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Sciencey Heroes For Young Children?
An anonymous reader writes "Unhappy that all his friends have heroes he knows nothing about (they've all chosen hockey players — actually a hockey player: Sidney Crosby), my eight-year-old son asked me if I would find him a 'cool hero.' When pressed to define 'cool,' he very earnestly gave me this list of acceptable professions: 'Astronauts, explorers, divers, scientists, and pilots.' A second and only slightly less worthy tier of occupations includes 'inventors, meteorologists, and airplane designers.' To be eligible for hero status, an individual must be (1) accomplished in one of these fields, (2) reasonably young (it pains me to report that Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, NASA's youngest astronaut and now just 31, barely makes the cut), and, critically to my naive son's way of thinking, (3) respected by third graders nationwide. Ignoring that last criterion, or not, what heroes would you suggest from the sciences as people whose lives and accomplishments would be compelling to an eight-year-old mind?"
I heard he got first place in his high school science fair. I have no idea why he's pursing a career in photojournalism.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Tell him Tony Stark is what he is looking for.
She's intelligent, analytical, insightful... isn't she amazing?
- Sheldon
In soviet Russia, God creates you!
Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger is 35 as of this year, not 31....
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
wwwxkcd.com/585
Mythbusters Adam and Jamie, Dean Kamin, and even Mike Rowe come to mind.
Great. Just what the world needs, more Sidney Crosby fans.
Maybe they're adopted?
His friends are all looking at sports heroes and you're looking at people with long careers. There's a big difference.
Athletes only have a few decades in which they'll do well, then they retire. So it's easy to find a younger athlete as a hero: as they get older, they lose it.
But almost all the other professions take time to get experienced in. They require learning and years of experience to excel, other than something like astronaut, which can include younger people.
Too bad you can't include people like Chuck Yeager or Wiley Post.
mark zuckerberg, ill say he fits the bill on all 3.... im sure kids that young are on facebook. Maybe not, i know people that use it like 8 year olds tho :)
Jacques Cousteau is pretty damn cool. He kinda fails #2 though. Perhaps one of the younger Cousteaus?
So what if he's dead. ;_;
Buckaroo Banzai
from Mythbusters
There is no other.
...the superhero with the power to wait patiently while supervillains expend too much energy, returning them to an inert and nonthreatening state!
in Eureka.
He's pretty young. Who cares if he's not real. Heroes are larger than life, anyhow, right?
coding is life
AronRa. It's possible I'm old and out of touch, but I have to think your son would find him cool.
He fails most of your criteria -- he's still a student (in his spare time) though he certainly seems to know his stuff, he's a scientist/biker (and definitely looks the 'biker' part), he's likely not young enough -- but I'd encourage your son to look at the man before passing judgment (I hope I look that good at that age), and if third-graders nationwide knew anything about him, I have to imagine they'd feel the same way.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Werner von Braun, Hermann Oberth, Robert H. Goddard, Yuri Gagarin. -Space nut, out.
Although, he might be too old. It really depends on your scale.
You kid seems smart. Maybe ask why he feels the need to have a hero? And why this hero needs to pass some sort of test of being 'accepted by your kids peers' ?
I understand the need for kids to fit in somehow, but maybe he can transcend this.
Pretty hard for a scientist to have lots of accomplishments before the age of 31 (unlike a professional athlete who would be in peak form in their 20's). Is that age requirement a part of the assignment?
Astronauts? They're passengers. Explorers? There's nothing left to explore. Divers? OK, but most of the real deep stuff is done with ROVs. Pilots? In the first tier? But the airplane designer is second tier? You can train a monkey to fly a plane.
"to my naive son's way of thinking"
Space Nutters never outgrow the naive part, so why discourage it now? Sure, by all means, worship passengers that have basically been hopping around low Earth orbit for the past four decades. Might as well put Mars Colonist on your list.
Sidney Crosby exists here on Earth, does something everyone can identify with, is healthy and makes more money than an engineer. Oh god, please don't let your son become an engineer. You won't find a bigger bunch of underpaid, overrworked deluded masochists than engineers. Society does not value engineering, does not reward it, but engineers proudly boast of the their low pay, long hours, job precarity and low prestige.
Holy crap I misreads that as "Scientology Heroes For Young Children?" and thought /. had gone batshit insane.
I'd nominate Feynmann but he's been dead for a while. Rutan is still alive though. It might not get your kid a hero but you could look at the EAA meet in Oskosh for a family trip and meet people and stuff. There's bound to be a lot of aeroplane pilots, builders, and designers around. Also a lot of people that know lots about the weather, of course. We're a bit down on explorers and astronauts at the moment, for lack of opportunity. But wait, we do have one: Yves Rossy, the Swiss rocket man is probably lots cool to an eight year old.
You could try http://www.dayinscience.unsw.edu.au/ set by the University of New South Wales, specifically for this task.
Regards,
Ashley
Jeri Ellsworth, AKA "Lady Ada"
Read some of her articles on hackaday.
Brilliant, clever, and resourceful. Definitely hero material.
How about a whole team of heros. See http://www.usfirst.org/ While I do not like everything about the program, the students really do catch some of the excitement of science and engineering.
He's not terribly young, but Michio Kaku would be a good choice after watching some of his shows.
This signature is a waste of 42 characters
Richard Feynman!
Nikola Tesla was my little brother's hero. Scientist/Inventor extraordinaire.
Stupid password fail, having to enter this as a Coward.
I would propose the following persons as heroes as they have major goals, and are working/bending metal in pursuit of those goals
Dave Stone, Caver, Engineer, designing autonomous underwater exploration vehicles, and aiming to explore the oceans of Europa and the Moon's South Pole
http://stoneaerospace.com -- check out the blog from the Antarctic expeditions!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bill_stone_explores_the_earth_and_space.html
John Carmack, programmer, rocket engineer, designing a series of unmanned vehicles to lead up to manned suborbital flight.
Elon Musk, programmer, engineer, entrepreneur, managing the design of a light, middleweight and heavy launch vehicle, as well as Tesla
Nikola Tesla is accomplished in his field. In fact he laid the foundation for the world we live in with radio, alternating current and fluorescent lights relegating Edison to the dustbin of history as a quaint artifact of science but a paragon of hucksterism.
Tesla accomplished a lot in his first thirty years i.e. left his home country, worked for Edison, developed the tesla coil and founded his own company. Plus he's a hell of a lot more interesting than some sports figure or musical artist.
Safe cracker, Ladies' Man, Physicist.
This guy was simply amazing, though being too sensitive may have brought his doom.
Also, if one plays with dangerous toys, one usually gets hurt sooner or later.
Gordon Freeman.
Popular Science regularly runs features on some of the brightest young minds having an impact in science and as inventors. Perhaps check out some back issues to get some ideas (seem to recall there was an article in the past few months).
Kudos to your kid for picking a true contributor to humanity rather than yet another sports star/model/rock star/etc... (not that there's anything wrong with that... ;)
You're attempting to fit a loosely defined term (heck, "hero" can be grossly misinterpreted with respect to discussions about war, rebellion, whistle-blowing, etc), to a petty, narrow-minded, and arbitrary set of conditions.
If you want fictional characters, take a pick from the marvel universe (ie: spiderman (chemist, biologist, engineer[chemical, bio, mechanical]), Mr. Fantastic (physicist), Iron Man (engineer), ), the list goes on. As for real-life heroes - the average kid isn't going to know squat on the subject. I considered Louis Pasteur as one back in grade 4, but I read a lot more than my, ahem, "peers".
