The variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.

In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time.

'The Creation' presents an argument for saving biological diversity on Earth. Most of the book is for as broad an audience as possible.

We are compelled to drive toward total knowledge, right down to the levels of the neuron and the gene. When we have progressed enough to explain ourselves in these mechanistic terms...the result might be hard to accept.

I like what Abba Eban once said during the 1967 war. He said, "When all else fails, men turn to reason."

Science needs the intuition and metaphorical power of the arts, and the arts need the fresh blood of science ... Interpretation is the logical channel of consilient explanation between science and the arts. The arts ... also nourish our craving for the mystical.

Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong.