Competition, I think, is always a good thing.

Historically, science and society have gone separate ways, although society has provided the funds for science to grow, and in return, science has given society all the material things it enjoys.

We have ourselves begun to put our house in order by banning some experiments that may contain a risk for mankind. We would like to see society take a similar attitude, abandoning selfish practices that are dangerous for society itself.

The life I remember begins at Imperia, where I went to school, including the Ginnasio-Liceo 'De Amicis.'

Actually, I'm addicted to science fiction. Let me make my diction clear - I love sci-fi.

The city - as the theater of experience, the refuge, the hiding place - has, in turn, been replaced by an abstraction, the fast lane. In the fast lane, the passive observer reduces everything - streets, people, rock lyrics, headlines - to landscape. Every night holds magical promises of renewal. But burnout is inevitable, like some law of physics.

If I can get some student interested in science, if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program, then my job's been done.

To process and close models in 50 states and 2,000-plus counties with the myriad of, just, tens of thousands of different regulations, customs, vendors - it's a monster. So the only way to do that is with technology. It really is rocket science.