Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.

And pigs may fly. And we may be able to terraform and send surface populations to Mars. And Jesus may come next week anyway, so it doesn't matter one way or the other. All these crazy things run through people's minds.

Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.

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.

The world depends on fungi, because they are major players in the cycling of materials and energy around the world.

[The natural world cleans water, pollinates plants and provides pharmaceuticals, among many other gifts.] Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year.

It's always been a dream of mine, of exploring the living world, of classifying all the species and finding out what makes up the biosphere.