There is a lurking fear that some things are not 'meant' to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.

If you wish to make an apple pie from the scratch, you must first invent the universe

The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

There is a lurking fear that some things are not “meant" to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.

The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

On Titan the molecules that have been raining down like manna from heaven for the last 4 billion years might still be there largely unaltered deep-frozen awaiting the chemists from Earth.

The beach reminds us of space. Fine sand grains, all more or less uniform in size, have been produced from the larger rocks through ages of jostling and rubbing, abrasion and erosion, again driven through waves and weather by distinct moon and Sun.

The chemistry of coal is still not fully understood, despite a long standing economic incentive

It is tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.