The Making of a Scientist by Robert W. Peterson
Quick answer: The Making of a Scientist by Robert W. Peterson, Class 10 Footprints Without Feet: summary of Richard Ebright's story, butterflies, science fairs, curiosity and exam answers.
A boy in Reading, Pennsylvania, who has collected all twenty-five local butterfly species by the second grade, opens a book about monarch migration and finds an invitation to tag butterflies for a professor. The Making of a Scientist, sixth in Class 10 Footprints Without Feet, is Robert W. Peterson's profile of Richard Ebright.
The chapter in brief
Ebright is an only child; his father dies when he is in the third grade, and his mother buys him telescopes, microscopes and cameras. The Travels of Monarch X connects him with Dr Frederick A. Urquhart of the University of Toronto, and for years he tags monarchs and raises them in his basement. In the seventh grade he enters a county science fair with slides of frog tissue and wins nothing; real experiments, he learns, beat displays.
Dr Urquhart sends ideas. A project on the viral disease killing monarch caterpillars wins at county level, and work on the gold spots of a monarch pupa brings prizes at county and international fairs. The spots produce a hormone needed for development, and Ebright works out its structure in high school with help from government laboratories. At Harvard he proposes a theory of how cells read their DNA, published at twenty-two. He is also a debater, canoeist and photographer, and credits his teacher Richard A. Weiherer for the competitive drive.
The people
- Richard Ebright: curious, competitive, unwilling to lose twice.
- His mother: tools and encouragement without pushing.
- Dr Urquhart and Mr Weiherer: the distant mentor and the teacher who taught him to compete.
Themes and meaning
Exams ask what makes a scientist, and Peterson answers: a first-rate mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons. The sharper observation is the lost science fair. Ebright's most useful experience is failure, since it sends him to real experiments, and the profile treats that defeat as the beginning.
The craft of a profile
The piece runs chronologically, and its turn is the seventh-grade loss, placed early so every later success reads as its consequence. The butterfly is the through-line, from collecting to tagging to hormones to cells. The closing paragraphs end on a mentor's judgment rather than the writer's.
For the exam
Summary in 100 words: Richard Ebright, an only child from Reading, Pennsylvania, developed an early passion for collecting butterflies, encouraged by his mother after his father's death. A book on monarch migration led him to tag butterflies for Dr Urquhart of Toronto. After losing a seventh-grade science fair with a mere display, he began real experiments, studying a disease in monarch caterpillars and the gold spots on monarch pupae, which he showed produce a vital hormone. He won prizes at county and international fairs, worked out the hormone's structure, and at Harvard proposed a theory of how cells read DNA. Curiosity, intelligence and competitive drive made him a scientist.
- Word meanings: migration (seasonal movement of animals), pupa (stage between caterpillar and butterfly), hormone (chemical regulating growth), viceroy (a butterfly species), blueprint (detailed plan), mimic (imitate).
- Character sketch of Richard Ebright (60 words): Richard Ebright is a gifted, curious and fiercely competitive boy who turns a butterfly collection into serious research. He learns from failure at his first science fair, seeks guidance from experts and pursues questions about monarch hormones through high school and Harvard. He is also a debater, speaker and outdoorsman. His success comes from curiosity paired with the will to win.
- Long answer: How did Ebright's mother help him? Model answer: After his father's death she bought him instruments and books, took him on trips, and gave him the monarch book that started his research.
- Long answer: What did Ebright learn from losing the seventh-grade fair? Model answer: That displays win nothing and real experiments are needed; he wrote to Dr Urquhart for ideas and won the next year.
- Long answer: What did Ebright discover about monarchs? Model answer: The gold spots on the pupa produce a hormone necessary for development, and he later identified its chemical structure.
What writers can take from this
- Give the three ingredients of a scientist as Peterson lists them: mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons.
- Place the seventh-grade loss as the turning point in any long answer on his growth.
- Name the book, the mentor and the teacher; examiners like the proper nouns.
- Profile writers: find a single through-line, here the butterfly, and follow it from hobby to discovery.
- End a profile on someone else's judgment of the subject.
Try it yourself
Write a profile of a young person, real or invented, whose most important moment is a public failure placed early in the piece, and follow a single object or animal from their childhood hobby to their adult work.
Questions
How did a book start Richard Ebright's scientific career?
His mother gave him The Travels of Monarch X, about monarch butterfly migration. An invitation at the back to help Dr Urquhart tag butterflies led Ebright into years of research on monarchs.
What did Ebright discover about the gold spots on the monarch pupa?
He showed that the spots were not merely ornamental but produced a hormone necessary for the butterfly's full development, and he later identified the hormone's chemical structure.
What qualities made Richard Ebright a scientist?
According to Peterson, a first-rate mind, insatiable curiosity and the will to win for the right reasons. Failure at his first science fair taught him to do real experiments.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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