Realistically, you might consider finding something that your kid's peer group would appreciate, and picking a scientist/engineer to whom that discovery/invention/idea is attributed. Chances are, it'll still end up being someone inconsequential or a pseudo-scientist who invented something popular. (Insert pun here).
If you find a way to have more than 3% of kids in elementary school (heck, even high school) to take a sincere interest in science and appreciate those who contribute to it, bravo!
A bit old for the criteria but set a record sailing around the world solo.
And figuring out how people can live forever? Is that enough to make a hero?
I always meant to hold up Prof. Cynthia Kenyon as a hero for my kids. http://kenyonlab.ucsf.edu/
Rusty Venture. Am I wrong to think that?
Richard Stallman - he may not be cool but holds the world record for number of cocks sucked in a day. That's a hero in my book.
Damn! He sure like chicken! Why doesn't he eat hens like the rest of us?
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
1. Neil Armstrong
2. Buzz Aldrin
3. Pete Conrad
4. Alan Bean
5. Alan Shepard
6. Edgar Mitchell
7. David Scott
8. James Irwin
9. John W. Young
10. Charles Duke
11. Eugene Cernan
12. Harrison Schmit
Sig this!
I know he's not young, but he sure does span many of those categories and is doing something quite heroic.
When I was young, my hero was Nikolai Tesla..
Sometimes, you can, you go to hell for the rest of your life! That's a true thing.
Bill Nye the Science guy was the only educational show that was actually cool to watch. Lets get another season of Bill Nye and teach these kids how to make volcanoes.
AKA The Bad Astronomer. Read Death from the Skies with your kid - it's quite entertaining and has a persistent message that rational thought is superior to sensationalism.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Neil deGrasse Tyson I wish I read his book "The Universe Down to Earth" when I was in grade 9. I think it would have greatly shaped my school pathway for a 'real' science career. http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/
no love for the safe-crackin', bongo-playin', Challenger-investigatin' Richard Feynman?
the coolest club on
Homer Hickam - October Sky
Jay Apt - Astronaut
linky:
http://www.2020vertical.com/nar_edu_cd_dev/index.html
Buckminster Fuller
Find your own hero, kid.
I just asked my 12yo son, and -- as I will ever be thankful -- it would never cross his mind to ask me to find him a hero. (I even asked him if he would have when he was 8. Nope.)
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
i remember reading hardy boys, narnia and tom swift novels when i was a kid - the tom swift stories always emphasized science, invention, and technology - great books. the tintin books are also science positive. :-D
all the best
john p
Aged 26, created Facebook
Is this list for him, or is really for you? =P
Joking aside, tell him about Joseph Kittenger and Felix Baumgartner. Kittenger was the pilot/sky diver involved in Project Excelsior. The highest/longest sky dive in history. 15 minutes of free fall. Felix Baumgartner is a dare-devil currently trying to break that record. He's being sponsered/supported by Red Bull (come on, thats instant cool), and Kittenger is consulting on the whole thing. If all goes to plan Baumgartner will break the sound barrier. With his body.
If he wants famous aircraft designers, two giants that come to mind are Ben Rich and Kelly Johnson, both of Lockheed Skunkworks fame. Unfortunately, they're both gone from this world... the days of airplanes being a single person's brain child is quickly faming (if not gone). If you wants some famous pilots, probably the single most important pilot would be John Boyd. One of the best fighter pilots ever, he also went ahead and pushed an entire generation of air force fighters into service, developed an entire engineering metric on comparing the performance of fighters, and then went ahead and revolutionized the way we fight wars (look up Maneuver warfare... all of the official doctrines of the armed services are based on his ideas).
Just explain to him that Sidney Crosby is a tool, likes to complain and cry A LOT, and is a propped up idol of a clueless commissioner trying in stupid ways to save a failing NHL.
Wait, was I just explaining Steven Jobs?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys" . You have to give it to them; they changed how we search for anything, do work, research,etc. They came from no where in 1998 and now google is now a verb. You don't "Microsoft, Oracle, IBM," ... but everyone does google something..
AK
I can honestly say that without him as a role model, I would never have become a physicist or discovered how to paint the dimensional portal which brought me to this world years ago.
Unfortunately, the rules of physics seem to be slightly different here for some reason, and I have been stranded ever since. Oh well...
Super Bat Spider.
The Internet's most famous amateur pediatrician.
Copenhagen Suborbitals, group of danish guys who got bored after building their own submarines and decided to make a space capsule and launch themselves into space. some of them worked for Nasa and or JPL. I cant remember their names but they are rocket scientists doing it on the side.
See subject-line...
APK
P.S.=> He's a PRIME EXAMPLE of that "once in a generation mind"... apk
Elon Musk, creator of Tesla and Paypal. He was also in the last Iron Man movie.
He achieved a lot starting from a young age and he has an interesting background story.
i dont know an obvious answer. i'm kind of out of touch with 8 year olds, but they havent heard of carmack or musk and think that tesla's a band.
wil wheaton isn't famous enough, oh i dunno maybe he is do kids these days watch next generation reruns on spike?
he pops up on eureka and csi and that one with the nerds... now and then. i guess 8 year olds dont watch the guild. or know who randall munroe is.
hey how about richard branson? a lot of 8 year olds are virgins these days.
Although he is fictional, he is the initial reason I wanted to become an engineer, :-)
The dude was a pilot and all - but he went on to really design and build these planes. He was such a "hands-on" guy, a real genius and innovator. I never knew any of that about him before watching some movie about him. I'd recommend the same.
My 8 year old daughter's idol is Buzz Aldran. I totally respect the guy too. Aside from obviously being the second guy on the moon - he was (I think) #1 in his class at MIT after doing his thesis on Orbital Docking manuvers - before any such thing was actually done.
Aside from just "flying the spaceship" and "walking on the moon" - even today, he continues to innovate in the area of space travel. He has a web site where you can see not just some of his old stuff, but new stuff as well. He's not just part of history, he's really part of the present.
Of course, he doesn't really meet many people's idea of "young", but he did save a plane full of people by keeping his cool under pressure. Plenty of lesser men would have ended up crashing the plane and losing everyone. Even though he doesn't think himself a hero, I'd say he is worthy of consideration at least.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Dr. Horrible
Airplane Designer Hero - got to be Willy Messerschmitt!
Robert Ballard
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/
Young Hero
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/naryanan.krishnan.html
Sorry, but he's too old. If Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger barely cuts it at about age thirty, then Jesus fails miserably at about age two thousand.
He's a Mythbuster, has an EE degree, success in BattleBots. He is 40...but he *looks* much younger.
I would say Steve Jobs too - reluctantly.
On the upside - he's incredible. Most people who are killer successfuly in business do it once. He's done it several times. Most people that come up with killer products do it once. He's done it many times. Even when he's ousted, he comes back, proves he was right - and flips everything back around 180-degres.
On the downside, he is an evil, narsastictic flaming egotistacal asshole, and oppotomizes everything that he built his career fighting against. (Yes, the "1984" thing).
So with him, you could go either way...
I think that children are best off finding their own heros. I can't think of very many people who are still living, and of those most of them are already past their thirties. Salman Kahn of the Kahn Academy might fit the bill, although his fields are finance and (informally) education.
