This time at Birmingham turned me into a general biologist, and ever since then I have always tried to take a biological approach to any research project that I have undertaken.

I was never very good at exams, having a poor memory and finding the examination process rather artificial, and there never seemed to be enough time to follow up things that really interested me.

I was by far the youngest of the family, and at times it was like being an only child.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

My parents were neither wealthy nor academic, but we lived comfortably and they were always extremely supportive of my academic efforts and aspirations, both at school and university.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

Scientific understanding is often beautiful, a profoundly aesthetic experience which gives pleasure not unlike the reading of a great poem.

This possibility bothered me as I thought it was not advisable to remain in one academic environment, and the long dark winters in Edinburgh could be rather dismal.

I am still a keen mountain walker and an enthusiastic glider pilot.

During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky.

After an extensive interview he arranged for my weaknesses in foreign languages to be over-looked and so I started a Biology degree at Birmingham in 1967.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

A change in bad habits leads to a change in life.

I make it a rule not to clutter my mind with simple information that I can find in a book in five minutes.

I love when I get stories of young women that have overcome things such as birth defects that they've been hated on for or even just their own body confidence stories.

I went through an awkward adolescence and had braces.

Simplicity is an enduring habit within a soul that has grown impervious to evil thoughts.

You are as happy as you think you are, but not necessarily as miserable as you imagine.

All powerful souls have kindred with each other

I think that would be ungrateful if I were upset because I'm seen as attractive or sexy. That's opened so many doors for me in my life.

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.