In high school Anna Ho became so fascinated with neuroscience that she wrote to neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, asking whether he needed an intern. A representative for Sacks politely declined, she recalls, but encouraged her to pursue her passions. She did, and it led her on a transformative journey into space science. Ho is now an assistant professor at Cornell University working on astronomical transients—brief, often violent events that flare into view and then vanish on timescales of..