John: Five years ago, Linda pistun set out to achieve two goals in her life -- end world hunger and improve science education in public schools. To that end, she took classes at the university of Virginia this summer and in she added to her August. Accomplishments by becoming a published author. All this at the age of 11. Linda Pearson joins us now. Linda, I want to talk about your book in a little bit, but first I want to talk a little bit more about you. You live in northern Virginia, just out
side Washington. You were studying Chinese this summer, is that right, at the university of Virginia? Linda: Yes. John: You have done a lot of things a lot of 10-year-olds haven't done. Have you always done things or you always remember doing things that other kids your age might not necessarily be doing? Linda: Most tenured's haven't published a book and most five-year-olds haven't started a business at that point. I taught myself to read when I was four. John: You started a business when you w
ere five? Linda: Yes my business is called , Linda's lab, and it has two main goals. One, to solve world hunger and the other one to improve science education in schools. John: How do you do those things? Linda: I am solving world hunger through meal worm protein, because I turn the mealworms into a protein powder that I can then put into protein bars. Once I make them shelf stable by working with the production company, I can distribute them worldwide. I also have a larva library which lends me
alworm tanks to schools so that classrooms can can see the lifecycle. I also am doing it through my free read alouds that I do in classrooms and schools. John: I know you've said that you want to be an undergraduate at uva by the time you're 14 and you want to study astra figure six -- astrophysics. How did you get interested in astrophysics? Linda: I always loved chemistry. And then I also love physics and mathematics and astronomy and all those things combined is astrophysics. So for years I w
as searching for which one I liked the most. Once I heard about astrophysics, I realized, wait, hold on, this is actually the perfect option because I can get everything I love into one thing. So now I just I love to do astrophysics experiments. I love to go out to the dark sky park near me, sky meadows state park, and I love to look at the night sky when they have like a special night where you just everybody brings down their telescopes and they do a presentation. John: We should also point ou
t that not only have you been taking classes at the university of Virginia, but you go at 11 to a high school, to a science high school. In elementary school, what grades did you skip? Linda: First, third and fifth grade. John: After you graduate from university of Virginia with your degree in astrophysics, you want to go to caltech and work for nasa. And what do you want to do for nasa? Linda: I want to be an astrophysicist for nasa, I want to work at the jet propulsion lab at caltech. I would
also love to be the first person to go to Mars. And I feel like it could be very valuable and maybe even bring mealworms to space because mealworms can be used to solve many world problems. And I'm just kind of curious to see how they can like live if they can live in space and zero gravity. John: Let's turn to your book now. It's called Linda and the mysterious footprints. Tell me, how did you get this idea and how did you decide to write a book about it? Linda: So when I was six, I was studyin
g carbon emissions like all six-year-olds do. And I heard the term carbon footprint. And I thought it was really funny because I was picturing actual footprints. So that small picture helped me understand a really big idea. So I wrote it down and I made myself the main character because I wanted to live in a world where a little girl scientist can see a problem and be respected and heard. That is the world I want to live in. John: I think you are living in it, quite frankly. Linda in the book ac
tually sees black footprints and tries to figure out what is going on. How does she do that? Linda: She uses the scientific method, which in my opinion, is one of the most important parts of all of stem. The scientific method, basically it's used for when people do experiments. First you ask a question, then you research, and you form a help I fusses -- a hypothesis. The hypotheses are very important because also it can show you how you can learn from if you make a mistake. It also it can help y
ou with future things when you may not be able to test it because some of parts about science are just making educated guesses and that's basically what a hypothesis is. So then you experiment and then you form a conclusion. John: All of these things you do, all these accomplishments you've had, going to high school, going to uva, but still you are an 11-year-old girl. What do you do in your spare time? What do you like to do when you're not doing all these things? Linda: I love to be outdoors.
I love to go camping with scout troop, but I also love taking care of my business Linda's lab, and that takes up a lot of my free time. But it's one of the most fun things I do. John: And I understand you have two brothers who are also pretty smart. Is there a little rivalry? Linda: A little bit. Occasionally my mom likes to say me and my little brother Thomas, who's six years old, are so similar. We both want to go and be the first person on Mars. John: You are racing to see he will get there f
irst? Linda: And so it's going to be basically. Definitely interesting to see which one of us gets on Mars I'm definitely hoping it's going first. To be me. John: Last question. I understand your name, Linda, is very special in your family. Tell us about that. Linda: So my grandmother was named Linda like me. My mom tells me she was really nice. She was unfortunately killed by the D.C. Snipers before I was born, so I never actually got to meet her. But she was a math and science teacher and love
d math and science like me. John: She probably would be very excited and very proud of what you're doing now. Linda pistun, thank you very much. Linda: You're welcome, so nice to meet you. John: Thank you very much.
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