{"id":1086,"date":"2011-03-02T16:59:09","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.e357.net\/beingernest\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2011-03-03T18:31:24","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T23:31:24","slug":"science-fair-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/science-fair-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Fair Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[amazon_link id=”1401323790″ target=”_blank” ]\"Science[\/amazon_link]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[amazon_link id=”1401323790″ target=”_blank” ]Science Fair Season[\/amazon_link] by Judy Dutton, Hyperion (April 19, 2011)
\n<\/strong>review by Ernest Lilley <\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in thrilling tales of science, here\u2019s a dozen you shouldn\u2019t miss. No aliens or inter-dimensional gateways, though neither would be out of place, just a bunch of truly remarkable teens doing amazing science and reaching for the brass ring in the heated competition of a science fair.<\/p>\n

Author\/reporter Judy Dutton got sucked into the vortex of science fairs when she ran across a story about a boy training drug sniffing cockroaches and decided to follow up on it. The result is a wonderful series of short stories about the remarkable and very real adventures of a dozen kids, each with a spark of invention and the drive to follow it where it leads them.<\/p>\n

The drama in these stories makes for gripping reading. Not just because you want to know who\u2019s going to take home the big prize (the stories are all about contestants from one the 2009 Intel International Science & Engineering Fair), but because the back-stories of these kids is as compelling as anything you\u2019ll read in science fiction.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s reality, the author doesn\u2019t have to keep coincidence or implausibility to believable levels\u2026she can go with the remarkable truths these teens represent.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a tech-type, there\u2019s a fair chance you\u2019ve entered a science fair of your own, or at the very least thought about it. You\u2019ll find yourself in here somewhere, or the you that might have been in an alternate reality, and it\u2019s more than an idle exercise to wonder what forces shaped these kids, and how those forces could be used to help others realize their potential. There\u2019s no doubt that the contestants in this book are all brilliant, but that\u2019s not all it took to get them to the science fair. As the author points out, the difference between being awarded a prize for a home-made nuclear reactor (yes, really) or having the government swoop down on your block in hazmat suits to shut down your backyard lab is often a matter of the people around you, and whether they\u2019re willing to support your desire to explore or shut you down.<\/p>\n

Myself, I only made it to one science fair, and there was no way my marine biology exhibit, complete with home-made plankton net and continuous looping tape recorded lecture (the judges were more interested in how I tricked the tape recorder into running a 3 minute loop than my net) was going to win anything. But it was a great experience, and this book brings it back. It also brings back the memories of the teachers that encouraged me, of my mom helping me make a solar furnace out of a beach umbrella and aluminum foil, and my neighbor Mike, an engineer who always had time for my questions.<\/p>\n

Science Fair contestants, like all scientific explorers, may be giants in their own right, but it\u2019s the shoulders they stand on that make all the difference.<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n