As the eldest son of a prominent literary family, Tantai Prasertkul was almost destined since birth to one day become a writer. However, his chosen field is science, as he recently told The Nation, though his family background shows through in his dream of becoming the first Thai "science communicator".

"Thai society has very little chance to learn science even though we live in a world of science and technology," he says. "To me, science is something interesting, important and amazing. I think it would be great if people had a chance to learn how amazing science is, the way I have."

Tantai, 27, is the elder son of Seksan Prasertkul, a respected social critic at Thammasat University and professional writer, and Chiranan Phitpreecha, a SEA Write Award winner. His younger brother, Wannasing, is a columnist for several magazines.

Tantai was born in the deep jungles of Phayao province, where his mother and father had fled together with many other students due to the political situation following the October 14, 1973 student uprising. From nine months until he completed Grade 5, he lived with his grandmother's family in Bangkok and Trang. During that time Seksan and Chiranan were in the US studying political science and history respectively at Cornell University.

After his parents graduated and returned to Bangkok, Tantai completed his schooling at Samsen Wittayalai School, where he fell in love with the world of science.

"I started becoming interested in science in high school but confirmed that it was my path while studying at Cornell University's faculty of science," he said.

In Grade 11, Tantai was accepted into a government programme to encourage students with scientific talent. This gave him the chance to study with various Thai experts in different universities and join science camps, and led to his selection for the Science Olympiad in Ukraine. He won a bronze medal, as did the other three Thai representatives.

Next came a scholarship to study for a bachelor's degree in science overseas, which led him to Cornell.

"There were plenty of science books, news and experts. I really enjoyed studying there and it made me feel I chose the right track for myself," he said.

However, Tantai was unable to qualify for a master's course at Cornell.

"I admit that I misbehaved and got lazy and did not put all my efforts in the classroom, causing me to get only a 3.0 grade on graduation. Another reason was that they wanted students with laboratory experience, but I was the theoretical type," he said.

Back in Thailand to pursue a master's degree at Chulalongkorn University, he decided to make money by working as a tutor for high school students. This led to a part-time job teaching biology at the Assumption Suksa School for girls in Bangkok.

"It was like an accident. The school had just expanded from Grade 9 to Grade 12 and faced a shortage of biology teachers. My foreign degree helped land the job."

Tantai's youth and experience abroad made him a "strange" teacher for that time. He sported red hair, used multimedia as much as possible and, treating his students like friends, encouraged their interest in biology.

He chatted with students online about both biology and life experiences using their language. He even set up a blog (online diary) for his students, www.storythai.com/user/yeebud. His blog become popular not only among his students but also those in other high schools due to his sincere, friendly and youthful style.

Part of the blog's content was later published as a pocketbook titled "Lok Nee Man Chang Yeest" (This world is so yeest). The word "yeest" is one Tantai created that has no exact meaning but implies something extreme.

"I intended to do it for fun, not expecting this huge audience," he said.

Tantai's teaching career lasted only two and a half years, ending shortly after his book was launched. The school's administrators told him they had heard he planned to continue studies abroad and thus decided to end his contract, informing him just two days before his last day. Tantai feels his book's strong criticism of the education system might have played a part in the decision.

"It was one bitter experience," he admits.

However, he now has more time to concentrate on his master degree's thesis on "Sexual behaviour of cuttlefish" at Chula's Marine Science Faculty.

"After a long struggle, it is almost complete now," he said. Both his thesis and his articles in magazines are about animals' behaviour and evolution.

"I am very interested in this field. It is an influence from my major at Cornell - neuroscience. It mixes neurobiology with psychology, looking at why an animal does this and that and how it contributes to its genetic evolution," he explained.

Currently, he is a regular columnist for "A Day", a popular indie teen magazine, and an online alternative magazine called "Open" at www.onopen.com.

Tanati said his second book, titled "Mimic: Why (they) imitate?" and featuring selected articles from his columns, will be launched soon.

"All the things I have done so far were interesting. I liked them all. But what I want to do most is to be a so-called 'science communicator', the first one in Thailand," he said.

Though he does not have an exact definition for "science communicator", Tantai feels it should be someone who can make science interesting to the general public.

"It would be great if we could make people as interested in scientific development as teens looking forward to the new album from their favourite singer," he said.

Tantai's two idols are Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and writer, and naturalist and BBC documentary producer and anchor Sir David Attenborough, and he wants to be able to stir scientific interest the way they have. "I hope I can achieve this dream after getting a PhD abroad," he said.

Kamol Sukin