“Risks, I like to say, always pay off. You learn what to do or what not to do.” Jonas Salk

As I was reflecting on the state of science in the modern world, I was called to remember these words. Bearing in mind that Salk went directly against the conventional wisdom of the age in order to produce his great achievement, I am prompted to ask what might inspire him. Such resilience and determination; one might question how he managed to do what everybody around him had told him was impossible and even wrong. Perhaps it is an example of how only unreasonable people are the only ones who change the world…
Really, he wasn’t that creative. He saw something that was working in one domain and simply applied it by analogy to another domain. What distinguishes him to me was that he saw possibility where others didn’t, and he had the tenacity to make that vision real.

Let us be grateful that most kids today don’t even know what polio is…

Daniel Smith