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Chemistry was always my weakest subject in high school and college.

To be perfectly truthful, I was not a very brilliant student, even at chemistry school.

You won't see me writing about particle physics, or even planetary geology, or chemistry. I practically failed chemistry, and if I had to write a book in any of those areas, I don't think it would go well.

I dropped chemistry. I practically blew up the lab in college.

In 1960, I enrolled in the chemical engineering program at UNAM, as this was then the closest way to become a physical chemist, taking math-oriented courses not available to chemistry majors.

At Harvard I majored in chemistry with a strong inclination toward math.

None of the standard high school science courses made much of an impression on me, but I did enjoy the Advanced Placement Chemistry course I took in my senior year. This course had only eleven students and was taught by a rarity for our school, an exchange teacher from England, Mr. Leslie Sturges.

You just can't fake chemistry.