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Being a scientist is like being in love with every aspect of the universe.
As a young girl in the classroom, The Big Bang Theory-star Mayim Bialik was left feeling like science was a “boy thing.” Then, she became a neuroscientist. In the video below, Mayim talks about how things are changing for women in STEM.
Science is for everyone. Put that on your bumper sticker and PREACH IT.
We asked Mayim Bialik to tell us a science joke, and here’s what happened.
Now it’s your turn to ask the wonderful Mayim any questions you might have.
Use the comments section of this post to do the asking.
Keep the questions on the short side.
Bear in mind - SHE’S AMY FARRAH FOWLER IN REAL LIFE!
UPDATE: Mayim will indeed answer your questions, but she’s also got to fit it in between being a Neuroscientist and starring on Big Bang Theory! Stay tuned and thanks for your patience.
Did science save Mayim Bialik from the sad fate of most child stars? Which has a better catchphrase, “Blossom” (Woah!) or “The Big Bang Theory” (Bazinga!)? And, what’s better, an Emmy or a Nobel prize?
To learn the answers to these and seven other urgent questions, check out “10 More Questions for Mayim Bialik” in the player above and on Mayim’s Secret Life homepage homepage.
As with all of our scientists, we asked the Emmy-nominated actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik to write us a Haiku. Given her busy awards season schedule, we figured that there was about a 50/50 chance she would show up with paper in hand.
Not only did Ms. Mayim pen a moving poem, she did her homework. Said Mayim: “I did some research. There has to be a breaking concept in a haiku, it’s not just about meter.”
Fancy us impressed. Without further adieu, here’s what she came up with.
So where did Mayim’s concept come from? “I was just back east, and I love the trees changing color. I wrote it about this beautiful leaf that was the color of a bruise. And the breaking concept is the falling.”
Scientist, actress, poet.
America has loved Mayim Bialik for a very long time. First as the title character on Blossom, and then as the fantastically weird and lovable Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, Mayim has been a welcome guest in our living rooms for the better portion of her life.
Mayim in her “secret life” on The Big Bang Theory
And this past year Mayim received an Emmy nomination for her work on Big Bang (just like Secret Life, Mayim lost at the Emmys, but we think she probably got a nicer gift bag than we did – at least, we hope so). Yet even with this high level of celebrity, Mayim has absolutely none of the affectations of celebrity. In fact, she told Vanity Fair that on the morning the Emmy nominations were announced…
“…I was so certain I wasn’t being nominated that I had a phone interview about breastfeeding awareness scheduled at the time the announcements were being made. I was staying with my best friend in Atlanta. She has a newborn and a three-year-old, and I had my two boys with me. We were planning to take the kids to Legoland.”
Now how does this happen? We’re used to hearing about former child stars in the news when they rob convenience stores or enter rehab for the 512th time. How can the woman who was Blossom for all those years of her childhood be so completely grounded?
Well, we think it has a lot to do with how Mayim sees herself. And oh yeah, maybe it has something to do with science, too. Mayim explained to us:
“When I think about what my self-identity is, or what I identify as, I’m proud personally that I’m a mother. But in terms of societal standards of success or prestige, I’m super proud that I have a PhD in Neuroscience, especially because I come from an immigrant family. My grandparents went to night school when they immigrated from Eastern Europe. They never had a command of the English language. You know, to have a PhD in Neuroscience, especially from as fine a university as UCLA, I think that’s mostly what I’m proud of when I think of myself. I’m pretty shy about my acting world, I think, because I did it when I was a teenager, and I’m just kind of a shy person. So yeah, I think of my PhD as what I guess I put out there. And I feel like once you tell someone you’re a scientist, it tells them a lot about you in a positive way… meaning you may not want to talk to me about reality television, because I don’t watch any of it. However, if you want to talk about the universe, or if you’d like to know about your grandfather with Parkinson’s, we can talk about that. I get that a lot.”
So Mayim’s identity as a scientist continues to be a huge part of her life, even as she also lives the life of a Hollywood actress. But what does that identity really mean to her, not just in other people’s eyes, but in terms of how she experiences her own world everyday?
“To be a scientist is to be in love with the properties of the world. I can’t help but look at it like that. It’s like being in love with every aspect of the universe.”
It’s Valentine’s Day, folks. And we love Mayim.
Brains, hormones and behavior. No, she’s not describing the premise of her hit TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Former Blossom-star Mayim Bialik is describing her other life - as a neuroscientist specializing in, say it with us…psychoneuroendocrinology. We gave her 30-seconds to explain.
And it only took her two tries! We’d like to see Amy Farrah Fowler try to do any better. Stay tuned for Mayim’s main video, premiering this Thursday, February 14 at 9:00AM.
In this special sneak peek video, The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik reveals whether she prefers Sheldon or Penny, what she imagines Blossom is doing now, and how she fell in love with the neuron.
More Mayim on February 12.
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