Quotes by Martin Rees

Given the scale of issues like global warming and epidemic disease, we shouldnt underestimate the importance of a can-do attitude to science rather than a cant-afford-it attitude.

If we ever established contact with intelligent life on another world, there would be barriers to communication. First, they would be many light years away, so signals would take many years to reach them: there would be no scope for quick repartee. There might be an IQ gap.

A monkey is unaware that atoms exist. Likewise, our brainpower may not stretch to the deepest aspects of reality. The bedrock nature of space and time, and the structure of our entire universe, may remain open frontiers beyond human grasp.

It is foolish to claim, as some do, that emigration into space offers a long-term escape from Earths problems. Nowhere in our solar system offers an environment even as clement as the Antarctic or the top of Everest.

Not even the most secular among us can fail to be uplifted by Christianitys architectural legacy - the great cathedrals. These immense and glorious buildings were erected in an era of constricted horizons, both in time and in space.

Maybe the search for life shouldnt restrict attention to planets like Earth. Science fiction writers have other ideas: balloon-like creatures floating in the dense atmospheres of planets such as Jupiter, swarms of intelligent insects, nano-scale robots and more.

The images of Earths delicate biosphere, contrasting with the sterile moonscape where the astronauts left their footsteps, have become iconic for environmentalists: these may indeed be the Apollo programmes most enduring legacy.

We need to broaden our sympathies both in space and time - and perceive ourselves as part of a long heritage, and stewards for an immense future.

Most theorists suspect that space has an intricate structure - that it is grainy - but that this structure is on a much finer scale than any known subatomic particle. The structure could be of an exotic kind: extra dimensions, over and above the three that we are used to (up and down, backward and forward, left and right).

The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification of cosmos and quantum are surely among sciences great open frontiers. These are parts of the intellectual map where were still groping for the truth - where, in the fashion of ancient cartographers, we must still inscribe here be dragons.

Some claim that computers will, by 2050, achieve human capabilities. Of course, in some respects they already have.

Some things, like the orbits of the planets, can be calculated far into the future. But thats atypical. In most contexts, there is a limit. Even the most fine-grained computation can only forecast British weather a few days ahead. There are limits to what can ever be learned about the future, however powerful computers become.

Crucial to science education is hands-on involvement: showing, not just telling; real experiments and field trips and not just virtual reality.

Everything, however complicated - breaking waves, migrating birds, and tropical forests - is made of atoms and obeys the equations of quantum physics. But even if those equations could be solved, they wouldnt offer the enlightenment that scientists seek. Each science has its own autonomous concepts and laws.

The scientists who attack mainstream religion, rather than striving for peaceful coexistence with it, damage science, and also weaken the fight against fundamentalism.

Post-human intelligence will develop hypercomputers with the processing power to simulate living things - even entire worlds. Perhaps advanced beings could use hypercomputers to surpass the best special effects in movies or computer games so vastly that they could simulate a world, fully, as complex as the one we perceive ourselves to be in.

The extreme sophistication of modern technology - wonderful though its benefits are - is, ironically, an impediment to engaging young people with basics: with learning how things work.

To ensure continuing prosperity in the global economy, nothing is more important than the development and application of knowledge and skills.

Advances in technology - hugely beneficial though they are - render us vulnerable in new ways. For instance, our interconnected world depends on elaborate networks: electric power grids, air traffic control, international finance, just-in-time delivery, and so forth.

Issues relating to global health and sustainability must stay high on the agenda if we are to cope with an ageing and ever-increasing population, with growing pressure on resources, and with rising global temperatures. The risks and dangers need to be assessed and then confronted.