Bill Nye The Science Tells USF Students To 'Change The World'

By Matt Wiley

Bill Nye the Science Guy wants college kids to change the world.

“It’s possible, and it will make you really rich!,” he told a crowd of 1,100 University of South Florida (USF) students on April 7 in the ballroom inside USF’s Marshall Student Center. 

The talk was part of USF’s University Lecture Series and had students camped outside the building the night before for a spot in line that would guarantee them a seat in the auditorium to see their favorite childhood science teacher and TV host. (Note-When you walked into the classroom and saw the TV out, you always prayed for “Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!”) The line for seats to see the TV icon snaked its way through the Student Center and outside onto the lawn. Once at capacity, the school offered 700 more seats in a nearby, on-campus hall that was hosting a live-streaming, televised version of the event.

Sporting a suit with his signature bow tie, Nye entered to a standing ovation, before jumping right into a lecture that would cover sundials, Mars, global warming, evolution and solar sails, all speckled with the type of humor and entertainment that propelled the popular 1990s PBS Broadcasting “Bill Nye the Science Guy” TV show to 13 Emmy awards during its five-season run.

Nye started by making sure students could identify a photo taken from the moon of a planet that resembled a blue marble, before talking about his parents — his mother (Jacqueline) was a cryptographer who worked on the “Enigma Code” during World War II and his father (Ned) was a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp survivor and sundial enthusiast. Nye said that his father had dreams of turning the Washington Monument into a sundial. Using a photo of the monument, he explained that shadows cast on earth are grey, but also slightly bluish because of the earth’s atmosphere.

“Yes, the planet has an atmosphere, governor,” Nye said, taking a jab at Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who repeatedly has refused to acknowledge the existence of global warming, insisting that he is “not a scientist.” It would not be the last shot at Florida’s chief executive during the lecture.

Nye said his father’s quirky passion for sundials still resonates with him, as the Science Guy himself helped convince scientists to install small sundials on the Mars landers “Curiosity” and “Opportunity.”

“Come on guys, we can calibrate the time on another planet!,” Nye says he told the scientists. “I wasn’t the first guy to suggest putting (sundials) on there, but I was definitely the first guy jumping out of his seat about it.”

Nye explained that he recently received a photo from a rover controller of the Mars sundial (which he says he engineered, himself, and had determined to be nearly indestructible) lying on its side. 

“Then I looked at the date on the photo: April 1,” Nye joked.

Nye also talked about how since everyone in the auditorium has been living, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased to 0.04 percent. Using technology that’s already available, he tasked students with figuring out how to bring the percentage back down to the previous level of 0.03 percent. He suggested looking into solar water heating (“The heat is free!”) or finding ways to more effectively distribute solar and wind power.

“That’s how you can change the world,” Nye said. “Remember the game you played when you were little? The floor is lava and the water is acid? That’s what life is like on Venus. We don’t want to be Venus. It’s very undesirable. Everybody dies.”

Nye continued, “We have trouble talking about this here in Florida. But, our own government has told us that sea levels will rise several inches over just the next few decades.”

The problem, he said, is that some politicians are “cherry-picking” data to show that the atmosphere isn’t getting warmer and others are using specific data points to try to show that our state is actually getting cooler. 

“You can’t deny science,” Nye said, showing photos of several politicians and pundits, including his recent “arch-nemesis,” creationist and Answers In Genesis (AIG) ministry president Ken Ham, whom Nye famously debated at the Creation Museum, which is run by AIG, in Cincinnati, KY, last year.

“But, here in Florida, you guys take it up a notch,” Nye said, showing a photo of a grinning Gov. Scott. At the same time, Nye stuck his fingers in his ears and danced around the stage. “If you don’t do anything else the rest of your lives, you have to at least vote. That’s all you get. And, if you want to tune out, just shut up.”

He added, ”If you don’t like government regulation now, wait until stuff (sea levels rising) starts happening.”

Nye spent time going over some of the finer points of his debates with Ham, who insists that the earth is only about 6,000 years old, instead of 4.5 billion.

“The reason you’re in college is to learn to think,” Nye said. “I know some of you are saying, ‘what?’ But, this business about thinking is really important. The most important thing you can do is learn to think critically. If you’re a creationist and you think that the world is only 6,000 years old, knock yourself out. But, don’t try to teach kids this.”

Nye also announced that the Planetary Society (a not-for-profit space advocacy group, of which he is CEO), will be launching a solar sail into the planet’s orbit on May 6. The sail measures 344 sq. ft. and will test “flight by light” propulsion, powered by momentum provided by light energy on the sail. The mission is to advance space exploration.

“If we stop looking up and out, what does that say about us?,” Nye asked. “The joy of discovery, that’s what it’s all about. There are 100 times more stars in the sky than grains of sand on earth. With our brains, we can imagine these things, and you can change the world.”