C&EN TALKS WITH
BILL NYE The former TV 'SCIENCE GUY' is a self-proclaimed nerd on a mission RICK MULLIN, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU
enes (C&EN, Oct. 9,2006, page 13). BILL NYE came well-prepared for our Nye says Smalley was also on a mismeeting, which took place at a diner on sion—Nye interviewed Smalley for a Madison Avenue in New York City last Discovery Channel program on the 100 month. His signature bow tie had a perigreatest discoveries in history (13 are odic table print, acknowledging C&EN's chemicals) shortly before the chemist readership. He skipped the formality of died of cancer. waiting for an opening question, start"As I look back and watch the video, I ing right in thus: "In magic, they say see he was pushing hard because he was it's all done with mirrors. In chemistry, dying," Nye says. "He didn't tell us, but it's all done with molecules. And everyhe died just a few months later. And his thing, everything, everything that you message to the world is that we have to see in this room owes its existence to do more with less." chemists." I wondered where to take it from Nye says he is interested in Smalley's thinking on the need to develop there, as I watched a woman over his shoulder apply pigmented wax to her self-organizing molecules—nanotubes lips. But I quickly realized that breakfast that "grow themselves like crystals." with this enthusiastic proselytizer of science, in town to speak at Nye also admired Smalley's talent as a communicator, which he says is best exemplified by the chemist's insistence on teaching the annual Chemists Club Eggnog Dinner that night, was going to cover a lot of ground. Indeed, we discussed everything from God to introductory chemistry courses at Rice. "Smalley was the head of the chemistry department, a Nobel Prize winner," Nye says. "He our iPods. My biggest challenge would be reining him in—which I could do whatever he wanted, but he insisted on teaching 101, had absolutely no intention of doing. His opening fusillade, in fact, reminded me of his famous televi- which I thought was cool. He had a passion for it. It shows the value and importance of rewarding people who have a passion sion show for kids on PBS. I remember introducing my daughter about teaching." to "Bill Nye the Science Guy" in 1992. For years—the show ran The world of science, on the other hand, needs to become more through 1998—she and the kid across the street would come home willing to educate the public, he says. Nye claims intimate familiarity in the afternoon, tune in, and ask the adult on hand for whatever with many scientists' aversion to "drive-by" journalism practiced common kitchen ingredients the Science Guy prescribed to "blow by writers with an arguably lamentable lack of science background. stuffup." More recently, Nye launched a science program for adults called But he says there is no excuse for retreating into ivory towers. "Communicating an idea is almost as important as having one," he says. "The Eyes of Nye." His intent, he says, was to take on socially and "Scientists need to practice the art of the sound bite." politically charged issues such as stem cell research and global warming—to bring scientific explication into the confusing mix of political rhetoric, much of it decidedly antiscience, vying for the COMEDIC TIMING can also help. Nye, after all, made a name for public's attention. himself by entertaining children. His shift to an adult audience has been more problematic, though. "The Eyes of Nye" gained none of "I wanted to take it up a notch to the issues where voters and the momentum of "The Science Guy." Nye blames the suits. "It was taxpayers have to make scientifically literate decisions," he says. substantially underfunded," he says, noting that its budget was a Before starting his career in television, Nye, 51, worked as a casualty of a 2003 shake-up at KCTS, the Seattle-based public televimechanical engineer at Boeing, where he developed a hydraulic sion affiliate that bankrolled the project. "The money evaporated pressure resonance suppressor that is still used on 747 airliners, because the station had undertaken too many projects," Nye says. and as a consultant to the aeronautics industry, in which capacity he worked on the A-12 stealth attack aircraft. By the early 1990s, he " 'The Eyes of Nye' was made for a third of the budget of'The Science Guy.'" It premiered two years ago and is no longer in production. says, he became frustrated with the constraints big business put on science and invention. He decided to take on a But Nye, who is working on another Discovery "mission to change the world," to heed a calling to Channel show on inventions, remains undauntcommunicate the wonders of science to the scien- "Communicating ed, bolstered, he says, by a science community tists of the future. that recognizes the importance of his role as a an idea is almost as communicator who can connect our childlike On the topic of what he now sees as the future important as having delight in "blowing stuffup" to a heartfelt enthuin scientific research—materials—Nye invokes one. Scientists need siasm for all of science. one of his heroes, Rick Smalley, the Rice Univerto practice the art sity chemist who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize "The science professionals give me access to evof the sound bite." in Chemistry for his part in discovering fullererything," he says. "I'm the nerd who made good." • WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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