“Who would have thunk it? No one could have known that path — and there are just countless other examples of that…” ~ Anthony Zador
The title caught my eye, of course: How to Communicate the Value of Curiosity-Driven Research.
The next line sealed the deal: “The burden of proof is on us – researchers – to explain why what we do is valuable to society,” wrote Anthony Zador MD, PhD, in a March 2025 opinion piece for The Transmitter.
I fired off an email: “Let me be a dissemination vector! Let’s talk about curiosity-driven research and it’s value to you, me and the world!”
Research is under attack and I’m pushing back. Don’t get furious, the saying goes, get curious.
Tony and I explore the charms of curiosity as a research motivator, what distinguishes curiosity-driven research from all the rest, federal investments in science — recent disruptions thereto and the gutting of American research, the “curse of knowledge”, showcasing practical applications, debate in the lab, and what’s to love about Gila monster venom and Yellowstone’s thermal pools.
“What drives me — and, if we’re going to be honest, a lot of scientists — is just that feeling, that excitement when you figure out something that no one has known before,…when you make sense of the world.”
Listen to Choose to Be Curious #283: In Praise of (Curiosity-Driven) Research, with Anthony Zador
Anthony Zador is the Alle Davis Harris Professor of Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He works to understand the neural circuits underlying sensorimotor decision-making. Check out Tony’s work at Zador Lab.
Read The Transmitter opinion piece that brought me to Tony: How to communicate the value of curiosity-driven research.
Three cheers for The Golden Goose Award, which recognizes the tremendous human and economic benefits of federally funded research by highlighting examples of seemingly obscure studies that have led to major breakthroughs and resulted in significant societal impact. Check out the video of the 2024 winners.
Feeling exploratory? Check out these C2BC Classics: How to Be a Color Wizard, with Jason Logan; Curiosity Is Taking Neuroscience to New Frontiers, with Jacqueline Gottlieb; Curiosity Promotes Biodiversity, with Caroline Sommer-Trembo, and Curiosity & Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, with Saul Perlmutter.
Theme music by Sean Balick; “Waterbourne” by Algea Fields, via Blue Dot Sessions.
You can subscribe to Choose to Be Curious on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
