“A major part of my Ph.D. involved studying animal behavior. I investigated how algorithms and mathematical models, which describe emergent behavior in social animals, could be modified and used to solve distributed problems in technological systems. Over time, I grew a profound appreciation of social animals and how they work together. Ants, birds, bees, fish, shellfish – they all work in this decentralized way, where there’s no member of the population telling anyone what to do. All members just instinctually know what to do by interacting with the environment and their local peers. This type of collective intelligence is amazing.
“A lot of our innovation comes from understanding nature and how to reverse engineer it. That’s really what science is in my mind: the reverse engineering of nature to understand how it does what it does. I’ve always been very curious about the way the world works. It‘s mind-blowing how dynamic, efficient and resilient nature is and how much we’ve yet to understand and uncover. Something we may perceive as chaotic, complex, or counterintuitive could simply be a function of our lack of understanding.
“In just navigating our significance in the broader scheme of things, when it comes to Earth, when it comes to planets, when it comes to solar systems, galaxies, and the universe, it’s hard to wrap your head around us being here and the probability of that happening and this whole grand experience that is life. It’s like being a part of a masterful science fiction movie. Earth Day is just a time to reflect on that, to reflect on who we are as humans in relation to where we are. It’s a time to appreciate Earth and all its many mysteries and wonders.”
— Justin Rice, Deputy Manager of the ESDIS Science Systems Development Office, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Image Credit: NASA / Kathleen Gaeta
Interviewer: NASA / Roberto Molar Candanosa