The feats of human endurance are such that the man next to me grimly concluded "I need to go to the gym more" on the way out.
The formulation he gave in his final lecture on 28 November was described by the physicist Max Born as "the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition and mathematical skill".
Paul Dirac called general relativity "probably the greatest scientific discovery ever made," and Max Born termed it "the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition and mathematical skill".
He could spend half an hour staring at the handful of terms and subscripts of the crux of the field equations and understand why Einstein himself had spoken of its "incomparable beauty," and why Max Born had said that it was "the greatest feat of human thinking about nature".
It is the most amazing feat of human nature I have ever seen.
It is no hyperbole to say, then, that the man tapping away at his keyboard on the office park next to McDonald's is a key figure in the greatest-ever feat of human exploration.
It usually goes along the lines of: "Wouldn't it be amazing to be a pilot?" Followed by: "Actually, it probably gets really boring sitting there for 10 hours while the plane flies itself …" Author Mark Vanhoenacker admits on his website: "The 21st century has relegated airplane flight – a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity – to the realm of the mundane".
In the nuclear age, human survival has, for the first time in history, been made a feat of human competence-has become as secure only as the fail-safe machines that hold our nuclear arsenals in check.
By Jonathan Schell The New Yorker, April 21 , 1986P. 37 In the nuclear age, human survival has, for the first time in history, been made a feat of human competence-has become as secure only as the fail-safe machines that hold our nuclear arsenals in check.
