The Intersection of Chemistry and Fatherhood

Why being a dad-scientist is both a blessing and a curse

Since the beginning of time, children have asked their parents ridiculous questions for which parents, one way or another, have to come with an answer. The answers to “why is the sky blue?” and “when we close the doors to the car, how come we don’t run out of air?” usually result in comic book material not unlike Calvin’s dad from Calvin and Hobbes.

I haven’t ever found myself in the same boat as Calvin’s dad. Why? Well, because of a few reasons, really. First, for much of my adult life, I’ve challenge myself to fully understand the answer to a question, no matter how deep of a rabbit hole it takes me down. If you’ve read some of my pieces about the history of chemistry or some of the more famous chemical reactions, you get a (carefully curated) taste of this. I dig very deeply into those topics so that I gain the full context of the discovery — that enables me to tell the story without getting overly technical.

The second reason (that I can think of at the moment) is more obvious — I have extensive scientific and critical thinking training. Consequently, I know the answers to my kids’ ridiculous questions already. As a new parent, I can remember salivating at the thought of my daughter asking me “why is the sky blue?” just so I could fulfill my destiny (okay, maybe “salivating” is bit intense, but you get the idea).