It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us - but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses.

I'm only a four-dimensional creature. Haven't got a clue how to visualise infinity. Even Einstein hadn't. I know because I asked him

We live in an in-between universe where things change all right...but according to patterns, rules, or as we call them, laws of nature.

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.

The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.

But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.

Nature does not always conform to our predispositions and preferences, to what we deem comfortable and easy to understand.