accidental goddess

Today, the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó  and Drew Weissman for their innovative work that led to the life-saving mRNA COVID vaccines.  Ms. Karikó, a Hungarian-American biochemist and researcher at Penn Medicine is one of (now) 61 women who have received this award, while Dr. Weissman, a physician and researcher also at Penn Medicine, is one of over 890 male laureates.  This wonderful announcement stirred my feminist passion and also reminded me of my lifelong interest in science.  Maybe I could have been a scientist.  If I was born 20 years later, could things have turned out differently?

The early signs

Not your typical 1950s little girl, I was never one for cut-outs, doll houses, or playing dress up.  I preferred to climb trees and explore the nearby wooded areas.  I found the whole natural world interesting.  I was curious about everything from the bark, leaves, and berries to the insects and rotting logs.  I kept a collection of “stuff” in my room.

One day, on my way to elementary school, I saw a dead bird on the street—a real find, as it was still in good condition and not bug-eaten or rotting.  I picked it up, carried it with me to my class, wrapped it in a napkin, and kept it in my desk all day until I could take it home.  I didn’t add this to my collection.  Instead, I examined it carefully and then gave it a decent burial.

My first chem lab

Around 4^th or 5^th grade, I asked for a chemistry set for Christmas and, lucky me, Santa obliged!  It contained nothing dangerous; there was no chance of burning the house down.  With my brother as my assistant, I followed the instructions and performed the prescribed set of experiments in our basement.  Sadly, I found it disappointing and boring.

Controlled burns

The exciting stuff happened in the woods, where my best friend and I would set fires to observe how different things burned: paper (our coloring books), plastic (old toys), metal (rusty pipes and nails) and, of course, a few marshmallows. When I came home smelling of smoke, I lied to my parents saying that I watched as some guy in the neighborhood who was burning leaves.

Creepy-crawly things

I did keep some live “pets”. Once, when my family was cooking snails (called babbaluci in their Sicilian language) I rescued two before they made it to the pot and kept them in a shoebox under my bed. I called them Caesar and Cleopatra, fed them lettuce and other greens until it all became a stinky mess, and I released them into our garden.

I also had an ant farm for a while, which I made myself. I dug up some “volunteers” from the yard and put them in a glass case. I fed these captives mostly bread and watched them toil away at their busy lives. Because I couldn’t see what they did below the surface, I eventually lost interest and returned them to their natural habitat.

High school years

In high school, science classes finally become interesting.  I loved biology and chemistry;  I rocked my grades in both.  In bio lab, we dissected a few things, but chemistry lab was the best.  It was so professional (test tubes, beakers, bunsen burners), a big advancement from my little grade-school set up.  I would stay after school to mess around.  My lab partner was a good match. I can’t remember the details, but we got our hands on something we weren’t supposed to, created a big mess, and almost lost our privileges.  I know you are not surprised.

My fruit fly adventure

The high school science fair was always a big call-to-arms.  I entered every year.  My most memorable effort was my fruit fly adventure.  I had learned that fruit flies breed quickly, are easily affected by radiation, and produce very noticeable mutations. And somehow, before the Internet, I found a place that mailed me a pack of live specimens!

I kept them in a jar with holes in the lid and a cornmeal-molasses paste on the bottom. When the females laid their eggs in the cornmeal, I had to move the adults to another jar to keep the generations separate.  Then my dad, who was in the Navy, took the jar of larva to the base and had a dentist x-ray them with lots of roentgens.  I repeated this with the next set of adults and larva. I was thrilled with the result; the weird wing formations and different eye colors were obvious, especially under a microscope. I made my posters; wrote my little paper; took the jars, some dead flies, and a microscope to the fair; and won an award.

As expected, during the course of the experiment, some of the flies managed to escape.  Much to my mother’s aggravation, we had flies in our house for months.  And, before I left the science fair, someone unscrewed the caps on my jars and let all the flies out. Ooops. I imagine they headed straight for the cafeteria.

And, then what?

So…what happened to this budding scientist who scored very high in both aptitude and interest in this field?  What role models did she have? None. What encouragement was she given?  None. My high school guidance counselor lamely told me I could be a science teacher or an art teacher (also a strong interest at the time). Meh. It all fizzled. I started college aiming for art teacher and many years later wound up being a computer programmer, which is a long story for another time.

And yet, and yet…my innate interest never really died. I still marvel at the natural world.  I’ve enjoyed hiking, skiing, and touring our National Parks (as documented on many of my other blogs).  I maintain both tended and wild gardens.  I feed and observe many species of birds and other local wildlife.  And, some things never change,  I still collect “stuff”: rocks, shells, pods, feathers, leaves, sticks, dead insects and some creepy-crawly things.  If you are in the area, you are welcome to stop by the see the curiosities that decorate my home.