I want to share a story about how a new idea can originate in a chance hallway conversation. The story is about ecological niches. When you think about a niche, you might imagine something like you see here in the city of Samarkand: the Mirza-Uluk-Bek in the Registan (one of the first color photographs). The…

You might wonder what we scientists are spending your tax money on, and how our work makes a difference. Federal grants from the National Science Foundation specifically require that we, the grant-holders, justify the value of the work in this way. We are evaluated not only on the intellectual merit of our work, but also…

So much changes with a little water. On a recent trip to Death Valley, a fragment of Eliot’s The Waste Land came to mind: Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road The road winding above among the mountains Which are mountains of rock without water If there…

Someone once asked me if my research collaborations abroad were a worthwhile use of time and money. I had just explained a project, which was effectively desk work – the statistical analysis of a large dataset. Why use public money to fly all the way to Denmark and upend a life to do a project…