Anyways, part of childhood should be learning how to think for oneself. I think part of the problem with the current US educational system is that it doesn't foster self-reliance, which shifts the responsibility to the parents... or is it that the parents should never have expected the educational system to do this in the first place and taught their children self-reliance in the first place?
Judging potential heros for suitability: yes.
Finding heros for your children: no.
Asking people anonymously on the internet: my gods man, what's wrong with you?
Burt Rutan, spaceships have got to be waaay cool to an 8 year old.
Nikola Tesla: Rockstar Scientist
How about John Grunsfeld?
He is a scientist with a PhD in physics, an astronaut responsible for servicing the Hubble Space Telescope on more than one occasion, and a pilot. He often flies his own plane to give talks to schools around the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Grunsfeld
And since I don't see many pilots, I propose Chuck Yeager. He risked his life for his country, and, after getting shot down, fought to get back in the air and fought for his country again, did it again in Korea, oh, yeah, and there was that bit about risking his life to break the sound barrier. He has a good career as a test pilot as well and did have a very good understanding of the principles of aeronautics, even during a time when it wasn't commonly understood.
Manfred von Richtofen had 80 confirmed kills in World War I and was a pioneering fighter pilot, probably the most well known fighter pilot in the world at this point. The Allied pilot that shot him down arranged a full military burial, and his pall bearers were all of the rank of Captain. he died at 27
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
*Many* people who have great fame, wealth, or success at a very young age due it to a great extent out of *luck*. It usually takes some time to really see if lightning can strike twice - or three times, or more. Was their success due to brilliance? Character? Ingenuity? Or was it just "dumb-luck" - or being at the right place at the right time - or being lucky enough to be "chosen" into something.
Case in point - Homer Simpson: "Tatoos help you immortalize things that you love..." (Looking the tatoo on his arm) "'Starland Vocal Band', they suck!"
Sylvia Earle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Earle should be a hero to all 3rd graders
Watch her TED Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/467 , it's fascinating.
I'm also out of touch with 8 year olds, but some fantastic heroes:
Richard Feynman - A bit old (as it were), but timeless. Please read his books to your kids (the popular culture ones are fine, not necessarily the quantum dynamics ones yet).
Richard Branson - creator of everything Virgin. From music to communications to space exploration. Philanthropist, Activist. A bit older as well, unfortunately.
Elon Musk - SpaceShip One; Tesla Motors; Philanthropist. And closer to your age requirement at 39.
And if you don't mind controversy, Julian Assange would be good. Honestly, we need more kids admiring people who take big chances and who stand up for what's right. Introducing these people to them is a good start.
Hopefully others will have more suggestions along these line.
May I suggest you go to ted.com and watch what many of these under-represented people are up to?
Magnus Carlsen
Sure he may work as a freelance photographer, but he did win the high school science award.
Now get off my lawn.
I would second Captain Sully.
And add Bear Grylls.
He may be slightly too old to fit your criteria, and probably no 3rd graders have heard of him, but Saul Griffith is a certified Genius (so says the MacArthur Foundation, anyway) and does interesting and inspiring work.
Do they have to be alive? When I was 8, I liked Thomas Edison and Michael Faraday.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Under 40, entrepreneur, inventor, engineer, businessman, pilot, potential future astronaut.
PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla... you can literally change the world with technology, and get reasonably rich doing that.
...but Mark Shuttleworth is pretty awesome.
Gordon Freeman: respected by all, is a scientist and an explorer. In some respects a pilot/astronaut, he dabbles in astrophysics as well.
Coyboy Neil!
Admit it... that was a major "proud papa" moment.
Well you either live in Pittsburgh or (non Quebec) Canada. Either way your kid is going to get beat up a lot by a bunch of rednecks.
This guy looks like a young accomplished pilot (and scientist?) of experimental rockets that he straps onto himself and then flies around with. He may not be widely known to 8yr olds but they'll dig the youtube videos. There are other crazy birdsuit base jumpers out there you could point to. Start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HMdioj6kng
In a similar vein there are people like Dean Potter or any of the extremel rock climber slacklining nutters out there.
What these have in common is that they involve physical prowess in addition to mental abilities. Frankly I just don't see an 8yr getting excited about a boring hero that is really good at doing homework. But there is no reason the sport has to be a boring one.
Kevin Rose of Digg?
What on earth did you do to that kid to make him not like Sidney Crosby?
He's only 8 - there may be time to undo the damage...
P.S.
Meteorologist? Seriously? He does know that means weatherman, right?
Dr. Tae: Your Skateboarding Physics Professor
http://drtae.org/
Dr. Tae rocks. If you haven't seen him, go to his site and watch his videos right now.
And whoever suggested Buckaroo Bonzai should be +5 modded. I think his name was John.
But your kid is either superhero amounts of nerdy (And I'm a Software Engineer...), or you're making up the story and you just want your kid to not worship sports figures. A noble cause, maybe, but possibly ill-advised
Either way, it might be time to take your kid out and play some sports with him. I'm not saying it's bad to have a nerdy kid, but shaping a well-rounded is always a good thing. This way he can be a smart scientist type who doesn't harbor the deep-seeded hatred for jocks that some guys seem to have.
Also, to answer your question, the Mythbusters build team fits basically all your criteria.
Breaks the age barrier, but... Elon Musk? The SpaceX/Tesla Motors guy.
How about this guy?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg
Meets the age range.
Has a move about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2062494.ece
Not only did they test out a migration theory by sailing across the Pacific on a balsa wood raft, half of them were extreme badass commandos that blew up a Nazi nuclear facility in WWII.
Then there's the Easter Island stuff. While crappy TV shows say "who knows why these roads go into the sea" Thor put on the scuba gear and found they were boat ramps. When the crappy TV show said "who knows how the statues were erected" Thor asked the locals, put on a huge BBQ for them and they showed him how it was done.
Then of course there are plenty of other examples of people in science doing things kids will find heroic - vulcanologists in rubber boats on acid lakes, polar explorers and many others.
How about another Brian, a bona fide rock star (i.e. older than most people on /.) and also astrophysicist. Took a detour from his PhD work to play lead guitar for the British rock band Queen. Finally finished his PhD in 2007. Is one step from away from knighthood.
Have him watch October Sky; Homer may not be young any more now, but what he did was pretty inspiring and he was young when he did it...
He's an inventor, scientist, author, futurist, musician and probably plenty more I don't even know about. And he's still alive... and hopes to be alive forever due to evolving technology.
She is each of "Astronaut, explorer, diver, scientist, and pilot.". Astronaut, deep sea diver, military pilot, commercial pilot, scientist, speaks six languages, and on top of it all plays piano and sings with top music groups like the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
Wonderful choice, because just like all other super heroes, he isn't real!
http://www.nuytco.com/about/phil.shtml ... lots of cool subs and articulated suits (perfect for kids)
A one-man NASA, not focusing on space exploration, but deep sea exploration
First of all, doing good things in science takes a lot of time and experience, so most good ones will be older. It's not like being an athlete.
Second, most scientists do things whose significance is hard to explain to kids. We're long past the point where someone could invent the electric lightbulb or the airplane. Nor does the scientist have millions of dollars or his own TV show. (Someone suggested the Mythbusters, who do have their own TV show, but they're only marginally scientists. But at least some third graders will respect them.)
