In posing and seeking answers to these questions, scientists are often driven by distinct goals. Some scientists are most compelled by utilitarian values.

We believe so heartily that curiosity is crucial to societal achievement, moreover, that we have spent little energy in cultivating its attunement with societal generosity.

We close, then, with a rumination on cracks and their role in crafting a more equitable world for all curious minds.

Natural to every human heart, curiosity extends to anything and everything that is “connected” to an individual inquirer’s well-being.

In some sense, scientific inquiry is thus an effort to become inhuman. Or perhaps nonhuman. Or perhaps superhuman.

“intimacy gives us a different way of seeing.”

Walking the edge between humanity and nature, scientific curiosity guides the river of inquiry while also pushing against the banks to expect the unexpected.

It is arguably true that Ole Worm’s desire to know led him to walk toward the artifact and subsequently led him to pick up the artifact to bring it back to his cabinet of curiosities. It is also true that the desire to know is said to arise in the mind. But can the mind be the cause of the desire to know?

“Many of the queries that inspire the most persistent searches for answers and the greatest distress when answers are not forthcoming are of no manifest practical value or urgency.”