Hi, Flora here. We have something really special on the podcast for you today. This is

a labor of love for me. It's an audio series I worked on before I came to Science Friday. I made it

with the Hypothesis Fund, a science philanthropy that enables scientists to pursue their boldest ideas.

And that's what this series is all about. Each episode is an intimate profile of a scientist who was,

or in some cases is, out on a limb. Pursuing their most daring idea, even if it's risky or unpopular,

or in the case of today's episode, gets them laughed out of a room. But here's the thing. Sometimes those bold ideas can change the world. You're the first to hear this, and I hope you enjoy it. I want to introduce you to a scientist who spent most of her career in complete obscurity. She was a biochemist at the University of Pennsylvania. I know that Penn is a very prestigious place, but I, you know,

I was considered nobody there. They thought that I am crazy. They questioned my quality as a

scientist. She never ran her own lab, no tenure track.

At one point, she was demoted.

She got one grant ever.

Listen, I was working there 24 years.

I never gave a lecture.

She held on to her job by a thread,

until one day she walked into work and found her

roly chair, her notebooks, her lab equipment, in the hallway. A lab tech was throwing the

remainder of her stuff in the garbage can. So I was just like, what's going on here? You know,

and she said that you have to talk to the chairman.

That was it.

She was being forced out.

She told her chairman he was making a huge mistake, that what she was doing in that lab would change the world someday.

I literally told the chairman, this place will be a museum.

You told him it'd be a museum.

...