Third, scientists tend to work with others. There's no single scientist responsible for many things--there isn't one person who invented, say, the cell phone. That makes them much less famous unless you've got an Einstein.
Fourth, being an athlete or an entertainer inherently means being a larger than life personality who is publicized to lots of people. Science and related professions aren't like that. Finding scientists that kids can appreciate will therefore be hard.
Barring unusual coincidences (i.e. the street you live on just happens to be named after someone famous, or your kid had an operation which saved his life and was invented by one person), I don't think it's possible. The best you can do is find out what the kid already is interested in with respect to science and pick someone who is famous in that exact area, but that won't be someone who's important in the big picture. And he certainly won't be respected by third graders nationwide.
(And I didn't even know that kids still respect astronauts. What exactly do astronauts do nowadays that makes them famous? There's no first man in space, first man in orbit, first man on the moon, etc. any more., and they certainly don't make the news much.)
Sylvia Earle, except she's about as old as my dad, and I'm 50 (she went to high school with my dad, I think she was even romantically involved with his best friend, Wallace, for some high school definition of "romance"). Deep sea exploration, Jim suits. Cool stuff.
Failing that, Ross Evans and Kipchoge Spencer. They're younger. They want to save the world with cargo bicycles. Get one of their bikes, you don't need a car.
Should be everyone's hero...
Here is a [url=http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57812/]relevant article[/url] [www.the-scientist.com] published today.
Gary Gygax, co creator of D&D. He touched a lot of lives.
Burt Rutan - Airplane Designer, general badass,
Richard Branson - Explorer, businessman, etc.
Steve Fossett - Explorer!
Hell, any of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies
I have a girlfriend whose name doesn't end in
A volcanologist might impress other 8 year olds. Somebody who flies around the world to observe eruptions, hikes into craters and collects red hot rocks.
Ever heard of Beakman's world? It's a science kid's show and I used to love it's humor. If you've got netflix, you can stream an ep and check it out. The star isn't young, though. But it is hilarious. Think Bill Nye on steroids.
Sorry, but there are plenty of airline pilots of equal caliber, and Sully is a partisan hack. (I know nothing of his personal politics, other than he testified at a hearing against a friend of mine, when Sully had no personal involvement in the case at all. It was a union dispute. Long story short: Smaller but more successful airline bought larger but failing airline, saving the larger airline from certain death. When it came time for contract renewal, pilots from the larger/failing half basically wanted to dominate the pilots from the smaller/successful half. Pilots from the larger half created a new union for the sole purpose of getting around an agreement that was negative to their side. Sully, who had done his heroics then retired, testified on behalf of the larger half, even though he wasn't personally affected by the issue at hand at all, and was already retired.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Earlier today Al Gore led an online Town Hall meeting with students about Math and Science called Connect a Million Minds. He came right out and blamed Britney Spears for the decline in U.S. STEM leadership.
This was a great idea in that he looked to the kids for the actual answers. The Vokel forum technology just didn't hold up well (which seemed to have about 1000 users at peak, and being sponsored by Time-Warner I figured would work better).
P.S. Speaking of crappy forum tech, why is it that Google Chrome just shits itself trying to post here at /.? Annoying enough I'm gonna just stop.
If it's not a problem that he hasn't been young/alive recently, how about Alberto Santos-Dumont? Among other things, "between 1898 and 1905, he built and flew 11 dirigibles. With air traffic control restrictions still decades in the future, he would glide along Paris boulevards at rooftop level in one of his airships, commonly landing in front of a fashionable outdoor cafe for lunch. On one occasion he even flew an airship early one morning to his own apartment at No. 9, Rue Washington, just off Avenue des Champs-Élysées, not far from the Arc de Triomphe." How could anyone not find that awesome? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
I'm divided between these two private launch pioneers. If you're looking for the rocket scientist, I'd pick Rutan, who engineered the first successfully reused private suborbital spacecraft. While not a rocket designer, Musk has the youth and glamor factor going for him (as an ex-dot-com multimillionaire). His vision seems to be longer range, opting for real (read "orbital") space.
Musk wins by a hair for me simply because he could have chosen to start another dot.company after PayPal. Instead he chose to take real (as against virtual) risks and start a brick-and-mortar, or should I say, nuts-and-bolts business.
Reference: Look up "ALPA vs. USAPA" for more information on the dispute. My friend's side has prevailed in every court hearing so far.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Isn't that redundant? When have there been "old" children?
Do the laws of physics you are familiar with work similar to these ones?
Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
If you're looking for that old, why not pick the rocket scientist, Werner von Braun.
It's hard to think of young ones. Mark Zuckerberg, maybe.
Dean Kamen (the Segway) would be cool to 3rd graders, but he's too old. Same for Mark Raibert (BigDog). Burt Rutan (Scaled Composites, aircraft and spaceplane designer) is way too old. I know some young people (one is under 20) doing cool stuff in the electric car area, but they're not well known yet.
Historically, there have been many inventors who became famous in their 20s, from Edison onward. But I'm having a hard time finding modern examples.
The NSF used to have "Presidential Young Investigator Awards", but after five revisions of that program it's smaller and watered down.
Too old but hero material for sure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Krikalev
These are two of the tags for this story as I write this. It made me bust up laughing so I thought I would say bravo...bravo...
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
Try some of the SciFi recommended by Richard Stallman, like Ethan of Athos
http://io9.com/349936/three-science-fiction-novels-recommended-by-richard-stallman
"...The recipients include the engineer behind the digital camera, the Intel team that designed the first computer microprocessor, and the inventor of the adhesive 'super glue.'”
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2010/11/17/obama-honors-scientists-and-engineers/
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
So, how about John Pistole? I hear the TSA are really beginning to touch children.
In that vein, I think a good role model is someone who popularizes science. If I were to quote you some scientists who Hirsch-indices were really high, the problem is that most of their stuff is unintelligible to most adults, much less a kid. So I'd pick ones that have written books that popularize science. Along with Tyson, I'd think about guys like:
Steve Jay Gould (paleontologist, unfortunately dead)
Robert Hazen (mineralogist, works on origin of life, not really young though)
David Goodstein (chemist, writes on oil resource depletion.)
Perhaps someone who reports on science, like the scientists at work blog at the NYT or one of the blogs on national geographic. That way the kid could keep up with current events (maybe you could find a blog of someone working someplace inhospitable, like McMurdo station in the Antarctic.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
To be eligible for hero status, an individual must be (1)...(2) reasonably young (it pains me to report that Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, NASA's youngest astronaut and now just 31, barely makes the cut), and, critically to my naive son's way of thinking, (3)...
Since when do 8-year-olds know the difference between 45-year-olds and 30-year-olds? They were all just grown-ups to me when I was that age. There were, like, 4 categories of people: kids, big kids, grown-ups, and old folks (technically a subset of grown-ups, but distinguished by completely gray/white hair and large amounts of wrinkles). I don't think I became aware of the difference between 45 and 30 until I was at least 11.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
My child is starting off on the right foot his favorite and mine is Kari Byron.
Got Code?
Galois (look him up!!) is long dead, but he was quite possibly the greatest genius ever to walk the planet. Too bad he was killed in a sword fight when he was 20. As a teenager, he solved a centuries-old math problem and created a fundamental branch of advanced mathematics.
I thought he was infinitely old? Then again, that whole three-guys-in-one or one-guy-in-three thing never did make much sense ....
