Summary of The Making of a Scientist
'The Making of a Scientist’ is a story about the leading scientist Richard Ebright. He was a curious child right from the beginning years of his life. He had started collecting butterflies in his childhood and by the time he is in second grade, he had already gathered all the 25 species found in his hometown. Also, he collected coins, fossils, and rocks. One day his mother gave him a book named ‘The Travel of Monarch X’. This book has been a turning point in life and introduced him to the world of science. He experienced real science in the country science fair and moreover, he understood that to win something he needs to do something extraordinary.
Later, for his eighth grade, he selected the assignment of finding the cause of viral sickness that killed almost all the monarch caterpillars every year. He thought that the cause for this could be a beetle, so, he rose caterpillars with the presence of beetles. However, he was wrong. Next year his project for the science fair was testing the theory that viceroy butterflies copy monarchs. His project got the first prize in zoology division and third in country science fair.
In his second year of high school, Richard Ebright's research led to his discovery of an unknown insect hormone which led to his new theory on the lives of cells. He tried to find the purpose of tiny golden spots on the back of the monarch pupa. This project won first place in a country science fair and a chance to work at the Walter Reed Army Institute of research.
As a high school student, he continued his advanced experiment and finally was able to identify hormones' chemical structure. One day while looking at the X-ray photos of the hormone he got the idea of his new theory that tells cells can read the blueprint of their DNA. Ebright and his roommate constructed the plastic model of a molecule to illustrate the working of DNA. It was a big leap forward and got published in a magazine. He graduated from Harvard with the highest honours.
He has other interests also like public speaking, debate and is also a canoeist and an outdoor person. Also, he was competitive but in a good sense and always want to do his best. Moreover, he possesses all the traits of becoming a good scientist.
About the Author of The Making of a Scientist
V. S. Ramachandran begins with one of the most important elements to be a scientist which is a sense of curiosity and wonder. He also states that one has to be ready to tolerate physical discomfort. For him, science is a love affair with nature but one has to be on the lap of nature to establish romantic love.
To be near nature is certainly an adventurous task, one needs to face many difficulties while playing with nature. Ramachandran believes that stimuli and inspiration also play a vital role to change a person into a scientist. He himself had been inspired by his teachers, lecturers in his school and college days. In his family, his uncle had motivated him to be a scientist; his mother had brought seashells so that he could research them. He had got a chemistry lab opened under his staircase. His father had bought a microscope for him.
Hence, one should be motivating family and environment to be a scientist who is further supported when he claims that the Victorian era was the encouraging time that had produced the scientists like Darwin and Huxley. Ramachandran believed that one has to isolate from the mundane world and be studious about those dead scientists treating them as living people.
Similarly, Ramachandran believes that a scientist should have an interest in different aspects of the earth. He himself had studied in different fields like civilization; he loved anthropology, the survival strategy taken by a plant etc. Hence, he believed that the intense zeal of doing research and the ability to find a sense of fun is another quality of a scientist. Undoubtedly, a scientist should feel a sense of fascination while performing any kind of experiment.
In short, exploration and stimuli are interrelated to each other. The first and foremost requirement to be a scientist is curiosity and enthusiasm. S/he must have a desire to know more even if an end ends. One should be ready to get and face the difficulties. Curiosity is something that does not make someone comfortable. Certain other qualities are required to be a scientist: They are as follows: innate traits, associations, the family can stimulate an individual to be a scientist.
Main Summary & Analysis
Summary
‘The Making of a Scientist is an essay written by V.S. Ramachandran. It is an opinionated and descriptive essay based on his own experiences. The essay describes the writer’s opinion of how a scientist can be mustered. The essay focuses on how a scientist can be made by dealing with the most significant requirements for it. Scientists are more eccentric people than others. So, their interests, hobbies, the environment should be something extra than those for normal ones. To be a scientist one should be obsessively, passionately and pathologically curious. As science is a subject of creations, freedom and independence, people should understand that the absence of anyone results in the failure of innovations. The writer explains the nature and behaviour of a scientist. He clarifies how a scientist is. He, from his own life experiences, also vividly tells us about the life of a scientist to some extent.
There is very little to interpret than to assimilate in The Making of a Scientist. Elucidate.
There is very little to interpret than to assimilate in The Making of a Scientist. Interpretation of the making of scientists is very less. First, in the sense, it is an argumentative essay an essay needn’t be interpreted since it is already clarifying something. In this case, the importance of family background, school and friends, teachers, colleagues and self-interest in making the science is being clarified by the writer. Hence the essay is argumentative and has interpreted the above concept.
Interpretation
But there are many aspects to be assimilated. The text is written for learning how to turn a child into a great scientist. Interpretation has no meaning without assimilation but later is always must be more than former. We need to have a clear concept of how to perform certain things and must learn to apply them but the application is always higher than the theory. Here interpretation is understanding theory while assimilation is applying the theory by learning. Hence every theory has numerous applications.
