Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen illustrated the power of curiosity with the story of Eric Kandel, an NYU researcher who set out to discover the chemical basis of human memory. When Kandel decided to study the California sea slug — an animal with a brain far simpler than a cat's — his colleagues ridiculed him and his collaborator abandoned him. But Kandel persisted, going abroad to learn about sea slugs, and in 2000 won the Nobel Prize for deciphering the chemistry of human memory through his sea slug research. Yellen used this story to show that curiosity, combined with persistence, can overcome even professional ridicule and isolation. She urged graduates to tend the 'fires of curiosity' as a lifelong practice.