I have always loved those visual puzzles that ask which of the following pictures are identical, and then one is forced to look for minute differences. We all look at so much and sometimes see so little.

I was heartened this past week when the Nobel Prize for chemistry went to an Israeli scientist who discovered quasicrystals, atoms packed together in a non-repeating pattern. I understand next to nothing of the science involved but I am intrigued by the fact that some of the greatest minds in his field told Dr. Dan Schechtman that what he had discovered in 1982 could not be true.

Gradually, they repeated his experiments and came to realize he was right. As a result, the definition of crystal has been re-written in the textbooks and a new door has opened in chemistry.

I love what this winner has said to all of us, whether or not we comprehend the complexity of this new field. In part, he said, "A good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he reads in the textbooks." He could say this after it had taken him almost 30 years to convince his fellow scientists that what had appeared under his microscope was indeed there.

In a soundbite world, so few of us are humble listeners. We don't have time. Most of us are manufacturing answers before our opponent has even finished his explanation. We make little effort to see beyond what we "know" is true. Dr. Dan Schechtman's experience gives us new meaning to listening before pronouncing judgment. He could wait because he was confident the truth would emerge after the seeming impossibility of a new concept had had time.

I admire his patience with the truth. He has taught me a lesson.