Bill Nye Wants You To Think Critically And Take Care Of Your Moon Rocks

Bill Nye, Science Guy
Bill Nye, science guy, spoke to Nerdette in April. Nye hosts the new Netflix series, "Bill Nye Saves the World." Photo courtesy of Bill Nye / billnye.com
Bill Nye, Science Guy
Bill Nye, science guy, spoke to Nerdette in April. Nye hosts the new Netflix series, "Bill Nye Saves the World." Photo courtesy of Bill Nye / billnye.com

Bill Nye Wants You To Think Critically And Take Care Of Your Moon Rocks

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Bill Nye says that when he was in high school, the big skill that students had to learn was how to find information.

“But the challenge now is to sort out the information that may not be true,” Nye said, citing his favorite example, the (not real) Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

Nye, who hosts a new Netflix series called Bill Nye Saves the World, spoke with Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen last month at The Collider’s Climate City Expo in Asheville, N.C. Their conversation focused on climate change, vaccines and combatting dubious scientific claims with critical thinking and an abundance of evidence.

“Whoever makes the claim has to provide the evidence,” Nye said. “So if you say the Earth is flat, you really have to come up with some extraordinary evidence for the Earth being flat.”

“The evidence for climate change is like the evidence for the world being round,” Nye said. “It’s overwhelming.”

Johnsen also asked Nye a number of non-pressing questions, like if he owned any moon rocks.

“No,” he said. “They’re very expensive.”

Then, a member of the audience shouted that, in fact, they owned a moon rock. (Maybe it was this “private American collector”?)

“OK,” Nye said. “Be careful with it.”

Press play to hear the full conversation.