When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.

We humans look rather different from a tree. Without a doubt we perceive the world differently than a tree does. But down deep, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical.

Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

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

Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.

Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.