On the last week of summer vacation, the kids and I visited the Science Museum of Minnesota. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area. I've been to alot of science museums in a lot of the major U.S. cities and this one was very well done. They had this awesome science experiment area for kids ages 8 and up. They actually got to put on lab coats, safety glasses and latex gloves and get down and dirty with some awesome experiments. Gavin chose to do the Chromosome Identification experiment where he got to isolate a chromosome from a fly larva. I guess some people like that kind of stuff. Not me. I like to take pictures.
I have to say, Gavin looked a little too comfortable in his white lab coat. He acted like he understood all this science stuff around him. He knew how to work the massive microscope. He didn't gag (like me) when he was told to try to put the tip of the tweezers right on the middle of the larva so it wouldn't wiggle so much. He had a perfect tried but true contemplative expression.
So, I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was by his declaration at dinner tonight, "Mom. I think I'd like to be a Theoretical Physicist when I grow up. Like that guy on Sci-Fi Science."
"Oh. Really? Uh...what exactly does a Theoretical Physisisisict....do?"
"They sit around thinking up ideas and get other people to do them. I don't actually like to build things, but I love to come up with ideas about new things and ways of doing them."
"Exactly! I knew there was a name for that! You'd be perfect at that! No wonder you love to incorporate all that kind of stuff in your writing. And all your years of sci-fi reading have probably propelled your imagination even further. Buddy, you have the perfect mind for that! Go for it! I'm so excited for you!"
