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Curious Minds edited by John Brockman, Pantheon Books, $23.95, ISBN 0375422919 Reviewed by Roy Herbert

THIS is an engrossing treat of a book, subtitled How a Child Becomes a Scientist. These 27 erstwhile children are all distinguished scientists now, and some are famous. They were asked what turned them on to science and when and how and why.

Nicholas Humphrey, a theoretical psychologist, could hardly avoid science. He was born into a family of scientists: his grandfather was a Nobel prizewinner and his father was director of the National Institute for Medical Research in London. The theoretical physicist Paul Davies,…

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