If you represent the Earth's lifetime by a single year, say from January when it was made to December, the 21st-century would… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Manned spaceflight has lost its glamour - understandably so, because it hardly seems inspiring, 40 years after Apollo, for astronauts merely to… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
The images of Earth's delicate biosphere, contrasting with the sterile moonscape where the astronauts left their footsteps, have become iconic for environmentalists:… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Maybe the search for life shouldn't restrict attention to planets like Earth. Science fiction writers have other ideas: balloon-like creatures floating in… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Space doesn't offer an escape from Earth's problems. And even with nuclear fuel, the transit time to nearby stars exceeds a human… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Once the threshold is crossed when there is a self-sustaining level of life in space, then life's long-range future will be secure… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Darwin and his successors taught us how our biosphere evolved, and thereby transformed our conception of humanity's place in nature. In the… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
During the 20th century, we came to understand that the essence of all substances - their colour, texture, hardness and so forth… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
We know too little about how life began on Earth to lay confident odds. It may have involved a fluke so rare… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
From a personal perspective, I am disappointed that we have yet to really achieve a full understanding of the origins of life… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
It is foolish to claim, as some do, that emigration into space offers a long-term escape from Earth's problems. Nowhere in our… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
It's becoming clear that in a sense the cosmos provides the only laboratory where sufficiently extreme conditions are ever achieved to test… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
If you take 10,000 people at random, 9,999 have something in common: their interests in business lie on or near the Earth's… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Experiments that crash atoms together could start a chain reaction that erodes everything on Earth. — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
A monkey is unaware that atoms exist. Likewise, our brainpower may not stretch to the deepest aspects of reality. The bedrock nature of space… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
When scientists are asked what they are working on, their response is seldom 'Finding the origin of the universe' or 'Seeking to cure cancer.'… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
“The Sun contains about a thousand times more mass than Jupiter. If it were cold, gravity would squeeze it a million times denser than… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
“We, and the visible universe around us, may exist only because of a difference in the ninth decimal place between the numbers of quarks… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
Crucial to science education is hands-on involvement: showing, not just telling; real experiments and field trips and not just 'virtual reality.' — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
I have no religious belief myself, but I don't think we should fight about it. In particular, I think that we should not rubbish… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
“More energy is needed to rise a millimetre above a neutron star's surface than to break completely free of Earth's gravity. A pen dropped… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
The next humans to walk on the moon may be Chinese. Only China seems to have the resources, the dirigiste government, and the willingness… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
If we ever established contact with intelligent life on another world, there would be barriers to communication. First, they would be many light years… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
There is an ever-widening gap between what science allows and what we should actually do. There are many doors science can open that should… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
An insect is more complex than a star..and is a far greater challenge to understand. — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
