William S. Nye was born in Washington, D.C., in 1955. His first childhood memory is throwing a rubber band-powered airplane, the Sky Streak, and figuring out how to make it turn left so he could stay in one place and make the plane come back to him.

Nye graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. For the next three years, Nye worked for the Boeing Corporation on flight control systems and designed a hydraulic pressure resonance suppressor that is still flying on Boeing 747s. Nye worked as a consulting engineer on various projects in the 1980s. His clients included the U.S. Department of Justice, where he has a Level 3 security clearance and consulted on the configuration of an A-12 fighter jet.

Nye's career took a different path in 1986 when he originated Bill Nye the Science Guy on KJR Radio in Seattle, Wash. He was also the writer and talent for Almost Live, a television comedy show produced by KING Television, Seattle. He won 13 local Emmy awards for writing and performing. Nye was also the host and writer of the Fabulous Wetlands video produced in 1988 by the Washington State Department of Ecology.

From 1992 to 1998, Nye was the writer, producer and talent for the Emmy award-winning Bill Nye the Science Guy TV series co-produced by Buena Vista Television (Disney) and KCTS (Seattle public television).

Nye has authored several books, including Bill Nye The Science Guy's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs, due out in fall 2004.

Nye's advice to young scientists: "Try things then clean up after yourself. Then try some more things and clean that up too."

Q and A with Bill Nye

Q. What do you feel are the most influential discoveries? In other words, the one or two discoveries that you think had an incredible effect on humankind.

Nye: The understanding that the Earth goes around the Sun changed everything. For only the last 400 years or so, we humans have had a sense that there is an astronomical universe, and we have a place in it. With this discovery, one can now wonder, "Where did I come from?" and find a meaningful, astonishing answer.

Also, evolution changed everything, pun intended. The discovery that organisms have changed over enormous spans of time affects how we approach diseases, environmental stewardship and civil rights.

Q. Today's children are so technologically advanced they might not get how groundbreaking some of these discoveries are. What are your thoughts on explaining the impact of these discoveries to the next generation of scientists?

Nye: If our viewers can see that these discoveries are the fruit of careful observation and a search for the ways of nature, we can get kids of all ages excited about science. The problem with kids today taking things for granted seems to be an ancient one. Socrates complained about it. Science has helped us discover things that seem to be true for everyone, everywhere, no matter how disinterested we might act.

Q. Talk to us a bit about discoveries made by "accident."

Nye: People made these discoveries when they were looking for something, but they weren't sure what they were going to find: How far away is the bottom of the sea? Do all these birds have curved beaks? Can this virus replicate without using DNA? These ideas led to discoveries. Accidents happen. Lucky accidents like these happen to those who notice something unusual and see that it might be important.

Q. Where do you expect future discoveries to come from?

Nye: The idea of dark matter, that there is some invisible or nearly undetectable mass holding the universe together, I hope will be understood in my lifetime. Perhaps there are particles akin to protons and neutrons ... darkons? We'll see.

I am hopeful that molecular biology will be well enough understood to allow us to make drugs effective against viruses, "anti-virotics"(sic). It's a hard problem. The common cold has been common for hundreds of thousands of years. Unfortunately, the human immunodeficiency retrovirus will kill tens of millions of us in the next few years.

The keys to any future discovery are education and what people call "basic research" — looking for the sake of looking — seeking fundamental knowledge for its own sake. These are worthy uses of the resources of all nations.