The transitions from metallic to critical behavior and from critical to insulating behavior have been induced with a magnetic field, and from insulating to critical and then to metallic behavior with increasing external pressure.

I have a strong memory of the day I was told that my father had a weak heart and that he had to go to the hospital. He died when I was nine years old on the same day that Franklin Roosevelt died; it was his 45th birthday.

In 1990, Paul Smith and I decided that conducting polymers as materials had developed to a level of maturity that commercial products were possible. With this as a goal, we founded UNLAX Corporation.

My undergraduate years at the University of Nebraska were a special time in my life: the combination of partying and intellectual awakening that is what the undergraduate years are supposed to be. I went to the university with the goal of becoming an engineer; I had no concept that one could pursue science as a career.

What I actually wanted to do with my life is make a difference to the world. That led me into science very quickly.

English does have a larger vocabulary than other languages because of its history as the primary language of science and its global reach.

Successful ecologists are successful in part because they have prepared their minds to attack scientific problems using a variety of intellectual tools.

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.