By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has spent in sending ships to other worlds. It is our fate to live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time, one of the most hopeful chapters in human history.
Carl SaganRecent research shows that many children without enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn (โcognitive impairmentโ ). Children don't have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernourishment โ the kind most common among poor people in America โ can do it.
Carl Sagan