My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.

There are ecosystems like coral reefs [at risk] through ocean acidification. Those are valuable things that we should protect.

I think if you talk to the experts in any field where you have to take on a unknown challenge, where you're going to be working on it for a long time you'd find that to work themselves up to their best performance and really throw themselves into it, you know, spend all these hours in there and ah, give it their... give it their best that optimism plays a role.

Being maniacal about something is very helpful.

Sorghum is kind of unusual. It can go to very high heats, but it's not as productive in most environments as maize is.

Harnessing steam power required many innovations, as William Rosen chronicles in the book 'The Most Powerful Idea in the World.'

Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.