If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist.

Stars die and reborn […] They get so hot that the nuclei of the atoms fuse together deep within them to make the oxygen we breathe, the carbon in our muscles, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood. All was cooked in the fiery hearts of long vanished stars. … The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

The last person I ever want working for me is someone who says 'that's not in my job description.

We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.

I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth.

So not enough people in this world, I think, carry a cosmic perspective with them. It could be life-changing.

If you look at the history of unexplained phenomena that was first explained by spiritual, mystical forces, the track record is not very good for the mystical, magical explanations to survive against more quote "mundane" physical explanations.