NCERT Book Class 10 English (Foot Prints Without feet) Chapter 6 The Making of a Scientist

The Making of a Scientist 6
Richard Ebright has recieved the Searle
Scholar Award and the Schering Plough
Award for Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology. It was his fascination for butterflies
that opened the world of science to him.

READ AND FIND OUT
• How did a book become a turning point in Richard
Ebright’s life?
• How did his mother help him?

AT the age of twenty-two, a former ‘scout of the year’ excited the scientific
world with a new theory on how cells work. Richard H. Ebright and his
college room-mate explained the theory in an article in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science.
It was the first time this important scientific journal had ever
published the work of college students. In sports, that would be like
making the big leagues at the age of fifteen and hitting a home run
your first time at bat*. For Richard Ebright, it was the first in a long
string of achievements in science and other fields. And it all started
with butterflies.
An only child, Ebright grew up north of Reading, Pennsylvania.
“There wasn’t much I could do there,” he said. “I certainly couldn’t
play football or baseball with a team of one. But there was one thing I
could do — collect things.”
So he did, and did he ever! Beginning in kindergarten, Ebright
collected butterflies with the same determination that has marked all
his activities. He also collected rocks, fossils, and coins. He became
an eager astronomer, too, sometimes star-gazing all night.

* A home run in the game of baseball is when the batter scores a run after running safely
around all bases and back to the home plate without stopping. A ball hit out of the playing
field is also called a home run. Getting a paper published at the age of fifteen in a scientific
journal is here compared to scoring a home run while batting for the first time.