When I became a professor of physics circa 1991, I doubled the number of female professors of physics in the U.K.

Science is a quest for understanding.

We didn't get television until quite late, the late fifties, but we had radio, and I can remember listening to the Korean War news on the radio with my family and sensing the anxiety of the adults although not understanding it myself, not understanding exactly what was going on.

A search for truth seems to me to be full of pitfalls. We all have different understandings of what truth is, and we'll each believe - or we are in danger of each believing - that our truth is the one and only absolute truth, which is why I say it's full of pitfalls.

My folks are economists and have taught economics and social science so I grew up with those kind of conversations around the dinner table.

You can't really fake chemistry: either you have it or you don't, and you can't have a relationship on screen if you don't have one off screen. I love Sarah Paulson. I absolutely adore her. My wife has given me full permission to love Sarah Paulson, and I look forward to doing that for the rest of my life.

General writing about science, even if we do it badly, helps us to see our work in perspective and broadens our vision.

There is good science you can do in space. There is stuff there you cannot do on Earth and we can gain understanding from it.