaction (experimentation) with our external world.”

“It is not the reverence for words, but for their meaning that determines our deepness of comprehension of a given assertion about Nature.”

“The notion of Local Inertial Frame is crucial to understanding Nature and, in particular, General Relativity. Notwithstanding, very few popular science books (not even textbooks) emphasize enough its fundamental character.”

“The universal character of the centrifugal forces leaves us impotent as to discern whether what is going on inside the carrousel is because we are rotating with respect to terra firma (remember my eyes are closed), or because – for some unknown reason unrelated to motion – radial gravitational field has temporarily emerged while the carrousel is as in repose as it was before the given impulse. The latter would have certainly been the interpretation adopted by an intelligent being, had s/he been born and grown up inside the carrousel, without any access whatsoever to the exterior world.”

“It is also worth noting that the earth gravitational field though locally ‘vertical’ is globally radial as the centrifugal field in the carrousel is. However, the big difference between the two is that the former decreases in intensity with distance from its center, while the latter increases its intensity with distance from the rotation center. But … (think about it a little), the farther from the center of rotation, the closer we are to the rest of the Universe!”

“Such is how Science makes progress: not destroying the past, but learning from it, and building on it.”

“The past and the future are not a collection of instants shared by all space, but a collection of events that correspond to a possible relation of causal order with the present event.”

“The difference between Lorentz's Transformation in Lorentz's theory and Lorentz's Transformation in Einstein's Special Relativity is not mathematical but ontological and epistemological and, being so, it was to be expected the emergence of historians, scientists, and philosophers that, not having understood in depth the philosophical content and transcendence of the theory, would minimize Einstein's contribution.”

“The present is not an instant shared by all space, but an event, i.e. an instant at a place in space.”

“Swiftness is the enemy of comprehension.”

“A good part of what appears to us - prima facie - as objective reality is, instead, just a consequence of our conventions to discover it.”

“Both space and time are metrically amorphous, i.e. they do not have - despite how strongly we believe so - an inherent metric which would allow us to measure them without any definitions. In this sense, thus, neither space nor time is absolute.”

“The objective and merit of Einstein's theory is to identify those physical magnitudes which are absolute, i.e. common for all Inertial Frames, distinguishing them from those which are a mere perspective, only shared by those observers in repose within a given Inertial Frame.”

“As we already pointed out, 'special' means 'restricted to Inertial Frames of Reference', i.e. this theory cannot describe the Universe from an arbitrary reference frame. This restricted scope is not to be ignored, though not overemphasized either. ...Ironically, and precisely because of the great success of this simple version of Relativity Theory, most of its detractors have chosen to ignore (out of ignorance or malice -- you judge case by case) its philosophical foundation and restriction to Inertial Frames, so as to declare it invalid.”

“Einstein's theory, experimentally corroborated for the last hundred years, regardless of how outlandish and opposed to our prejudices (disguised as they are with the 'common sense' costume), is rational, consistent, and intelligible to the layperson - if s/he has the audacity of accepting the unfounded nature of those prejudices.”

“So strong was the preconception of absolute space and time in the scientific mentality of those days, that Lorentz did not realize the grand transcendence of what he had discovered, and contented himself with remodeling the edifice of Physics -- instead of rebuilding it with a new foundation.”

“It is worth noting that a wrong folkoric definition of an Inertial Frame in the Popular Science literature (even in text books) reads that 'it is a frame in uniform motion'. We know very well by now that the idea of motion requires a frame of reference, so that such a definition of an Inertial Frame has no meaning whatsoever, confusing the reader because it tacitly reaffirms the idea of absolute motion -- when the goal of every didactic exposition of Relativity Theory should be precisely the opposite.”

“It is curious that the human mind could blindly accept an infinite speed but had reservations to accept a finite one, simply because it was too large!”

“There is no problem more difficult to solve than that created by ourselves.”

“One of the various theories proposed to explain the negative result of the famous Michelson-Morley experiment with light waves (conceived to measure the absolute space), was based on the ballistic hypothesis, i.e. on postulating that the speed of light predicted by Maxwell's equations was not given as relative to the medium but as relative to the transmitter (firearm). Had that been the case, the experiment negative results would have not caused such perplexity and frustration (as we shall see in forthcoming sections).”

“When we say two bodies 'touch', what we mean (without knowing it) is that both electromagnetic fields are interacting to avoid physical interpenetration and ... that happens well before subatomic particles touch!”

“Teaching the layperson (divulgare) is not distorting (tergiversare) the subject, but educating the public; and it is our duty as scientists to educate without distorting the essence of the scientific knowledge attained by humanity. The future of our society depends upon this premise.”

“The command of our language is crucial to focusing our thoughts and communicating them with precision to others.”

“Without causality in the world, there is no point in educating people, or making any moral or political appeal.”

“Is numerical equality (forced by the use of specific physical units) the same as conceptual equality? Of course NOT!”

“Why is it so difficult for us to think in relative terms? Well, for the good reason that human nature loves absoluteness, and erroneously considers it as a state of higher knowledge.”

“If Relativity Theory kills our deepest convictions, why not start by finding out why we believed in them for millennia?”

“After some cogitation, it is difficult not to agree with Herman Bondi (1919 - 2005), who in his book 'Relativity and Common Sense' says:... The surprising thing, surely, is that molecules in a gas behave so much as billiard balls, not that electrons behave so little like billiard balls.”

“... One can know very much but comprehend very little and, besides, ... different objectives require different levels of knowledge - though always with the maximum possible comprehension suited to the purpose.”

“Truth is not as pompous and romantic as myth ... but it has the immeasurable value of being the Truth.”

“To believe in nothing is as ridiculous as to believe in everything. Reason and factual evidence may convert a belief into knowledge.”

“Subjectivity is strange to Science, while Relativity is an objective part of it.”