English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge
Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.
I'm never any good in the morning. It is only after four in the afternoon that I get going.
People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.
I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.
A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls... saying that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?
The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C - not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it.
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
It's time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.
I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to colonize the solar system.
Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.