What Science Personalities Inspired You as a Kid?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around personal inspirations in science during childhood, exploring various figures, shows, and experiences that sparked interest in scientific concepts and fields. Participants share nostalgic memories of influential personalities, educational resources, and formative experiences related to science, engineering, and medicine.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant recalls watching Julius Sumner Miller and Magnus Pike, noting their impact on their fascination with science.
  • Another mentions being inspired by reading encyclopedias and receiving a chemistry set, highlighting early interests in technical subjects.
  • A participant reflects on preferring non-fiction books about nature and astronomy over fiction during library visits in grade school.
  • One individual shares a childhood observation about the behavior of rubber balls, expressing curiosity about the physics behind it.
  • Another participant describes building a Van de Graaff generator for a science fair as a pivotal moment in their love for science.
  • A participant recounts an early explanation of Einstein's theory of special relativity by their father, which led to ambitious childhood experiments.
  • One individual discusses their experience with a female doctor during childhood, which influenced their interest in science despite not pursuing a medical career.
  • Another participant mentions spending significant time in libraries and engaging with various science-related shows, including Bill Nye the Science Guy.
  • One participant expresses gratitude towards their father for fostering curiosity and understanding of mechanical concepts through discussions at the dinner table.
  • A participant reflects on their extensive reading habits in libraries and the influence of a book on evolution given by their grandmother.
  • One individual shares that they had no specific science inspirations but ended up enjoying chemistry in university, leading to a career in medical science.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants share a variety of personal experiences and inspirations without reaching a consensus on specific figures or shows that inspired them. Multiple competing views and individual stories remain present throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about specific shows or figures from their childhood, indicating a reliance on memory that may not capture all details accurately. The discussion reflects diverse backgrounds and experiences, with no single narrative dominating the conversation.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals reflecting on their own inspirations in science, educators seeking to understand the impact of early influences on students, or anyone interested in the personal narratives that shape scientific curiosity.

glondor
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I spent some time at Stumbleupon and came across this old video of Julius Sumner Miller.
This brought me back to thinking about others of science who facinated me in my youth. I remember Magnus Pike, although I do not remember the show he was on. It was british.I remember Magnus became a bit of a celebrity in a music video called "She blinded me with science". There was another BBC show that had 2 guys on it, I remember the theme music and their faces but I cannot remember the show. It was way cool as they would take stuff apart and show how things worked and explain all the principles behind it. I remember they speeded up a l.e.d. quarts watch by baking it in the oven! Wish I could remember the shows name!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=oc2w93exel

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

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



http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2843663067318415478&q=science&total=165259&start=40&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

I guess nowdays we have the mythbusters and How it's made. Really liked those oldies tho. Any one special you remember who fired your interest in science??
 
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I used to watch Julius Sumner Miller with my dad.

CBS used to have a science program, 21st Century IIRC.


Otherwise I got my inspiration from ready the Columbia Encyclopedia and Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia (both Christmas presents). Also my dad took be to Brown's Bookstore in Houston, which was a great store for technical books and engineering supplies. I used to by texts on Mathematics and Physics starting in junior high school.

I also received a Chemistry set and 100-in-1 Electronics set.
 
Everything else seemed bland. When my class in grade school would take its weekly trip to the library, the kids would pick books like Goosebumps or other novels, I'd take a non-fiction book about spiders, or wolves, or planets, etc.

My mom would buy me books on astronomy, because I was always interested. Not so much on the experimental part, though. I got (and still have) a microscope, but it wasn't powerful enough for anything cool. Same with a telescope that I sadly had to leave in Poland because it was too big to transport with all my other stuff.

Just knowing how stuff works and making things was always more interesting to me than anything else. Before I knew it was called science or engineering.
 
When I was a kid, we had these little rubber balls to play with. We got them from vending machines back then, and they were just a little bit smaller than ping pong balls. I noticed that on the first bounce, they always bounced up a little higher than half the height they were dropped from. I wondered what rule could be used to calculate the height of the first bounce. I still don't know.
 
Elasticity of the collision between the ground and the ball?
 
My original inspiration


Been meaning to make one of those...