He's still my hero. More than any of the tech giants just because he invented SO MANY things.
How about Jonas Salk?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk#Global_acceptance_and_hope
Discovered the safe and effective polio vaccine. Refused to patent it.
Author Jon Cohen noted that "Jonas Salk made scientists and journalists alike go goofy. As one of the only living scientists whose face was known the world over, Salk, in the public's eye, had a superstar aura. Airplane pilots would announce that he was on board, and passengers would burst into applause. Hotels routinely would upgrade him into their penthouse suites. A meal at a restaurant inevitably meant an interruption from an admirer... and scientists approached him with drop-jawed wonder, as though some of the stardust might rub off."
Why do they have to be young? When I was in middle school, my hero was Einstein.
But, I don't think you're going to find a 20-year-old science hero, like you would a 20-year-old sports hero. To really have a science career, you have to have a PhD, and then some career after that. I think the best you can do is a 30-year-old with promising research, or a 20-year-old whose a promising genius, or made a great invention. Other than that, you're looking for a person who has a PhD + 10 years' work behind them.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
While he is a fine young hockey player, and I fully expect him to lead his team to a Stanley Cup, there is one thing that every eight year old should know about him before indulging in any form of 'hero worship'.
HE HAS COOTIES!!!
The latest Slashdot meme.
Almost the definition of a romantic hero.
One of the brightest minds ever.
Plus, he will always be young.
236
I don't know if the average 8 year old would find Hawking heroic, but a kid as thoughtful as this poster's might well do so. And when are we going to get a Steven Hawking action figure? (Irony intended, but not in a mean way.)
RTFS "reasonably young".
I guess that rules out 'the doctor' from Doctor Who then unless it is only the age of the actors which counts?
The man who murdered Pluto!!! I mean who else has managed to kill off the hopes and dreams of a country by rubbing out an entire planet!!! (j/k Neil!!!!)
Seriously tho, show your son some of his clips on YouTube. He has a profound insight on where we should be going as a country and isn't afraid to share it. Motivated my wife to continue bravely on in her hard science major and has a thing for Ike Newton who is amazing in his own right...
Otherwise known as the hunter of "Man-bear-pig". Okay he's more a politician then a "sciencey guy". But he invented the internet and appeared on Futurama (where he's apparently the emperor of the moon and inventor of the environment). A semi-famous geek if nothing else is something any 8 year old should look up to.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
John Carmack makes video game for a living, has a successful private space rocket company and was driving super charged ferraris at 26 because of his programming skills. If that's not a cool hero I don't know what is....
Eat sleep die
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrit_Jaswal
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
If you don't share the meme du jour with the other 3rd graders, it won't matter *what* you're into. Chose your hobbies, your heroes, and whatever else you do because you can. Realize that the other kids don't have this drive to have an original thought of their own to begin with, and that no matter what you do (even including trying to adopt their trends!) is going to be met with hostility anyway, because you are different.
You don't join these bandwagon trends because you like their subject matter. You do it because you do not want to stand out, especially when standing out for any reason makes you a threat.
I hate to say it, but this kid is already in the group that needs to be thinking about ways to defend against bullies.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Sidney Crosby sucks Patrick Kane / Jonathan Toews are better!
http://www.doktorkaboom.com/
Norman Borlaug. Because if saving a billion people's lives using science doesn't make you a sciencey hero, nothing will.
Who said you got to STUDY to be a scientist?
Being a scientist means doing original scientific research i.e. something that nobody has done before, otherwise it is called history. This means that you had better know what has been done before so that you can build upon and expand the existing knowledge. Currently the only way to learn this is via studying so, with currently technology, to be a scientist you do need to study.
Like it or not, but there is uneducated people doing research by the scientific method.
Using the scientific method does not mean that you are doing science. For example you could conduct a criminal investigation using the scientific method but that does not mean that what you are doing is science.
I am sure children could relate to the guy who invented pasteurized milk, discovered germs, found the vaccine for rabies, etc...
I thought he was infinitely old? Then again, that whole three-guys-in-one or one-guy-in-three thing never did make much sense ....
It makes plenty of sense if you watch gay porn.
One of my favorite mathematical "heroes" is Évariste Galois. He died tragically in a duel (purportedly over some girl :) when he was only 21 years old. Legend has it that he decided to write down his thitherto little- to un-known mathematical discoveries - known today as Galois Theory and regarded by many as a very challenging subject in the field of mathematics - the night before the duel. Good thing he did that :) ...unless you're studying it. Then you might wish that he had not done that.
I would have to give Leonhard Euler and Karl Friedrich Gauss equal hero status, though. They just didn't die young and in a colorful way like Galois. A tragic hero might be cooler :)
If you're looking for a hero with super-powers I would recommend Georg Cantor as a candidate. In his quest to understand infinity he bent his mind so hard that he spent many years in psychiatric clinics. But the result of all this mind bending was such an astonishing set of discoveries that his contemporaries were unable to fathom them. Hence, Cantor never received the recognition he deserved. So another tragic hero I guess. I can recommend the book "The mystery of the Aleph" by the way for anyone who's interested in reading about Cantor.
I must mention Darwin too. "The best idea anyone has ever had" is pretty close to the mark in my opinion. Certainly on par with Newton's discovery of the laws of gravity.
Anyway, I could go on for hours. Hopefully, some of my suggestions will make the final cut :)
Let's just face it. Indiana Jones isn't heroic because he an archaeologist. He heroic despite it.
fair number of young folk in their too....a favorite, that includes young grad students http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html
Shinya Yamanaka - He found a way to turn your skin cells into stem cells. pretty cool, possibly hero-ish.
just tell him to ask what the other kids find more awesome.
hitting a ball with a bat or having a robot fight to destruction.
...his friends could admire Ovechkin.
Seriously though, why not admire ASPECTS of the long gone, like Newton?
Look toward the military and he's bound to find one. Lots of inpirational strories there. Close air support helicopter pilots, especially.
January/February of 2011, you'll get the first book in the League of Scientists. It's about a group of science geeks in seventh grade who use science and critical thinking to solve seemingly-supernatural mysteries. Seems to be right in line with the poster's request.
[Disclaimer: I'm the author.]
Professor Fink. He'll make you laugh, he'll make you think...
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Teenage video-game prodigy and self-made astronaut Richard Garriott!
Edward O Wilson and Jane Goodall come to mind. Edward O Wilson has contributed to our understanding of how microcosms affect the macro and his thoughts on communal evolution with his recent books has ventured into science translation and approachability for the masses and Jane Goodall has many cross disciplinary sciences from primatology to sustainable growth and living.
Not only a genious technologist, but one with enough grasp on geopolitics, business, consumer behavior and macro-economics to singlehandedly start a movement that would outflank the entire global automotive AND oil industries.
Search for him on Youtube if you haven't heard the name before.
That said, it's not something my second-grader son would be able to appreciate as much as he would, say, Carl Sagan. Maybe when he's a bit older. Or maybe he'll have his own heroes.
I guess it'd be a bit different as the world he would come to would already have EV's as a for-granted thing, and remember little of a time when they were all but "decades+ away, if ever, science fiction" and when one man standing up to that multi-trillion-industry entrenched dogma and methodically converting the world over (while founding a company that'll probably end up an order of magnitude or more bigger than google in a few years) with the charm and the wit he does it with... that's hero stuff right there :)
-
What about arctic/desert/jungle explorers? They tend to be not be too old (due to the rigours of the environments they traverse) and they're often researchers.
