You
know Bill Nye -he's the Science Guy! But he wasn't always. It was a
series of what might appear to be happy coincidences that landed him in
the position of pop culture science teacher. But happy coincidences are
often just the result of someone who leaps at the right opportunities.
Fast Company has an interview with Nye in which he tells how he worked
as an airplane engineer while his friends thought he should be the next
Steve Martin. At one time he was working with a radio DJ.
Time
to time, he’d have questions, and you could answer to win free tickets
or what have you. One of them was a question that refers to the Back to
the Future movie. And in the answer, he says“jigawatts.” So I called
him, and I said, "Ross, you can say jigawatts, but really, we prefer
gigawatts.”
[From then on] I called him every day at 4:45 and
answered a listener question. And that went on for a few months. And
then in January of 1987, we needed six minutes on the comedy show
[because a guest cancelled].
I did this bit, "The household uses
of liquid nitrogen." Because we all have liquid nitrogen around. So this
was just reminder of some tips. I know normally you use it by fitting
up your close-fitting machine parts, by getting one part really cold,
but you can also use it for straightening out limp celery. You can slice
onions with it, when you hit them with a knife, it’s really satisfying.
It sounds like breaking glass. It’s a really striking sound. Striking,
ah! Hilarious pun. Now the payoff, what I spent a lot of time doing, is
you cook or roast marshmallows in liquid nitrogen and then you chew them
and steam comes out of your nose. It’s really good.
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