Ever since I was a little boy, I spent a large portion of my youth in my parents’ garage trying to build things which helped me learn more about nature. From extracting and modifying red laser diodes scavenged from broken CD players, to winding speaker wire around bundles of carpentry nails to build crude electromagnets, for me there was always a sense of discovery and adventure that came from building things which revealed something about the world. This self-discovery process slowly built in me an understanding of many fundamental aspects of nature, not from books, but from direct observation.
When I was fourteen, I got my first job as a teacher’s assistant at a local community college in an oceanic chemistry lab. My favorite part of the job was not helping students or answering their questions, it was the secret experiments I’d conduct in the back of a storage room without the professor knowing. Mixing strong sulfuric acid with a host of different materials (wood, a piece of my cotton t-shirt, paper towels) taught me many of the chemical’s properties in a way which completely captured my imagination.
Two years later, after being absolutely captivated by the kitchen toaster, I decided to build my own wire-wound resistors. I raided my grandfather’s stash of nine-volt batteries which he kept (unsurprisingly) in the garage, and connected twenty of them together in series. With 180 volts at my disposal, I was able to test different resistor designs and observe their glowing-red-hot response to high voltage and current. On the fifth resistor I tested, one of the batteries I was using was under so much load that it actually ruptured, spraying smoke and liquid across my grandfather’s carpet. After he rushed in and rightfully scolded me, he looked at the set of batteries and their wiring before concluding: “Hmm, that should have worked!” I had never felt closer to my grandfather.
From a young age, intense curiosity always motivated me to learn more about the world. This feeling never really subsided or slowed down, it only shifted forms. Going from questions of physics, chemical reactions, and electronics, to questions of the brain and how it processes information, my adult endeavors clearly mirror those of my childhood. Being inquisitive is central to my life and self-identity; I imagine I’d be horribly depressed if I were any other way.