We are the accidental result of an unplanned process ... the fragile result of an enormous concatenation of improbabilities, not the predictable product of any definite process.

I love the wry motto of the Paleontological Society, meant both literally and figuratively, for hammers are the main tool of our trade: Frango ut patefaciam - I break in order to reveal.

Everything comes to us in fifteen-second sound bites and photo opportunities. All possibility for ambiguity - the most precious trait of any adequate analysis - is erased.

Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

The world, unfortunately, rarely matches our hopes and consistently refuses to behave in a reasonable manner.

I don't think academic writing ever was wonderful. However, science used to be much less specialized.

Science is not 'organized common sense'; at its most exciting, it reformulates our view of the world by imposing powerful theories against the ancient, anthropocentric prejudices that we call intuition.