I’m struck again by the irony that spaceflight-conceived in the cauldron of nationalist rivalries and hatreds-brings with it a stunning transnational vision. You spend even a little time contemplating the Earth from orbit and the most deeply engrained nationalisms begin to erode. They seem the squabbles of mites on a plum.

As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky.

If we ruin the earth, there is no place else to go

Those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

In exchange for freedom of inquiry, scientists are obliged to explain their work.

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

All inquiries carry with them some element of risk.