Things that people learn purely out of curiosity can have a revolutionary effect on human affairs.

But more than 15 sections in Chapter 8 of the report-the key chapter setting out the scientific evidence for and against a human influence over the climate-were changed or deleted after the scientist charged with examining this question had accepted the supposedly final text.

Individual curiosity, often working without practical ends in mind, has always been a driving force for innovation.

Essentially all civilizations that rose to the level of possessing an urban culture had need for two forms of science-related technology, namely, mathematics for land measurements and commerce and astronomy for time-keeping in agriculture and aspects of religious rituals.

It is one thing to impose drastic measures and harsh economic penalties when an environmental problem is clear-cut and severe...