Harry Kroto

Without evidence, anything goes. Think about it. Common sense says the sun goes round the Earth. Who agrees with me?

Scientific discoveries matter much more when they're communicated simply and well - if you can't explain your work to the man in the pub, what's the point?

Scientific education is by far the best training for all walks of life because it teaches us how to assess situations critically and react accordingly. It gives us an understanding based on reverence for life-enhancing technologies as well as for life itself.

We live in a world economically, socially, and culturally dependent on science not only functioning well, but being wisely applied.

Saying that we should stop nanoscience is tantamount to saying we should stop science.

I've always felt that the Nobel Prize gives me nothing as far as science is concerned.

Art and science are intrinsically the same except for one thing. The universe is in control of your science, whether it's right or wrong, and the public are in control of your art - if they're going to buy it, if you're going to make a living that way.

At no point do I ever remember taking religion very seriously or even feeling that the biblical stories were any different from fairy stories. Certainly, none of it made any sense. By comparison, the world in which I lived, though I might not always understand it in all aspects, always made a lot of sense.

I think the most important thing that young people should be taught at school is how they can decide what they're being told is true.

It really does not matter whether one believes a mystical entity created the universe 5,000 or 10,000 million years ago - both are equally irrational, unsubstantiated claims of no fundamental validity.

Many think of the sciences as merely a fund of knowledge. Journalists never ask scientists anything other than what the applications are of scientific breakthroughs. Interestingly, I doubt they ever ask a musician, writer, or actor the same question. I wonder why.

Human beings are just animals who will just eat and take advantage of any source of energy until it runs out, and then there'll be catastrophe.