what first sparked your interest in science?

[Commie_Pinko]

Well, I am not a scientist or even a Science Major, but I first got interested in Science when I was studying at University in my History curriculum. My frist Enlightenment exposure really made Science interesting.

[MetaFrizzics]

The power of radio, to reach round the world.

[FreeThinker]

Richard Dawkin's The Blind Watchmaker. I always had an interest in the world around us and I always wondered how things came to be, why and how they work. But Dawkins book (especially the chapter on bats) really opened up my eyes to the beautiful word of science. Coincidently, I have since read all his books and they turned an interest to an obsesion!

[Keki516]

I knew I was destined for science when I wanted to be a marine biologist rather than a mermaid after watching the Little Mermaid. Whales became my favorite animals, and I remember going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium when I was six or seven and getting the Whales ZooBook. I kept that until I was probably 15. The mystery of the ocean has always interested me, especially since my family is full of beach bums.

I have had really excellent science teachers since 8th grade (excluding my physics teacher). In 8th grade, memorizing facts about rocks was actually fun. In 9th grade we did group projects, and I ended up in the Light and Sight group. Luckily I had already read that chapter (I usually read most of my science textbooks before the first quarter) and led the group. I learned more about eyesight and wanted to be an Opthalmologist until 10th grade. There, I discovered biology. DNA was particularly interesting, although I loved everything. At the end of the year we dissected a fetal pig and it was a ton of fun. In 11th grade I had a fantastic Chemistry teacher and loved that class, especially organic compounds. The next semester in English class I continued my love affair with DNA and wrote my term paper on it. The first semester this year I was really disappointed with physics, she didnt really teach. I fingerpainted, slept, or played uno in that class. I did read chapter 15 on the theory of special relativity during summer, though. The first day I asked her if we would cover it, and she said it wasn't likely.

All is well though, I am in Biology AP with an awesome teacher! I am so stoked to do the "Dirty Dozen" and learn as much as possible.

[scientistsahai]

i've always pretty much assumed i'd be a scientist. I don't ever recall finding science' date=' i think i was born with it:-p

 

when i was 7 or so they asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. I said scientist and i've stayed with that.[/quote']

 

ditto here!! I was introduced to science when I was bit older about 11-12 yrs. The unknown areas of science and my will to contribute to it has effectively guided me to burn myself for science. The unending desires of knowing to what is unknown and explore to reason it out has been the unending motivation.

 

Now I know I was made for science and will even die contributing to science and its development. I was introduced to chemistry and it just pulled me in. The next major blow when the unexplored biology struck me in the face and was attracted to the molecular biology and bioinformatics challenges. Since then I have tried to build up my knowledge on scince and have just realised that this one life is still insufficient to be aware of only one field of science.

 

I may not be another Einstein or Heisenberg but I will prove my scientific worth one day !!

[Airmid]

How nice to read all these stories about how science gets a hold on people!

 

I've had a love-hate relationship with biology all my life. My parents were heavily into nature studies, my mother "doing" plants and my father birds. How I disliked being dragged along on walks, especially because we had to stand still ever so often when my mother spotted a rare plant or when my father heard an unusual birdsong! But then, at the age of 15 or so, my best friend joined a nature club, and of course I had to join too, since that's the thing best friends do. I got quite hooked on nature, and became worse than my parents when it came to walks *grins*.

Naturally I chose biology when I went to university. I specialized in microbial ecology, got my degree, and couldn't find a job. Darn.

But then I was re-schooled as a programmer and discovered my new love: computers. I kept telling myself how stupid I had been to choose biology when I could have studied math or computer sciences! I worked happily in IT for 15 years and forgot that biology existed.

But biology wouldn't leave me alone. It all started again when I saw a picture of Europa (the planet) and wondered about the possibility of life there. My job suddenly became less satifying too, and I decided to take a sabbatical. Inspired by a documentary I watched about hypothetical life, I wondered if I would be able to come up with something that would work on Europa. So here I am, relearning it all and discovering so many new things! It's amazing what progress has been made in just 15 years!

Yep, biology has me firmly in its grip once again.

 

Airmid.

[KAT22]

Well, I was inspired by the Columbia Crash. I'm only 14 but i hope I can give somthing to the aerospace industry.

[starbug1]

It had to be the day I saw jurassic park. Wow. Dinosaurs are the coolest.

[computerages]

When I was 5 or 6 I used to operate my electronic cars and other toys. During that time, I wanted to be an engineer or something like that. However, I wasn't much interested in math and/or sciences and even education. I hated my school and I always got straight Cs.

 

When I got into high school, math seemed pretty easy to me as it was "below grade level class". I got straight A+s for math and I started to develop my interest in it. For science class I had "below grade level" physics. Basically, I didn't learn anything out of that class but I still got A+ for it as it didn't require any physics knowledge but simple algebra and geometry. For the next year science class, I decided to take actual high school physics but my grade advisor didn't let me take it as Biology was a required course to take any other sci. class. So, I got stuck with it. For the first semester I failed to pass the class. I used to believe that there's no way I can ever pass my bio class. However, fortunately, I got a good teacher for the next semester and she made me realized that bio can be as easy math if I just pay attention in the class, do my homework, and organize myself. And she was actually right, I got A+. For this year, I am taking physics honor course and AP Physics C as an independent learning.

