Where does enthusiasm about science come from?

Newton celebrated his birthday on Christmas Day, but 25 years after his death calendars were changed from the Julian to the Gregorian and January 4 became the date.
A child who
...was born when the English Civil War was at its sixth month out of nine years,
...must have remembered the king’s execution (or at least related gossips),
...was seen as a future farmer by his mother,
somehow proved his interest in science and became a notorious scholar in at least five scientific fields.