Building a Van de Graaff generator for a ninth grade science fair is what cinched my love of science. And I still have the physics book that I first pulled from Dad's bookshelf - Electricity [and] Magnetism by Sears, (c) 1951.
 
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My science inspirations as a kid...
When I was 6 my dad explained Einstein's theory of special relativity and I immediately set off on making plans to prove or disprove the twins aging experiment (you know the one, don't make me explain) using grasshoppers and a vacuum tube system that would move a small life supporting capsule via electromagnets. I swear to you guys (and gals) I did this when I was 6.
 
When I was in first grade, I was very sick for a long time and had to go see many, many doctors. One of them was a woman, which wasn't very common back then.

When I got better and went back to school, I wanted to check out a book about being a doctor. The librarian gave me a book called "So You Want To Be A Nurse!"

Becoming a doctor became the forbidden fruit that moment. As I got older I found that I could never be a doctor because sick people bother me (:rolleyes: well, they do!), but I was all about science from then on.
 
lisab said:
Becoming a doctor became the forbidden fruit that moment. As I got older I found that I could never be a doctor because sick people bother me (:rolleyes: well, they do!), but I was all about science from then on.
My mom was a nurse, and she really wanted all of us (4 kids) to become doctors. My siblings all became doctors, and my brother-in-law and one sister-in-law are doctors.

I'd spent way too much time in hospitals as a kid, so I opted to study physics/nuclear engineering and became an engineer. Even then, my mom was suggesting nuclear medicine. :rolleyes:
 
  • #10
Ahhhh The library. Wow i spent hours in the library when I was a kid. I think I must have read a thousand books by the time I was 12...lol. I did also have a chemistry set and an electronics set.. I think I took everything apart I could.. much to my mom's disdain..One later show that was good was Bill Nye the science guy.Hmmm there was also beyond 2000, a kind of tech show, and there is a very good local show called The Daily Planet. Its all scitech. I wish I could remember what that old British show is, would like my kids to see some of the episodes.
 
  • #11
glondor said:
Any one special you remember who fired your interest in science??

My Dad.

When I was a kid, we used to sit for hours at the dinner table after we finished eating, and he would draw on napkins or any paper sitting around, while explaining all sorts of mechanical assemblies and concepts and such. He was mostly mechanically educated, but also did his best to explain electrical things and other scientific concepts. I still remember the time he drew a differential (the car type, not the calculus type) -- I was confused for days thinking about how that dang thing worked. Finally got it, though.

And when I was about 10 or so, he bought me one of the first "How Things Work" editions, and I would read through entries on my own, and ask for help when things got tough to understand. What a great book!

With all that learning came an appreciation for how things worked, and ever since then, when I look at something, it's like I'm looking at it with x-ray eyes. I picture how each piece works and contributes to the whole. Or, if I don't understand how it works, I'm driven to learn about it until I DO understand how it works. It just becomes a part of your being -- knowing that you can understand just about anything, if you put your curious and motivated mind to it.

Thanks Dad! o:)
 
  • #12
glondor said:
Ahhhh The library.
In junior high and high school, I'd be in the library during lunch, usually reading a book on history, philosophy, politics, and basically any subject in the humanities, otherwise I was reading a book on math, science or technology. I pretty much exhausted the high school library, so I used to go the Houston Public Library, or two university libraries. I attended a summer program at Rice University for 5 years between 7-12 grade, and I was able to check out books year round.

Back in 1996, my maternal grandmother gave me a book on evolution and animal behavior, and I may have it somewhere (or it's with my parents still), although it was pretty ragged 20 years ago. There was a nice section on prehistoric mammals and birds. My parents would by me science books until I got to the point of selecting my own books.
 
  • #13
Bill Nye the Science guy! My school had videotapes of a few episodes we got to watch in class sometimes in elementary. But honestly I had no real science inspirations as a kid, I just randomly picked chemistry as a major when I went to university because I didn't know what else to do, turned out I loved it but wanted more a medical approach. And now here I am in the medical science program and loving it. No one else in my family likes science so never got much in the way of science inspiration from them lol.
 
