鈥淭he death was not sudden.鈥�
Japanese nursing home official Toshiro Tachibana, on the passing of the world鈥檚 oldest person, Yone Minagawa, at 114 years and 7 months (Associated Press, 15 August)
鈥淭he comparison is night and day鈥� This is a good example of how the shuttle programme has changed.鈥�
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John Logsdon, director of George Washington University鈥檚 Space Policy Institute, on NASA鈥檚 handling of damage to the Endeavour space shuttle, compared with its earlier handling of similar damage to Columbia (The New York Times, 20 August)
鈥淚 constantly get asked at cocktail parties what someone can do to protect their mental functioning. I tell them, 鈥楶ut down that glass and go for a run.'鈥�
Neurologist Scott Small of Columbia University, New York, the lead scientist on a study showing that age-related shrinking of the hippocampus can be slowed down with exercise (The New York Times, 19 August)
鈥淲e can increase rainfall by 10 per cent. But Mother Nature has to cooperate. Ten per cent of zero is zero.鈥�
Steve Johnson, director of the cloud-seeding company Atmospherics in Fresno, California. The firm is finding few clouds to seed this year (The Washington Post, 20 August)
鈥淭hose conditions are so horrendous that the only moral and ethical thing to do is to leave.鈥�
Psychologist Laurie Wagner on the decision by the American Psychological Association not to ban its members from aiding interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, the group approved a resolution reaffirming its opposition to torture (Associated Press, 20 August)