That's the point, to get the people who wouldn't otherwise think to eavesdrop on a conversation that involves science.

When you visit countries that don't nurture these kinds of ambitions, you can feel th absence of hope...people are reduced to worrying only about that day's shelter or the next day's meal. It's a shame, even a tragedy, how many people do not get to think about the future. Technology coupled with wise leadership not only solves these problems but enables dreams of tomorow.

I'm fascinated by the deaths of stars and the havoc they wreak on their environments.

We in astrophysics we think of the universe all the time. So to us, Earth is just another planet. From a distance, it's a speck. And I'm convinced that if everyone had a cosmic perspective you wouldn't have legions of armies waging war on other people because someone would say, "Stop, look at the universe."

I was born the same week NASA was founded, so we're the same age and feel some of the same pains, joys, and frustrations.

The very nature of science is discoveries, and the best of those discoveries are the ones you don't expect.

Only when creative people take ownership of cosmic discovery will society accept science as the cultural activity that it is.