Science: It's Awesome

I'll admit - freely - I'm a nerd. A dyed-in-the-wool nerd. Not just a geek into gadgets and cool toys, but a true nerd. I love information of all kinds, in all fields. I want to know EVERYTHING. Now, in my day-job life that is focused on one particular area of social science research, but the truth is that if I'd had the math chops, I probably would have been a physicist.

Why didn't I have the math chops? Because, despite my parents' best efforts, I got the message that math is for boys drummed into me. It wasn't until I hit Honors Physics (and then AP Physics) with one extremely awesome teacher - Richard Taylor (no, not the Nobel prize-winner one - this one. The one who had us doing physics labs at Six Flags and creating holograms and making a Lego pirate ship homecoming door that rocked like freaking Billy Idol), that I found out how incredibly fascinating science can be. And by then, it was too late for me to really get the math I needed. So I ended up, instead, with a lay-person passion for physics. I love science in general, and you're more likely to find me reading Stephen Hawking or Kary Mullis for non-fiction than you are the latest political biography. Which considering that the day job is political science and government should tell you something.

All of this to get to this. These young ladies didn't get the same message I got. They conceived a passion for science and went for it. Good for them.These young ladies are AMAZING.

I want my daughter to have the same kind of passion for discovery - in fact, I want all kids to have that kind of passion for discovery. I just happen to think physics is phun.

--Elise