It’s always a combination of physics and poetry that I find inspiring. It’s hard to wrap your head around things like the Hubble scope.

Hanks frames scientific wonder as a dual experience: “physics” names the rigorous, measurable reality behind the universe, while “poetry” names the emotional and imaginative response it provokes. By invoking the Hubble Space Telescope—an emblem of modern astronomy and of images that exceed everyday scale—he emphasizes how certain technologies confront us with realities that are intellectually graspable only in part. The remark suggests that inspiration often arises where explanation meets awe: facts alone can feel inert, and lyric feeling alone can feel unmoored, but together they produce a fuller sense of meaning. The quote also reflects a humanistic impulse to translate scientific discovery into shared cultural experience.