The Law in Action

Pardis Sabeti’s general mission was to use genetics to help fight infectious disease in Africa. This is a fine mission, but by itself it does not guarantee the type of fulfilling life Pardis leads. In fact, lots of researchers share this mission, and are doing good, basic science—such as sequencing the genes of viruses—but don’t have particularly compelling careers. Pardis, by contrast, pursued this mission by launching an arresting project: using powerful computers to seek out examples of humans evolving resistance to ancient diseases. If you want evidence of the remarkability of this approach, look no farther than the catchy headlines of the many articles that have been penned on the Sabeti Lab—articles with titles such as “5 Questions for the Woman Who Tracks Our DNA Footprints” (Discover, April 2010), “Picking Up Evolution’s Beat” (Science, April 2008), and “Are We Still Evolving?” (BBC Horizon, March 2011). This is a project that compels people to spread the word. It is a purple cow.

By seeking a remarkable project, Pardis satisfied the first part of the law of remarkability. The second part requires that she launch her project in a venue that supports remarking. For Pardis, as with all scientists, this is the easy part. Peer-reviewed publication is a system built around the idea of allowing good ideas to spread. The better the idea, the better the journal it gets published in. The better the journal an article is published in, the more people who read it. And the more people who read it, the more it gets cited, discussed at conferences, and in general affects the field. If you’re a scientist with a remarkable idea, there’s little doubt about how best to spread it: publish! This is exactly what Pardis did with the Nature article that jump-started her reputation.

With Kirk French, we also see the law of remarkability in action. His general mission was to popularize modern archaeology. There are lots of non-remarkable ways to pursue this mission. For example, he could have worked on making the archaeology curriculum at Penn State more appealing to undergraduates, or published articles on the field in general-interest science magazines. But these projects would not have generated the type of attention-grabbing success that can transform your career into something compelling. Instead, Kirk decided to head straight into people’s homes and use archaeological techniques to help them uncover the significance (if any) of family treasures. This approach is remarkable—an observation reinforced by the number of speaking invitations Kirk now receives, including a recent opportunity to address the largest conference in his field about lessons learned as a popularizer. When he gave the address, the crowd overflowed the auditorium (an impressive feat for someone who had just earned his doctorate).

In this example, Kirk had a remarkable project to support his mission—now all he needed was a venue conducive to remarking. He found this remarkable venue with television. We’re a society trained to watch what’s on and then discuss what caught our attention the next day.