Quote collection
68 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"In prehistoric times, Homo sapiens was deeply endangered. Early humans were less fleet of foot, with fewer natural weapons and less well-honed senses than all the predators that threatened them. Moreover, they were hampered in their movements by the need to protect their uniquely immature young - juicy meals for any hungry beast."
"We live longer and healthier lives than ever before. Animal research has improved the treatment of infections, helped with immunisation, improved cancer treatment and had a big impact on managing heart disease, brain disorders, arthritis and transplantation."
"Scientists need to be prepared to engage, and the best people to engage with are students, ideally from primary school because there's no question that their capacity to work out complex things is extremely good."
"To build and strengthen new connections, the brain needs the challenge of fresh and unusual stimuli. .... There's a lot of evidence to suggest that repetition is bad for brain health, and novelty is good."
"Women of child-bearing age steadily run out of eggs by the continuous process of cell death. While reading a copy of the Guardian carefully from cover to cover, a normal woman will have lost on average two eggs - while, typically, a normal man will have made 70,000 new sperm."
"My first vote was for a communist in east London when I was a medical student. But I've voted Tory, Labour and Lib Dem in my time."
"Religion has endured since the dawn of human consciousness precisely because it encompasses so much of being human. No idea has endured so long, gathered up so many disparate needs and wants and feelings, and inspired so many different paths towards understanding it."
"I went to school with butterflies of fear every day for years - from primary school onwards - not just worried about being bullied by classmates, but by teachers."
"I don't know whether it is important to study science at a young age, though current thinking emphasises the need."
"I like travelling on my own. It means I'm completely free to think about what's around me."
"I love the French detective series 'Spiral.' It's quite brutal to watch, but I'm already hooked."
"My father died when I was nine, but I came from a stable family environment, which I think does contribute to being well-behaved."
"Our aggression is a deep instinct which survives in all kinds of manifestations in modern man."
"I don't believe the fertilised egg can be equated with the sort of human life that you and I represent, or our children represent."
"There were never any doctors in my family. But my grandparents and my mother had a strong social conscience that was formative."
"I've been all over the world on my own because, as a scientist, you travel a great deal if your work is reasonably successful or published. I get invitations to go to all sorts of strange countries where I would mostly be by myself and just meet other people there, instead of having travelling companions."
"You can't be judgmental about babies. They are all have different needs. I was left with an enduring hatred of cheese because it was forced down me when I was young."
"That Britain today is a liberal society is largely because of the philosophy and outlook of the Anglican Church, which did so much to shape our core values in the past few centuries."
"The trouble with climate change is it's an extraordinarily diverse and complex issue, but for example if the BBC would let me make some of the programmes I'd like to make on climate change, I bet you there would be a change of emphasis."
"I don't think we will find a cure for all cancers in the next 50 years let alone 20. I think it's foolishness to say that."