Letters to a Young Scientist

This chapter opens with a graphic displaying online political blogs.

It is important for scientists to be creative thinkers if they want to succeed. They need to be imaginative and open to daydreaming. Scientists are quite similar to poets and writers: They are storytellers who imagine things that could exist, and then they take steps to bring those imagined ideas into the light. Sometimes, creating these new ideas may lead to harsh criticism. Wilson recounts a meeting with author Michael Crichton, who is most famous for writing Jurassic Park (1990). One of Crichton’s other books, Rising Sun, received a lot of negative press. Wilson was in the same boat, as one of his books had also received criticism years earlier for its discussion of sociobiology. Wilson advised Crichton to remain steadfast: If his ideas were scientifically sound, then political discourse could not dismiss them.

Wilson and Crichton also discussed Jurassic Park and its relationship to real science. Wilson was interested in performing an experiment that involved extracting a pheromone from long-dead ants and then releasing that pheromone into a contemporary ant colony, effectively giving the ants a message from millions of years in the past. He never conducted the experiment, because despite how interesting the idea was, it was not likely to yield sufficiently useful results. In the end, although scientists and writers are alike, scientists have to focus their efforts on experiments that will yield important truths about the world.

The illustration that opens this chapter is of a fire ant.

Wilson describes what it takes for an individual to succeed as a scientist. The first and most important trait for any scientist is “an enduring passion for [their] subject will last the remainder of [their] career, and life” (80). Those who wish to make major discoveries must be prepared to pour huge amounts of effort into their work. Some young scientists might worry that they are not clever enough to be at the top of their field, but Wilson disagrees. Those with the highest IQ scores might find the more tedious parts of scientific exploration too dull to bother with, so people who are clever but not extraordinarily bright are likely to be more able to complete their work. Passion must be coupled with a good work ethic.

To be truly successful, scientists will need to be prepared to devote “forty hours a week for teaching and administration; up to ten hours for continued study in [their] specialty and related fields; and at least ten hours in research” (84). In addition to these 60-hour weeks, scientists should take no vacations besides weekends. Any time off from formal work should be spent doing research or experiments, or traveling to work in the field. Young scientists should be entrepreneurial and prepared to try new things, and they should make use of technology without becoming reliant on it. It is also very helpful for scientists to conduct casual experiments that take up relatively little time. Many of these experiments will go nowhere, but some will open the door for new discoveries. 

Wilson describes several of his own impromptu experiments and their outcomes, which varied considerably. In one, he determined that ants do not respond to magnets. In another, he tried to determine whether certain organs in ants can “shed airborne antibiotic substances” (87). His experiment failed, but later researchers discovered that his initial hypothesis was correct. He swapped the queens from two ant colonies, successfully creating mixed colonies. In a particularly notable experiment, he proved that ants communicate via pheromones, which is now considered common knowledge, but which was unproven at the time.

This chapter begins with a photograph of two high school science students, Allison Kam and Hannah Waggerman, standing over a microscope.

Wilson examines more traits that make a good scientist. Discovering potential scientists when they are young is challenging, but it is necessary to ensure that these students get the support they need to succeed. Some prep schools and even companies like Google focus on putting bright minds together so that they can bounce ideas off each other. Wilson suspects that although these schools are very valuable, many aspiring scientists will work better independently. They might be introverted, driven to work hard to solve a scientific problem, and mistrustful of authority. Good scientists may be distractible and prone to daydreaming. Though they might not be voted “most likely to succeed” (96) in high school, these individuals are perfectly suited to the world of science.

There are two photographs of Wilson collecting bugs in nets to open this chapter. The first was taken in 1942, and the second was taken in 2012.

In addition to the traits described in previous chapters, Wilson believes that scientists need to be single-minded in their passions. His own fascination with insects started in early childhood and continued unabated throughout his career. He collected ants, spiders, and butterflies as a child, deciding early on that he wanted to become an entomologist. He taught himself as much as he could about insects, even though he had little access to academic resources when he still lived in rural Alabama. Wilson implies that young scientists will be more likely to succeed if their interests remain consistent, as his did.

Chapter 9 begins with a map of the Curiosity rover’s planned route on the surface of Mars.

Science and poetry are very similar, because scientists and poets both aim to express truths. Scientists express new truths, while poets find new ways to express old truths about the world. Many people are influenced in their scientific careers by the stories, legends, and ideas that were especially meaningful to them when they were children. Wilson encourages readers to cultivate those ideas, linking them to scientific discovery. For instance, those who are compelled by the idea of a journey of discovery might enjoy discovering a new species, exploring Earth’s remotest regions, or studying early human evolution. 

On the other hand, those who are more compelled by a “search for the grail” (109) might instead want to discover how life originated, pursue human immortality, or study dark matter. Scientists who are compelled by stories of good and evil can frame their work through a moral lens, working in forensics or trying to find a cure for cancer. These motivating archetypes can help scientists experience their careers as meaningful and necessary to the world.

This chapter begins with a diagram of a protein.

Wilson is a member of the Explorers Club, an organization that celebrates humanity’s exploration of the world and the universe. Members have included polar explorers like Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, mountaineers like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and astronauts like John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin. Wilson joined when the club opened its doors to scientists, framing them as explorers of the world in their own right. 

The club conducted an event called a “bioblitz” where scientists and volunteers cataloged every species in Central Park over the course of 24 hours. Even in such a dense urban area, they were delighted to learn that the park hosts at least 836 species.

Biology provides opportunities for extraordinary exploration. A tree stump in a forest is home to many living things, including a vast number of species of bacteria that scientists have not even cataloged yet. Bacterial biodiversity is dizzying: Wilson notes that “in a gram of detritus on the surface or soil beneath the stump’s base exist a billion bacteria” (120) belonging to five or six thousand species, according to current estimates. Those who choose to study biology—and especially biodiversity—have the opportunity to be at the forefront of scientific exploration in the modern day.