The Making of a Scientist

At twenty-two Richard Ebright excited the scientific world with a new theory on how cells work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science - the first time that journal published college students' work. It all started with butterflies.

Richard H. Ebright and his college roommate James R. Wong explained their theory in a major scientific journal - an achievement compared to hitting a home run in one's first big-league game. For Ebright it was the first of many successes in science and other fields, and it began with childhood butterfly collecting in Pennsylvania.

An only child north of Reading, Pennsylvania, Ebright could not play team sports but could collect things. From kindergarten he gathered butterflies, rocks, fossils, and coins, and became an eager astronomer. He had driving curiosity and a bright mind.

Growing up with few playmates, Ebright poured energy into collecting. Butterflies were his earliest passion, pursued with the same determination that marked all his activities. He also studied stars, sometimes gazing all night. His curiosity was intense and his mind sharp.

His mother encouraged learning - trips, telescopes, microscopes, cameras, and evening work at the dining table. After his father died in third grade, she was his companion and found learning tasks for him when he had nothing to do.

Ebright's mother took him on trips and bought scientific equipment. She brought friends home after he started school, but evenings remained their learning time together. When his father died during third grade, she devoted herself to Richard. She found intellectual work for him; he liked learning and earned top grades while remaining like other kids in daily life.

By second grade Ebright had collected all twenty-five local butterfly species. Then his mother gave him The Travels of Monarch X, about monarch migration. He tagged butterflies for Dr Frederick A. Urquhart of the University of Toronto and raised monarchs in his basement.

The children's book on monarch migration opened the world of science to Ebright. Readers were invited to tag butterflies for Dr Urquhart's research. Ebright's mother wrote to Dr Urquhart, and Richard attached adhesive tags to monarch wings. He raised thousands of monarchs through their life cycle in his basement, though only two tagged butterflies were ever recovered.

In seventh grade Ebright entered a county science fair with frog-tissue slides and lost. He realised winners did real experiments, not neat displays. He wrote to Dr Urquhart, received ideas, and began prize-winning research on monarch diseases and viceroy butterflies.

Sitting without a prize while others won was a sad lesson. Ebright understood that real science means experimenting. Dr Urquhart sent suggestions that kept him busy through high school. Projects included testing a viral disease in monarch caterpillars and showing that starlings would eat monarchs - supporting the theory that viceroys mimic monarchs to avoid birds.

In high school Ebright studied twelve tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa and proved they produced a hormone needed for full development. Later, at Harvard, X-ray photos of a hormone's chemical structure helped him form a theory about how cells read their DNA blueprint.

Ebright built a device showing the gold spots on a monarch pupa secrete a vital hormone. He grew wing cells in culture and demonstrated they needed that hormone to form normal scales. His work won international science fairs and summer jobs in army entomology labs. At Harvard, studying hormone structure, he saw how cells might 'read' DNA - the blueprint of life. With Wong he wrote the landmark paper.

Ebright also debated, canoed, photographed nature, and admired his teacher Mr Weiherer, who said Richard competed to do the best job, not merely to win prizes. The recipe: first-rate mind, curiosity, and winning for the right reasons.

Science never consumed all of Ebright's life. He was a champion debater, outdoors-person, and photographer. Mr Weiherer, his social studies teacher, noted that Richard worked hours on debate research after butterfly experiments because he wanted excellence, not trophies. Peterson concludes that these qualities - mind, curiosity, and right-minded competitiveness - make a scientist.