I've recently written a post in my own blog, asking a question: unfortunately it's in Italian, so I'll try to summarize it in English here.
Kids are born scientists: they are curious, ask questions, are eager to seek an understanding on the world around them; but then they turn into adults: most of them stop asking questions, even to themselves, stop being permeable to new knowledge, and appear to have granitic certainties which no experiment could ever shatter. Those who later turn to become scientists, will have to learn again the virtue of humble curiosity.
I wonder why. Is it a natural phenomenon of human development, because you must be certain of your arguments... (read more)
This is quite an interesting mechanic and it seems to be related to Dr. Jamchie's comment on discovering other pleasures and motivators as well. If assumed to be true, it leads to make the experimental prediction that, if a kid develops in an environment rich in adults who can answer their questions up to a higher level of difficulty, the kid is likely to grow up into a pretty science-and-curiosity-oriented adult... which does sound quite obvious, actually.