Are scientists made or born? Obviously, career scientists do need training, but why do they even bother? It certainly isn’t for the money! I can’t guess why anyone else did it, but I can explore why I became a scientist.
Fashion?
It was not as a fashion statement. Throughout my schooling, I scored 99% on the standardized tests for biology. But, ugh, wearing a lab coat? No chance! I decided I would be a ballerina. Tutus are so much prettier.
Unfortunately, my talents do not lie in dance. I spent almost every evening and weekend taking lessons or practicing with the dance company, but I never became a star.
Fascination
So, I went to college and graduate school, studying germs, which are strangely fascinating to me. Science wasn’t my career choice, but my interests led me in that direction. I eventually returned to graduate school to learn how our bodies and pharmaceutical agents fight those germs.
Skepticism
Now that I am retired, I’m writing books. The current series is loosely based on my childhood in Canada. Amazingly, as I wrote, I realized that I have always had a propensity to assess scientific claims. I’m a skeptic at heart.
For example, when I was seven, my mother told me I needed a haircut because my hair was fine. She said it would grow thicker if it were short. I remember thinking that she must be wrong. After all, how could cutting something dead cause more strands to come out of my skull?
One more example that provoked much thought. Mom said she had eyes in the back of her head. The evidence for this was that she always knew what we were doing behind her back. The evidence against this was that I couldn’t see her extra eyes. I kept trying to see between the hairs, just in case. No eyes. Nonetheless, I made sure that I only misbehaved while in another room.
But, the warning that if I pull a face too often, it’ll stick that way? I don’t want to find out, so I am counting that one as true.