Experience and observation is a part of the human condition that is discounted too much. Especially when it is in context of a scientific discovery. Far from the classic eureka moment portrayed in many pop culture references of science discovery, i would imagine most scientists rarely think at that moment they are first and possibly, only person to see what they are seeing. These are such special and unique situations, that some people would possibly die to witness it. Who knows, but  i feel if Marie Curie  knew how the exposure to the material that made her world famous but led to her premature cancer death, she would still do it all over again. Or when the explorer Percy Fawcett died in the Amazon trying to find the lost city of Z. It’s in this context i listen to these seemingly odd stories from Radiolab’s episode YELLOW FLUFF AND OTHER CURIOUS ENCOUNTERS, where scientists show how becoming disgustingly close to their work is part of the natural obsession that often occurs when someone has the need to know.