what inspired scientists

SUDOnym

Hello

I am trying to find information about what inspired people to become scientists.
I know that there are some big events that are often mentioned such as the apollo missions. But I cannot find any information from a confirmed reliable source that states this. ie. all I have now is anecdotal information.
Also, I've heard that many scientists were inspired by popularizers like Carl Sagan. Again, the only info I have about this is anecdotal - So, is there any reliable source that has perhaps surveyed scientists and can perhaps statistically support the claim that popularizers like Sagan inspired people to become scientists?

Naty1

You might find some insights here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science

SUDOnym

hmm... as I said in my original posts, I am looking for definite information about what inspired people to become scientists. ie. what do today's scientists cite as their inspiration.
The page you linked does not provide this.

xts

One more anecdote - family tradition: my grandpa was an academic mathematician, father academic chemist, I used to be academic physicist, my daughter studies biochemistry...
If you grew up in a lab rather than in kindergarten, science seems to be a natural environment to live.

That's not only the anecdote - over 1/4 of faculty are members of academic-clan-families.

SUDOnym

thanks for your comment xts. out of curiosity, where did you get your statistic of 1/4?

xts

Of "about 1/4" - hard to count them precisely, but it seems to be between 1/4 and 1/3 ;) That's my estimation taken from people I met at Physics Dept of Warsaw University and Polish Academy of Sciences - Institute of Physics.