'When I entered the field of space physics in 1956, I recall that I fell in with the crowd believing, for example, that electric fields could not exist in the highly conducting plasma of space. It was three years later that I was shamed by S. Chandrasekhar into investigating Alfven's work objectively. My degree of shock and surprise in finding Alfven right and his critics wrong can hardly be described. I learned that a cosmic ray acceleration mechanism basically identical to the famous mechanism suggested by Fermi in 1949 had [previously] been put forth by Alfven.'

'During Alfven's visit he gave a lecture at the University of Chicago, which was attended by Enrico Fermi. As Alfven described his work, Fermi nodded his head …

'To try to write a grand cosmical drama leads necessarily to myth. To try to let knowledge substitute ignorance in increasingly larger regions of space and tim…

'I have no trouble publishing in Soviet astrophysical journals, but my work is unacceptable to the American astrophysical journals.'

Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it …

Physics has entered a remarkable era. Ideas that were once the realm of science fiction are now entering our theoretical - and maybe even experimental - grasp.…

I came into the room which was half-dark and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience, and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speec…