The Girl Who Turned to Bone
For me, one of the most important things to take away from this story is the possible link to osteoporosis (& a cure for it, although not directly stated). Looking into a disease that affects almost no one might help find a cure for a different one that affects one in ten people.<p>This is why we must also fund the study of "pure science" - of studying things purely for the sake of learning, with no idea ahead of time if we will learn anything "of value" or not.<p>Because there is so much that we don't understand yet, that it is impossible to study the "why" of anything that exists in the world without stumbling across something of more practical value.