I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I was never very good at exams, having a poor memory and finding the examination process rather artificial, and there never seemed to be enough time to follow up things that really interested me.

I was by far the youngest of the family, and at times it was like being an only child.

My parents were neither wealthy nor academic, but we lived comfortably and they were always extremely supportive of my academic efforts and aspirations, both at school and university.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

Scientific understanding is often beautiful, a profoundly aesthetic experience which gives pleasure not unlike the reading of a great poem.

This possibility bothered me as I thought it was not advisable to remain in one academic environment, and the long dark winters in Edinburgh could be rather dismal.

I am still a keen mountain walker and an enthusiastic glider pilot.

During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky.

After an extensive interview he arranged for my weaknesses in foreign languages to be over-looked and so I started a Biology degree at Birmingham in 1967.

It has been a privilege to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to see how it might help mankind in more practical ways.

They were both poles apartOne a ready masterpieceAnother an unfinished art...

Yes, it is, ” I whispered, “and one day the spell will not cause you to forget it.

How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?

We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends.

The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.

There are haunters of the silence, ghosts that hold the heart and brain.

My parents never said I had to be 16 to date, but that has been the rule for all my friends.

I don't loathe interviews, I'm just one of those people who makes music because I find it difficult to talk.

Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our possibilities.

To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious.