During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky.

I am still a keen mountain walker and an enthusiastic glider pilot.

Ever since Sir Isaac Newton's times, scientists have worked in the same sort of way: They show a great respect for experiment and observation, They don't cherry pick data, They take a skeptical approach to what they do. And then scientists work together to get a consensus as to what should be believed And that generates very reliable knowledge and that reliable knowledge drives innovation

My parents were born in Norfolk and spent their early years working in the big houses of that rural English county, my mother as a cook and my father as a handyman and chauffeur.

Like many students, I found the drudgery of real experiments and the slowness of progress a complete shock, and at my low points I contemplated other alternative careers including study of the philosophy or sociology of science.

It was during my time at secondary school that I abandoned religion.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.