Peter's Academic Interests

My first academic interest was science, mainly biology. In fact, it was botany. I grew up on a farm, so it was easy to indulge this interest. I used to grow trees from seeds, such as coral trees and oaks. But the trees that really fascinated me were fig trees, the same sort of tree that is important in Hindu religion and under which the Buddha found enlightenment. But these were really difficult to get to grow. Instead, I used to search in the cracks of other trees where birds had dropped enough shit filled with seeds for fig trees to start growing in another tree. I loved these. I used keep them like Japanese bonsai - small, twisted into interesting shapes using wire, and landscaped with moss. I think even from a very young age, I wanted to control nature by understanding it.

My passion for botany also led me to read a lot .I read my mother's awful women's magazines for the gardening section. I cut out many articles and pictures and made them into my own "books" on flowers, garden shrubs and so on. And I started reading science books. By the time I entered highschool, I loved biology, especially cells and evolution. And the cells led me to study chemistry to understand how they worked at the most basic level. On the other hand, evolution led me to study wider questions about the nature of life, what life really is. At the same time, my interest moved from chemistry to physics, and to mathematics, which helps us make sense of it all and prove things.