If the Earth gets hit by an asteroid, it's game over. It's control-alt-delete for civilization.

Evolution is not something you can believe in or not believe in like do you believe in gravity.

I often reflect on what an extraordinary time (pun intended) it is to be alive here in the beginning of the twenty-first century. It took life billions of years to get to this point. It took humans thousands of years to piece together a meaningful understanding of our cosmos, our planet and ourselves. Think how fortunate we are to know this much. But think also of all that's yet to be discovered. Here's hoping the deep answers to the deep questions-from the nature of consciousness to the origin of life-will be found in not too much more time.

I like to regard myself as someone who's capable of critical thought, that is to say, who can evaluate claims.

I say to the grown-ups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it.'

We need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.

There are just two people entitled to refer to themselves as "we"; one is the editor and the other is the fellow with a tapeworm.