Contributors

“The greatest thing about science is being the first to know something,” says Fred Grinnell, a cell biologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.“That’s such an incredible high.” Grinnell, who researches wound repair and tissue engineering, also enjoys pondering the philosophy of science. In an essay Grinnell writes about the dubious nature of scientific knowledge, one of the topics explored in his book Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic. “There’s a certain joy that comes from trying to think about the meaning of things,” he adds. Grinnell grew up in Philadelphia where he spent his teenage years wandering the halls of The Franklin Institute and watching the Philadelphia-based variety show, American Bandstand. “We all had the dream that we’d one day be on Bandstand,” he says. Although he never made it, he proudly admits to having 12 years of Argentine tango dancing ...