Scientific Wonderland

I wrote this essay when I was a Junior in high school as Common App practice in my Junior Seminar class. I haven’t edited it since then, so I apologize for any grammatical errors. It was about an experience that changed my perspective on what it means to be a scientist and further encouraged me to pursue a future in STEM.

There are some experiences so surreal that, looking back, you sometimes wonder if it was but a dream.

Stepping across the beautiful marble tiles, with the sound of my boots contributing to the loud echoes of other patrons, I was lost in a fairyland of science. The Science Museum in London was one of those magical places filled with vibrant eye candy that even people that don’t aspire to be scientists cannot forget.

But for me, an aspiring engineer, visiting this magnificent building was a major turning point in my life.

To cover all six stories of the building would be an impossible feat for one day, and my class tour group still had other sites to see while we were still in London. I was fourteen years old and this was my first time in Europe, so I had been super excited even before I knew that we were stopping by the museum. Simply walking into the museum was overwhelming; visitors were bombarded with neon lights, flying machines, quirky contraptions, and the strange geometry of the interior, all within the first few minutes. Frazzled by the sights and sounds, I had luckily grabbed a map near the elevators and I proceeded to outline which exhibits I wanted to visit within our limited amount of time.

While the rest of the tour group scattered about the museum, I decided to wander up to one of the clean energy exhibits. Since I was a child I had always been fascinated by the field of sustainability. When I was ten years old, I had dreamed up ideas for solar cars and for various contraptions that would allow me to generate electricity from elements outside my window. Now, with this exhibit, I was in a Wonderland of renewable energy. Before me were all sorts of ways of generating electricity I hadn’t even thought of, from recycling lunches to using human waste. When my mind was thoroughly blown by the wonders presented before me, I decided to move along to another exhibit on the same floor that had caught my attention.

This exhibit was a temporary fixture dedicated to the independent scientist James Lovelock. I hadn’t heard of James Lovelock before but I was eager to learn about some of this work. The most fascinating thing I found about him was that he was not affiliated with any university or organization, unlike many other ‘superstar’ scientists. By being unaffiliated, it seemed that he had freed himself to pursue many of his interests. He wore many hats; he was an environmentalist, a scientist, an inventor, an author, and a futurist. He created the Gaia hypothesis, saying that the earth was a self-regulating system, and he also invented an electron capture device that helped detect CFCs in the atmosphere. The exhibit featured numerous sketches from his notebooks where he came up with wild, albeit not always practical, devices and machines meant to solve real-world problems.

I had always dreamed about growing up and getting to fulfill my dreams of being an inventor and scientist, and I always assumed that there had to be a fixed path to reach that dream. James Lovelock, with all his quirks, was my inspiration not only to consider being an independent scientist, but to not wait until I was an adult to pursue my dreams.

I had spent my childhood building and designing things, such as my solar car designs. I loved to scribble pictures of everything from robots to potential software programs to fashion designs, and even very horribly pink automated bedrooms. I really liked the color pink and I still do, but there’s something to be said about not making every piece of furniture pink. As I got older, I independently built a couple robots and started coding in my free time. However, I had always distinguished my STEM related hobbies from my STEM related career aspirations. After seeing how Lovelock, in the comfort of his own home workshop, was able to do so many great things, I realized that it’s never too early to start seriously experimenting with what you want to do in the future.

My future became part of my ‘now’ and I haven’t looked back.

I’ve completed a STEM related internship every summer since that year, ninth grade, and by putting myself out there, I’ve had access to countless amazing opportunities. I wear many hats, trying to fearlessly tackle anything that interests me, from putting my room automation ideas into action (without the pink) to trying to build a pneumatic arm ‘assistant’ for biomedical applications. I often encounter failure, but I greet it like an old friend rather than believing that failures mean that I’ll be a horrible engineer.

Finally, I realized that there’s no such thing as being an ‘independent scientist’ in science, itself. As Sir Isaac Newton once said “I stand on the shoulders of giants”. Science is a collaborative effort, built by people of many backgrounds. Citizen scientists, great professors, and curious young minds alike all contributed to the process.

James Lovelock first visited the Science Museum in London when he was a child during the 1920s. It blew his mind. About ninety years later, stepping on the same shiny marble tiles, I also had my mind blown by the magic. When I visited Europe for the first time, I expected to have deep cultural insights, but I never expected that I would also have insights about the field I love. It felt like a dream, but I still have the map, the pictures, and the memories as evidence of the experience.

After all, good science relies on evidence. 🔬

I’ve been reflecting on this essay a lot recently, as I’ll be moving to the UK very soon for college to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering. I thought that, as I pack my bags and gather my thoughts, it would be a worthwhile story to share as my first piece of writing on Medium.

What was the turning point in your life that cemented your dreams of going into your field, STEM or otherwise? Were you also inspired by a role model or a certain location? Let me know in the comments. :)