I’m often asked whether I believe in Global Warming. I now just reply with the question: “Do you believe in Gravity?”
Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. You cannot build a program of discovery on the assumption that nobody is smart enough to figure out the answer to a problem.
I’ve known from long ago that the universe was calling me. If you were one of those annoying adults that said, ‘Oh, what are you gonna be when you grow up?’ I would say, ‘Astrophysicist .’ And then they’d walk away real quickly.
I try to show the public that chemistry, biology, physics, astrophysics is life. It is not some separate subject that you have to be pulled into a corner to be taught about.
So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.’
Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.
I would request that my body in death be buried not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna during my lifetime.
Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security.
So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.
I love the future we might invent for ourselves that I have not yet dreamt of.
If you want to assert a truth, first make sure it’s not just an opinion that you desperately want to be true.
We’re an elective democracy where science and technology will define where the economically strong countries in the world will be. And science and technological literacy is important for security, as well.
Part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you.
In life and in the universe it’s always best to keep looking up.
But the moment the politicians start saying they are in denial of what the scientists are telling them, of what the consensus of scientific experiments demonstrates, that is the beginning of the end of an informed democracy.
Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.
Just to settle it once and for all: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, laid by a bird that was not a chicken.
We have people who believe they are scientifically literate but, in fact, are not.
Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children.
You don’t need to be a scientist to know Earth’s age or that life evolved. You just need be one who embraces objective truths.