What got you into science?

[Alex Mercer]

I remember reading a small physics book on light and Einstein when I was a young boy which was pretty much where it all started. Then I went to high school learnt about basics of electromagnetism and thats when I was most passionate. I read up on Nikola Tesla about his inventions such as the AC motor and fell into the trap of wanting to know more about "free energy" that Nikola Tesla may have done work on and that kind of spiritual mix of science stuff as well . Then I got psychosis and stuck on antipsychotics which make me feel like a zombie. And that's my story. What's yours

[beecee]

4 minutes ago, Alex Mercer said:

I remember reading a small physics book on light and Einstein when I was a young boy which was pretty much where it all started. Then I went to high school learnt about basics of electromagnetism and thats when I was most passionate. I read up on Nikola Tesla about his inventions such as the AC motor and fell into the trap of wanting to know more about "free energy" that Nikola Tesla may have done work on and that kind of spiritual mix of science stuff as well . Then I got psychosis and stuck on antipsychotics which make me feel like a zombie. And that's my story. What's yours

As a kid, I always loved the sci/fi movies, such as "The Day the Earth stood Still" among others. The cold war space race then had me enthralled...the sputniks, Gagarin's, Sheperd's and Glenns. I followed it relentlessly, obtaining all the news I could, culminating of course with Apollo. A fantastic TV series called "Cosmos" by Sagan, had me craving for more knowledge, then I read Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" and learnt more about the wonders of SR/GR and quantum mechanics and other physics applications with regards to light. Then I started on a now defunct science forum, which supplemented my learning greatly, more notable good reads, such as "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and Kip Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps" among many others,  and voila! here I am!!

[iNow]

54 minutes ago, Alex Mercer said:

What got you into science?

Sex. I took a sex ed class in college. Attractive professor asked for volunteers in her lab. She was researching a female equivalent to viagra. It was the first time I understood what science really meant (tho admittedly I was already predisposed to thinking critically and based on evidence thanks to my dad). 

[Alex_Krycek]

PBS programming when I was a kid.  They had shows that were entertaining and science based such as 3,2,1 Contact! and Mathnet (a spoof on Dragnet where detectives solved crimes using math).

That, and my Dad had one of the first Macintosh computers, which had science based games on it.  I remember one game in particular allowed you to pilot a space-shuttle, performing tasks such as docking and maneuvering a robotic arm.

There was also a museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I lived, called the Discovery Place.  It was a huge science museum on 3-4 levels with an endless array of exhibits in every conceivable area.  They had interactive exhibits, live demonstrations, a massive Omni-Max theater with science based programming.  We'd go there about once a month on Saturday morning and it was always fun.

[swansont]

Parents bought a Time-Life book series on science, which had a lot of neat stuff in it, and we went to the natural history museum (the State Museum) in Albany NY and the science museum in Schenectady. Also nature programs; I remember a program on Louis and Mary Leakey and Olduvai Gorge that was fascinating to me. Started my interest in paleontology.

The push toward physics was mostly my next door neighbors; the father was an electrical engineer, and his son (~5 years older than me) loved to tinker and experiment, and would include me.  

[zapatos]

I have read a lot for as long as I can remember. I once got in trouble for reading The Godfather during class in 5th grade when I was 10 years old.

Learning new things, especially extreme and strange things, was like an adrenaline rush for me. And there was nowhere better to get that kind of information than from science.

[dimreepr]

Panorama for me...

[joigus]

Two wonderful books whose titles, translated to English, read Tell me what it is, and Tell Me why. There were simple explanations of apparently magical phenomena, like will o' the wisps, based on methane from organic-matter decay. Now we know phosphine may be involved too.

Then I toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor.

Then I got into biking, and thought of becoming an engineer.

Then I did coursework on interactions for Physics course and fell in love with Physics.

I share much common ground with most users here, except @iNow. To me, sex has always been a distraction from physics. It's only helped me reckon my chances of getting laid as a consequence of talking about physics as nearly zero.

[iNow]

54 minutes ago, joigus said:

To me, sex has always been a distraction from physics

Clearly your forces and vectors are off. Too much strange and not enough charm in your quarks  

[joigus]

48 minutes ago, iNow said:

Clearly your forces and vectors are off. Too much strange and not enough charm in your quarks  

I've always been more of a top-and-bottom kind of guy. Quarkwise.