Ornithologist Sam Snow finds his research comes at a cost, and biologist Megan Hatlen worries that she’ll never make a breakthrough in her research.

Cancer survivor Benjamin Rubenstein comes up with a creative solution to the after-effects of his treatment, and Abbas Mousa becomes a computer scientist to survive the Iraq war.

To escape his identity, Richard Cardillo joins a Catholic mission in Peru, where he becomes a community health organizer, and marine biologist Liz Neeley feels invisible to her coral conservation colleagues. 

Science journalist Eli Chen tries to combat her complicated romantic feelings with neuroscience, and Shannon Palus gets more than she expected when she takes an internship at a nuclear energy lab.