I’m an introvert, and for as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed taking long hikes in big wilderness landscapes and trying to comprehend the smallest and most obscure biological entities at the level of molecular interactions. On a good day I get to do both at the same time. The more I throw myself into the minutiae of molecular biology, the more I seem to learn about biological identity, altruism, free will, purpose, and meaning. There is nothing like grappling with life at the sub-microscopic level to challenge my misconceptions and fire up my imagination. That’s what I think good science is supposed to do. Among the things I have had the pleasure of encountering in my path through science are: slime molds, African trypanosomes, RNA trans-splicing, flagellar basal bodies, behavioral plasticity in sensitive plants, and brain altering parasites of mammals. I’ve been quite lucky.