I'd missed science and what it was all about because I was too busy trying to think of other things, when I was at school. I was too busy trying to be James Dean.

I've never felt scared of flight, ever. It's really weird. I don't know. They stick a gin and tonic in your hands and I just think, "Life is good!"

There is so much wonder and joy in science, about understanding how the world works and why the world is the way it is. It's not just for academics. It is a thing that's available to everyone.

In my lifetime, the population of the world has doubled.

The thing I loved, particularly, was the mystery of science and the idea that science doesn't know all the answers, but it is a process of finding out. It's not like science will give you the right answer and science knows everything. I love the mysteries of it.

I wasn't naturally a scientist, but I was always fascinated by how the world worked and why things were the way they were.

You don't have to be musician to listen to music, and you don't have to be a filmmaker to go to the cinema, but somehow when we think of science, we think of it only as an academic discipline.