When the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, many academic scientists stepped outside of the Ivory Tower to study what was an unprecedented -- and unintended -- environmental experiment. They succeeded in gathering mountains of data, learning all sorts of new things, and advancing science. But they also failed. Chemist Christopher Reddy explains how he, and other scientists, could have done better during the crisis and how government, industry and other first responders could have better cooperated with scientists.