If lucky, one might find a live one here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_explorers
Brian Cox (the physicist)
A whole program trying to deflect bullets with magnets. Aren't they made of lead?
Ever heard of Lenz's law? There is a very simple demo of it where you can make an aluminium ring jump off the pole of an electromagnet - this would work fine for lead as well. Not to mention paramagnetism and diamagnetism (not sure which applies to lead) - all materials containing atoms will interact with a sufficiently strong static magnetic field.
I applaud you for having the idea of posting this question to Slashdot. And I mean that in a totally sincere, non-slashdot-y way (hence AC.) That's one to show him when he's 18!
I was much like your son in that I had a very different idea of 'cool,' quite a bit in line with his. In fact, I think I asked my Dad that same question in some form or another. Now I'm transferring your situation on to my foggy memory but my Dad taught me from the outset, in his authoritative Catholic school way, that criterion 1 was that only one that mattered. Very long story short, as I got older -- and arguably stupider -- this triggered rebellious feelings whose end result, in this regard, was to delay my acceptance of the truth in what he was saying.
In other words, criterion 1 should really be the only one that actually matters in determining if someone is 'cool.' But bless your heart for indulging your eight year old! I hope you get a slew of answers! Me, all my heroes died long before I was born and I can tell you, it can be difficult for a kid to be a fan of someone who isn't doing anything anymore.
Good luck on your hero quest, Uber Dad!
I'm pushing 60, but I still find Jimmy Neutron inspiring.
Seriously. If you're in need of a hero, you have bigger problems.
Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!
Galileo: No. Unhappy the land in need of heroes.
-- Bertolt Brecht, LIfe of Galileo
This series from the 1990s is somehow owned by Disney, despite it being funded by the National Science Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (in otherwords the taxpayers should own it). I tried to find a way to buy the show on DVD but all I could find was the educational institution price of something like $700 for the whole series. That was obviously absurd, so I found it via bittorrent. Anyone who reads this site should also be able to find it.
It's great fun and educational. My son loves the show. He asks to watch it. We've been watching it since he was 2 or 3. Now in second grade he's way ahead of his class in science and math.
Bill Nye! Bill! Bill! Bill!
-- QED
Obviously Ender's Game is fiction, but it quickly became my favorite book as a young lad and any young nerd can certainly relate to Ender. I knew he wasn't real, but he was still my hero until he was later supplanted by Socrates.
While he may not be the perfect role model for your 8 years old, he definitely top the list of (tragic) heroes.
- Accomplished something REALLY young (invented group theory, introduced the concept of finite field).
- Political Activist / Revolutionary.
- Fought in a duel (and died).
When you think about Galois' life, it definitely does not fit into the mold of a mathematician at all. There is not even one mathematician who lived remotely similar to him in human history that I know of.
Obviously it's the Mythbusters! Not only are they scientists AND engineers, but they're entertaining and appeal to a wide audience. What third grader doesn't like robots and explosions??
No one else mentioned even comes close. Sagan? Bill Nye? Some random astronomer? Please. They have absolutely zero crossover appeal with the general population (much less third graders) and will result in blank stares. May as well use Henry Kissinger (yeah not a science guy, but just about as boring as you can get).
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
Young, probably hot-blooded (not much historic record), genius in math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89variste_Galois. Probably not the role-model you want.
"Need" is not the word I would have chosen, but being in the dialogue, I accepted it as a proxy for the question of why heroes are good to have.
I am surrounded by heroes. I see people who spend their lives working to make the world better. It gives me hope, and it gives me something both to aspire to in my own way and to support intellectually, politically, or financially.
Hundreds of thousands of kids in the US are at high risk for being forced into slavery each year. And slavery is a problem around the world, too, with the worldwide slave population in the high tens of millions. Genocide remains a problem in Darfur, after Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and didn't they just discover new mass graves in Columbia? Nelson Mandela and Ghandi and King worked to change parts of the world that needed changing. With the Global Health Initiatives, we're making a huge difference in hundreds of millions of African lives.
There's a lot of good going on in the world, if you stop to look. And there are a lot of heroes.
Do we "need" heroes? If "we" are those of us lucky enough that we have time to be talking on slashdot, chances are we'll survive without them. But the world needs them, and they make us the better for knowing them.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Totally agree. Thought of him, then found his name in the list already. Show your son the bio. Spaceships, cool cars, saving the world, and an internet gazillionaire in his 20s. What's not to like?
He's like the only scientology hero right? ooooh ScienCY....
Nuff said...
The fact that he's a complete tool, and willing to lie through his teeth to score a few extra dollars? That's just off the top of my head...
Yes. You read that correctly.
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
the sci fi characters that inspired me to pursue the sciences as a career were:
Doctor Who - big one.. primarially Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and Sylvester Mcoy
Mr Scott - I realized later in life that I have a lot of the same habits.
Strangely however I seem to have evolved into being more like a mix of the Master and William T Riker in my adult life.
fate can have a sense of humor sometimes.
dont know what that says about me. /seriousness
Kids need to pick their own heros.
Now lets get down to business.. I am the Master.. and you will obey! ME!
would be a scientist (auto-didact, if that excludes him for you) and is among the youngest people I can think of given your restrictions (31). He has written a few very interesting pieces on AI (Warning: Transhumanist/Singularitan), as well as the best Harry Potter fanfiction I've ever read: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality
For more information see: http://yudkowsky.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Yudkowsky
May I suggest though not to restrict yourself to actual people? "Hero" is a word I use extremely rarely, since I consider that to be a "larger than life, thus fictional" label...
The description of the book is pretty lousy. The book is principally set on a space station. Only a small amount of the book is actually set on Athos, and Athos isn't entirely populated by gay men. It takes place in Lois McMaster Bujolds sci fi universe in which, centuries before, a wave of human colonization left earth to explore and colonize the galaxy via a series of naturally occurring wormholes. In Bujold's universe, all kinds of national, corporate, and idealist groups have founded their own colonies sometimes with very specific purposes. In the case of Athos, the colony was founded by some sort of group of religious misogynists (or at least gynephobes) who intended to found a celibate, religious utopia free from sin (by virtue of being free from women). In the time the story is set, celibacy has gone out the window for some part of the population (percentages are never given) and on a planet with no women, if you're not celibate, you only have one choice, which has obviously become an accepted mainstream thing. The story doesn't delve too deeply into their society, but there's undoubtedly some hard core fanatics somewhere who futilely condemn all sexual activity. In any case, the entire society views women as the source of evil and as a bogey man waiting out there in the rest of the galaxy to destroy mens minds. All information sources from the rest of the galaxy are censored, which isn't too difficult since the planets only contact with the rest of the galaxy is via a galactic census ship that comes once a standard year for a few days and carries all trade goods and communications (pretty much limited to incoming trade journals) and inbound immigrants (virtually non-existent) and the extremely rare outbound traveler with some sort of approved diplomatic or business purpose out in the rest of the galaxy. The title character, Ethan, is a doctor at a reproductive clinic which is where men come to have children grown in uterine replicators from their sperm and eggs produced by ovarian cultures. The ovarian cultures are hundreds of years old and just won't produce enough viable eggs anymore, so they've ordered a shipment of ovarian cultures from offworld, but when they arrive the crates that are supposed to contain cultures grown from human female ovaries carefully cryopreserved actually contain whole ovaries, wrapped up in bubble wrap, completely dead, and some of which are from animals. So, the character Ethan gets chosen as their representative to the rest of the galaxy and is sent out with the planets entire trade budget for the year to find out what happened to their shipment and secure a replacement for the following year. This is the setup for the rest of the book which, after the first chapter or so, leaves Athos and doesn't come back until the very end of the book.
