“It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them,” Oppenheimer said. Long ago, humankind ate fruit from the tree of knowledge, then began to scale the branches of scientific and technological achievement. It’s those of us who go where the action is who move humanity forward—and who might bring about its demise. Although some might prefer to live ignorantly in an eternal paradise, we are irresistibly drawn toward the path of risk—and reward.
