A wise man in China asked his gardener to plant a shrub. The gardener objected that it only flowered once in a hundred years. "In that case," said the wise man, "plant it immediately." [On the importance of fundamental research.]

Some dreamers demand that scientists only discover things that can be used for good.

A wise man in China asked his gardener to plant a shrub. The gardener objected that it only flowered once in a hundred years. "In that case," said the wise man, "plant it immediately." [On the importance of fundamental research.]

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves. Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.

A new sense of shared international responsibility is unmistakable in the voices of the United Nations and its agencies, and in the civil society of thousands of supra-national NGOs.

Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts.

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.