<p>What are some of your favorite anecdotes? (research related, scientist related, etc).</p>
<p>One of my favorite anecdotes is with Edward O. Wilson when he first encountered W.D. Hamilton’s paper. He initially threw Hamilton’s paper in the wastebin, worked for a while, and then picked it up out of the wastebin, finally realizing the great original insight of W.D. Hamilton. It’s apocryphal, but it illustrates the importance of just keeping a repository for things that seem irrelevant for one time. Most of the irrelevant things will stay irrelevant, but a few of them could later turn out to be of importance.</p>