Can you name one?

baconsmom

Can you name one living scientist?  Besides Bill Nye the Science Guy?  What about your kids?  Can they do it?  No?  Well, you are not alone.According to a Research America poll, half of the general public would be stumped if asked the same question.  But while our collective ignorance about science and the men and women who work in that profession isn’t all that surprising, those in the science community are worried about it.Believing that science suffers from an image problem, Rock Stars of Science has recruited actual rock stars to appear alongside scientists in a print ad campaign aimed at making kids think science is cool.  But will the message actually reach its target audience?Science is cool and I am all for encouraging kids to learn more about what’s happening in the science community.  But I fear the ad campaign is going to fall far short of its goal to interest kids in the subject. Premiering in December’s GQ magazine, the ads feature rock stars that are likely as unkown to most kids as the scientists with whom they are posing.Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Poison’s Bret Michaels and Timbaland are great and all, but their music won’t be found on the average kid’s iPod.  And GQ magazine?  What an odd place to put ads aimed at children.If kids get anything at all out of this campaign, it probably won’t be what the Rock Stars of Sciencepeople are hoping.  Rather than realize that it’s cool, they may decide that science is about old people you’ve never heard of doing stuff you don’t care about.I have a better idea for getting kids interested in science:  Bring Bill Nye the Science Guy back to television.  He doesn’t need to pose with rock stars to be cool because he is rock-star cool all by himself.--------------------------------------------------------Bill Nye's got nothing on Michio Kaku, the world's second most famous physicist. And who doesn't know who Stephen Hawking is? It's not like anyone's asking us to name the ambiguously gay meteorite duo or that random Brit who does the Solar system show. 

**O-Face**

Is Mr. Wizard still alive?  *answer is most likely no*

nicoleg1982

Bill Nye DOES have a show on tv - on the Planet Green channel.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/stuff-happens/stuff-happen-details.html 

baconsmom

Ew, Planet Green. No wonder no one knows that. 

ReturnOfKuus

You all know The Kuus.

Heffalump

Craig Venter was the first one I thought of, but I'd be hard pressed to name several, and I work in this field.  Hmmmm.

nicoleg1982

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_can-name-one?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:a3326da8-41c4-41ca-93a2-b385556576b3Post:70b7aa91-e46b-4db5-a87c-f720d312422c">Re: Can you name one?</a>:
[QUOTE]You all know The Kuus.
Posted by ReturnOfKuus[/QUOTE]

<div>Ahahahaha.</div>

VarunaTT

I would've said Kuus and Dharma.

And if I give it a minute, I could remember some scientist's names from various things I've read, but it seems like they want "famous" and not dead ones.  That might not be possible for me.

DG1

I also thought of Stephen Hawking.

Then Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Craig Venter didn't come to mind, but I do know him. Then again, I think of him as more of an entrepreneur than a scientist.

Was there ever a time when scientists were really known by name in popular culture? I mean, maybe Pasteur. Lister?  IDK.

Heffalump

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_can-name-one?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:47Discussion:a3326da8-41c4-41ca-93a2-b385556576b3Post:2d33b710-cead-4cfd-bc9e-9719b8b0ef75">Re: Can you name one?</a>:
[QUOTE]I also thought of Stephen Hawking. Then Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Craig Venter didn't come to mind, but I do know him. Then again, I think of him as more of an entrepreneur than a scientist. Was there ever a time when scientists were really known by name in popular culture? I mean, maybe Pasteur. Lister?  IDK.
Posted by DG1[/QUOTE]
DH and I refer to Neil DeGrasse Tyson as the poor man's Carl Sagan.

DG1

RACIST!


And lol @ heffa & dharma & kuus.  DH is also a scientist, and I did think of him and many of his coworkers, but I didn't think that counted, either.


I vote we retitle this, "Back off, man! I'm a scientist!"  I try to use that ghostbusters line whenever I can. I managed to work it into a conference presentation this summer. It was great.

GBCK

I couldn't think of any...but I know quite a few when I"m not on the spot.
But...why just science?
I know, I know, it's science.  And on some level, they're preaching to the chior, considering I've been working frantically to expose a few hundred kids to science in thenext month just for exposure's sake (we're planning on 50 middle schoolers tonight, playing w/ germ knowledge!).  But, ...you hav 30 seconds, name 5 living people who are rock stars in history.  literature?  anthropologists?

These people never HAVE been rock stars and perhaps they souldn't be.

And, I hate to say this (especially as Mr. Nye recently had a collapse and all) but 'm not a huge Bill Nye fan.  I liked the show and all but, truly...well, he doesn't get out of the lab enough.  These people forget that they're talking to kids w/o limited quipment and expertese and to many of the 'try this at home' things only work under lab conditions.  His are no exception.


(I saw him do a show in person and he couldn't make his demo work because it wasn't in the right lab conditions.  That and they never tell the kids you have to break the safety mechanism on the toaster to make it stay down long enough to fill that garbage bag w/ hot air...)