Bill Nye speaks to students at Florida State University and urges them to help science change the future.
“Bill! Bill! Bill!” The cheers of eager students rocked the Ruby Diamond Concert hall on Tuesday September 16th. The Golden Tribe Lecture Series brought Bill Nye, The Science Guy, currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, to campus to start the fall semester off. The first thing Bill asked of us as FSU students was to be a part of the generation that changes the world. Bill spoke with enthusiasm about his craft as well as his wishes for the future.
“Bill! Bill! Bill!” The cheers of eager students rocked the Ruby Diamond Concert hall on Tuesday September 16th. The Golden Tribe Lecture Series brought Bill Nye, The Science Guy, currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, to campus to start the fall semester off. The first thing Bill asked of us as FSU students was to be a part of the generation that changes the world. Bill spoke with enthusiasm about his craft as well as his wishes for the future.
Bill began the lecture with a story about his youth; specifically, what inspired him to pursue his dreams. “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” would proclaim that bumblebees were a physics impossibility, that according to the law of aerodynamics bees should not be able to fly. After recounting Ripley’s, Bill addressed that it was only recently we were able to examine how bumblebees fly. Through a slow motion recording, scientists were able to pinpoint the motion that enables this “impossibility” to fly. The idea that science can lead to the discovery of things deemed “impossible” inspires him.
Bill Nye continued his life’s narrative with the introduction of his parent’s story. His father worked on planes during World War II, and just before Pearl Harbor he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and placed in a P.O.W. camp. He was rescued after the war but spent its entire duration as a prisoner. The time he spent at the camp led him to become a sundial enthusiast. Bill’s mother also played a huge role during the war, working as a code breaker. Bill concludes that he was really proud of his parents and his father’s sundial obsession passed on to him in some form.
Bill Nye broke away from stories of his family to describe to us how exactly sundials played an important role in the history of the leap year. He explained that it was the accuracy of sundials that led to the readjustment of the whole calendar! Bill laid out the scenario. Early astronomers, with the help of the sundial, came to the conclusion that the calendar was off due to the months added on by Julius Ceasar (July) and Augustus (August). These days that were carelessly added to the calendar to honor these powerful people were offsetting seasons and in order to restore order they would have to erase ten days from the calendar. At first glance, it would seem impossible to erase ten whole days from a calendar. However, Pope Gregory XIII in October, 1572 orchestrated the deletion of ten days from the calendar in order to bring the calendar back in order, thus adding the leap year.
Bill Nye moved on to some of his personal accomplishments. Carrying on his father's love of sundials, Bill is responsible for the placement of a sundial on Mars. This "Mars dial" was placed on the Curiosity rover. The Mars dial was also able to reflect the color of the atmosphere, revealing that unlike Earth’s blue sky (a color he calls cerulescence), Mars has a salmon colored sky (a color he calls arangidescence).
Bill ended his lecture with a challenge. He first described the problems with today's thoughts about the environment, specifically the drastic change in global temperatures over the years. He went on to talk about how it is a shame that some people discredit the facts. The Earth has existed for billions of years, it has gone through many changes, and the existence of seven billion people living on Earth is causing a climate change. The evidence is irrefutable. Bill also revealed the threat of space to our planet. Large asteroids threaten the planet's future as well as the future of the human race.
Bill then issued his challenge to the audience: he wants one of us to be responsible for changing the world. Bill went on to say that today's solar energy is only twenty-percent efficient. He told us to imagine the impact of raising that number and making solar energy a viable alternate energy source. Not only would you change the world, you would make lots of money. Bill also stated that coming up with a defense for earth against asteroids is another important endeavor. Currently, the Planetary Society came to the conclusion that if they could find a way to apply force to move an asteroid just a couple degrees off course, it would completely prevent the threat of ever having one crash on Earth. He stated that currently one of the ideas he was conceptualizing was the use of robotic "bees". These "bees" would fire lasers at different critical points on the asteroid to cause its course to change.
If there is anything Bill made sure that we took away from his lecture, it was that we should be aware of and inspired by the world around us. We should focus on fostering an open-minded society that learns from each other. We have to change the world as a generation!
-Brandon Iglesias, Editor
Bill Nye continued his life’s narrative with the introduction of his parent’s story. His father worked on planes during World War II, and just before Pearl Harbor he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and placed in a P.O.W. camp. He was rescued after the war but spent its entire duration as a prisoner. The time he spent at the camp led him to become a sundial enthusiast. Bill’s mother also played a huge role during the war, working as a code breaker. Bill concludes that he was really proud of his parents and his father’s sundial obsession passed on to him in some form.
Bill Nye broke away from stories of his family to describe to us how exactly sundials played an important role in the history of the leap year. He explained that it was the accuracy of sundials that led to the readjustment of the whole calendar! Bill laid out the scenario. Early astronomers, with the help of the sundial, came to the conclusion that the calendar was off due to the months added on by Julius Ceasar (July) and Augustus (August). These days that were carelessly added to the calendar to honor these powerful people were offsetting seasons and in order to restore order they would have to erase ten days from the calendar. At first glance, it would seem impossible to erase ten whole days from a calendar. However, Pope Gregory XIII in October, 1572 orchestrated the deletion of ten days from the calendar in order to bring the calendar back in order, thus adding the leap year.
Bill Nye moved on to some of his personal accomplishments. Carrying on his father's love of sundials, Bill is responsible for the placement of a sundial on Mars. This "Mars dial" was placed on the Curiosity rover. The Mars dial was also able to reflect the color of the atmosphere, revealing that unlike Earth’s blue sky (a color he calls cerulescence), Mars has a salmon colored sky (a color he calls arangidescence).
Bill ended his lecture with a challenge. He first described the problems with today's thoughts about the environment, specifically the drastic change in global temperatures over the years. He went on to talk about how it is a shame that some people discredit the facts. The Earth has existed for billions of years, it has gone through many changes, and the existence of seven billion people living on Earth is causing a climate change. The evidence is irrefutable. Bill also revealed the threat of space to our planet. Large asteroids threaten the planet's future as well as the future of the human race.
Bill then issued his challenge to the audience: he wants one of us to be responsible for changing the world. Bill went on to say that today's solar energy is only twenty-percent efficient. He told us to imagine the impact of raising that number and making solar energy a viable alternate energy source. Not only would you change the world, you would make lots of money. Bill also stated that coming up with a defense for earth against asteroids is another important endeavor. Currently, the Planetary Society came to the conclusion that if they could find a way to apply force to move an asteroid just a couple degrees off course, it would completely prevent the threat of ever having one crash on Earth. He stated that currently one of the ideas he was conceptualizing was the use of robotic "bees". These "bees" would fire lasers at different critical points on the asteroid to cause its course to change.
If there is anything Bill made sure that we took away from his lecture, it was that we should be aware of and inspired by the world around us. We should focus on fostering an open-minded society that learns from each other. We have to change the world as a generation!
-Brandon Iglesias, Editor