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Nothing pushed me further into a scientificcareer.

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It's very hard for me toconvey this, but for as far back as I can

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remember, that was a very deep-seated drive.

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Theonly evidence I have on that score was my

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first composition, which and the mere factthat

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mother saved it will say something.

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But in second grade, "What do you want tobe when you

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grow up?"

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"I want to be scientist like Einstein anddiscover theories in mathematics."

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I candocument at least that part of it.

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[laughter] It's a mystery where that camefrom and exactly

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what drove it.

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What nurtured it were my teachers at school,the library system in particular - I

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learned far more from the books that I readthan I did from in classes, and a somewhat

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ambiguous relationship with father, but inthe end, one that was very encouraging.

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He wasdisappointed that I, in some sense, repudiated

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his Rabbinical approach to the meaning oflife,

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but in the end it was not a repudiation.

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We came to a creative compromise that theLord has

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many mansions and science was one of them.

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So his pride in me and my accomplishment-even though it was not in the immediate direction

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of his own calling-was a positivereinforcement.

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But I had no material content from that.

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The only books at home that wouldhave had any bearing on this kind of learning

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and they were dictionary and encyclopedia.

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Iread them from cover to cover When I said

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"encyclopedic interest," it had that manifestation.