Ainan's gum arabic flow experiment

Ainan is an incessant experimenter. He never ceases to engage with the world in an experimental manner, testing it, learning about it, studying it in an active, responsive manner. This, however, is something I have come to be used to. It is the daily background of our life with Ainan. What ever manages to amaze me, however, is the degree of control he exerts over nature in his experiments: he seems to have an instinct for what to do to achieve the end he desires.

I will give you an example. About a month ago, Ainan had in his possession something he called: "Gum arabic". Where he got it from I do not know. Yet, he had some. I didn't know anything about this substance so he decided to show me something which he believed he could do with it.

He took the gum arabic in his hand and pinched it with his fingers so that it formed a dumbell shape - two spheres connected by a bridge. He then stretched it out so that the bridge became longer - yet it remained connected. He placed one end of the dumbell at the base of a door, sticking it to the surface of the door - the other he stretched until it was high up and held it there.

"Watch." he said, knowing what would happen but not telling me.

Before my eyes the "gum arabic" flowed down from the upper dumbell to the lower, along the bridge that still had not broken. This surprised me because the bridge was about one and a quarter metres long at this point. The material flowed continuously, the bridge becoming hair thin - perhaps thinner - but still it flowed and didn't break. As I watched the upper dumbell flowed down into the lower one - and, despite the greatly stretched nature of the bridge, it remained unbroken throughout.

This moment is typical of Ainan's gift for experimental interaction with the world. He seems to understand the properties of substances very well and knows how to relate to them to achieve his end - however unlikely those ends might be. Perhaps what I see here is the foundation of an experimental scientist to come, one who will, one day, engage with the world in new ways, with new results that advance whichever science he eventually chooses to contribute to.

(If you would like to read more Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three and Tiarnan, fourteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Ainan and the future of Science

Many a child thinks of the future, of their adult life to come. Most have a childhood dream of what they want to be when they "grow up". For Ainan that dream is not a fireman, a policeman or a Doctor, as is common - but a scientific researcher.

Yesterday, as we sat and talked, about the evolution of atomic theory, Ainan turned to me, and voiced something that concerned him:

"So much Science has been discovered...how many discoveries will be left for me to make?"

"A lot, I hope."

"Why?"

His why was not for why I "hoped", but for why I thought there might be a lot left.

"I am not sure if science is infinite...it could be, though I am not sure," I began, "but it is certainly very large...much larger, I think, than we have presently explored. The closer you look at any given Science, the more detail there is - the more there is to understand. I think it will take Mankind a long time to master all of that. It is possible that one day, there will be no more science left to do. It is possible that everything will be known one day...but that is not going to be soon. There will be things left for you to do."

He was quiet in reply - there being no need for words. I don't know if my answer reassured him, but it was clear that he still thought that much that was "big" had already been done.

Ainan wants to be a research scientist. He envisages being one rather young (since he has the capacity to be so, if only barriers in his way are removed). Yet, he does not want to be a researcher in a world in which all has been found, already. He wants his life to have purpose. He wants to make a contribution. This is quite a mature ambition for a seven year old. There is something in him that wants to matter - to do something of significance. His unspoken thought was: "If by the time I become a scientist, there is little science left to be done, what is the point of being so?"

In some ways, Ainan doesn't see himself as I see him. I see a boy whose every thought bubbles with originality. He just sees himself being himself. He has no perspective to know how unusual he is, in that regard. If there is Science left to be done, by the time he begins a career, and Ainan is in an area which still has work to do, I have no doubt that he will make many a contribution to the development of Science. All we have to do is get him ready to begin.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Ainan's experimental flair: a practical scientist

Yesterday, Ainan took something out of the freezer, and said: "This is super-cooled water, Daddy."

Now, until Ainan first mentioned it to me, a few months ago, I had never heard of super-cooled water. As is becoming increasingly the case, it is Ainan who introduces me to things scientific.

I looked at the water. It was just liquid, like any other water. There didn't appear to be anything special about it. I went about making a cup of tea.

Then Ainan did something magical. He swirled the water in the vessel - and all at once, it turned to ice, as if some Wizard of old had cast a spell.

I had never seen that before in my life. If I had not been scientifically trained, and I had seen that in a time before science, I would have thought it magic, at work. The liquid crystallized as ice, in an instant. Uncanny.

What I found revealing about this, is that Ainan has good experimental control. He is able to get the world to do things, experimentally, which, frankly, I would have thought unlikely. He has, to use an old word, the "knack" for experimental design and interaction with the world.

Don't ask me how he got the water to do that - but he did. What a curious boy.