Scientists: Geniuses or Hard Workers?

As a writer for Sally Ride Science, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing countless scientists for our educational publications. I’ve gotten to ask some of the brightest minds in the country what makes them tick and why they do what they do. From the JPL project scientist whose heart and hopes lie with two robotic rovers on Mars, to the Yale neurobiologist who searches coral reefs for compounds that could advance medicine, the scientists I’ve talked to are as different as the fields they study.

And yet, many share common traits: curiosity, an openness to going where their research takes them, and surprisingly, a strong conviction that to be a scientist, you don’t have to be an Einstein.

It’s true that many scientists were whizzes at math and science as young kids. They started sophisticated rock collections as middle school students or rebuilt cars as teens.

But others – more than one might expect – stressed that they worked hard, sometimes very hard, to succeed in math and science. Sometimes they didn’t like it. When the going got tough, they simply refused to give up.

“Whoever said you had to like math to be an engineer?” asked Ann Devereaux, a communications engineer for NASA. Ann didn’t, but was able to see math as a means to an end – something she had to go through to get to where she wanted.

Often what pushed them to persevere was the presence of a passionate teacher – the kind who brought science to life in real ways and encouraged them to stick with it.

Miriam Nelson, a top nutritionist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, struggled with dyslexia – and chemistry – in high school. Then a biology teacher saw potential in her. “He said you can do anything… . Don’t sell yourself short,” she recalled. Dr. Nelson went on to become one of the country’s foremost experts in exercise nutrition, appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America, and writing numerous best-selling books on nutrition and exercise.

The belief that people are either born scientists or not is not only untrue, it’s unhelpful. It hurts students who are interested in science but begin to doubt themselves when a lesson or subject doesn’t come easily.

But learning science takes work, just like many other things in life and school. The brightest minds will tell you that.