If it hadn't been for the Cold War, neither Russia nor America would have been sending people into space.

Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades.

The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books - mine included - because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened.

I would only have been too pleased if someone had asked me for my data. If you really believed in your data, you wouldn't mind someone looking at it. You should be able to respond that if you don't believe me go out and do the measurements yourself.

We live at a time when emotions and feelings count more than truth, and there is a vast ignorance of science

Geological change usually takes thousands of years to happen but we are seeing the climate changing not just in our lifetimes but also year by year.

What I tend to do is to wake about five in the morning-this happens quite often-think about the invention, and then image it in my mind in 3D, as a kind of construct. Then I do experiments with the image...sort of rotate it, and say, 'Well what'll happen if one does this?' And by the time I get up for breakfast I can usually go to the bench and make a string and sealing wax model that works straight off, because I've done most of the experiments already.