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About 340 million years ago, a diminutive vertebrate did something unprecedented: she laid her eggs on dry land. Today, not having to rely on the water to produce offspring may not seem like such a big deal – mammals carry their embryos to term and birds and other reptiles lay their eggs on land – but before organisms evolved the amniote egg, four-legged life was water-bound. Laying eggs on terra firma has allowed reptiles and mammals to thrive in new environments across the world.

Imagine the sample you want to study consists of dried blood on filter paper stored for more than a year at room temperature in Senegal. Keep in mind that what you’re looking for – DNA of the one-celled parasite that causes malaria – typically amounts to 1 percent of the genetic material you have in hand, outnumbered by human DNA that makes up the other 99 percent of that blood spot.

Steven E. Hyman is intent on reinventing himself in a place that welcomes creativity.

Former provost of Harvard University and before that, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Harvard University professor of stem cell and regenerative biology began a one-year sabbatical at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ in July. He is a at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research within the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Psychiatric Disease Program.