Free Science Fair Supplies Search! Enter Your Topic Below:

1. BECOMING A SCIENTIST

It would be hard to imagine a more exciting time than now to be choosing a future! The greatest adventures and the bravest dreams of this Age of Space are still to be realized— and you can decide to join the exploring parties. You even may lead a new adventure of your own.

There is still time to get ready. There is time to find out where you fit and to train yourself to make the most of whatever abilities you may have. There is time, too, to dis­cover that the scientific community has a good many roads leading to it and a truly magnificent variety of architecture to choose from once you get there.

Scientists often are thought of as people of incandescent genius who brood in solitary towers, and some of them do, of course. But scientists are as likely to be found in modern glass-walled buildings, where they work companionably with large numbers of people. Scientists and technicians may operate as teams in extensive series of laboratories or they may choose to work in offices, or classrooms, or in shops filled with massive equipment, or in open fields and forests, or on mountains and oceans.

As a matter of fact, a person can be some kind of a scientist, engineer or technologist in nearly any corner of the world he prefers and under whatever circumstances fit him best.

What Is a Scientist?

Because the word scientist has developed such blurred edges, it may be helpful to look at word pictures of science and scientists sketched by people who have good reason to know what a scientist is and does.

Scientists are trained specialists who have "fresh, un­orthodox, nimble and vibrating minds," according to Dr. Warren Weaver, a former officer of the Rockefeller Founda­tion.

Looking back on many years of interpreting science and scientists to the reading public, Dr. Watson Davis, director of Science Service, comments, "If one views the extensive and sympathetic play that science gets in the press, magazines, radio and TV today, it is hard to realize that not long ago the scientist to the cartoonist was a funny old man with a beard, and the way to report a scientific meeting was to pick out the big words in the program and write a funny story. Now, both the public and the press show a lively appreciation of scientists as interesting, infinitely varied human beings whose work is providing invaluable clues to the future."

Mark W. Cresap, Jr., president of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, says, "It is the scientists who now face the great frontiers; theirs is a unique world-wide fraternity dedicated to the mastery of nature, not the mastery of man; in them we find the vision and spirit and purpose which have constituted the elements of leadership in the past."

Dr. Anne Roe, noted researcher at Harvard University, has devoted some years to studying what makes a scientist. She says, "What nonscientists do not realize is that science is fun, that there are few, if any, emotional experiences so profound, so satisfying, so beautiful, as seeing a pattern where there was none before, as finding an answer to a question asked long ago, as finding a new question to ask."

Dr. Edward Teller, famous University of California phys­icist, agrees that science is fun to a scientist. "You have the fun of being thoroughly absorbed in what you are doing. And you have the fun of working for a clear-cut decision," he says.

To put it another way, it might be said that a scientist is a searcher who, more than anything else, enjoys trying to find new facts, new relationships, new ways to do things, new materials and ways to use them, new understanding of biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, space science, oceanography, weather or any other theoretical or practical field of inquiry under and including the sun.

What Makes a Student-Scientist?

Most teen-agers who want very much to become scientists are driven by an irresistible need to explore and to know. When they are asked about their plans for the future, the annual winners of the Science Talent Search for the West­inghouse Science Scholarships and Awards, conducted by Science Clubs of America, come up with fairly awe-inspiring goals. Sharing many adult researchers' sense of standing on the brink of a major breakthrough, a great many of them want to join the search for a really usable general theory that will bring together sections of knowledge about the nature of matter, atomic structure, basic mathematics and so on.

The future physicists want to look into particle and atmos­pheric physics. Many are attracted by the newest departures in biophysics, biochemistry and the uses of mathematics and electronics in biological research. Several belong to the space-happy brotherhood and want to advance man's drive toward the stars by carrying out research on rockets, trajectories, ballistics, space medicine and other problems of space exploration.

Some are alight with such ideas as finding better and cheaper ways of producing abundant power for individual and industrial use, as well as for space travel; some want to ferret out the last secrets of cancer and the chemical processes of life. Others want to discover brand-new materials, new mathematics theorems, or methods of verifying and studying what are called "psi" forces. A great many hope ultimately to contribute to world peace through their research, and many describe an unquenchable interest in what one boy called "the fundamental question of why."

