Future Scientists

A sight I will always remember is the night sky on a trip where the car had broken down on a vacation but we were where there was no light pollution to stop the view of the stars. The stars and what is out in space has long fascinated me and the view of the sky that night will always be with me. Ever since I was a child my fascination of outer space has been a driving force in my life. My reading has leaned towards science fiction for recreation and books on space for fascination. My art in recent years has been heavily influenced by outer space. I have a whole gallery dedicated to it in my website Space the Final Frontier.

I loved Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and the enthusiasm it generated for young people to learn and reach for the stars. One of the most fascinating parts of that show for me was the discussion of black holes. That led me to the work of Stephen Hawking. I devoured his book A Brief History of Time. I remember once my Dad trying to explain Einstein’s theory to my Mom on the effects of space travel and time. He demonstrated the red and blue shifts to her and time slowing and speeding up by how fast he walked. It made me realize that science can be explained and understood by anyone.

One of my favorite discoveries a few years ago was a program that featured Dr. Brian Greene and opened up the world of the string theory to me. Talk about science fiction meeting science fact! Again we had a scientist explaining science in a way that it could be understood by anyone.

The real secret though to getting science into a person’s life is to be able to excite their imaginations. I worked with a lot of young people when I was doing science fiction conventions and when I ran my own convention I had scientists there in addition to media guests. Fire up the imagination and you can lead a child into the world of outer space. It is what NASA is going to need to do if they want to survive. For me the Hubble spacecraft is one of the most exciting inventions of our modern age. I can look at pictures from Hubble for hours. The magazine National Geographic has always been one of my windows to outer space.

I may not be a scientist but I use my love of outer space and my art to try and fire imaginations. One of my favorite shows has always been Doctor Who for just plain sheer fun. Even it can inspire me like when in one episode the Doctor showed the beginning of our solar system and when the show was over I did the picture In the Beginning. National Geographic inspired me when the talked about the moon Enceladus and I wanted to see what the view from the moon looked like so I did the art work. Find a way to inspire a young person and we will have our future scientists. I have inspired my grandnephew Tristen. He is my future scientist.