How an aspiring actress from Brooklyn stumbled into an astrophysics career at NASA

This week on Scientific American’s Science Quickly, host Rachel Feltman introduces a special series featuring the inaugural class of Young American Scientists, highlighting the future of science, technology, and medicine. One of the featured scientists is Erini Lambrides, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Lambrides shares her unique journey from aspiring actress to astrophysicist. Growing up in Brooklyn, she attended LaGuardia High School for the performing arts, initially pursuing acting. Her interest in astrophysics was sparked unexpectedly by reading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time,” which she picked up as a joke. This book changed her perspective, leading her to explore the field of astrophysics, a path she found both satisfying and unique among her peers. QUESTION: How might discovering a new interest or passion unexpectedly change the direction of your life or career?