A variety of influences have led these high school seniors to such goals. Some of the most important are dedicated teachers, inspiring and helpful scientists, stimulating and sympathetic family backgrounds, and books, magazines and scientific journals. Other factors that led these students to choose careers in science were science projects and science fairs—exhibitions of students' projects, demonstrations, col­lections, inventions and experiments. For others, the realiza­tion of individual scientific ability, trips to places that awakened intellectual curiosity, and scientific equipment and kits that introduced challenging possibilities were the im­portant influences.
Forty percent of the top forty winners of the Nineteenth Science Talent Search named teachers as having been es­pecially influential in their development; thirty percent named scientists, some of whom are university professors; and twenty-five percent credited members of their families.

Describing the way in which her teacher helped her, one of the girls said, "She taught me to think things out for my­self and develop new procedures instead of trying vainly to follow stereotyped ones which were not feasible in our lab­oratory."

A scientist impressed his young protégé as "one of the major influences in causing me to conduct research and not just to study."

One boy discovered for himself that science was "the most philosophically satisfying method for really finding things out."

This group reported that their decisions to chart their lives toward careers in science were made at ages ranging from very early childhood to age seventeen. Some of them had never even considered any other future; others said that the idea matured gradually, with no special period of deciding. A quarter of the group began at thirteen years of age to look forward to becoming professional scientists.

Can You Be a Scientist?

When you read and hear about students who have won national honors for their achievement and promise in science, perhaps you feel a little hesitant. Daydreaming about the fascinating realm of the unpredictable, where important an­swers are found because somebody wondered how it would be if things were not as they seem so obviously to be, pos­sibly you question your own qualifications. Do you, after all, have any reason to believe you could have a place in this exciting world?

Maybe mathematics and physics remain mysteries to you, no matter how hard you batter your brain. Or maybe your hands behave like unwieldy feet when you try to solder a delicate electronic circuit or mount a nearly invisible insect. Maybe you would be happier if you never saw the inner workings of an animal; maybe a trickle of blood makes you remember an urgent errand elsewhere.

Fortunately, all the maybe's seldom belong to one person. While math and physics may elude you, you may be very expert with the soldering gun or the insect collection. Or if you do have hands like boxing gloves, perhaps it is your special joy to roam the hills and valleys looking for mineral specimens or fossils or Indian artifacts.

Although most of the profoundly creative discoveries will be made by research scientists of very unique quality, the world has and expects to find only a few of these individuals. You may, of course, discover that you have been born with this potential quality, and you may choose to undertake the long and rigorous training necessary to develop and mature it. On the other hand, there is need for thousands of top-level scientists, engineers and technologists. There must be large numbers of dedicated experimental scientists and many tech­nical assistants to work with researchers in laboratories to produce tomorrow's miracles.

If your special gift is a talent for working with people, you might become an administrator in a scientific organization. Or you might be a science teacher, one of the most rewarding and vitally necessary of the science professions. For this you will want very solid background in your subject, plus that magic ingredient of personal enthusiasm and the ability to share it with your students.

Science writing, scientific illustration and the designing of science courses and demonstrations are comparatively new and important fields that demand still different talents and orientation.

New understanding and its practical benefits are almost never accomplished alone. The distinguished scientists who win world acclaim are quick to minimize their personal achievement, emphasizing the immeasurable contribution of their co-workers and predecessors. And so, if you are gen­uinely interested in some field or activity of the scientific community, and have the capacity to work hard and carefully, with perseverance and concentration you can discover a niche in science, whether or not you come within shouting distance of being a genius.

There are, of course, ways to share in the adventure of science without necessarily being a scientist yourself. For in­stance, scientific illustration, science library work, science writing and editing or secretarial and administrative assistant jobs in scientific organizations have been done with great success by nonscientists. Some background in at least one of the sciences is helpful in such jobs, but it is possible to pick up the necessary vocabulary and specialized knowledge.

When it comes right down to it, maybe you should not be and never will be a scientist. The world would be strangely askew if everyone suddenly joined one profession and there were no businessmen, grocers, designers, steelworkers, artists, poets, lawyers and all the rest. But if you never do even five minutes of work in the sciences, your life will be immeasur­ably richer in whatever profession you choose if you have an appreciative understanding and lively interest in what goes on in the scientific community.

One of the most urgent needs of the Space Age is for citizens of broadly balanced perspective who are informed and alert to scientific problems, developments and Solutions.

