Phil’s first internship?
November 23, 2011“Dad, I don’t want to go to school today. I want to go to your work and help you make cells.”
“Well, I don’t need to make cells today. I’m just going to do an experiment with a protein.”
“Can I help you with the pwoh-tein? You can do the hard parts and I can do the easy parts.”
Numerous practical considerations (and laws) prevent me from using my 5-year-old as a research assistant, of course. But I love that he thinks of scientific research as something that he can participate in. Too often it’s considered an enterprise reserved for highly trained eggheads.
My Track Record 
Evolutionary biologist Andrew Hendry gets his kids to help him with his field work (on stickleback fish). He gives a talk which includes pictures of his kids helping him count and sort fish.
This illustrates the principle that it’s not only highly trained eggheads who can do science. Rather, by doing science, you become a highly trained egghead.
Uh oh…perhaps a clue to an appropriate holiday present? Or one that you should invent for your egghead-to-be?