Bill Nye, The Science Guy

Bill Nye, The Science Guy

The Science Guy

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle's home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live." This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®" was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate. While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children's books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs." Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries" airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye" airs on PBS stations across the country. Bill's latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens." It's about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you'll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There's also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It's fun for him; he's an engineer with an energy conservation hobby. Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization.

4mins
If someone comes back from the future, they ought to have packed one thing in their carry on: proof.
6mins
Peel off your tin-foil hat like a Hershey’s Kiss, because Bill Nye has a reality check for the alien conspiracy theorists out there.
4mins
Bill Nye tackles a tough question that every person alive has been hung up on – what happens after we die? Where does our life energy go?
2mins
Bill Nye answers a question submitted by Nick: is it possible to take two giant magnets and use the repulsion force between the two to lift objects into space?
3mins
Bill Nye laughs in the face of the robo-pocalypse. Or more accurately, he laughs at those who worry that AI might run amok. If we build robots that want to kill us, he says, we can just unplug them.
4mins
Colonizing Mars is a romantic notion but if it was possible, how would our bodies hold up and how would future generations evolve on a lower-gravity planet?
4mins
Bill Nye answers the big one: Can faith and science can co-exist, or is religious belief dependent on ignoring science?
6mins
Science Guy Bill Nye is thrown a deep religious hypothetical: If there is a god that is truly good, intelligent and all-knowing, should we submit to its governance?
5mins
Bill Nye once thought of GMO foods as ethically hazardous, but with thorough industry regulations and growing food pressures, he's come to embrace the genetic mutants on our plates.
3mins
This week, Bill Nye the Science Guy talks about the chances of winning the lottery, and re-frames the system as a tax on the people who can least afford it.
4mins
This week, Bill Nye the Science Guy weighs in on the reality of the timeless superhero wish, how not to break your legs while trying comic book moves, and the human virtues of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker.
1mins
When we asked Bill Nye the Science Guy if he thinks we are living in a computer-generated simulation, he turned to some basic scientific principles to justify his answer.
7mins
Responding to the shooting of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, Bill Nye says the treatment of animals in zoos is plainly unethical. Yet zoos do have a role in maintaining the health of ecosystems.
2mins
Immortal animals would have a better chance of longterm survival, or to survive as a species, so why do animals grow old and die? Bill Nye the Science Guy explains a hard fact of evolution.
2mins
Taking individual steps to affect the course of climate change is valuable, but collective action is more essential. To get there, we must talk about climate change, says Bill Nye the Science Guy.
5mins
Modern "theories" suggesting the Earth is flat are ignorant of basic experiential data, historical scientific findings, and how technologies like smartphone functions, says Bill Nye the Science Guy.
2mins
NASA could get a crew of astronauts to orbit Mars by 2033 without increasing its budget beyond the rate of inflation, says Bill Nye the Science Guy. That's exciting news.
2mins
Music is an undeniably powerful force, and the science behind it suggests we create music because of some deeply rooted impulses. Bill Nye the Science Guy explains how deep our love of music is.
3mins
Bill Nye the Science Guy explains how reinvigorating basic research and development in our schools resulted in the acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and why new acronyms are emerging.
2mins
Calculus was invented by Isaac Newton in the middle of the 17th century, so does a historically contingent event hold true everywhere in the universe, even near black holes? Bill Nye the Science Guy replies to a Big Think fan.