From John Brockman’s introduction to the book:
At one point, Marc Hauser turned to Dan Dennett and asked, “Can you remember when you got started thinking about these issues? How old were you? When did you get passionate about ideas?” Dan replied that at the age of six an adult told him that since he was asking such interesting questions, he should become a philosopher. Doug Hofstadter said that from the first moment he could remember, he loved numbers and knew he wanted to do mathematics. For Marc, it wasn’t until college that he discovered his specific interests. But what they all shared as children was curiosity and a deep passion for learning, whether specific or general. As one of the other dinner guests mused, “It all started when we were kids.”
The following 27 scientists each contributed as essay telling the story of how he/she came to science:
Nicholas Humphrey • David M. Buss • Robert M. Sapolsky • Mihaly Csikszentmihaly • Murray Gell-Mann • Alison Gopnik • Paul C. W. Davies • Freeman Dyson • Lee Smolin • Steven Pinker • Mary Catherine Bateson • Lynn Margulis • Jaron Lanier • Richard Dawkins • Howard Gardner • Joseph LeDoux • Sherry Turkle • Marc D. Hauser • Ray Kurzweil • Janna Levin • Rodney Brooks • J. Doyne Farmer • Steven Strogatz • Tim White • V. S. Ramachandran • Daniel C. Dennett • Judith Rich Harris
More about the book (edited by John Brockman) here at the Edge.