Clues to Scientific Ability

Authorities in the field believe that many potential scientists have been lost because they had no idea of their own capabili­ties until it was rather too late to do anything about training them. Studies of successful scientists and engineers have sug­gested some* useful criteria that you might want to use as a general guide in judging yourself.

For example, Frank W. Eller of the Science Manpower Project at Columbia University reports that a teen-ager's po­tential as an engineering student may be considered good if he is in the top third of his group in mathematics and science courses and in standardized mathematical achievement tests, scores about 100 on IQ tests, and shows several of the fol­lowing qualities: general and technical vocabulary ability, interest in science and technology and in related hobbies, participation in science competitions, membership in science organizations, ability to comprehend scientific materials and to visualize solid objects from flat plans, friendship with scientists and technologists, good work and study habits.

A study of successful engineering students suggests such additional characteristics as admiration for science teachers; interest in chess, puzzles and riddles; preference for individ­ual sports as opposed to team activity; lively curiosity and the use of a cause-and-effect approach.

Some of the clues to identifying embryo research scientists include such characteristic traits and aptitudes as walking and/or talking early in childhood and quickly acquiring a rather sophisticated vocabulary. Some learn to read, pretty much on their own, before they go to school. They usually ask more (and harder to answer) questions than average. They not only understand the answers immediately, but store fairly incredible quantities of information in their heads. Numbers, maps, encyclopedias, dictionaries and telephone directories are frequently more fascinating to them than at­tractive books designed for children.

When they enter school, they usually become inveterate readers. Their interests range over many fields, and they are usually superior students. They develop qualities of leader­ship, self-control, self-discipline, persistence and intellectual honesty—unless something goes sadly wrong along the way.

Although they are often above average physically and socially, they are not usually enthusiastic about group sports like football and baseball, or about other mass activities and entertainment. Most of them prefer tennis, cycling, walking, reading, music, school club activities, social dancing, chess, bridge, math games and puzzles.

Various investigators have turned up other guideposts to scientific talent, such as ability to read about two years above grade level, mature moral attitudes, versatility in ability and interests, good special visualization and a combination of self-confidence and introversion.
Some additional traits drawn from evaluation studies of winners of the annual Science Talent Search are intense in­tellectual curiosity, ingenuity and an intuitive grasp of why and how facts may relate to each other. The most creative scientists may work slowly in gathering and analyzing data, but then move swiftly toward  a  solution.

According to some authorities, the dominant character­istic of the outstanding scientist is a fierce independence. These talented individuals often feel themselves to be different from other people and they are less likely to be concerned with conventional values and goals.

Obviously not all successful scientists fit these measuring sticks, since scientists come in all flavors, just as artists or mechanics or bankers do. And there are many instances of late bloomers who showed little evidence of interest or talent in science until they were in college, graduate school or even in mid-career. Such a highly contributive scientist as Dr. Wernher von Braun, of space and missile fame, is reported to have confessed to a Congressional Committee that he flunked both mathematics and physics when he was twelve or thirteen years old. "But,"he said, "I picked them up later."

Building Your Future

Naturally the place to begin building your future is in the place where you are right now.

If you are in junior or senior high school, for instance, you can take a second look at the courses you plan to schedule. If you have not included all the mathematics and science you can fit in, perhaps there is still time to do so. If it seems that you have passed the point of no return for some of these, possibly you can take them in concentrated form at summer sessions.  The study of foreign languages is also valuable, for you may wish to read scientific magazines and books that have not been translated into English.

You should pay special attention to the periodical sections of your school and public libraries, just to be sure that you have not been missing some interesting and authoritative scientific magazines and journals that will keep you informed on current developments. Most libraries have increased the number of such publications kept regularly on the shelves and have greatly expanded the selection of science books and reference materials.

You can be alert to scientific meetings, lectures, science fairs, demonstrations, tours, seminars, congresses, clubs and all the other opportunities that may exist in your community.

When you join such activities, you also may find opportuni­ties to talk to scientists and teachers who are working in the fields that interest you most. Such personal contacts with working scientists will give you a sort of three-dimensional feeling about science and scientists that would be difficult to get in any other way.

In all your curriculum planning, reading and leisure science activities you should guard against overly narrow specializa­tion. So much of modern science crosses the lines between scientific disciplines that you will want to have some back­ground in several. A broad sampling of fields will give you a better base for choosing your eventual career, too, for even college and graduate students find their interests and perspec­tive changing as they penetrate more deeply into various specialties.

