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I'm a technological optimist in that I do believe that technology will provide solutions that will allow the world in 2050 to support 9 billion people at an acceptable standard of living. But I'm a political pessimist in that I am concerned about whether the science will be appropriately applied.

Science shouldn't be just for scientists, and there are encouraging signs that it is becoming more pervasive in culture and the media.

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.

I have suggested that scientific progress requires a favorable environment.

If scientists can't communicate with the public, with policy makers, with one another, the future is going to be held back. We're not going to have the future that we could have.

The general public has long been divided into two parts those who think science can do anything, and those who are afraid it will.

The idea that science is just some luxury that you'll get around to if you can afford it is regressive to any future a country might dream for itself.

The future of society is 100% dependent on scientific advances.

I believe that the quantum of our knowledge will increase considerably in the coming years and that scientists will continue to be amongst the brave voices speaking out.

I have arrived at the conviction that the neglect by economists to discuss seriously what is really the crucial problem of our time is due to a certain timidity about soiling their hands by going from purely scientific questions into value questions.