My parents were determined to move into the middle class.

About 1900 my parents came to the United States as children from what was then the Polish area of Russia.

The experimenter dealing with nature faces an outside and often hard world. Natures' curriculum cannot be changed.

I read everything: fiction, history, science, mathematics, biography, travel.

I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set.

A parent being called to the school because their child had misbehaved was as serious as a parent being called to the police station because their child had robbed a bank.

Experimental science is a craft and an art, and part of the art is knowing when to end a fruitless experiment. There is a danger of becoming obsessed with a fruitless experiment even if it goes nowhere.