In 2004 Bill Nye, the Science Guy, spent an entire day at the museum and library where I worked until I retired: The Science History Institute in Philadelphia. He was filming part of an episode for his (then) new series "The 100 Greatest Discoveries in Science."
The founder of SHI, Arnold Thackray, spoke about the discovery of atoms, the benzene ring and oxygen for the episode on chemistry.
In the middle of filming we took a lunch break. Nye had a film crew from the Science Channel and several staff members of SHI were helping with filming. When we had our box lunches, Nye suggested he and I sit at the end of the table. He is a bicyclist and I told him I had just bought a Trek Madone road bike.
Nye had been thinking about getting a new carbon bike, so he asked me dozens of questions about the frame, the drive train, the wheels, tires, every part of the bike. Nye is a nerd down to his bike socks. He really wanted to know every detail about the bike. When I told him I raced, he wanted to know about that too.
After we were finished filming, Nye came back to the atrium at the center of the building on the third floor. It has a skylight its entire length four floors up. Nye told us we should install a sundial at the center of the atrium. He then talked about how his father was a Prisoner of War in the Pacific in World War II. He maintained his sanity by making sundials in the POW camp.
Some media stars play a role on camera and are someone else when the lights go off. Bill Nye is a science guy all the time. It was a delight to spend the day with him--and very tiring.
