Question: When did you find your love for science?

Alyssa Alcorn answered on 11 Jan 2018:

I think as a child and teenager there were a lot of things that really interested and inspired me, but that I didn’t necessarily think of as being “science” or representing an interest in science. Children’s books and TV shows that always make “science” about test tubes and the scientist an old white man in a lab coat really have a lot to answer for, in terms of people thinking science is boring and not for them (or, that you need to be an evil mad scientist, which is possibly still one of my life goals). Science also isn’t necessarily a world that *adults* often use to describe children’s interests and acknowledge those interests as being a potential path towards formal scientific study/careers. For example, I was obsessed by dinosaurs from when I was about 2, and would tell anyone who would listen about every species of dinosaur, ever. I was like the shipping forecast, but for extinct life forms. I would have been surprised to hear someone describe my single-minded collection of dinosaur facts or my backyard excavations* as being anything to do with science. Honestly, I probably did not think of myself as liking science or doing science until I was almost done with university, and running some of my own psychology experiments.
*I did not find any dinosaur bones while digging in my back yard, but I did find many hundreds of apricot pits and thus found out that my neighborhood had once been an orchard. I know, cool story right?