One of my favorite memories from childhood was working jigsaw puzzles with my Mom on Sunday afternoons. I still love doing jigsaw puzzles. That may seem a bit disconnected from what I do as a space research scientist, but it's not. Having a liking for piecing things together is a key element of being a scientist. As a Research Professor I am constantly working on "puzzles" for which I don't have a picture on the box to guide me and I likely don't have all the pieces. So, I do a lot of reading and chatting with other scientists to gather up the pieces, and sometime make new pieces from space data or observations, to solve the puzzle. When I take some time off on Sunday afternoons, I find it very relaxing to work a puzzle where I already know something about how the puzzle should look. I recommend starting with easy-to-work puzzles and building up to 3-D puzzles....lots of fun.
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