As in the essay 'The Making of Scientist', the writer makes the argument that to be a scientist one need to be curious obsessively, passionately, almost pathologically from childhood. Then the parents of that child must boost him/her by giving proper attention on proper way. When the child grows young he must be able to maintain the circle of a friend who is curious obsessively, passionately, almost pathologically like him. He must have good relationships with the teachers and must perform scientific experiments regularly to understand theories. When he starts his career he must make various researches in the field of interest. As done by the Ramachandran in his life.
Assimilation
The above paragraph is the interpretation about how to make the scientist. But it can be assimilated in many ways. Learning or assimilating is a multidimensional factor since it can be learned in many different ways. As in the essay, we can assimilate: There are many scientists who were curious obsessively, passionately, almost pathologically from childhood. For example scientists like Darwin, Newton etc. wouldn’t be scientists without curiosity. In our society, we can see that children who were given good assistance regarding their curiously flourish much in youth in the same field. The same fact is applicable for Ramachandran.
Also, the writer explained Science flourishes best in an atmosphere of complete freedom and financial independence. He interprets this by giving the example of the Victorian time when science flourishes much under the sound financial and complete freedom. Many discoveries were made at that time. This also shows that the interpretation of the above statement can be assimilated in many ways as given below: This can be the answer why in America science is very developed than that in Nepal and any other developing country.
We can learn facts and establish peace and prosperity to provide a sound environment for scientists, economists, workers etc to work freely. This also explains why some students are bad at studying than others simply because the former might be living in poverty and violence while later in prosperity and peace. Hence, in the making of the scientist, the understanding is much less than its application.
Exercise
Question & Answer of The Making of Scientist
Q1: How did Ebright’s mother help him?
Answer: Ebright’s mother was a great help to him. She always encouraged his interest in learning and exploring more. She took him out on trips. In fact, she also bought him a telescope, a microscope, cameras, mounting materials and other equipment that helped him in many ways.
Q2: How did a book become a turning point in Richard Ebright’s life?
Answer: Richard Ebright had a great interest in collecting butterflies. By the time he was in the second grade, he had collected all the twenty-five species of butterflies around his home town. He might stop collecting butterflies, at that age his mom gave him a book known as “The Travels of Monarch X’. This book told him about the migration of monarch butterflies to Central America. This book aroused his interest in Monarch butterflies and opened the world of science to him. This proved to be a turning point in Richard Ebright's life. He started to raise Monarch butterflies in the basement of his home, and study them in different life phases of their development.
Q3: What lesson does Ebright learn when he does not win anything at a science fair?
Answer: Ebright realizes that a mere display of something does not mean science. To win at a science fair he will have to do real experiments.
Q4: What experiments and projects did Ebright undertake?
Answer: Richard Ebright decided to conduct real experiments after he did not win anything in the science exhibition. He tried to find the cause of a viral disease that kills nearly all Monarch caterpillars every few years. After that, he also pursued his research into the discovery of an unknown insect Monarch.
Q5: Why did Richard Ebright raise a flock of butterflies?
Answer: Richard Ebright as a child had developed a keen interest in collecting things like rocks, fossils, coins and butterflies. By the time he reached his second grade, he had collected all the twenty-five species of butterflies found around his hometown. When his mother bought him the book, ‘The Travel of Monarch X’, it revamped his curiosity in insects. He also started tagging the Monarchs at the behest of the author Dr Tredrick A. Urgu Hart. Later he researched the significance of the hormone in the yellow spots of its pupa which won him great recognition in the world of science.
Q6: What are the qualities that go into the making of a scientist?
Answer: The author mentions three qualities that go into the making of a scientist—a first-rate mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons. Richard Ebright was a very intelligent student. He was also an excellent debater, a public speaker, a good canoeist and an expert photographer. He always gave that extra effort. He was competitive, but for the right reasons. From the first he had a driving curiosity along with a bright mind, and it was this curiosity that ultimately led him to his theory about cell life.
Q7: Why did Ebright lose interest in tagging butterflies?
Answer: Ebright used to tag butterflies' wings and let them go. In fact, the basement of his house was home to thousands of monarch butterflies. He started losing interest in it because it was a hectic job and there wasn’t much feedback and appreciation.
Q8: Who was Richard A. Welherer? How did he help Richard Ebright?
Answer: Richard A. Weiherer was Richard Ebright’s social studies teacher and adviser to the debating and Model United Nations Club. He mentored Ebright a lot because he opened his mind to new ideas.
Q9: Write a brief sketch about Richard Ebright.
Answer: Richard H. Ebright changed into born in Reading, Pennsylvania. Since a tender age, his interest became boundless and his mother endorsed this in him. He became inquisitive about Monarch butterflies after his mother gifted him a book called 'The Travels of the Monarch X'. He started doing experiments and won several science knowhow fairs and competitions. His experiments and research on Monarch butterflies enabled him to understand genetic systems and the protein-DNA interactions, which made him pretty well-known in scientific circles. At the young age of twenty-four, he discovered many things in various fields of biology.