One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil to think is to do. The crossed arms work the clasped hands act. The eyes upturned to Heaven are an act of creation.

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.

Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.

The pressure on young chefs today is far greater than ever before in terms of social skills marketing skills cooking skills personality and more importantly delivering on the plate. So you need to be strong. Physically fit. So my chefs get weighed every time they come into the kitchen.

I mean when you get down to very low numbers of nuclear weapons and you contemplate going to zero how do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it? And what conditions do you put in place?

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'.

His smile is like the silver plate on a coffin.

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.

I've got a full plate yes I do. That iPod that's nice. A phone recorder? Nicely done. All right I'm a bit of a tech geek. I have a subscription to Popular Science and I keep up on all this stuff.

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.