A Message from the Vitruvian Man:

In the summer of 2011, in the remote area of the Arctic Ocean, between Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard Islands, a huge piece of ice was used as a canvas by John Quigley, an artist form Los Angeles. He and his volunteer assistants traveled to the Fram Strait on board the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise to construct a giant copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous drawing – the “Vitruvian Man.”

The “Melting Vitruvian Man”, as it was called by the artist, half submerged in the warming waters of the Arctic Ocean, resembled a drowning man slowly disappearing into the depths of the ocean. The installation, covering an area the size of four Olympic swimming pools, was created with recycled copper strips, and was on display only for a day. The goal of the project was to deliver an urgent message to the world. “We came here to create the “Melting Vitruvian Man” after Da Vinci’s famous sketch of the human body, because climate change is literally eating into the body of our civilization,” explained Quigley.

See the entirety of his message, here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/a-message-from-the-vitruvian-man/

Image Credit: Nick Cobbing/Greenpeace

Know your scientist: Bill Nye "The Science Guy

Objective: Change the World

This was the mission that Bill Nye (the famous teacher, science educator, comedian, and author) set out on nearly 21 years ago. Since 1992, Bill Nye has been a key figure in science education, as well as a public icon for science and what it means to think critically – If you were around in the 1990s, you know Bill Nye simply as, The Science Guy.

How does one attain the title of “Science Guy”? Here’s how Bill did it.

William Sanford Nye, or ‘Bill’ Nye was born in Washington D.C., November 27, 1955. Bill’s mother, adept at science and math, worked as a code-breaker during WWII. His father, a veteran of the war, was held prisoner for four years in a war camp without electricity. Nye’s father became a sundial enthusiast, which he naturally passed onto Bill. During his teenage years, Bill was accepted to the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, which has a reputation of being the “Harvard of Washington’s private schools;” this is the school that the children of many US presidents attended.

Bill went on to university at Cornell to study mechanical engineering, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Science. Satisfying his childhood fascination with aircraft, Bill moved to Seattle and worked for Boeing, for whom he created a hydraulic pressure resonance suppressor (engineering is exciting!), which is still used in the Boeing 747 today.

Ok, ok – So how does one go from working as an engineer at Boeing, to being the enthusiastic, energetic, and highly passionate “Science Guy”? in 1986, Bill’s career took a drastic turn, when he appeared on a local Seattle comedy television show called “Almost Live,” which led to his famous naming of “Science Guy.” During the show, Nye attempted to correct the host’s pronunciation of “jigowatt” (gigawatt) for which the host responded: “Who do you think you are? Bill Nye The Science Guy?”, the name stuck ever since and Bill went on to be an engineer by day, and comedian by night.

Learn more about this amazing man at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/know-your-scientist-bill-nye-the-science-guy/

Image source: http://television.mxdwn.com/news/bill-nye-to-appear-on-dancing-with-the-stars/