AI Summary
The text describes Messoud Ashina's upbringing behind the Iron Curtain in Baku, Azerbaijan. Despite oppressive censorship and authoritarian rule, his family prioritized education. A biology textbook sparked his curiosity and emphasized the importance of curiosity in science.
Behind the Iron Curtain, the political boundary that divided Europe after World War 2, Messoud Ashina began life in Baku, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (one of the republics of the Soviet Union until 1991). Through his childhood and adolescence, oppressive censorship and authoritarian rule did not stop his family from making education a high priority. When his mother’s friend discreetly gave him the biology textbook From Molecule to Man, it struck him “that the main drive behind science is curiosity”.