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When I was in elementary school, I was very interested in science already. I must have been ten or eleven years old. I started experiments with chemistry sets at my home in Mexico. I was able to borrow a bathroom and convert it to a laboratory. My parents supported it. They were pleased. My friends just tolerated it.

There's nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.

I don't know whether it is important to study science at a young age, though current thinking emphasises the need.

In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science.

When I was in high school, I fell under the spell of that crazy idea that if you're interested in the arts, you can't be interested in science.

I hope I've lived a life of science whose style will encourage younger people.

When high school students ask to spend their afternoons and weekends in my laboratory, I am amazed: I didn't develop that kind of enthusiasm for science until I was 28 years old.

I don't recall any interest in science in particular. It came later in college.