These sports types are NOT heroes. Oh and neither are firemen or policemen, just for being a fireman or policeman. Same for almost all 'heroes' we see nowadays.
What they are looking for is 'role models' and it should be the school that should explain the difference as well as the parents.
But then the kid already knows that and does not see sports people as heroes. I would go with Einstein. Looks like a real scientist AND he build a frikkin' A-bomb that saved America from fascism. (well, for many years anyway.)
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Two Latina mothers are heroes in the new banana book, Small Changes Big Results from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Their adventure is to actualize a convalescent affairs for their accouchement and families and action obesity. The animation moms are like real-life moms in Latino acreage workers' families, who are anxious about the growing blubber botheration a allotment of adolescent children, says Jill Kilanowski, abettor assistant at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. As allotment of several analysis projects, Kilanowski advised over 200 accouchement on farms abreast Fremont, Willard, Urbana and Tipp City in Ohio and South Haven, Michigan. web designing company in chandigarh thanks
We're looking for science heroes, not science fiction heroes.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Christa McAuliffe
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Either I missed the woosh, or your trolling.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
Sagan writes SciFi books that fail to inspire Visitation of nearby planets. Just look what SciFi did to inspire NASA to film their first parody of Lost In Space by the Apollo 13 Mission To The Bank payed-for by taxes. Easy money pays better than Science and keeps minds of people grounded to monopolies that prevent space travel. That's why Sagan was so discreet and popular while Tesla and the other rational theoreticals got pushed aside until threats made by them to destroy the world with a lazor or earthquake..
Trying not to repeat earlier suggestions, (though Tesla has always been a personal hero)
How about Chuck Yeager, fighter pilot, test pilot, first person to break the sound barrier.
Any and all of the Mercury Seven astronauts. If your son has any doubts, sit him down in front of a copy of "The Right Stuff", he'll come around.
"My dad"
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
He is the father of the extremely important galois theory, which he founded in one night and has been shot in a duel the next morning. He was 21. Young and heroish enough? ;-)
Owns his own cola, music, airline, and private island, bonks supermodels, and about to commercialize LEO travel. Does his own extreme sport stunts as well.
You're clearly not a Unix user.
man ln
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
My two favorite science heroes are Norman Borlaug and Maurice Hilleman. Borlaug lead the research that developed variations of wheat that led to the Green Revolution in Mexico and India. Hilleman lead the research teams that developed 8 of the 14 primary vaccinations given to children to prevent childhood diseases. Each of these research scientists are responsible for millions of people being alive today who otherwise wouldn't be. They averted untold suffering and heartache. We too often remember those who cause pain and suffering in the world; why can't we also revere those who prevent it?
I never understood why this concept was so hard. Seriously, have you never had a dream where a person was one person, yet they were someone else? How about one where you were one place, but it was also another?
If we're talking about living people, how about John D. Carmack? He's not an astronaut or pilot, but he is the founder and lead engineer of an aerospace company. I guess you could say he's an "airplane designer". He's not a scientist, but he is an expert in the area of 3-D graphics programming: the lead programmer of several well-known first-person shooters, and co-founder of id Software. Some of his software work clearly makes him an "inventor". He is successful in _both_ fields (winning the Lunar Lander Challenges, selling millions of games), he's 40 but looks younger and already accomplished a lot.
Part of being a scientist, at any level, is the ability to think freely. So let your kid choose their own hero. But you can encourage them to take part is more activities. Such as Lego league robotics challenges, many high schools and lower level schools have competition teams. And from my experience I they are almost always short handed. if possible fine out these organizations and, even if they don't let him join they may let him watch.
I also think I need to explain that a hero doesn't need to be young, or well known. When you've seen a 50 yr old come off an ambulance with his clothes covered in blood, then watch the parents of the kid who's life he just saved, run past him completely ignoring him. And without a word and while exhausted (and trust me saving a life is exhausting) he washes up, changes his clothes and cleans the ambulance by himself, then climbs back in to go save another life, without complaining, without being thanked, and knowing he doesn't need to be there. (for whatever reason, retirement funds, already wealthy, etc...) Then you know the true meaning of hero.
I have seen many like him, I've even seen many like him break down in the back, crying when they failed to save a life. They work long shifts, rarely get thanked, and are the one's who's actions decide weather a person will live or die. They are some of the true heroes that are all around us. Even though firefighters, doctors, etc... often get all the credit.
In the science field, unlike sports, you often will spend a lot more time in school. You cant just graduate high school, then go pro. You need to study, and study a lot to be good in this area. So, meeting the age requirement, will be difficult for the non-podgy.
Heroes can be anyone, at any age, especially in the science field where after 30 your career may just be getting started.
Go for the rogue system admin hero!
Terry Childs is a good candidate,
computer expert, freedom fighter and ready to be convicted for his believes.
Also the Convicted factor counts for some more cool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Childs
The scientist who took on the super villains of chiropractory and beat them. Plus he has a haircut that looks like it should be on a super hero action figure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Singh
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Come on, the guy was awesome :)
Gordon Freeman ?
You are being ridiculous here. Small children know many things you may not be aware of. For one, they know they will become bigger over time: adults, you know. Because of that it's stupid and demeaning to intelligent children to seek 'youth heroes'. Want proof? Two words: Little Einstein. The achievements of Einstein, Feynman or Stephen Hawking are more than enough to look up to if you, his father, is also looking up to them. OTOH, if you are Joe Sixpack WhiteTrash living in a mobile home and watching reruns of the dukes of hazzard, don't expect your boy to go to the library for entertainment.
Scientist, inventor, aircraft designer and hero.
As a 9 year old girl, she debunked the whole Therapeutic Touch nonsense, with a sensible experimental design.
If it helps, she grew up to be a smoking hottie, as well as having brains to burn. IMO, young kids could look
up to her for both her critical thinking skills, and the way she was no swayed by arguments-from-authority of
the "we're older than you, so we know better" sort.
http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2010/10/28/khan-academy-a-name-you-need-to-know-in-2011/ A smart guy doing not for profit education videos on practically everything. Now on the verge of revolutionising education, noted this year by Bill Gates, given funding from Google.
... Sidney's a hell of a hockey player!
Your kid could do worse.
Just sayin.... At least he's not an Ovechkin fan (that dude's SICK, but he's got some great skills, too, just not as nice of a guy).
No. But I've never taken LSD.
...counted to infinity, twice!
That's just astronomical, so it should do.
In it an amazing new computational method of producing a 3d image of all of the synaptic connections in a mouse brain from high resolution tomographic slices 70 nanometers thick was developed by a young graduate student named Busse. The entire process is stupendous with "heroic" achievements all around (the actual process of staining involved antibodies with colored dye fluorescent molecules attached -- it sure beats the old days, things like horseradish peroxidase and stains and looking at slices one at a time through a microscope to see perhaps a single set of mutually activated neural connections) and many of them are directly connected to young researchers like Busse.
