“The magnitude of what’s happening in China threatens to wipe out what is happening internationally.”
David Fridley, leader of the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, commenting on a report saying that China will overtake the US as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases by 2008 (San Francisco Chronicle, 5 March)
“The goal to land… men on the moon can surely be achieved in 15 years, though some unexpected difficulties could appear.”
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Huang Chunping, former head of rocket science at China’s manned space programme, on the country’s ambitions after the launch of its first lunar probe later this year (Xinhua, 6 March)
“Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we’ve never seen before.”
Carolyn Porco, imaging team leader for the Cassini spacecraft, which has produced the first-ever pictures of the planet from above and below its rings (AFP, 2 March)
“It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.”
Stephen Oppenheimer, a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford, on his work showing that the principal ancestors of today’s British and Irish populations arrived from Spain 16,000 years ago (The New York Times, 6 March)
“Science and the maintenance of science should be independent of the needs of any particular government department.”
Colin Blakemore, head of the UK Medical Research Council, after the British government cut £68 million from research funding to pay for losses elsewhere (BBC online, 5 March)
