Trace the journey of richard ebright from his childhood to the making of scientist

When he was in seventh class, he came to know what real science was as he lost at a County science fair. It was a really sad feeling for him to see all other people win something while he did not win anything. He showed frog tissue slides under a microscope but realized that all the winners had actually tried to perform an experiment and not just make a neat display out of their projects. He had already started developing the competitive spirit inside him. Now he had decided that he would be making a real project for the next year’s fair. He thought and realized that he had maximum knowledge about the subject of insects as he had been studying them for quite some time now. He wrote to Dr. Urquhart for ideas and he sent back a lot of ideas for his next year’s project. He remained busy with those ideas all throughout his high school and won many prizes. In his eighth class, he tried to find the cause of a viral disease that killed nearly all monarch caterpillars every few years. Ebright thought that the disease was being transmitted through beetles so, he started raising caterpillars in the presence of beetles. It was of no use but when he showed that he had tried such an experiment, he won something for his project.  For the next year, he tried the theory that viceroy butterflies copy monarchs. He put forward the theory that viceroy butterflies look like monarchs because monarchs do not taste good to the birds and birds like to eat viceroys. So, the more the viceroy looked like the monarch, the less likely it is that viceroy would be eaten by a bird. He wanted to show in his project that would a bird eat monarchs or not. He found out that the sterling bird would prefer eating a monarch. Later research showed that the viceroys copied the monarchs. This project won him the first division in the Zoology department and the third overall position in the county science fair.
During his second year of high school, Richard started a research from which he found about an unknown insect hormone that later helped him in his new theory about the life of cells as well. The question from where the research started was very simple as to - what was the purpose of the 12 tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa? Most of the people said that the spots were made for making it look more decorative but Dr. Urquhart did not believe in what others said. To find the answer to this question, Ebright and another excellent science student together made a device that proved that these spots produced a hormone necessary for the full development of a butterfly from a pupa. With this, Ebright won the first prize at the County Science Fair and the entry to International Science and Engineering Fair. There, his project won third prize for zoology. He also got a chance to work at the entomology laboratory of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He continued his work with the monarch pupa as a high school junior and that led him to win the first prize at the International Science Fair. After winning this prize he also got a chance to work at the army laboratory during summers. Then during his senior year he tried another experiment in which he grew cells from a monarch’s wing in a culture and showed that cells would divide and develop into a normal butterfly wing scales provided that they were treated with the hormone from the gold spots. This research of his won the first prize at the international fair and he spent his summer after graduation doing more research on the subject at the army laboratory and the laboratory of U.S department of agriculture.
Then he worked some more on the hormone released from the gold spots during the following summers at the laboratory of the agriculture department. He identified the chemical structure of the hormone using the lab’s special equipment.  After one and a half years, Ebright got the idea for his new theory which was about the cell life. The idea came to him when he was looking at the X ray photos of the chemical structure of the hormone. He did not get excited about his discovery as soon as he found it, but came to a realization that his years of study on the insect hormone had solved one of the puzzles of biology. It had solved the mystery of how cells read the blueprint of its DNA. He found that as the DNA is in the nucleus of a cell that controls heredity, therefore, it determines the form and function of a cell. Hence, DNA is the blueprint of life.
Then Ebright and his room-mate made drawings and plastic models for the theory which showed how it was possible and later wrote a paper which explained the process. It did not surprise the people who knew him that he graduated from Harvard with highest honours and stood second in his class among 1510 students. He then became a graduate student researcher at the Harvard University and also started doing practical experiments to test his theory. It was expected that if the theory proved to be correct, then it would be a big step towards understanding the complex system of life and also would lead to new ideas for preventing certain types of cancer and other diseases. So, this showed how his research on the monarch pupa led him to a theory about cell life. He had been keen in science ever since he started collecting butterflies but this did not keep him away from his other interests in life. He was a champion debater, a great public speaker and a good boat racer (canoeist). He was also an all round outdoor sports person along with being an expert photographer. He was great at  capturing nature and scientific subjects. As he was a great student and always used to score good, he used to focus his extra energy on debating and Model United Nations Clubs. He also used to admire his social studies teacher and an advisor to both clubs, Mr. Richard A. Welherer. Ebright thought that his teacher was the right man as he was the one who used to open his mind to new ideas.
            His teacher was impressed with the fact that how Ebright would give an extra 3-4 hours of effort at night for the debate research apart from the time that he used to give to his butterfly research and his other interests. He added that he was competitive but not in a bad sense because he did not win to get prizes or for the sake of winning but because he wanted to be the best at whatever he did. This is what makes a good scientist. He needs a first rated mind along with curiosity and an added will to win for the right reasons. Since the time Richard’s mother got him the book about migration of monarchs, his curiosity towards science has just grown.