Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique.

The past was still a Golden Age, of ignorance, while the present is an Iron Age of willful bliss.

In much of the rest of the world, rich people live in gated communities and drink bottled water. That's increasingly the case in Los Angeles where I come from. So that wealthy people in much of the world are insulated from the consequences of their actions.

Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home.

All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable use.

With the MacArthur grant, I realized that people have high expectations of me, that they were placing me in this group of achievers. I compared what Id actually achieved in my life with what I would like to achieve and what other people have achieved, and I found that comparison depressing.

Lest those islands still seem to you too remote in space and time to be relevant to our modern societies, just think about the risks... of our increasing globalization and increasing worldwide economic interdependence.