CLASS X

ENGLISH
FOOTPRINTS WITHOUT FEET
The Making of a Scientist
Notes

Do the following questions in your English Notebook.

Q1. How did a book become a turning point in Richard Ebright’s life?

Ans. Richard Ebright was interested in collecting butterflies. By the time he was in the
second grade, he had collected all the twenty- five species of butterflies found around his
hometown. This would have been the end of his butterfly collecting. But at this point his
mother got him a book called ‘The Travels of Monarch X’. This book told him about the
migration of monarch butterflies to Central America. This book aroused his interest in
Monarch butterflies and opened the world of science to him. This proved to be a turning point
in the life of young Richard. He began to raise Monarch butterflies in the basement of his
home, and study them in different stages of their development.

Q2. How did Richard’s mother help him?

Ans. Richard’s mother helped him by encouraging his interest in learning. She took him on
trips, bought him telescopes, microscopes, cameras, mounting materials and other equipments
and helped him in many other ways. She was his only companion until he started school. If
he did not have anything to do, she found things for him to learn. Even the book ‘The Travels
of Monarch’ that became a turning point in his life was given to him by his mother. Hence, it
can be said that his mother played a crucial role in the making of the scientist.

Q3. What are the qualities that go into the making of a scientist?

Ans. The author mentions three qualities that go into the making of a scientist- a first-rate
mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons. Richard Ebright was a very
intelligent student. He was also a champion debater, a public speaker, a good canoeist and an
expert photographer. He always gave that extra effort. He was competitive, but for the right
reasons. From the first he had a driving curiosity along with a bright mind, and it was this
curiosity that ultimately led him to his theory about cell life.

Q4. What lesson did Ebright learn when he did not win anything at a science fair?

Ans. Ebright exhibited slides of frog tissues at a science fair. He did not get any prize. He
learnt an important lesson that science is not just about display. It is about projects and
experiments and the winners had tried to do real experiments. He began conducting
experiments from that day onwards.

Q5. How did Richard Ebright excite the scientific world at the age of twenty-two?

Ans. Richard was just twenty-two when he excited the scientific world with a new theory. It
was on how cells worked. Ebright and his college room-mate explained the theory in an
article in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Science’. It was the first time that this
famous scientific journal had ever published the work of college students.

Q6. How did Ebright’s basement become home to thousands of monarch butterflies?
Ans. Richard used to send tagged monarch butterflies to Dr. Urquhart for his research work.
Chasing butterflies one by one was difficult and he couldn’t catch many. So, he decided to
raise some of the butterflies in his basement. He would catch a monarch butterfly, take her
eggs and raise them. Then, he would tag the butterflies’ wings and let them go. So, his
basement became home to thousands of monarch butterflies.

Q7. Richard Ebright was a famous scientist but he had time for other interests too. What were
the other interests and hobbies of Ebright?

Ans. Richard’s journey as a scientist started since he first began collecting butterflies.
However, he found time for other interests and hobbies too. He became a champion debater
and public speaker. He was a good canoeist. He was also an expert photographer. He excelled
in photographing nature and scientific exhibits.

Q8. Why did Richard admire his teacher Richard A. Weiherer?

Ans. Richard had great respect and admiration for his social studies teacher. He was
Richard’s adviser to the Debating and Model United Nations Clubs. Richard A. Weiherer was
the perfect person for Ebright who opened his mind to new ideas.

Q9. What was Richard A. Weiherer’s opinion of his student Richard Ebright?

Ans. Mr. Richard A. Weiherer was Ebright’s social studies teacher and adviser. Mr. Weiherer
described Ebright as a man of varied interests. Ebright put in three to four hours at night
doing debate research. Besides, he was doing all his research with butterflies and his other
interests. Ebright was competitive but not in a bad sense and he wasn’t interested in winning
for winning’s sake or winning to get a prize. He wanted to be the best for the right reasons.

Q10. Mention any two of Ebright’s contributions to the world of science.

Ans. He carried experiments to prove successfully that hormone produced by the gold spots
of a pupa is responsible for the growth and formation of butterfly wings. He also discovered
how a cell could read the blueprint of its DNA that controls heredity.

Q11. How did Richard Ebright become a scientist?

Ans. Richard Ebright had been a curious child even when he was in kindergarten. His
curiosity prompted him to collect rocks, fossils, coins and butterflies. His mother’s
encouragement and his bright mind also contributed in his success. His mother got him all
that he needed to develop his scientific bent of mind. His response to Dr. Fredrick A.
Urquhart to collect butterflies for his research gave him an opportunity in his endeavours.
Then in the seventh grade, he got a hint of what real science is when he entered a county
science fair and lost. He realized that winners had tried to do real experiments, not simply
make a neat display. Thereafter, Ebright worked sincerely on every science project he got
every year in school. Then he stood first in a county fair that gave him entry into international
science and engineering fair where he won third place. He then went on to win the highest
honours and graduated from Harvard. His high school research into the purpose of the spots
on a monarch pupa eventually led him to his theory about cell life. Thus, he became a
renowned scientist.
Q12. Describe Richard Ebright’s various achievements in science, particularly his great work
on the monarch butterflies. Who did Ebright look to for getting fresh ideas and suggestions?

Ans. Richard Ebright had all the necessary ingredients that are required in the making of a
scientist. He had a first-rate mind, was competitive and had the will to win. Above all, he was
a great collector and never lost his scientific curiosity. His scientific journey started very
early. While he was still in the second grade, he had collected all the species of butterflies
found around his hometown. ‘The Travels of Monarch X’ was the book that changed his life.
It opened the world of science to the eager collector. His failure at his first county science fair
taught him an important lesson. He learnt that winners do real experiments. One of the most
important projects of Richard Ebright was to prove that viceroy butterflies try to look like
monarch butterflies. They do so to avoid being eaten by birds. Ebright also proved that the
twelve tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa produced a hormone that was necessary for the
butterfly’s full development. His other project won first place for Zoology at the International
Fair. It showed that if cells are fed the hormone from the gold spots, they can develop into
normal butterfly wing scales. The crowning achievement of Ebright’s brilliant scientific
career was his work on the chemical structure of a hormone. He proved that a cell can read
the blueprint of its DNA and thus DNA controls heredity and is the blueprint for life.

Richard Ebright looked to Dr. Urquhart for fresh ideas and suggestions. The book, ‘The
Travels of Monarch X, opened the world of science to him. He sent tagged butterflies to Dr.
Urquhart for his research works. Dr. Urquhart’s new ideas and suggestions helped Ebright to
achieve prizes and honours in the county and International Science Fairs.