There are two questions that we all wonder about.
All of us.
Are we alone in the universe? And what is the origin
of life?
Religions have come up with explanations of this for
millennia. But this is a scientific question.
Well first of all as a college student, I was uneven.
My mom had breast cancer, my parents were
splitting up, and I was insecure, and I was grappling
with the world around me, and I was frustrated.
I played Ultimate, I chased girls, and I stumbled through
mechanical engineering school. For kicks, I took a
course in astronomy. The professor was Carl Sagan.
When Carl Sagen spoke, it was poetic! He was an orator.
He was an engaging storyteller. He wanted you to
study something that you had to question.
Is there life on Mars?
He changed my life.
I had quit my engineering job October 3, 1986.
Well then in January, I was in a writers' meeting for this
television show, "Almost Live". We had a guest who
cancelled, so Ross was sitting there, and he said,
"Bill, you know, why don't you do some of your science
stuff? Bill you could be like Bill Nye the Science Guy."
So I did that! I did that on household uses of liquid
nitrogen in January 1987 as Bill Nye the Science Guy.
And that led to this whole thing.
We would do the computer show, the heart show, a
show about storms, a show about climates.
And the way the science is presented is matter of fact
but cool. We have no magic. No spirituality.
Unless you can present evidence for it. That's why
I did the show. That's what I'm doing now
is to change the world by getting people
to embrace the process we call science.
Science is catching on in a way it hasn't since the Apollo
era. I am very hopeful about the future, but when it
comes to climate change, it's going to be a close call.
Will the scientifically literate young people come
of age soon enough, or will the deniers and their fossil
fuel funders continue to derail climate legislation and
progress in energy policy to the point where billions
of people are adversely affected?
If I had one regret, it's that I didn't marry this one
woman and have kids with her, but that's whiskey
under the bridge. People regret what they don't
do. They don't regret - too much - what they do do.
So I don't regret having quit my job, having taken these
chances. I don't regret that for sure.
