What makes a citizen scientist tick?  What makes a person what to venture outside their training to  tackle areas of unexplored science?  What  keeps us up late at night?  A New York Times article has some thoughts...it's called "Rapturous Research."

The author is addicted to looking things up.  Little questions gnaw at him and every answer leads to more questions.  Even the smallest facts stay interesting because they came from his own research.  Well that's a little like what we feel.  There's no need to keep asking these scientific questions, but we do so anyways.  It's the thrill of knowledge and joy of hunting for it. 

To quote the article directly:

The true challenge, as I discovered in due course, was this: how to leave most of it out? How to draw judiciously on this incredible data resource to include just enough detail to intrigue and tantalize the reader, without bringing the narrative grinding to a halt?

I ask that about every single blog post.  No wonder these take so long to write :)

- The OpenScientist