Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hello my name is Damien Henderson,i am in the &th grade at ANDERSEN Middle School in Guam @Andersen AFB
my project is on earth worms and one of my assigments is to interview a expert

if any one could help me ,thank you
my questions are:: Why do you like science?
where did you go to school? do have any one speciality in science do you like ?
Thank You for taking you time
Damien Henderson

Hi Damien,

Why do I like science?

I have always been very curious about how and why things work the way they do. Starting when I was younger than you are now I pestered my dad with endless questions like “how do alligators float?”, “Why is the sky blue?”, etc. at dinner every night. About in the fifth grade I found my dad’s college chemistry texts stored in a box in the basement and started trying to read them, not very successfully at first. I did lots of chemistry experiments in our basement, and really stunk up our house a few times until my parents banished my experiments to the outside patio. I discovered the Scientific American magazine and read every back issue our public library had going back for more than 10 years. They used to publish an article called “The Amateur Scientist” by Marvin Gardner in each issue that I really liked. I just find the stuff that happens in nature really really interesting and love discovering everything I can about it.

I went to a public high school in eastern Washington state, then to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and then studied for a PhD in chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. I did a one year Post Doc at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon before going to work. If you decide to study science in college, look into Reed College, as they have a really great set of science classes, and they let you do research and write a thesis in your senior year. It is a really interesting place to go to college(though a really huge amount of VERY HARD WORK!!!!).

Do I have a favorite area of science? I am mostly a chemist, though if I were starting out today I think I would find biology and the chemistry of life to be the most exciting area to work.

Good luck with the earth worm project, and seriously consider a science career -it has been non-stop fun for me for 50 years!!

Best regards,

Barrett L Tomlinson