Tomorrow's Science Heroes? 799
Posted
by
kdawson
from the mister-wizard-reincarnated dept.
from the mister-wizard-reincarnated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As a kid I was (and still am) heavily influenced by Carl Sagan, and a little later by Stephen Hawking. Now as I have started a family with two kids, currently age 5 and 2, I am wondering who out there is popularizing science. Currently, my wife and I can get the kids excited about the world around them, but I'd like to find someone inspiring from outside the family as they get older. Sure, we'll always have 'Cosmos,' but are there any contemporaries who are trying to bring science into the public view in such a fun and intriguing way? Someone the kids can look up to and be inspired by? Where is the next Science Hero?"
Re:Meteorologists (Score:2, Informative)
Nova ScienceNOW (Score:3, Informative)
PBS has Nova ScienceNOW, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/02.html [pbs.org]
It's pretty good, and surprisingly current.
Re:Sorry, No. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:5 and 2 years old? (Score:3, Informative)
How about Elmo and Curious George?
You've got years before they give a rat's ass about Cosmos or David Attenborough wildlife documentaries. It's OK, they're little kids.
Rubbish. Show the kids David Attenborough wildlife documentaries from the get-go. Children are very good at filtering what they understand and what they don't from material aimed at adults. Elmo and Curious George are entertainment, maybe even "edutainment", but it's not going to fill them with the awe, wonder and curiosity of the natural world that drives a scientist.
Talk to children like adults when you're discussing adult topics - like science. They'll thank you for it. Something that annoyed me no end growing up and going through my education was finding out at each new level that the previous one was not just a simplification but full of lies. "You can't subtract a larger number from a smaller number", "You can't find the square root of a negative number", "The sun is a big ball of burning gas". All lies.
Tim Flannery and Dr. KArl (Score:4, Informative)
Dr. Tim Flannery [wikipedia.org] is someone whose work I have introduced all of my young relatives too. He may not be as well recognised outside of Australian and I can honestly say I don't always share his viewpoint; but he conveys the points well and with great passion.
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki [wikipedia.org] has been doing a scientifically credible, entertaining and honest version of what the mythbuster's do on radio in Australia for donkeys years and is pure gold when it comes to making science fun and accessible.
err!
Jak.
David Attenborough (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tyson (Score:3, Informative)
Dr. Michio Kaku (Score:3, Informative)
I actually like watching Dr. Michio Kaku on the science channel's SCI-Q. He seems to take abstract topics (Quantum Mechanics, String Theory) or stuff out of science-fiction (like time travel) and answer them in a easy to understand (but not Sesame Street) level. Here's 10 example questions from the show's website: http://science.discovery.com/questions/michio-kaku/michio-kaku.html [discovery.com]
SE/PO types... and parents. (Score:3, Informative)
There are a lot of people who work in science education and public outreach. Staff at museums and planetaria, for example. Outreach people from research facilities (here on Mauna Kea, just about every observatory has official outreach people). And people who just think what they do is so fun and cool they want to share it with people.
I'm fortunate enough to work in astronomy, and I love bringing my daughter up to the visitor station for stargazing or hiking, or video-chatting with her while operating or observing. I also volunteer at the visitor station, lead tours of the summit, and generally "reach out" to anyone who's interested. I don't get any observing time on the 8-meter I operate, but I just got offered some time on a 2-meter and am going to work with my daughter, my nephew and my neighbors' kids to come up with a project.
These are 8-14 year olds, so they can probably weigh in on whether we should look at asteroids, kuiper belt objects, supernovae, black holes, or whatever. But I started in the field when my daughter was 5, and even though the first few years she was mostly just wanting to look at stuff in the sky, and not caring so much about what it actually was, she's grown up knowing that her dad gets to do really cool stuff, instead of just sitting in a cubicle. Probably also doesn't hurt that she has autographed photos of a couple NASA astronauts she's met. :)
There are a lot of science outreach activities in our town, like AstroDay [astroday.net] and Onizuka Science Day and robotics competitions and all that... plus public talks, the world's first 3-D planetarium, and... okay, okay, the whole farkin' island is one giant playground for any kid (or adult) who's into natural sciences at all.
Find your local science museums or science centers or observatories or planetaria or whatever, find out who handles the local robotics competition, etc. Plenty of unknown heroes out there.
Oh, one word of advice, though: don't expect the kids to go for your favorite science. I may be an astro-geek, and her mom's a social scientist, but my daughter tends more toward chemistry.
Videos and books (Score:5, Informative)
In addition to names of the people themselves, can anybody recommend any good science documentaries/talks/books? I'd recommend the following:
If anyone can add to this list, I'd appreciate it. It'd be nice to seek out more science shows and related things.
I'd also recommend the following on YouTube:
(And now I need to ramble on for ages because Slashdot's software claims I have too few characters per line... A curious requirement. Just ignore this paragraph, it contains absolutely no meaningful information at all. Seriously, though, check out the above YouTube clips if nothing else. Really, Cosmos and A Short History of Nearly Everything should be given to everyone at birth...)
Re:Say NO to celebrity science (Score:3, Informative)
ted talks (Score:2, Informative)
Kari? Grant? SAS? Shawn Carlson? (Score:3, Informative)
No one had the time to mention Kari or Grant from the Mythbusters, but they had time for a 200 post off topic flamewar about religion and science? Yes not exactly post graduate education there, but the question was about "excited" and "heros". Whats not to like about Kari and Grant?
No one mentioned Shawn Carlson and the SAS?
http://www.sas.org/ [sas.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Amateur_Scientists [wikipedia.org]
At least Forrest Mims got like one comment, even if people shun him for his peculiar church beliefs (not exactly a very enlightened attitude).
Re:Richard Dawkins (Score:5, Informative)
[...] many eminent scientists have managed to reconcile their faith with their job. Einstein, for example. I sure you'd agree that he was capable of 'thought'...
Could we please put this myth to rest now? Einstein wasn't religious, at least not in a form most people would label as such:
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." [wikipedia.org]
There a plenty of religious scientists out there, they are capable of thought, why not use one of them as an example?
Re:Sorry, No. (Score:3, Informative)
No wonder you are getting all your claims wrong. You don't even understand how science works. In science, a theory is the highest order. It's the goal of science. It's what makes science useful. There is no higher level than a scientific theory. You need to educate yourself [notjustatheory.com].
Evolution is not a belief. It's a scientific theory, which is the highest level in science. It's also one of the most solid scientific theories we have.
What is the "monkey fish frog aspect"? We have observed everything from new genes appearing to new species evolving.
Facts in science are data used to support theories. Theories never become facts.
Your side says "I believe". The other side says "the facts clearly contradict your beliefs".
History channel's "The Universe" (Score:3, Informative)
There's a cool show on the History channel called "The Universe". They have very intelligent and interesting people talking about science while entertaining with mind-blowing cgi graphics. Check it out.