As the Paralympics opening ceremony started I called out to my 17 year old daughter that Stephen Hawkins was there. This was a girl who dropped science as soon as she could, aspires to being an actress and shows her main interest in fashion and TV shows like Friends, TOWIE and Two and a Half Men.
In this instance she literally squealed "No way!", rushed in a sat on the edge of her seat watching Stephen's contribution. The phrase "in awe" is the one on my lips to describe how she reacted to Stephen's appearance. I confess that this surprised me, but also pleased me. Was it a sign of growing maturity?
I mentioned this at work as a younger colleague was commenting that he wishes he had done more science at school. He observed that science is cool, or at least a lot cooler than it was. TV programmes and presenters such as Brian Cox have gone a long way to change perceptions I guess that news stories and pictures of missions to Mars, the large Hadron collider and similar items have done no harm either.
As a long time back physics graduate I find this interesting and fascinating. I confess to a sense of pride in my daughter's reaction and feel that as parents and teachers we have "done good".
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