I am so old, I entered engineering school with a slide rule. And I left engineering school with a calculator. I can still use a slide rule but it's not a skill you especially need anymore.

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. The key to our being here now is time, 4.54 billion (Earth) years of time. Nuclear fission wasn't discovered until long after Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace published their original books and papers, for example. Our ability to measure atomic masses wasn't developed until long after their deaths. These features of nature enabled us to reckon the age of the Earth and compare it with speciation rates here.

Everyone, red state, blue state, everyone supports space exploration.

Incidentally, the creationists that I've encountered diligently deny that our Earth's climate is being altered by people. This point of view and teaching is in absolutely no one's best interest. Here's hoping we can work together and preserve the Earth, for us - us humans.

People get a lot out of being religious. They have strong senses of community and mutual support. So, what's not to love [there]?

The world's going to change climatically. We just want to control the change. We want to have a high quality of life for billions of people as we pass through this era.

You stop planetary exploration, those people who do that extraordinary work are going to have to go do something else.