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Hans Clevers has always been drawn to scientific blank canvases. “There's a human tendency to ask small questions, where you already know most of the answers, because it feels comfortable to confirm your thoughts. That's not, at least in my experience, how we make unexpected big discoveries,” says Clevers, an immunologist turned molecular geneticist turned developmental biologist. “In my lab, we push ourselves out of the comfort zone — into areas where we may not even know what questions to ask. And then we set up an experimental system, stir it up and see if anything happens.”