I got a note from NOVA promotions letting me know that the new (third) season of NOVA Science Now premiers tonight on PBS (Check yer local listings blah blah blah).
This is a pretty good show, talking about science in a fun and informal way; in fact it’s pretty much the kind of show I’ve always wanted to do. Sadly, they had to compromise and get Neil Tyson to do it. 
Neil is a buddy of mine and really one of the best people we have going for science outreach. That’s why we had him as the keynote speaker at TAM! He’s a great host for Science Now.
I plan on watching. So should you.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I wonder why they had to compromise to get him (tyson) on nova, its such a great show and he does a really good job at presenting science
June 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I think your sarcasm meter might need new batteries, Blu. Phil wasn’t serious about that compromise thing. Dr. Tyson is Awesome (with a capital A) and we are very fortunate to have him on the side of reason.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Neil is does a wonderful job as a host.
Here in Chicago, this episode already premiered last night. I always thought NOVA was simultaneously cast in the US.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Thank apparitions for DVR’s. I will have this waiting for me to watch at home tonight. And all I had to do was set it to record all episodes of NOVA, which I did about a year ago.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I really like Dr. Tyson. All the stuff I have seen him in makes it seem like he really wants people to learn science as opposed to some other Ph D’s who feel it is their life’s work to keep their knowledge to themselves (and their grad students!).
June 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thanks for the reminder. The TiVo has been set.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Blu, Jewel’s right.
Jewel, you saw Neil’s talk at TAM, right?
June 25th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
OK, I have to ask:
I’ve liked NOVA since its debut in the 1970s. How’s Science Now different? Seriously.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I don’t watch TV science shows (or TV at all, really) anymore – too much rehash, not enough new stuff.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Indeed I did see Neil’s talk at TAM! He is an amazing speaker!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I love seeing Neil Tyson speak. I once saw him on a science special on TV (I think it was that ‘Universe’ program a while back — Discovery channel maybe?). He pointed out how most of the atoms that surround or are part of us (atoms heavier than hydrogen/helium/others? — cant remember if there were others) were forged in the center of a star at one point and how that should give us a great sense of humility and unity as a human race (which has interesting implications in religious cosmology).
June 25th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
All right, Neil Tyson! He is a really good speaker in the science shows I have seen him in.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
If the show is called “Dark Matter” then it’s on tonight here in Daytona Beach.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hey,
Is Tyson the narrator/voice over guy from NOVA Science? Sounds like ‘im
June 25th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I meant for not from. ack!
June 25th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Thanks for reminding me. Neil Tyson is a ROCK STAR as far as I’m concerned. He wants people to ‘get’ science rather than hold it up as an ivory tower pursuit, he obviously loves what he is doing on film because he is so good and natural at it.
Squee! I’ve got a crush*. A serious crush. That like most crushes can’t ever be fulfilled. I’d like to meet him in person one day, but right now our finances are so bollixed that it isn’t going to happen soon.
*which is pretty silly because I’m 52 years old… but silly is okay.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Neil Tyson does an excellent primer course on astrology. It is called “My favoirte Universe” and available at:
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=158&pc=Science%20and%20Mathematics
From time to time it is offered on sale for a ridiculously low price. I bought a bunch the last time and gave them away. Unfortunately it is not on sale right now.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
This was on last night here and is still waiting for me on the DVR. I’m looking forward to it. I finished Dr. Tyson’s Death By Black Hole a couple of weeks ago and found it fun and interesting — ultimately leading me to spend loads more time following up on many of the concepts he touched on.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Thanks, saw it and it was really good. Nice to have a show that will actually air a song about statistics. I’m really tired of all the watered down “science” shows that are around now. Even The Universe was not as good as I thought it would be, about 90 % of the episodes were about our solar system, thats cool and all, but why call the show The Universe. Anyway, I’m glad I saw the show tonight and I am looking forward to next week. Oh, and it was really nice to sit down with the wife and watch something we could actually have a science based conversation about. EX. Max Tegmark has a very interesting experiment proposal dealing with the many worlds hypothesis. Sorry for rambling, got to go to bed now. Thanks BA.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
http://www.higgo.com/quantum/qti.htm
In case you have never heard of the quantum suicide/immortality experiment I spoke about above.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I just watched Dr. Tyson as a guest on the Colbert Report. Best guest ever.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Good episode. I figured the Dark Matter one would be about all that would grab me, but the memory one was darn cool too. Neil’s awesome. Sometimes a little hokey, but his enthusiasm is infectious.
KC: Science Now! distills 3 topics down to shorter segments instead of devoting an hour to one topic in greater breadth or depth as NOVA does. Also more relaxed and humorous. It seems aimed for jr. high/high school aged kids, but plenty entertaining and educational for adults too.
Why isn’t Max Tegmark on more shows? I saw him on a BBC doc I downloaded a while ago, but here at best you see him chiming in with a sentence or two. I don’t know too much about him or his work, but he seems like another one of these guys that’s good at explaining difficult scientific concepts to lay people.
(Did the young astrophysicist remind anyone else of David Mitchell, or just me?)
Neil was good on Colbert, as usual. Now he’s Stephen’s B.F.F. “Best Friend Fysicist”.
Actually, Colbert seems quite a science fan. We need to recruit him. He has a lot of scientists on that you don’t see anywhere else. Can you think of anyone else that’s had Neil Tyson, Brian Greene or Ken Miller on multiple times? Were Neil Shubin and Tiktaalik on any other shows? Seen Lisa Randall anywhere else? Charlie Rose is the only other talk show host that I can think of that might feature scientists as often.
(If your agent/PR person doesn’t get you on both of those for the new book, Phil… give ‘em the boot!)
June 26th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Eh, I don’t want fun and informal science! I like shows where they actually say what a Planck length is and they have a dozen super old scientist guys telling us about quantum weirdness and how gravity might be a force from another universe. Now that’s *meaty* science that sticks to your ribs, baby! If at least one equation does not appear on the screen, it’s *wussy* science. WUSSY, I tell you!
Example:
WUSSY: String theory states that all matter is made up of little strings of energy. Wow!
MEATY: String theory arose partly from the observed relationship between mesons and Regge trajectories.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Phil’s really only Neil’s friend because of just one thing….
Neil’s been a guest on the Colbert Report more than anyone else on the planet (true, dat).
Once Neil puts in a word to Phil gets a toehold on Colbert as a guest to hawk his new book, then Phil will drop him like an incandescent meteorite as he seeks to usurp Neil’s spot as Colbert’s BFF.
Just you wait and see!
June 26th, 2008 at 5:22 am
# Sailor on 25 Jun 2008 at 7:35 pm
Neil Tyson does an excellent primer course on astrology
Cool. I wrote a program called Astromates once. You enter your Sun sign, Moon sign and Rising, and it tells you who you should date. Maybe I shoud get him to endorse it.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I like Neil Tyson, but I don’t like how Nova has been watered down
in the past decade or so.
Don’t believe me? Find some older Nova program from the 1980s
and going back to its origins circa 1975. They are less flashy, less
FX gimmicky, and spend more time explaining things and having
experts talking longer on said subjects. I would even go so far
as to say they are “calmer” than today’s programs. Kids and
adults don’t need to be hyped up any more than they already are.
These ScienceNOW programs distress me even more. Bite-size
bits of science info for the attention deficit disorder generation.
Water down our education even more and why even bother?
And I wish Tyson would stop trying to be funny. I don’t want
him to be humorless, but I feel he tries to be a bit too hip by
attempting to seem funny and clever more often than he should.
The world has enough comedians; what we need are more serious
scientists and science programs, not infotainment.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I’ve got some good news. My almost-ten-year-old son watched the show Wednesday night. Now he wants to read about Dark Matter and is annoyed since he can’t find any books about it in the kid’s section of the library.
Thank you, NOVA!
June 28th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Wow, I can’t believe nobody commented yet on Mr Median in the “Wisdom of the Crowds” segment.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0301/04.html
Is it just me or doesn’t he look a wee bit familiar?