18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.

I'm definitely an American, because I grew up here. But I've lived very happily in Britain.

Beulah has a husband?' I know. It's a miracle. There can't be more than two people on the planet who'd be willing to sleep with her, and here we are both in the same town.

In France, a chemist named Pilatre de Rozier tested the flammability of hydrogen by gulping a mouthful and blowing across an open flame, proving at a stroke that hydrogen is indeed explosively combustible and that eyebrows are not necessarily a permanent feature of one's face.

I'm not a natural story-teller. Put a keyboard in front of me and I'm fine, but stand me up in front of an audience and I'm actually quite shy and reserved.

It is a curious feature of our existance that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.

The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose