鈥淎ccept nothing at face value and get in the habit of thinking unconventionally. Work hard, work smart and, with a bit of luck, serendipity will play its part.鈥�
Australian Nobel prizewinning scientist Peter Doherty in his new book The Beginner鈥檚 Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize (Reuters, 10 October)
鈥淭he cookie jar is wide open and the bad kids are robbing it.鈥�
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Robert Wintner, owner of Snorkel Bob鈥檚 dive shop in Hawaii, on the aquarium collectors who loot local reefs (The Washington Post, 10 October)
鈥淭he elevation of Mount Everest鈥檚 summit is 8844.43 metres, with a precision of 10.21 metres.鈥�
Chen Bangzhu, director-general of the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, confirming that the world鈥檚 highest mountain is 3.7 metres lower than previously thought (The Times of India, 9 October)
鈥淎ll kinds of mathematical games are a good thing.鈥�
Michael Atiyah, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on why the Sudoku craze could spur an interest in mathematics among young people (The Daily Telegraph, London, 10 October)
鈥淭he Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the Earth.鈥�
Ecologist Dan Nepstadt, from the Woods Hole Research Institute, on why we should care that the world鈥檚 biggest rainforest is suffering its worst drought for 40 years (Reuters, 10 October)
鈥淚f a man ends his life saying he wants to donate his organs, we have no ethical problem fulfilling his request.鈥�
A doctor at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, after a man walked in, committed suicide, and left a note donating his organs for transplant (AFP, 10 October)