Philosophy

The real mystery is not why organisms as complicated as us age and die, but why there is a kind of immortality through the germ line! There clearly is some way that all the damaging aspects of life that feed into ageing are overcome in the germ line.

Nobel Prize Winner for Work on Chromosome Protection and Telomeres

Aging is a side-effect of being a machine with moving parts. All such machines, whether living or not, inherently create entropy in their structure. Living organisms have immensely sophisticated systems for exporting that entropy, but those systems are generally not 100% comprehensive, so aging still happens.

Biogerontologist researching aging reversal and life extension therapies

My colleague Jerry Joyce once chaired a NASA committee that defined life in a practical sense, as a self-sustaining chemical system with the potential for Darwinian evolution (the hallmark of biology). That's a perfectly adequate operational definition that is appropriate for research into the origins of life. Obviously it has nothing to do with consciousness, or even the experience of being alive.

Nobel Prize Winner for Work on Chromosome Protection and Telomeres

All the great achievements of humankind – from building the pyramids to reaching the Moon – are based on large scale cooperation. And all large scale human cooperation is based on belief in fictions such as gods, nations, money and human rights.

Bestselling author of "Sapiens" & historian studying human civilization

You can never convince a chimpanzee to give you a banana by promising him that after he dies, he will go to chimpanzee Heaven, and there receive countless bananas for his good deeds. No chimpanzee will ever believe that. Only humans believe such stories. This is why we rule the world, whereas the chimpanzees are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.

Bestselling author of "Sapiens" & historian studying human civilization

Until about 70,000 years ago, humans were just another kind of animal. They weren't particularly important. Their impact on the world was not greater than that of jellyfish, fireflies, or woodpeckers. However, 70,000 years ago humans evolved new cognitive abilities that turned them into the most powerful force on the planet.

Bestselling author of "Sapiens" & historian studying human civilization

Humans began to create and believe things that exist only in their own imagination. Things such as gods, nations, money and human rights. This enabled humans to start cooperating on an unprecedented scale.

Bestselling author of "Sapiens" & historian studying human civilization

charity and philanthropy are the same. Charity giving is more aligned with money and not so much individual time. Philanthropy is more of a practice and way of being

Co-Founder of Paul Mitchell Systems & The Patrón Spirits Company

Boys we just donated to the Salvation Army. They help people that do not have homes or food. Always remember in life there will always be someone that will be in more in need. We could only afford a dime that year, but we gave to help out others!

Co-Founder of Paul Mitchell Systems & The Patrón Spirits Company

There is a line between the observable and greater universe. For discussion it's very useful to recognise that when we speak about anything outside the observable universe, we're switching from the empirical to the speculative and theoretical

Astrophysicist who discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe

One can certainly live their life happily, here on earth never looking up or contemplating what's out there… but for many people (myself included) when you become aware of how much is out there? You feel this compelling pull of curiosity to understand.

Astrophysicist who discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe

Why should a creature that evolved out of slime, which has all the limitations which we do, be able to access this fundamental information about the universe which allows us, for example, to be able to predict the magnetic moment of the electron to a trillion decimal places on the basis of purely mathematical calculation. Why does that work? It is a miracle, it is magic, but it works- and that's the part of magic that's real.

Theoretical Physicist & Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

His physics was the part of his attempt to find magic which actually worked! I see science similarly to that. This is still a magical and mysterious thing that we are able to understand the world in very powerful and predictive ways- that is the foundation of all of our technologies today.

Theoretical Physicist & Director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

I made a principled decision that none of my wealth will be passed on as inheritance, that my capital will work for philanthropic causes. In other words, philanthropy is the reason I make money.

Russian Oligarch & Owner of Norilsk Nickel Mining Company

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans- because we can… We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings… That's why we paint, that's why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

Renowned poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist; author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

Leader of Catholic Church for 27 years; advocated for human rights and peace