We are, in the most profound sense, children of the Cosmos.

A stars rich in europium; of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.

What an astonishing thing a book is.

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.

When we look up at night and view the stars, everything we see is shinning because of distant nuclear fusion.

Every time you look up at the sky, every one of those points of light is a reminder that fusion power is extractable from hydrogen and other light elements, and it is an everyday reality throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.