Hey, I'm Flor Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

On the podcast today, the next episode in the leap and audio series I made with the Hypothesis Fund,

today what it takes to follow your heart in science.

Do you remember people saying, like, that's a bad idea?

Yeah, absolutely. Like, what did they say? Like, that's a bad idea? Yeah, absolutely.

Like, what did they say? Like, give me a flavor of that.

That's a bad idea. It was not sugar-coded. This is a bad idea.

You're not going to get a job. But no department will hire you. There's no funding.

It's not a thing.

But it just didn't stop me.

I thought, well, I'm sorry you think that way. And you're wrong. Because I believed that if you actually put your heart into something, something that you create out of love and beauty and that you give yourself into it,

that it can be ugly.

I thought, how is that possible?

This is The Leap,

a new series about scientists who are risking their careers,

their reputations, and even their lives to make a breakthrough.

Thank you. and even their lives to make a breakthrough. My name is Betul Kachar, and I study the origins and early evolution of life on Earth.

Small questions.

As small as it can get.

Where did we come from?

How did we get here?

Why do we exist?

...