When Scott Cushing was growing up in West Virginia, he knew very little about scientific laboratories or which careers were available in the sciences. What he did know was that he loved to tinker with mechanical things, and he repaired cars for money and for fun. So when he got to college, at West Virginia University, a state college, he thought he might like to be an engineer. But it was when someone in a physics lab showed him a laser that his career trajectory was permanently changed. Fast