atyy said:
What happened with Michael Turner (who is he)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Turner_(cosmologist)
Here's the whole humiliating story- for what it's worth, he probably has no recollection of this.
There was a series on public television titled (I think) "The Early Universe" that came out when I was 14 or 15, Michael was one of the talking heads on the show. Watching it, I immediately lost interest in everything non-physics: from that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for a career.
Now fast-forward 20 years, I'm at a public lecture given by Steve Weinberg. After his talk, there was a wine-and-cheese social event that I wandered into (for the free wine), and I'm looking around the room and who do I see? Michael Turner. I start gushing to my friends about how I saw this show when I was a kid, he was on it, blah blah blah. So they convince to go and tell him how much the show meant to me. I should mention that none of us were inebriated at all- I went though this stone sober.
I take a deep breath, tell myself he may enjoy hearing how he made a difference in some kid's life, and start walking. I introduce myself, tell him how that PBS show made me interested in physics, and I just wanted to personally thank him for inspiring me.
He looks right at me, very serious. He says: "I'm sorry I got you interested in physics".
Then this giant hole in the Earth opened up and I fell in.
True story. I've since convinced myself that his comment was meant to be a light-hearted joke.
