Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because 'experimental method' used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.

If you were just intent on killing people you could do better with a bomb made of agricultural fertiliser.

The final arbitrator in philosophy is not how we think but what we do.

Molecular biology has routinely taken problematic things under its wing without altering core ideas.

The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea.

By legend and perhaps by nature philosophers are more accustomed to the armchair than the workbench.

Plutonium has a quite extraordinary relationship with people. They made it, and it kills them.