I grew up in England at a time when England was winning Nobel Prizes right and left. I mean it was amazing how many Nobel Prizes England was winning in chemistry and physics and biology and all the sciences and at that time the teaching of science in the schools was really lousy.

Lucky individuals in each generation find technology appropriate to their needs.

We won't really understand the brain until we can make models of it which are analog rather than digital, which nobody seems to be trying very much.

The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple.

The thing that makes me most optimistic is China and India - both of them doing well.

For me too, the periodic table was a passion. ... As a boy, I stood in front of the display for hours, thinking how wonderful it was that each of those metal foils and jars of gas had its own distinct personality.

CO2 is so beneficial...it would be crazy to try to reduce it