To all of this you will want to add both breadth and depth in the humanities in order to be a fully developed individual with balanced insight and appreciation.

You can make sure that you are doing everything pos­sible to prepare for further training when you have finished high school. Whether you look forward to technical school or to college, you will want to survey all of the possibilities and to be ready to apply for admission in plenty of time. This, by the way, can be done during the junior year of high school, because an increasingly large number of colleges are offering early admission.

If you need or want a scholarship to help you go to col­lege, you will want to start your planning early, discussing your ideas and hopes with your family and your high school guidance counselor. Your counselor will have detailed infor­mation on many colleges and scholarships, and can tell you about any special aptitude tests or interviews that must take place early in your senior year. If your school does not have a guidance counselor, the school library and the public library may have collections of college catalogs and scholarship leaf­lets. When you have narrowed your possible choice to, say, five or six colleges, write to their admission offices for further information.

Then you can make good use of your summer vacations. Every year there are more student jobs available in science and new chances for study and experience in advanced science courses.

With support from the National Science Foundation, each summer several thousand students in all parts of the country are given training that will help them to decide on college pro­grams and career plans. The Foundation supports between 100 and 200 secondary school programs for students of high ability, offering a variety of programs: training in astronomy and space science at the American Museum-Hayden Plane­tarium; advanced botany at the New York Botanic Garden; instruction in atmospheric science given by the American Meteorological Society; demonstrations, experiments, research and reports in various fields under the supervision of univer­sity faculties and visiting scientists; and many other unique courses and workshops.

Many similar programs are arranged by private schools, public school systems, industries and foundations in nearly every section of the country.

More hundreds of promising science students learn adult science in summer jobs in the laboratories of universities, industries and government agencies. Every summer more em­ployers are offering such valuable experience to teen-agers. After some years of battling against age and formal training restrictions that kept them from such jobs, outstanding science students have proved to everyone's satisfaction that they can be extremely competent employees who are able to make important contributions.

If you are fortunate enough to get one of these jobs, you will find that you are given some real work to do instead of being confined simply to test tube washing and waste basket emptying. However, you will want to apply early (Christ­mas vacation might not be too soon to start), and to present all the recommendations, honors and other evidences of your ability in science that you have accumulated.

The experience gained in such jobs is invaluable, whether you receive token payment or none at all. If, however, a modest salary happens to go along with the training, that is extra icing on the cake.

Three Giant Steps Toward Your Future

There are three exceedingly important and basic experi­ences that will take you a long way up the road toward be­coming a scientist.

The first giant step is to see and experience for yourself, by one means or another, what a challenging adventure the pursuit of scientific truth can be.

The second is the personal discovery of the unforgettable thrill and incomparable satisfaction of finding and proving even a small bit of truth for yourself.

The third step is the process of building enough confi­dence in your own ability to believe that you can go on successfully searching and finding.

Perhaps the best means ever devised for accomplishing all three of these steps is the science project. A really good proj­ect can be an exciting challenge to your ingenuity, imagina­tion, intuition and ability. You can find a problem so tantalizing that you carry it around in your mind, letting it simmer through whatever else you happen to be doing and thinking.

When you least expect it, you may have a sudden flash of insight. You can hardly wait then to try out the new idea. If your hunch is right, the pieces fall into place with brilliant clarity, and all at once you know what may have made Archimedes leap from his bath to rush into the street, shout­ing "Eureka!"

On the other hand, your hunch may be wrong or incom­plete. The pieces scatter like mismatched bits of several jigsaw puzzles, and you search with considerable bewilder­ment for the pattern you thought you had glimpsed. When this happens, you pick up the sections that might conceivably fit and you start over—as many times as necessary.

Or, as sometimes happens, you may discover that your orig­inal insight is not new after all, that others have struggled better and longer with the same problem and have reported very solid solutions. Then you begin to think about it in a "what if" way to see if there are better answers or still unexplored tangents.

When you have developed and repeatedly tested your hypothesis and have organized all of your material, you have the basis for writing a report of your work. You may want to file your paper for future reference, or you may want to present it at a seminar, science congress or Junior Academy of Sciences meeting. You may want to submit it as part of a Science Talent Search entry, use it as part of an ex­hibit at a science fair or enter it in the Science Achievement Awards  competition.

