Richard Pouyat

Northern Research Station

Photo of Dr. Richard Pouyat kneeling and holding mulch in his hands.

For me, science is most exciting when I have made a new discovery! If you practice science long enough, you too will make a discovery. One of my first scientific discoveries was when I found an invasive species of earthworm living in a forested park in New York City—a worm species from Asia! How did it get there? Why was this worm species not noticed before? Was it changing the soil? The species was probably brought to the United States with exotic plants and has had a dramatic effect on nutrient cycling.

Nobel-prize winner and Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said, “Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.” Using his definition, every discovery you make is your own!

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