Kid Scientist III - My First "Perspective" & "Infinity"

by  The  Scientific  Method  on  Saturday,  December  11,  2010  at  2:20pm  

empty left-hand, the former

mystery of perspective morphed
into its initial and wonderful
realization.

Perhaps the euphoria I still recall

One of my earliest memories is at that making that "discovery"
literally a "moment under the was my own "inner-scientist"
sun". I clearly recall standing in cheering me on!
our backyard next to the
obligatory 1950's swing-set There soon came a similar
contemplating my shadow, and moment, after we had moved to a
must have been in kindergarten new home that had a medicine
for I was just beginning to cabinet over the sink with a large
reconcile "my right from my left". mirror on the wall behind it.

But in that specific moment in the Both mirrors had exposed bevels,
late afternoon sunshine my and one day while brushing my
attention was drawn to the teeth (or acting like I was, truth be
confusing behavior of my own told) I caught sight of a seemingly
shadow, the hands on the ends of infinite number of "me's" in a
my arms seemingly "switching single and special line of sight
sides" as I turned toward then between the beveled edges and
away from the sun. the opposing east-and-west
facing mirrors.
"How did my shadow's 'right hand'
end up on my shadow's 'left Having started first-grade at St.
side'?" was the question I put to Mary's Catholic School by that
myself as I whirled "dervishly", time, I had already learned about
spinning back and forth trying to "eternal life" and the "infinite
figure out once and for all this faces and mysteries of God"
"right-left" dealio. without having a clue what all that
meant.
An idea sprang into my head, and
I retrieved my family's obligatory Seeing an infinite number of
John Deere tractor from the "me's" must have appealed to my
likewise requisite 1950's backyard inner-narcissist, but I also clearly
sandbox. recall in this instance similar
feelings of "discovery" washing
Holding the tiny tractor or over me as the notion of infinity
manure-spreader or combine in finally manifested itself in front of
my right-hand and extending an me, not just "in my mind".

 
 

 
 

Kid Scientist II - My First Islands
by The Scientific Method on Monday, October 25, 2010 at 1:31am
In the late 1960's my river-rat
father, who was born on the banks
of the Mississippi River in
Andalusia, Illinois, decided he
wanted his three sons to live that
legacy so we purchased some
riverfront property in Cordova,
Illinois. Complete with its own
"beach", we were perched on
the Illinois-side banks of the
Mississippi River.
A slough of islands lay between
us and the Iowa shoreline, a vast
floodplain of wetlands with a
maze of inlets and small islands
peppering it with mystery and
portent perfectly suited for a
'tween adventurer like me.
Islands are scattered all along the Mississippi
River's length.
I think Dad's US Naval background
figured into this move since we
bought our parcel of land not long
after taking several trips on his
former USMC cousin's houseboat
“ Liebchen” . Then along came a
16' aluminum Crestliner with a 50
hp Mercury, and my father took
charge of the first of
many“ Captain's Workshops" in
my life. He had taught us to row a
few years earlier in the Wisconsin
Dells, so motoring was apparently
his idea of seamanship's next
logical step.
But it wasn't until some family
friends added their 12’ Sears &
Roebuck johnboat powered by a
25 hp Johnson outboard to our
flotilla that my true island
adventures began.
Allowed to take it out alone for
prescribed routes and strictly
enforced periods of time, those
islands first became Robinson
Crusoe's lost world to me. But I
soon realized that I was actually
following in the canoe wakes of
Marquette, Joliet, and LaSalle.
Anyone who thinks kids never
listen in class is all too often
wrong, for what had been mere
textbook history for me up until
then came alive when I thought of
all the actual places my family had
visited carrying the names of
these three intrepid Mississippi
River explorers.
I circumnavigated the chain first
to get a picture of this area in my
head, then scrounged up a chart
from an nearby marina’ s dark
and moistly murky boathouse.
Armed with this fragile but useful
new exploration tool, I went
looking for places my shallow
draft would allow me entry.
I can't regale you with all my
"voyages" into the jungly and
mosquito-ridden forests of oak,
elm, birch, pine and every member
of the poison ivy family known to
man. I can say, however, that is
when I first began to feel the tug
of the sea as I witnessed the
flights, hunting forays, and even
nests of what I always thought
were exclusive seabirds amid this
"...Mississippi darkness rollin'
down to the sea..."
Later on in life I became a
biologist, working and teaching in
marine environments. This early
experience in watching ostensible
seabirds alive and well in my
fresh-water world opened my
eyes to science and took my
imagination to ever increasing
heights of wonder and awe for the
natural world.
This river, this "Father of Waters”
(along with all "his" island sons
and daughters), touched my life in
a very deep and meaningful way.
I'm still an explorer, a seeker of
things unknown to me, and am
forever grateful to this natural
wonderland of my youth for that.
 Kid Scientist III - My First Surf
by The Scientific Method on Monday, October 25, 2010 at 1:35am
In the summer of 1965 when I was
just nine years old we rented a
beach house in Petoskey, Michigan
with another family. As I recall, we
pulled up in our brand-new 1964
Ford Falcon Station Wagon well
after dark. We kids were all
hustled off to whatever beds there
were without even packing.
“ Sleep in your underwear. It
won't kill you for one night!” So,
that said, off to bed we went. I
dreamed about the cold waters of
Lake Michigan I was going to
swim in the next day, and
exploring the vast sandy beach we
had all marveled at in the
brochure.
At some point in the night I was
awakened by a sound I had never
heard before. I couldn’ t figure it
out, and Svengali-like it drew me
out of the bed. Down the dark and
unfamiliar stairs and through the
back door I found a set of long
concrete steps leading to the lake.
At some point on my way down
the steep stairs toward the source
of this mysterious sound, the
moonlight revealed that what I
had heard was Lake Michigan’ s
waves coming ashore on the
sandy beach below.
Growing up on the Mississippi
River I was no stranger to the
many sounds of running water,
and even on that river's beaches
had heard waves lapping ashore.
But never before had I heard and
felt surf crashing on sand. That
sound and feel underfoot are
reserved for larger bodies of
water than rivers. Standing their
in my fruit-of-the-looms I was
simply frozen by discovery.
Lake Michigan surf pounding the shoreline.
A moment later I heard a familiar
sound, turned and saw my Father
following me down the stairs.
Parents, as we all know, are
blessed with super-powers, acute
hearing tuned to the frequency of
children at work this time. We sat
together on a midway landing's
stone wall and listened to the
waves until the chilly night-air
drove us both back to our warm
beds.
All I could say was “ It's waves.
It's the waves coming in.” .
It occurs to me now through the
mist of long ago memories that I
must have sounded much like
Forrest Gump; “ You’ ve got legs.
Magic legs!”
I also recall the memory of my
Father's wry smile, realizing now
the way a teacher feels when
witnessing his charges learn the
ways of their shared world. To
this day those living memories
buried within the magical and
mystical sounds of water have
kept me on it, under it, or near it
whenever I can manage to do so!

