Carl Did Not Want To Believe. He

Contrary To The Fantasies Of The Fundamentalists, There Was No Deathbed Conversion, No Last Minute Refuge Taken In A Comforting Vision Of A Heaven Or An Afterlife. For Carl, What Mattered Most Was What Was True, Not Merely What Would Make Us Feel Better. Even At This Moment When Anyone Would Be Forgiven For Turning Away From The Reality Of Our Situation, Carl Was Unflinching. As We Looked Deeply Into Each Other's Eyes, It Was With A Shared Conviction That Our Wondrous Life Together Was Ending Forever.

Ten Long Trips Around The Sun Since I Last Saw That Smile, But Only Joy And Thankfulness That On A Tiny World In The Vastness, For A Couple Of Moments In The Immensity Of Time, We Were One.

This Planet Seems To Be In Such Sorry Shape. And I Can't Ever Think About The Rest Of The Universe Without Coming Back Home And Thinking What The Implications For Life Here Would Be If We Were To Really Have Some Definitive Proof Of Extraterrestrial Life.

As A Species, We Tend To Lie Quite A Bit - To Ourselves And To Each Other. It's A Primate Thing. So, A Reason To Go Into A Career In Science And Technology, Or To Learn More About These Subjects, Is To Become A More Powerful Person.

People Think That If You Are A Scientist You Have To Give Up That Joy Of Discovery, That Passion, That Sense Of The Great Romance Of Life. I Say Thats Completely Opposite Of The Truth.