>> da bronx. >> hinojosa: da bronx. were people saying, "look at this smart kid who wants to be a scientist"? >> oh, no, no. >> hinojosa: "how cool is that"? >> oh, no. no, no. no one cared about your brains. could you jump high, could you run fast, could you shoot a basketball? >> hinojosa: all of your teachers, the community... >> oh, no. i'm talking about in the playgrounds where i grew up. no one... there was no intellectual conversation going on in the playground. and so to get respect of friends and of the community, you... athletics mattered. and i wonder if my athletic talents that i accrued over the years were entirely the consequence of me fulfilling the expectations of others rather than me following any actual interest that lived deep within me. >> hinojosa: really? so you may not actually have been a jock? >> it's not obvious to me that that's where i would have turned. and so throughout my years in school, i knew... as i said, age nine and 11, i knew i wanted to study the universe. and i would express that