As I very much liked to draw and paint as a child, I entered a special art program in high school, which was very much like being in an art school imbedded in a regular high school curriculum.

While it was a very interesting period in my life, I was happy to get back to more direct contact with students in the classroom and in my research projects.

When there were financial difficulties they still managed to provide us with music and art lessons.

They greatly respected scholarship in itself, but they also impressed upon us that there were great opportunities available for those who were well educated. I received my primary and secondary education in Chicago.

There's no doubt who was a leader in space after the Apollo Program. Nobody came close to us. And our education system, in science, technology, engineering and math, was at the top of the world. It's no longer there. We're descending rather rapidly.

If we are too friendly to nice, decent bishops, we run the risk of buying into the fiction that there's something virtuous about believing things because of faith rather than because of evidence. We run the risk of betraying scientific enlightenment.

Scientific advancement should aim to affirm and to improve human life.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.