  • #14
I became aware in the late '50's as mankind was making the first steps into space. There was a lot of disscussion of these events in the papers and magazines I followed it all pretty closely. I can recall watching the likes of Explorerer and Echo go over on the summer nights of the early '60s. Exciting stuff for a kid.
 
  • #15
Jurassic Park was the first movie that I can remember watching as a kid, and that movie introduced me to the world of genetics and science in general, even if the movie did have its obvious flaws.
 
  • #16
Integral, what town did you grow up in? It was in Oregon right?
 
  • #17
the two slit experiment. The first time I heard about it I was hooked. If it is explained correctly it HAS to blow your mind.
 
  • #18
Most likely my inspiration was my gradfather who worked as a physician. I loved it when we met and he would explain all sorts of stuff to me, things like the shape of a water tower, difference between two and four stroke engines and the workings of the nuclear bomb. To a certain extent I think I was kind of born into it, recalling my memories of always being interested in things seeming utterly boring to others, something that has also made me feel very alienated from time to time.
 
  • #19
I was in sixth grade and we were learning about astronomy in our science class. Since then I have always been interested in astronomy/physics; special relativity, nuclear fission/fusion have increased my interest in science as I'm facinated by the two subjects.
 
  • #20
Jame said:
Most likely my inspiration was my gradfather who worked as a physician. I loved it when we met and he would explain all sorts of stuff to me, things like the shape of a water tower, difference between two and four stroke engines and the workings of the nuclear bomb. To a certain extent I think I was kind of born into it, recalling my memories of always being interested in things seeming utterly boring to others, something that has also made me feel very alienated from time to time.

I have similar childhood memories about my dad. He was an engineer, and for any question I had about how the world worked, he could answer it. He didn't water down any of his explanations, so much of what he said would be over my head. Even so, I still got so much from his "science lessons."
 
  • #21
Ok, I found a video clip of the crazy british show I loved when I was a kid. I still cannot remember the name of the show. I am hoping someone here will recognise the show from the clip.
http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=kozg6pmlgw
 
  • #22
scorpa said:
Bill Nye the Science guy! My school had videotapes of a few episodes we got to watch in class sometimes in elementary. But honestly I had no real science inspirations as a kid, I just randomly picked chemistry as a major when I went to university because I didn't know what else to do, turned out I loved it but wanted more a medical approach. And now here I am in the medical science program and loving it. No one else in my family likes science so never got much in the way of science inspiration from them lol.

:smile: Bill Nye for sure man! I think me and you are from quite a different generation then a lot of the people on this forum!
 
  • #23
Mr. Wizards World was a big inspiration. The diversity of topics with each episode kept my mind entertained and gave me neat ideas for experiments when I was bored. My father and I were also avid watcher of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious world and Marty Stouffer's Wild America. I sure miss that era.

When it wasn't television programs, it was either a Funk & Wagnalls or a World Book Encyclopedia. I especially liked the yearly reviews that were released annually. I remember a 1965 or 1968 release in particular which sparked my love of Paleontology. It covered all the periods within each era and gave detailed examples of the organisms and life that was around. That's also what got me obsessed with crinoids and trilobites.
 
  • #24
I never had any interest in science growing up. :rolleyes:

I just liked figuring out how things worked. But not 'science'. I wanted to be an Architect/interior designer.
 
  • #25
Ha, I was/ am like you Cyrus. When I was little, I tore apart so much sh..stuff. My dad was cool with it and encouraged it, but my mom isn't she thinks its just mess making.
 
  • #26
Does anyone recognise the vid? That is the one thing aout Stumble Upon I don't like. It does not link to the source in any way I can see.
 
  • #27
McGyver, Mr. Wizard, Beakman, Bill Nye
 
  • #28
Mr. Wizard! I got so upset when they changed the schedule so that I could no longer watch it before I went to school in the morning. I still remember him explaining the difference in the strength of a hollow and solid bar made out of the same amount of material amongst other things, like measuring how much your body stretches when you lie down.
 
  • #29
WTF? Bill Nye hasn't been around that long...and yet a lot of you put him as a childhood inspiration. ( I mean really, how long has he been putting out videos)
 
  • #30
I remember watching Bill Nye in Grade 5, and I am 20 now (almost 21) so he's been around for awhile.