Free Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson

how to find your way. But you will learn all that on your own as you progress. Better at this point to explore with you some of the psychology of innovation. I suggest that you examine your inner thoughts in broader terms to locate the kinds of satisfaction you might obtain from a career in science. The value of this exercise in self-analysis applies equally well to professions in research, teaching, business, government, and the media.
    Psychologists have identified five components in personality, partly based on differences in genes, on which the inner lives of people are based. My impression is that research scientists are more prone to introversion as opposed to extroversion, are neutral (can go either way) to antagonism versus agreeableness, and lean strongly toward conscientiousness and openness to experience. The circumstances in their lives that bend them toward creative work vary enormously, and the events that spark their interest in particular research opportunities differ by at least as much.
    Nevertheless, I will repeat my conviction that you will become most devoted to research in science and technology through images and stories that have affected you early—particularly from childhood to the fringes of post-adolescence, say from nine or ten years of age through the teenage years into the early twenties. Further, the transformative events can be classified into a relatively small number of general images that carry maximum long-term impact. I will call them archetypes, believing they are comparable to the imprinting that makes it easier to learn languages and mathematics at a relatively early age. Archetypes, as scholars have noted, are commonly expressed by stories in myth and the creative arts. They are also powerfully manifested in the great technoscientific enterprise. It will make a difference in your own creative life if you are moved by one or more.
    T HE J OURNEY TO AN U NEXPLORED L AND. This yearning takes a variety of forms: to search for an unknown island; to climb a distant mountain and look beyond; to journey up an unexplored river; to contact a tribe rumored to live there; to discover lost worlds; to find Shangri-la; to land on another planet; to settle and start life anew in a distant country.
    In science and technology, this archetype is expressed variously in the urge to find new species in unexplored ecosystems; to map the microscopic structure of the cell; to locate unsuspected pheromones and hormones that link organisms and tissues together; to view the deepest part of Earth’s seafloor; to travel along and map the contours of the tectonic plates and canyons; to peer on through inner Earth to the core; to see the outer boundary of the universe; to discover signs of life on other planets; to listen for alien messages on the SETI telescopes; to find ancient organisms in fossils that date back to the beginning of life on Earth; and to uncover the remains of our prehuman ancestors and thereby disclose at long last where we came from and what we are.
    S EARCH FOR THE G RAIL. The grail exists in many forms: the powerful formula (or talisman) known to the ancients but lost or kept secret; the Golden Fleece; the symbol of the secret society; the philosopher’s stone; the path to the center of Earth; the incantation that releases evil spirits; the formula for enlightenment of mind and transcendence of soul; the hidden treasure; the key that unlocks the otherwise unassailable gate; the fountain of youth; the rite or magical potion that confers immortality.
    Proceeding to the real world and the goals of science, we find equivalents that rouse the spirit in a similar manner. The grail is the discovery of a new and powerful enzyme or hormone; breaking the genetic code; discovering the secret of the origin of life; finding evidence of the first organism that evolved; the creation of a simple organism in the laboratory; the attainment of human immortality; achieving controlled fusion power; solving the