It still frustrates me that Tumblr and folks my age view Bill Nye as like.. a progressive man of science. The thing is that Bill Nye shouldn’t have any credibility outside his field of engineering. He’s not a biologist, he’s not an astronomer, he’s just received a Bachelors in engineering. He has received honorary Doctorates, but some people receive hundreds of these and they really amount to micro-recognitions on a campus-by-campus basis.
If you want to actually learn about the frontier of this stuff, hit the library. A scholarly database through a university is even better.
But the mere sound of this one television personality honorary doctor with a BA in engineering taught me about biology should be plenty enough for folks to realize the problems here. But they won’t because he’s a childhood element and he says stuff that they want to here and that is more powerful than the desire to actually be as informed as possible.
Do you understand that he’s probably spent his entire career furthering his education and that a degree doesn’t really keep someone from being qualified to speak? Especially as a professional communicator, he probably has hundreds of people that he consults for stuff that he might not be an expert in? And that he’s motivated to educate himself on everything he says BECAUSE he’s a media representative for scientists and if he says something wrong he has literally millions of scientists who will correct or critique him?
Like did you know that pretty much everything he talks about is covered in the intro courses of whatever he is talking about? And that anytime he needs to go more in depth he usually leaves that to the actual experts? And that his job is to being an introductory concept to the masses to make them more scientifically literate and educated? His job is to get people interested in whatever topic he’s talking about so that they can actually go and do their own research and ask actual experts?
THIS.
As a science teacher whose job often involves trying to explain complicated concepts like climate change, human evolution, and dinosaur phylogeny to kids as young as 6, I can attest with some authority that the ability to take a complex scientific concept and distill it down so that it’s a) accessible to young audiences/laypeople, b) still accurate, and c) engaging as hell – that is a SKILL. And one that does not necessarily come as part of a PhD.
if you dont understand why i listen to the friendly man who specialises in accessible mass teaching, then i fully expect you to finance for me the 15 years of university youre demanding i do instead.
Also it is a little bit hilarious that OP focuses so much biology, which suggest they are referring to the newest bit of Bill Nye being affirmative about sex/gender not being the binary that is taught in high school sex ed - which is actually the scientific reality of biology, if you’re looking at the hundreds if not thousands of intersex variations in humans (hormonal, chromosomal, physical, etc)… like an actual biologist doesn’t have a leg to stand on arguing “sex is binary.”
But the minute a tv personality says science is against your bigoted worldview, out come the “he only has a BA, this man knows nothing, stop liking him.” LOL
Science writers often do not have advanced degrees when they are writing for publications. Teachers often don’t have advanced degrees when they break down concepts for kids. Have you ever read a scientific journal? Dry as hell and out of most people’s spheres of knowledge. You are talking about everyone doing the equivalent of advanced coursework on every issue. I’m too busy being an expert in my field to be an expert in everyone else’s fields. That’s why I rely on smart people to educate me. There is something wrong with my car. I am going to take it to a car expert at a shop. There are things wrong with the world. I am going to get educated at my level from people who know what the hell they are talking about, even if one is a science advocate and tv personality with scientists in his wheelhouse.
This commentary is beautiful. 10/10
Being able to understand something very complex by reading academic papers about it is one skill set. Helping a bunch of other people with diverse learning styles and abilities understand something very complex? TOTALLY different skill set. Generating interest in a topic because you’re passionate about it? Again, another skill set.
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also, the chances of the paper you want being behind a paywall? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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