I was very much the laymen, trying to find stuff out because I'm curious about the world.

Statistically, 2012 was the safest year to travel on a plane, in the history of aviation. Not one major passenger plane crashed. It's pretty amazing. And when you see them being taken apart and you see the work that goes into keeping those things in the air, you think, "Wow!"

If you go through life and actually get to find out the thing you want to do, you're very lucky.

Yeah. Science doesn't end. That's the one thing I learned. People think of science as spitting out right answers, and that's it. It's always under review.

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'm not an academic, but I'm someone who has a great passion for science and wants to convey the idea that science is for everyone.

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.