???Only one person can say that he lured the children of the '90s in front of their TV screens for 100 science lessons that span four years of airtime.
???America's favorite pop scientist Bill Nye will most likely don his signature bow tie and lab coat for the Distinguished Speaker Series event on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Alumni Arena, bringing the annual series to a close.
???The lecture is sold out, with most of the tickets in the hands of UB undergraduates, a majority of whom were Nye's biggest fans when the Emmy-winning show Bill Nye the Science Guy premiered in 1993. He won 28 Emmy awards over the 100-episode run of the show.
???Many of the current students at UB were younger than 12 years old when the PBS children's program reached its peak and Nye hooked the country's youth on science.
???Nye garnered the interest of children with hands-on experiments, sound bytes and clear-cut explanations of topics ranging from gravity to digestion like no one else.
???Nye earned his mechanical engineering degree from Cornell University, and according to "Bill's Bio" on his official Web site, he decided to combine comedy with his love for science after winning a Steve Martin look-alike contest.
???Developing his TV roots on the show Almost Live! before he became Bill Nye the Science Guy, he has been making science fun for the general public ever since.
???He explained the workings of planes and flight by parachuting through fields and bringing the cameras onto a real plane and filming in air. On the premiere episode, "Flight," he simply stated the magic of difference in air pressure, which creates lift.
???In the episode, his young assistants manned a pseudo-TV station, rewinding tape of Nye speaking for the audience to take in a difficult concept. In his shouted explanation - full of energized love for the subject - Nye explained plain science sans expert lingo with patience and emphasis.
???Nye demonstrated flight simply with an animated diagram of "Xs" and "Os," depicting how low pressure is on top of the plane, while high pressure under the plane creates lift. The "Xs" over the plane move more slowly than the "Os" under the plane, so the high pressure pushes it up. The "Xs" can't push down as quickly, lifting the plane - the same idea behind kites or Frisbees.
???"As the plane gets going, some of the air is going to go over the wing and some of the air is going to go under it, just like the plastic plane of science," he said, referring to the plastic airplane he used beforehand to demonstrate the magic of flight.
???He brought children from their living rooms into the sky.
???On another episode, "Electricity," Nye described the phenomenon with sounds, pictures and diagrams. Electricity is simply the flow of tiny particles called electrons, Nye stated.
???"Atoms and metals are like a bunch of beehives. The electrons are like the bees buzzing around the hives. When electricity flows, it's like the bees jumping from hive to hive - that's electricity," Nye said over an animation of three hives.
???He continues to make science fun as the host of The 100 Greatest Discoveries on the Science Channel and The Eyes of Nye on PBS.
