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by stevenwoo 3111 days ago
The recent lichen genetic revelation that rewrote textbook definitions is similar, kinda magical coincidences in all the things that had to fall into place (or survivorship bias?/good writer telling story).

If you are not familiar with it - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-gu...

2 comments

> Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. “They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts,” says Spribille. “That was the bottleneck of my life.”

This marks a significant point in America's status as an educational and scientific power in the world.

That story was so much more exciting than it deserved to be. What a great writer.