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With Passion and Selfies, Bill Nye Is America's Science Guy

Nye takes on religion and conservatives with, you know, facts and stuff.

Bill Nye knows a lot about a lot of things: Evolution, climate change, how to rile up conservative commentators on Fox News. He also knows a lot about cameras.

Every week, Nye takes hundreds of selfies with fans, many of whom get untold amounts of Reddit karma for their lucky run-in. In recent years, Nye has gone from being a goofy science dude who sings parody songs about the circulatory system set to the tune of "Love Shack" to becoming the man who stands up to creationists, an Internet celebrity, pals with the leader of the free world, and subject of a New York Times profile.

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That was never more clear than at the White House Science Fair in late April, an event that brought in hundreds of America’s smartest minds for their award-winning science projects. When Obama was done lauding them, dozens of students rushed the stage, but not for a chance to get in a word with the president.

They all wanted selfies with Nye. Nye grabbed camera after camera, cellphone after cellphone. Click, click, click.

“I’m getting pretty good at it,” Nye said. “It gets the picture taken without someone trying to figure out how to operate each phone, and then it has a little story, like ‘Bill Nye took my phone and held it.’”

When I stepped over the velvet ropes separating media from the students, I was just trying to get a quick photo and maybe a quote to use with my story about the science fair.

But Nye’s approachability (and willingness to take photos with fans) has undoubtedly helped his overall popularity.

Much to the chagrin of the White House’s press staff, who weren’t keen on letting me follow Nye around the White House, Nye invited me to talk with him—for as long as I wanted—about his transformation from PBS TV show host to go-to science ambassador.

“I put my heart and soul into the show, but it’s really gratifying to see what’s happened. I try to get it, and I just don’t think I do—the reach of the show, how many people watched it,” he said. “I think, ‘I did that? What the hell?’ I was just screwing around.”

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As a third grader, I think that was obvious to me. I can’t remember taking Nye’s show too seriously, but those songs do get stuck in your head, and hey, I'm a science writer now, right?

Nathan Jurgenson, a sociology researcher at the University of Maryland who studies Internet culture, says part of Nye’s appeal is his ability to make what is a dry subject for many into something fun. The bow tie doesn’t hurt either.

“Part of what made him popular back in the day is that he’s got that nice juxtaposition of being smart and sciencey, but also goofy and funny,” Jurgenson said. “Nye can turn something smart into a joke.”

Nye agrees. “Generally, I think people just like the show because it’s funny," he said. "It’s entertaining first, and it’s science second. I got into a big argument with my producers about this. If you’re not entertained, you’re not going to stick around.”

At some point, Nye’s audience stopped being elementary school students and started being the most important politicians in the country. He’s stopped being "BILL BILL BILL BILL" and has become an attack dog for the scientifically-enlightened in America. Rather than making zany episodes of TV explaining the water cycle or magnetism, he’s talking science budget with Barack Obama and begging House Republicans on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology to take science seriously.

“No, there’s not enough money for science. There’s no money for anything, that’s the message, but I think there should always be money for basic research,” he said. “The president, as they say, gets it. He believes in it. He looks at the Fortune 500 countries and sees who’s running them … when it comes to inventing and innovation and driving an economy forward, you need science and science education.”

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In August of last year, Nye caught the attention of the nation when he said creationism is not appropriate for children—the video of which has racked up more than 5 million YouTube views and has become a rallying cry for the denizens of the atheism subreddit.

“And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them,” Nye said in the video.

Earlier this year, Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson met with members of the House science committee at a bipartisan retreat. That group famously includes Georgia Rep. Paul Broun, a conservative who Nye has said “is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space and technology.”

The retreat could have become testy, but Nye said it “went very well” and that he and deGrasse Tyson used the time to explain that nations who reject science—and those that become devoutly religious—are doomed to fail.

“We made the point that societies who stop exploring kind of went out of business and suffered great economic setback,” he said. “Islamic astronomers in ancient times dominated the world. They understood more than anyone in history and they kind of stopped exploring, settled in on themselves and got very devout religiously and suffered decline. The Islamic world is no longer the world's leader in astronomy.”

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That Nye is willing to speak so candidly about religion and conservatism has certainly helped his popularity on Reddit, which has such a huge atheist and liberal community. To daily Reddit browsers, Nye’s face has become a common sight on the front page.

“A lot of the people on Reddit are 20-50-year-old men who grew up with Bill Nye, grew up thinking he was great,” Jurgenson said. “You can’t talk about the resurgent popularity of science online without talking about Nye and deGrasse Tyson.”

It’s unclear if Nye is actually making any difference in the way politicians approach science, but it’s encouraging that he at least has their ear. He might not text with Obama on a daily basis (“if he calls, I sometimes take it … it’s Michelle most of the time,” he jokes). But watching those kids, the ones lining up to get their selfie snapped, it’s clear Nye’s making a difference at some level.

At the science fair, he raves about students who have developed new tests to diagnose cancer, tactile speakers for deaf people, and a new method for purifying water. Despite becoming America’s de-facto spokesman on science and hanging out with the country’s most powerful people, he’s still just a science guy.