“I'd like to widen people's awareness of the tremendous timespan lying ahead--for our planet, and for life itself. Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4bn years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans… — Martin Rees Copy Share
Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun's demise, 6 billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be… — Martin Rees Copy Share
It will not be humans who watch the sun's demise, six billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be… — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
From the growth of the Internet through to the mapping of the human genome and our understanding of the human brain, the… — 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
Collective human actions are transforming, even ravaging, the biosphere - perhaps irreversibly - through global warming and loss of biodiversity. — Martin Rees Copy Share Image
It is astonishing that human brains, which evolved to cope with the everyday world, have been able to grasp the counterintuitive mysteries… — 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 an ordinary solid: it would be a 'white dwarf' about the size of the Earth but 330,000 times more massive. But the Sun's core actually has a temperature of fifteen million degrees-thousands of time hotter than… — Martin Rees Copy Share
“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 from a height of one metre would impact with the energy of a ton of TNT (although the intense gravity on a neutron star's surface would actually, of course, squash any such objects instantly). A projectile… — Martin Rees Copy Share
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
