What good does it do to start a big research project? How do you get it to soar? Dr. Anna Barker has some answers about that from the past, the present and the future. She is chief strategy officer at the Ellison Institute, a think tank and research institute. Before that, she was the principal deputy director of the US National Cancer Institute and deputy director for strategic scientific initiatives there. One of her projects is The Cancer Genome Atlas, co-directed with Dr. Francis Collins. This episode will be about cancer. Cancer is upsetting, of course, but this episode might feel empowering. The podcast is also about academia, physics, information theory, big data, history and science policy. (Art: J. Jackson. Music: Michael Drake - Solstice licensed from artlist.io)