In 1772, Joseph Priestley discovered nitrous oxide. For seventy-two years, surgeons used it at parties while patients screamed through amputations. Then in 1844, someone finally thought to use it for pain relief.

Contrast this with insulin. In 1921, Banting and Best isolated it in a Toronto laboratory. By January 1922, doctors were walking into wards of comatose diabetic children and injecting them. One by one, patients woke up. Parents watched their doomed children stand and walk out of the hospital. Lab to bedside: less than a year.

Same pattern—a gap between what's possible and what exists—radically different responses. The difference wasn't the technology. It was recognising the overhang and acting on it.

This site is my attempt to figure out what that means. I write about domains where technology has outpaced deployment—where the tools exist but implementation lags, where someone paying attention might actually move the needle. I call these Avenues of Investigation: reconnaissance before commitment.

I'm not claiming expertise in the domains I explore. I'm documenting the research process, sharing what I find, and inviting correction. The claim is modest: looking is now cheaper, so more people should look. Here's how I think about it.