Growing up with curiosity and imagination

Ever since I was a child it seemed that my parents have already planned to instill the one principle that defines who I am so far: to never stop learning. The second floor of my childhood home is like (and still is) a mini library that keeps expanding. Within the cupboards are books covering topics about anything – novels, non-fiction novels, textbooks, handbooks, encyclopedias, you name them. I spent most of my time in the evening and nights (the entire day at times) of my childhood reading those books with great interest and fervor. I didn’t read all of them of course, and I’m no Klaus Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate events (who is eidetic¹ and remembers everything he reads), but I do remember most of them, especially those of my particular interest. And one of them is science, where most of my curiosity and imagination come from. My queries especially about nature and space-time are things I have constantly thought about and also asking perplexing questions to my parents during my childhood.

Renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku bequeathed his short tale about his own childhood curiosity and imagination in his second book Hyperspace². He recalls one of his happiest childhood memories of observing coloured carps³ in the shallow pond while visiting the Japanese Tea Garden. While observing them swimming below the water lilies, he thought of us humans viewing the world as our universe. Then the question of curiosity came: how would the carps in the pond view the world around them? The carps living in the pond would believe their “universe” is within the pond, consisting of muddy water and water lilies. DO they know there is something above the water? What do they perceive when they see us observing them? He described his moment of thoughts as “asking myself silly questions that only a child might ask”. But that is the main thing about science. To never stop learning. To never stop questioning and finding the answers. “The greatest thing about being a scientist is you never have to grow up”, as renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told a mind blown 8 year-old girl during a lecture. It is simply the way of life: observe, think, and analyse. Not clarified? Repeat it.

Curiosity and imagination can lead to endless unanticipated ideas. Then again as my parents have told me, ideas are never enough; if plausible, ideas must be implemented.

¹Ability to remember with great accuracy and in great detail, or simply known as photographic memory.

²Kaku, M. (1994). Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension. Doubleday, New York.
³Fish species of the family Cyprinidae, native to Asia but introduced to elsewhere.