Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science engineering and exploration.

We have failed to protect science against speculative extensions of nature continuing to assign physical and mathematical properties to hypothetical entities beyond what is observable in nature.

True science is never speculative it employs hypotheses as suggesting points for inquiry but it never adopts the hypotheses as though they were demonstrated propositions.

This means that to entrust to science - or to deliberate control according to scientific principles - more than scientific method can achieve may have deplorable effects.

Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster which is one of the oldest subjects of art.

What I like about sceptics is that in good science you need critics that make you think: 'Crumbs have I made a mistake here?' If you don't have that continuously you really are up the creek. The good sceptics have done a good service but some of the mad ones I think have not done anyone any favours.

Fudging the data in any way whatsoever is quite literally a sin against the holy ghost of science. I'm not religious but I put it that way because I feel so strongly. It's the one thing you do not ever do. You've got to have standards.

If you start any large theory such as quantum mechanics plate tectonics evolution it takes about 40 years for mainstream science to come around. Gaia has been going for only 30 years or so.

Science always uses metaphor.

Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.