The Red Shoe Dilemma

Abstract

For as long as I can remember, when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered “an explorer and a writer.” Explorer of what? As a child, I didn’t know: undersea cities, African jungle pyramids, unmapped tropical islands, polar caves. “Whatever will need exploring,” I said without hesitation. Today, nearly incessantly, I explore with passion the inner workings of living cells to reveal their evolutionary history And as soon as I learn something new about bacteria or insect symbionts that helps explain the history of life on the Earth’s surface, I write about it.