The American Association for the Advancement of Science is in town for its annual meeting. The American Junior Academy of Sciences holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the AAAS and organizes at each meeting a breakfast at which high school students get to meet and talk with scientists in a range of disciplines. For some reason (probably geographical proximity) I was invited to this year’s breakfast.

Holy crap, these kids are amazing.

The students I talked to were all seniors working on stuff that I couldn’t have imagined working on in high school—medical research, animal behaviour studies, you name it. One girl with whom I spoke has been doing self-directed stem-cell research into the mechanisms that cause a certain class of cancers involving blood cells. I shit you not. At that age, I was happy to remember the lyrics to “Poor Jud Is Dead” for the school musical.

I’m really glad I went. I needed that.