In Chapter 15 you will find complete information about Junior Academy of Sciences, Science Talent Search, science fairs, Science Achievement Awards and various other com­petitions. All of these can provide rewarding outlets for pre­senting projects, and may be of enormous help in your journey to a future in science.

The "Why" of Projects

Good ideas for science projects have come from every kind of source, ranging from a bad cold in the head to a bet that something couldn't be proved, from a newspaper report of the newest scientific development to a dream someone had one night. They have been sparked by a scientist's abstruse re­port on his research or one sentence in a scientific magazine.

Many a newspaper advertisement has set a fertile mind to wondering why or why not and what if, to thinking of ways a person might find out, and eventually to creating a project that investigated the whole business or some part of it.

Some projects are started for the pure fun of it. Their mainspring is usually that irresistible need to know or a yen to explore an especially exciting possibility. Some begin as rather boring homework required by a teacher for a passing grade in chemistry or extra credit in biology. It is interesting to note that when some of the National Science Fair finalists were asked what prompted them to create their projects in the first place, they made such honest confessions as, "My science teacher required that everyone do a project or fail the course"; "I had to have a science project to complete a credit in chemistry"; and, "The teacher got me in a corner, so I couldn't refuse him."

The greatest number of basic ideas for the 320 outstanding projects exhibited at the Tenth National Science Fair, held in Hartford, Connecticut, in May, 1959, were discovered in books, magazines, professional journals, newspapers, research papers, project lists and books (like this one)  and even in science fiction. More than a third (thirty-five percent) of the National Science Fair finalists found their original inspira­tion in some kind of publication.

The ideas of twenty-eight percent of the finalists were de­veloped from their own experiences, from experiments and projects they had been working on, from personal observa­tion, curiosity, discussions and that sort of thing.

More than fourteen percent said suggestions for their proj­ects came from school—from teachers and science club sponsors, school courses and laboratories.

Scientists, science clubs, fairs, institutes, laboratories, Jun­ior Academies of Science or scientific equipment sparked the ideas of eleven percent.

Others mentioned sources such as science films, television science productions, slides, lectures, demonstrations, exhibits, etc. Several ideas came from summer jobs in scientific fields.

An astonishing assortment of investigations grew out of these ideas. For example, one finalist looked into the influ­ence of carbohydrates upon the longevity of the adult wasp. Another worked on the theory, design and construction of a ten-and-a-half-inch cyclotron. There was a study of hormones in skunk cabbage, one on soap films, another on genetics and skin grafting.

It is interesting to see the kind of project that resulted from various idea sources. A representative sampling would be something like this:

Project Title                                                      Source of Idea
"Gibberellic Acid—Plant                       conversation with neighbor
Growth     Stimulator"

"Experimentation with Toxi-                  employment in drugstore cology  and Tranquilizers"
newspaper article about Navy

"Data-processing  Computer"                attempt to build a similar
computer

"Bacterial Susceptibility to
Antibiotics"                                           allergy to sulfa drugs

"Tissue Culture"                                    consultation with authorities
                                                            at a U.S. Army hospital

"Study of the Rich Mountain
Salamander"                                         suggestion of Junior Academy of Science sponsor

"Chemistry of Foam—A So­lution
to an Industrial Problem"                       father's work

"Biochemical Aspects of
Den­tistry"                                             American Dental Association dental projects book

"Statistical Study of Finger
Length Variation in the
Adolescent Hand"                                 curiosity about difference in people's finger lengths

"The Effects of Radiation on
the Blood in White Rats"                       exhibit and discussion at

sci­ence club

The Braille-scriber, An
Original  Use for a Digital
Computer"                                            discussion with instructors at school for the blind

"Physiochemical Basis of
Memory"                                              article on memory in
scien­tific magazine

"A Color Filter to  Correct
Color Blindness"                                   own color blindness

All of these are perfectly valid reasons for starting a science project. All have resulted in satisfying work that has, in addition, earned both praise and prizes.

Perhaps by now you are getting impatient to begin a project of your own. The rest of this book is designed to help you do that, whether this is your first project or merely the most advanced of a long series. Suggestions, directions, examples of successful project papers, illustrations, sources of information and equipment and hundreds of mind-stretch­ing ideas have been assembled here to help you as much as possible.

The rest is up to you!

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here….