The beauty of life is, therefore, geometrical beauty of a type that Plato would have much appreciated.

We academic scientists move within a certain sphere, we can go on being useless up to a point, in the confidence that sooner or later some use will be found for our studies. The mathematician, of course, prides himself on being totally useless, but usually turns out to be the most useful of the lot. He finds the solution but he is not interested in what the problem is: sooner or later, someone will find the problem to which his solution is the answer.

It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof.

As the scene of life would be more the cold emptiness of space than the warm, dense atmosphere of planets, the advantage of containing no organic material at all, so as to be independent of both these conditions, would be increasingly felt.

Published papers may omit important steps and the memory of men of science, even the greatest, is sadly fallible.

As a scientist Miss [Rosalind] Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken.

We are still too close to the birth of the universe to be certain about its death.