As we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

If I have any insight at all to contribute it is this: find out what you are really good at and stick to it.

[Evolution is] one of the best documented, most compelling and exciting concepts in all of science.

Mary Anning [is] probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology.

We must [it has been arued] go beyond reductionism to a holistic recognition that biology and culture interpenetrate in an inextricable manner.

The pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable.

Facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away while scientists debate rival theories for explaining them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air pending the outcome.