A premier research hub, SFI attracts top thinkers tackling some of the most difficult problems facing society today. On any given day, it is possible to find an ecologist, a chemist and an economist studying climate change, and in the next room, discover a theoretical physicist collaborating with biologists to understand why we age. It is a truly exciting, eclectic organization, and now you can gain additional insight into The Road through their eyes.

More of a think tank than an "ivory tower," SFI is committed to improving science literacy and educating the next generation of scientists so they are comfortable thinking across different disciplines and conceptualizing the world around them in new ways. One of SFI's founders and distinguished scientist, George Cowan, describes scientific inquiry as simply "perpetual curiosity." It is this curiosity that bonds researchers at SFI, regardless of background or profession.

The collection of minds that comprises SFI's distributed network is diverse and the problem-solving techniques multifaceted. The founding institution of what is now known as "Complexity Science," SFI has become a world leader in multidisciplinary research, whose impact on the physical, biological and social sciences is profound and transformative.

Learn more at SantaFe.edu.

Read an excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's The Road.