The postdoc explained to me how to distinguish different sorts of particles on the basis of the amounts of energy they deposited in various sorts of detectors, spark chambers, calorimeters, what have you.

Conversely, I came to realize that being good at something is hardly a reason to avoid doing it.

Most of my teachers probably found I made less trouble if they let me read.

My head was always bubbling over with facts and it seems to me this had little to do with my paying close attention in school and more to do with my voracious and omnivorous reading habits.

It was there I met my future wife, Celeste Landry, although our lives took us separate ways for many years and we were not to marry until more than ten years later.

I was born in Palo Alto, California in 1961.

The 1970s, the decade of my teenage years, was a transitional period in American youth culture.