Kid Scientist IV - My Very First Scientific Endeavor
by The Scientific Method on Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 11:40am
I cannot recall a moment of this
two year period, and suspect that
the nature of our human nature is
designed in such a way as to
constitute exactly what precludes
us from being able to do so now.
But I do so dearly wish, as I think
many share with me, that I still
had the ability to learn as well as I
did when I taught myself to speak
as a baby!
I now start out all my science
talks with this admonition to my
audience, MS PowerPoint aiding
me far better with its custom
animations than here in Facebook
Notes;
The fact is that no one taught you
to speak. You were imbued,
perhaps at your very conception,
with the expectation of having to
learn about your world all on your
own. You watched and listened,
heard and felt and smelled and
tasted your world in such a way as
to impart meaning to the things
that comprised your everyday
world.
Then all of a sudden, to the utter
amazement of your parents,
family, and their friends you said
"Mama", "Dada", "dog-dog",
"kitty", perhaps even "sponge-
bob" if you are under 10 years
old!
Your inner-scientist had been
busy since your birth, literally at
work night and day automatically
deciphering all that you had
observed about your world. You
not only imparted "sense" to much
of it, but labeled it and interacted
with it in the very same way that
you learned it from all those
around you.
No one taught you, you taught
yourself, in an exercise of
"Hebbian Learning" the like of
which you would never fully
experience again. For you were
then, at that very moment,
inducted into "the machine",. That
day also marked the first day of
your formal instruction, coming
immediately after proving to the
world just how well your ability to
learn had fared without it.
Ah, those were the good old days,
eh? When you were free to learn,
and did so with impunity, both
seamlessly and transparently to
the world around you.
You inner-scientist is still inside
you, clearly less active and sadly
less dedicated to understanding
your world. But it is still there,
quietly at work all the time on
your behalf.
Perhaps your "inner-scientist" has
the honor of being "that little
voice" we are all so familiar with
but have never actually met!

Is it time you got up the nerve to

re-introduce yourself after all
these years?

What are you waiting for? It's been

asking you to do so for years!