Introduction

Summary

Science works in trajectories. Whether we look from an individual, institutional, or international perspective, we focus our efforts on certain scientific pursuits and omit others. In an ideal world, of course, our efforts would be omnific in nature, pursuing every conceivable scientific trajectory to understand the world with near-perfect precision. At some point, however, we are forced to make a choice to pursue path A or path B – limited by resources, attention, and time. Frustratingly, knowing which path is likely to be most fruitful is often highly unpredictable. On the bright side, this also makes the discovery of new knowledge exciting.