Tomorrow's Science Heroes?

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?"

Comments

Tyson

[melikamp]

I am currently going through a Neil deGrasse Tyson phase.

Re:Tyson

[skorch]

What I like most about Neil DeGrasse Tyson is how he's so deeply passionate about science, the scientific process, and the very philosophy of inquiry into the nature of the universe. He is able to evangelize science, and bring that often overlooked but much needed emotion to the conversation about what could otherwise be very dry and boring subjects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ai-VvboPnA

Now if you can watch this and not be moved in some way, then I'm sorry, but it is my humble opinion that you are broken. This passion is a quality that almost every good preacher, salesman, or spokesman knows and yet so many science teachers can't seem to figure out: You need to engage your audience passionately, and make them feel the importance of what you're saying, not simply explain it to them.

Richard Dawkins

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm 19, and Dawkins has been an enormous influence on me. A few years back he was one of figures that helped me jetisson religion, and ever since I've had a greater curiousity about science.

Re:Mythbusters does it

[Weedhopper]

It still generates interest and gets kids thinking so Mythbusters gets a thumbs up from me but let's not pretend like they're rigorous. I wish they'd do more end of the show disclaimers ; things they did right/wrong, etc. Science isn't science if you're not considering all the faults and sources of error in your experiments.

Re:Sorry, No.

[infaustus]

Einstein's belief in God is what lead him to make his stupid "God doesn't play dice" comment. If one of the greatest scientific minds ever to exist can be crippled by religion, then I have good evidence science and religion are incompatible.

Re:Smirking Pluto Killer - Not My Favorite

[arb phd slp]

I dislike that Neil deGrasse guy, he was quite the smirking "I'm smart and you're not" during that whole Pluto isn't a planet anymore crap. I'm with Michio Kaku as my favorite science enthusiast and speaker. He's smart, he's enthused and he didn't go around on the Tonight Show smirking about how Pluto isn't a planet. I'm also looking to punch whoever it was that decided Brontosaurus wasn't a proper name for the Brontosaurus too. (shakes fist in fury)

You're a little late on that one. The peer-reviewed paper that showed that the "brontosaurus" was really an apatosaur was published in 1903.

I'm a Michio Kaku fan, too and have been since I read his book Hyperspace 15 years ago.

Re:Sorry, No.

[spire3661]

It is ENTIRELY possible to believe in a creator and still accept the true wonder of the universe. Religion does not mean the same thing as faith. Organized religion as set forth by the religions 'clergy', for the most part is tailored to control the populace. People LIKE to be controlled, its comforting to some. Why have police when you can force your people to police themselves through guilt?

Kaku's a barking moron

[Man On Pink Corner]

He tried his damnedest to kill the Cassini/Huygens mission that has given us knowledge about Saturn and Titan second only to the Voyager program. ("OMG teh evil Plutonium is going to be magically smushed up n an asplosion and kill us all!")

Never mind that the risks were virtually nonexistent, even if you didn't bother to weigh them against the knowledge we stood to gain. He's no different from the tin-foil hat crowd who tried to shut down the LHC with lawsuits because we might all get swallowed by a black hole.

Michio Kaku has little credibility in my book, because I have no idea whose side he's on... science's, or woo-woo Earth First nutcases.

Re:Kaku's a barking moron

[Man On Pink Corner]

The link I posted would be amusing if it weren't so dumb. Kaku spends paragraphs explaining in detail how the scientists and engineers designing RTG-equipped missions were a bunch of reckless morons, and how a launch accident with an RTG would bring a catastrophic civil disaster on the scale of those depicted in zombie movies. Then, at the height of the wharrgarbl, he tosses in the point that such world-ending accidents had already occurred several times. Um, OK, I guess the RTG encapsulation wasn't so flawed after all, seeing as how we're mostly still here.

As I recall, after President Clinton irresponsibly failed to step in and abort the Cassini launch, Kaku turned his attention and that of his PR agent towards warning us of the OMGWTFBBQ scenarios that would no doubt follow the probe's gravitational-boost flyby of Earth.

He may have done some good work in the past but this sort of lameness needs to be seen as a career-limiting move for a professional scientist. I'm all in favor of being really, really careful with radioactive stuff, but the fact is, it's not dignified for a PhD physicist to go full retard. What will the creationists think?

You're asking the wrong question

[Hojima]

Going back on topic here, what you really want is a way to get them into science. Kids are already curious and easily amused, so you've already won half the battle. Just get them science toys, videos, and equipment, and take trips to aquariums, science museums, and planetariums. I remember my first microscope. I was eight and I wouldn't put the damn thing down. You'd be surprised how much people get inspired by the sheer beauty of science. And if you really want to geekify them, get them Lego Mindstorms. A science hero to look up to usually comes after they start learning more and see who discovered what.