Doing science is a lot like climbing a mountain. You start off in the lowlands with the things everybody knows. As you climb your particular peak, you gain more and more knowledge about whatever your field of study is.

Getting close to the top is difficult because, most of the time, to reach that point you need to absorb what is already known in any area. That’s usually a ton of information. But any journey to the unknown must begin with the known, by standing on the shoulders of others. Know...