 

Also, computer technology also has a great deal to do with my science career. While I was a freshman at my high school, I learned to design websites and learned several programming languages. My math skills really played a great role in my learning experience. And I realized the stuff that I ignored was "understandable”, it was my stupidity that I just couldn't figure out.

[hogeb]

My father took me into the field while he mapped parts of Kentucky and New Mexico for the USGS. Climbing rock faces to reach opal, chasing road runners, trying to figure out how my dad could know what rocks lied below our feet by looking at what was exposed on the surface. He would let me help color the maps some times. I think for most scientests, some informal science experience is at the foundation of our interest.

[silkworm]

For me it was the groupies. Every time I get out of linear algebra or instrumental chemistry I just take my pick out of the line and take her home with me. I love being a scientist.

[RyanJ]

Fireworks for me, all those colours and the facination with how it happens and then it went from there!

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[EverCurious]

The idea of being on the brink of discovery. And if not that, the hot nerd babes.

 

 

Drinks all around!

[gagsrcool]

Hi,

 

I was given a book at 12 on jet propulsion and then it started. I discovered ecstacy in science and it really amazed me. Now, I am 13 and am more intersted in high level physics (EPR, Quantum, TOE, GUT relativity etc.)...

 

gagsrcool

[bluesteel]

A BBC TV Horizon Program in 1981 called 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out', when I came across Richard Feynman for the first time and his infectious ability to promote the wonders of science. Carl Sagans and his series 'Cosmos' kept the momentum going, then just recently, Eric Drexlers thought provoking book/paper 'Engines of Creation' rekindled my interest through the concept and potential of molecular Nanotechnology.

 

Julian

[sunspot]

For me, as a child science and math came naturally and easy. As an adolescent, I saw science as a way to find truth. Most of the subjective disciplines seem to come down to opinion, politics and the biggest stick. With science and math, I saw areas of knowledge where truth becomes reproduceable and reliable. Something is this or that, giving everyone a reliable set of ideas and data by which one can logically look at reality.

 

This was a pipe dream, because although science tries to do this, once one gets out of school and goes in the real world, there is human subjectivity and politics throughout science. When one looks into theoretically science there are often as many opinions as there are religions. I chose applied science, because the bottom line become one's ability to make something tangible instead of speculative. But even tangible applied science is often subject to the laws of politics. Although politics has become a big part of science, it has no logical place in science. Politics taints the logical purity of science with the irrational nature of subjectivity.

[the tree]

You sound like a Vulcan.

[Daecon]

We were all doing a project on Light in Primary school. (I think the American equivilent would be "elementary"?)

 

Anyway, I was doing a project on Light for class and I found it really easy, because it was like, all methodic and regular and logical and such. Unlike the previous project which was Ancient Greek Mythology, which was a lot of learning about stuff and trying to rememeber small details, people and places and situations, etc.

 

The Light project was pretty much all there waiting to be written down without much work needed - there were only a few things you had to remember, the rest just could be worked out and came naturally from those couple of facts.

 

So yeah, while I was about 8 or 9 I decided that the Science subjects were best to work with as you only needed to know a small amount of facts and could just use them to work out pretty much anything compicated, whereas everything else - you needed to know all the complicated facts and remember them.

 

[Bluenoise]

I was born interested in science.

[Cloud]

I think it was nature - (animals - brids, mammals etc.) I used to watch a lot of nature documentaries.

 

Then I got into computers in 95 and everything changed. I wish I hadn't been introduced to the common computer. Because then I would be out lasooing cattle rather than being stuck in a basement deprived of light trying to figure out how pointers work.

_________________________________________________________________

Some life eh.?

[pHoToN_gUrL]

books...my mom always bought me lots of books when i was small, n that's how i got interested in science

[intothevoidx]

I used to like dinosaurs alot....Then it moved to just animals in general and then I started keeping alot of reptiles and reading about them. Then I started buying veterinary books which were quite interesting and discovered all that medical jargon and now I like medicine....

[nova31589]

i got into science by watching CSI and other forensic science programs when i was about 13 and when i actually started thinking about it i was good at science!!! and found it easy to understand what the teachers were on about and never studied for a test unless it was helping a friend out so basically im just a natural science geek!!!

[Helix]

I've always liked science, but in 7th grade we did an intro to cell biology and I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[futureless]

Well I've always just found science interesting. The idea that there is an explanation for everything around us. You can just see the scientific processes going on around you everyday -respiration, the doppler effect, diffusion, magnetism, forces etc. I think its amazing. I've always been good at science and always get A's, I think its because I love it so much and plus I have had many science teachers who are passionate about science.