Finding intelligent life would encourage people and also of course the opportunity of learning a tremendous amount, but this is a danger. We might be so overwhelmed with knowledge and information, that we might be depressed or even become suicidal - because what's the point if they're thousands of years ahead of us? Why should we bother? - or become the ultimate couch potatoes.

One theory which can no longer be taken very seriously is that UFOs are interstellar spaceships.

Why, Robert Singh often wondered, did we give our hearts to friends whose life spans are so much shorter than our own?

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.

The realisation that our small planet is only one of many worlds gives mankind the perspective it needs to realise sooner that our own world belongs to all its creatures.

Sometimes when I'm in a bookstore or library, I am overwhelmed by all the things that I do not know. Then I am seized by a powerful desire to read all the books, one by one.

Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.