Most people my age who have wound up in some sort of a science-related career (and many who have not) can trace their excitement about the subject to the space programs of the late 1950s and 1960s. I’m no exception. With advance warning that you will see a scary picture of the 14-year-old me, you [...]
If someone were to ask people who have one way or another made a career out of science or technology what they read in their childhood, the chances are very good that the common thread would be science fiction. I read a lot of things when I was a kid, but my most beloved book [...]
Anyone above the age of 50 remembers where they were when Neil Armstrong took his famous one small step on the moon. It was the culmination of an age-old dream, to fly through the sky and to set foot on another world. It seemed to belong entirely to the realm of fantasy to many adults [...]
When I was six years old, I wanted to be what every other six-year-old boy wanted to be in Texas—a cowboy. When I was eleven years old, I wanted to be what every kid in America wanted to be—an astronaut. And the astronaut I most wanted to be was John Glenn. I created an “instrument [...]
