Scientific progress depends on a basic human impulse to discover. The desire to explore and collect, however, can sometimes go too far. In The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks, the latest story from The Atavist, writer Joe Kloc examines one NASA investigator’s manic lifelong pursuit of lost and stolen moon rocks. In 2010’s Kingdom Under Glass, recently out in paperback, author Jay Kirk unspools the tale of history’s greatest taxidermist and his epic quest to fill museums with every animal on earth. In her articles for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Harmon explores how science and technology shape our lives.

Join us for a conversation about the line between passion and compulsion, and what separates the curious scientific collector from the insatiable obsessive, moderated by former Scientific American editor in chief John Rennie.

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FEATURING

JAY KIRK

Author, Kingdom Under Glass
Work has appeared in Harper’s, GQ, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications

JOE KLOC

Author, The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks
Former contributing editor at Seed magazine and researcher at Wired
Writing and illustrations have appeared in Mother Jones, Scientific American, and The Rumpus

AMY HARMON

National correspondent, The New York Times
Work has appeared in Best American Science Writing
Winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for her series “The DNA Age”

JOHN RENNIE

Award-winning science writer, editor, and lecturer
Served as editor in chief of Scientific American for 15 years