Nearly every issue of Science, Nature, Physical Review Letters, or what have you contains "heroic" work by young researchers. Entire game companies are founded by young geeks. Google was started by young geeks. SAS was founded by young geeks. Not all of them remain young, of course, but every generation produces its crop of new ones from the self-renewing resource of our University and research system. They're pretty easy to find in particular in the many articles posted on slashdot, so this is a great place to mine for them.
rgb
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
Biographies intended for children often focus on specific aspects of childhood, relating that to later endeavours, so the age thing should be ameliorated.
When I felt my children were a bit weak on American history I read them biographies of American Presidents, Vice Presidents and First Ladies, starting w/ George Washington, only stopping w/ Harry Truman 'cause my wife quit working nights and the evening schedule became too busy.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
From the past, Roy Chapman Andrews (expeditions to the Gobi Desert). From the present, Paul Sereno.
Just because this article is about eight year olds doesn't mean you have to write like one.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Sherlock Holmes. You can't get much more science and hero than that.
Real world? Any of the presenters of Mythbusters.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
Batman's a scientist.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Dr. Freeman Gorden; He is a theoretical physicist (Ph.D. from MIT) who finds himself thrust into a battle for survival against both alien and the (Orwellian) human forces.
~ In Trust, We Trust ~
He may have passed away, but Jacques Cousteau still has to be included on any list of innovative, adventurous scientists. Researcher, filmmaker, deep-sea explorer, among his many accomplishments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cousteau
Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen of Copenhagen Suborbital. Not only are they building a homemade rocket to get to space, but Madsen already built a submarine just to commute to work. The Mythbuster guys, because they are paid well to blow things up on tv. Plus Kari Byron, just because. Also, everyone that does underwater caving (most dangerous sport/adventure around), wingsuit builders, etc.
A.
Linus Torvalds?
Hey may not be a "scientist", but let's face it, if he wanted to, he could solve every problem on the millennium list.
He was not exactly a scientist, but was very close to what you would call a "science hero". He helped to improve the aqualung, used by every diver (including for scientific research), and did a pretty good job of science communication for a broad audience. Much before Myth Busters, Costeau was making nature documentaries that were broadcasted on National TV. He also raised public awareness of human impacts on the sea, and of the ecology in general. That is a hero!
John Crichton
...what about Hans Moravec?
I write sci-fi for metalheads
How about Jon Stewart?
How about Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hammond) ? Yes, he is older than 30, but my 11 year old son adores him. Cool guy, plays with neat toys (the Bugatti Veyron, rocket cars, etc.) and tinkers w/ all sorts of things. He also has several kids science tv shows under his belt (Brainiac: Science Abuse and Blast Lab) and one for adults, Engineering Connections, similar to James Burke's Connections. My kid and his cousins love his science books. We have Blast Lab, Car Science, and Blast Lab Bright Ideas. All explain science in fun ways. Give him a try.
Besides the age/being alive thing, Ben Franklin is my personal hero/role model. He was a genius scientist/inventor and a true American hero.
Stop looking for larger than life heroes. Be your own hero to those around you.
Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
the son in No Ordinary Family being dumb in a dumb show still have as superpower knowing math, and using it in normal life situations.
Maybe you've heard of him Slashdot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
Have you considered simply taking pilot lessons yourself? Then you could be his hero. Just go to the airport and ask around until you can find somebody to teach you to be a pilot. That's what I did.
Yes I can type more than that idiot slashcode.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Seconded. I loved Kon-Tiki when I read it in high school, and I've just reread it recently and found it as much fun. I was astounded by the Easter Island adventures, too. My school taught me--decades after Heyerdahl had demonstrated their construction and published it in a book--that the statues were "a mystery" which still frustrates me to this day.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
I'll throw in for Jamie and Adam, since they are both really well known and worthy of the adulation.
Far better to have your children live the life of math and science, makers and doers, and let him come on his own. Expose him to your (our) world and let him decide for himself.
Finally, remember that there is no reason he couldn't also like Hockey, or football, or anything else that the muggle world indulges in. We do our children (all of them) a huge disservice when we act like to be a geek you can't also play a sport, or be interested in something outside of the traditional geek pursuits. Geekdom is creeping ever farther afield to encompass more and more (geek cooking, geek fashion, etc.) Heroes need to be something one chooses organically, so take him on a journey, don't hand him one.
expose him to the fields he is interested in and let him pick his hero.
Mythbusters is a good start.
There is a TV show my kids watch where it's 3 teens that build stuff and then blow it up. And do contests that are interesting 'science'. I can't remember what it called right now. grrr.
Niel Degrass Tyson would be a start.
Age is a problem. Really known accomplishesh scintists tend to be older.
Look for local things.
There are a number of younger cool skeptics out there.
oh, and if he like Dinosaurs, check out AArons world.
With a good mix, you can help him decide.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The Docotor, duh. Who cares if the science works or not?
Well, she might not precisely fit your requirements, but give her a chance:
* she's an actress so maybe you've seen her. Actresses are popular and know.
* She's smart and educated.
* She's actually done something with her smarts (write math books).
* She's attractive (you do have a boy, right?)
A great role model for girls, at least, if not boys too.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
Just an awesome example of someone who can make learning fun.
Jamie Mantzel is building a giant robot and all the associated fortress / workshop / laboratory etc. He is doing all this on the top of a mountain out in the woods in Vermont while wearing chains and chainmail. He even has a giant geodesic dome made out of pipes with a trampoline on top, with lots of videos to demonstrate how it is all done.
http://jamius.com/Robot/Robot.html
http://jamius.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel#p/a
Sometimes there's a man - I won't say a hero, cause what's a hero - but sometimes a man and well... he's the man for his time and place. Just fits right in there.
Mine would have to be Asimov in a heartbeat.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
This sig is false.
Einstein was only 36 when he published his theory of relativity. He did other work befor that.
I'd have to say Tesla. Anyone who built and worked with giant lightning-throwing devices gets automatic kid-cred.
Dean Kamen looks pretty young for being nearly sixty. He's more of an inventor than a pure scientist, but some of his stuff's pretty cool - the Luke arm and iBot balance system more than the Segway. He's also got a new TV show which has just started up and which some kids might theoretically watch.
Joe Taylor is a Nobel laureate who got his ham radio license with his brother - both went on to have great careers and Joe (now K1JT) became a famous astronomer-physicist. He's now revolutionized weak-signal communication in the ham radio world, making exotic modes like bouncing signals off the Moon, accessible to hams with relatively modest equipment. (physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT) Even kids can aspire to do it - he is a real hero of the techies. Another couple of ham heroes are Chris Hurlbut (KL9A) and Dan Craig (N6MJ) who are both in their twenties and represented the US in the recent World Radiosport Championships (www.wrtc.info) held in Russia. They placed third in the world - very nicely done so far from home. There are many young hams very active in this wide-spread, but little known activity.
Read your kid, or let him read, some of Feynman's autobiographical stories. "Surely You're Joking" is a classic.
Too bad Kon-Tiki theories of Polynesian settlement have been disproven. . .
Obviously.
-But cool for relative obscurity: Evariste Galois! Invented a new field of mathematics! Political radical! Killed under shadowy circumstances, and "Don't cry for me. I need all my courage to die at twenty." Maybe not the best role model for a 9 year old, I readily admit...
Tesla.
Nikola Tesla.
And Edison as an evil arch nemesis !