Honorable Mentions
These people aren’t as well known as the above — and some of them don’t specifically focus on science. But they are teaching science through TV, writing, or the web.
Astronomer, writer, blogger, and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, Phil achieved internet fame for his writings countering the moon landing hoax hoax. He later launched a science blog and created several short science videos distributed via YouTube. I hit his blog first for the latest science news.
Astronomer, teacher, and co-host of Astronomy Cast, Pamela Gay and her co-host Fraser Cain produce a podcast every week covering different aspects of astronomy, physics and space sciences. They often answer listener questions, and cover the topics in a clear and easily understandable manner.
Physicist, writer, and host of the TV show The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene is one of the main theorists on string theory and has appeared on several programs explaining astronomy and physics.
Research neurologist, blogger, and host of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast, Steve and the Rogues discuss and explain science topics every week and interview interesting people out there trying to teach science and counter pseudo-science.
Senior astronomer at the SETI Organization, writer, and host of Are We Alone? podcast, Seth’s weekly ‘cast covers different topics in astronomy, biology and science in general.
Writer, chef, and host of the TV show Good Eats, AB covers a good deal of food science, chemistry, and biology while cooking — and sharing some great recipes and techniques.
Astrophysicist, author, TV show host. Host of the Science Channel show SciQ, Michio Kaku is almost as prolific a writer as Neil deGrasse Tyson, but not as popularly known.
That’s just the people I could think of. Did I miss some?
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9 Responses to Who’s Our Next Science Hero?
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Lame mainstream entries that will get no one anywhere. Here are the real finalists.
1) Richard c. Hoagland
2) David Wilcock
3) Pete Peterson (see Project Camelot.com for info.) Biggest secret black project scientist ever
4) Henry Deacon; alias. Has finally come out in recent days. another genius who’s worked on black projects for the government who is showing his face as much as possible for his safety.
Brian Cox is one of my favourites. Pop star turned physicist, talks a lot about quantum physics and the Large Hadron Collider.
And Darren, sorry to disappoint you but we’re talking about actual scientists. Not conspiracy theorists.
Cool list!
Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye definitely speak to my generation (what with watching Bill Nye the Science Guy in middle school and seeing Dr. Tyson on shows like the Colbert Report), and I’ve read the Brian Greene books (which I quite enjoyed, particularly after reading Hawking’s stuff). I’m not as familiar with some of these names, I’ll definitely have to check their stuff out.
Bill Nye was spectacular, and he really had a Saganesque impact on an entire generation. That said, in many ways his time has passed. You still see him on the Science Channel from time to time, but he isn’t putting up much new material.
I would argue that Dr. Kaku is really the closest thing we have today to Carl Sagan. Unlike many of the others you mentioned, he doesn’t limit his focus (in terms of communicating science to the masses) to one discipline of science. The sheer volume of topics covered in his shows is astounding. He is definitely number one on my list. Brian Greene is right up there as well, though. His book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is one of my all-time favorites. Never before has someone done such a spectacular job of breaking down supersymmetry & m-theory in a way that it can be easily understood. And the fact that he did so using The Simpsons, The X-Files, and Star Wars as explanation tools earns him major geek cred! One of us!
Also, isn’t Henry Deacon a character from Eureka? Just sayin’…..
You made some good points there,I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
All wrong. Steve Spangler is The Science Hero, and nobody else comes close. He doesn’t do only demos and he doesn’t write complicated white papers and he doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for his stuff; he teaches children and their parents the SCIENCE behind the pops, bangs, explosions, and smoke.
I thank God daily that I found Steve Spangler online, for his methods and explanations and products have been the saving of my children’s science education.
I agree with the above poster about Steve Spangler being our current science hero.
None of those other guys came even close.
Henry Deacon was verbally and almost violently assaulted behind stage at Barcelona conference for going onstage without prior permission from the Conference organizers! Kerry Cassidy had pushed Henry to go on stage and to interrupt Mr. Dean’s talk. Henry was very reluctant to do so but was assured by Kerry that it met with Bob Dean’s approval.
Henry was also very disappointed with highly distorted mis-reporting by Camelot, A. Weber and other individuals. He saw no reason to continue down the path they were destroying.
Disinformation was out of control and private party PSYOPS were busy digging more holes.
Bye!