The BEST episodes of Bill Nye: The Science Guy
Every episode of Bill Nye: The Science Guy ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Bill Nye: The Science Guy!
Comedian/scientist Bill Nye stars as the host of this show designed to get kids interested in the science of everyday, and some not-so-everyday, things. On a full range of subjects, including ecology, biology, chemistry and physics, Nye gives an easy-to-understand, yet informative lesson that both kids and their parents can enjoy.
#1 - Fluids
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/2/1998
Fluids are cool; they ooze and swoosh. Whatever container you put a fluid in, that fluid will take the same shape. Milk poured into a pitcher forms to the shape of the pitcher. If you pour it into a glass, it takes the shape of the glass. You just can’t do that with a boulder. But with the right container, you could pour liquid rock from below the Earth’s crust. Fluids still act like fluids, even halfway to the center of the Earth.
#2 - Structures
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/10/1993
Are you tense? Need some structure to your life? Then tune in to Bill Nye the Science Guy as he explains the science of structures. All structures give support or create a shape. You can find structures everywhere. Bridges, buildings, chairs, shoes, plants, spiderwebs, tables, and even your own body are all structures. A structure's shape, size, and what it's made of depend on what the structure does and how strong it needs to be. When structures give support, they either experience a pull (tension) or a push (compression). Structures in tension, such as ropes, cables, or blimps are made from stuff that is good at pulling. The materials in tension are usually thin. Structures under compression, such as elephant legs and courthouse columns, are made from hard stiff stuff. Compared to structures under tension, structures under compression are much thicker. When it comes to structures, form (the size and shape) depends on function (what it does). Build support for Bill
#3 - Outer Space
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/4/1994
The show is way out there, way far away. After all, it's in Outer Space. When you look at the night sky on a clear dark night, you can see thousands of stars. There are far more than you could count. And, they are way out there. They are very, very far away. It's about the hardest thing to imagine about space. Let's talk about the nearest star to us, the Sun. If somehow outer space were not an icy cold vacuum with nothing to eat, drink, or breathe, and we could drive there in a car, to get to the Sun at freeway speed of 100 kilometers/hour (61 miles/hour), it would take171 years of driving without stopping to sleep or get gas out in the near nothingness of space. That's just to the Sun. To get to even the closest star, Proxima Centauri, would take 40,000 years. On top of that, most things, billions and billions of stars, are much, much farther away than that! It is just astonishing. How do we know that everything is so far away? We have watched the sky for centuries.
#4 - Volcanoes
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/31/1996
Volcanoes are mountains made from molten rock. The Earth’s crust is divided into big slabs, called plates, which are slowly moving all the time. The plates are floating on the Earth’s mantle, a layer of gooey hot rock that flows like maple syrup. Some places in the mantle, the rock gets very hot and nearly liquid. It’s called magma. Sometimes the magma reaches the Earth’s surface and forms a volcano.
#5 - Ocean Life
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/28/1995
There’s an amazing amount of living things in the ocean. There are fish, sharks, flowers, whales, squid, sea plants, sea anemones, sea otters, and all sorts of other things living in the water. But most of the living things in the ocean are so small we can’t even see them. These tiny plants and animals are called plankton – the “drifters”.
#6 - Amphibians
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/30/1996
Frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (worm-like animals that have backbones) are all amphibians, animals that spend part of their lives in water and part on land. Amphibians are slimy. Amphibians are cold-blooded that means their body temperature changes with the temperature outside. And as amphibians grow up, they go through metamorphosis.
#7 - Deserts
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/29/1996
About 20% of the Earth is a desert. Deserts are places that get very little precipitation (rain or snow) each year, and that makes them extremely dry. Deserts cover big areas of land. The biggest desert, the Sahara, extends from North Africa to Southwest Asia and is 13 times the size of Texas. Some parts of the Sahara get as little as 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) of water a year.
#8 - Archaeology
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/28/1996
Archaeologists are kind of like detectives. They’re scientists who snoop through old or ancient people’s things to find out what life was like thousands of years ago. Archaeologists find ancient cities, tombs, and temples by taking aerial photographs of Earth, by reading old documents, or by just looking at the shape of the land. When they think they’ve found a site, the archaeologists pick up a shovel and start digging. When archaeologists get close to an object, they dig very carefully. Sometimes they dig with nothing but a toothpick and a paintbrush. Whew!
#9 - Flowers
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/27/1996
Flowers are an important part of many plants. Plants use flowers to make other plants – to reproduce. Flowers have special parts, called stamens and pistils. When pollen from the stamen finds its way down through the pistil, the flower is pollinated, and seeds start to grow. The seeds eventually find their way to the ground, the seeds sprout, and more plants are born.
#10 - Pseudoscience
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/26/1996
People once thought that world was flat or nearly flat. It was considered a bit crazy to think of it as a big ball. But it is. You can prove it. One of the big ideas in science is that ideas can be tested. Scientists test claims. If one scientist claims that she or he can fill a balloon with invisible gas using vinegar and baking soda, other scientists can try it and see if they get the same result. Sometimes ideas are wild, extraordinary. And, the claims that go with these way-out ideas are pretty extraordinary as well. The round Earth is an example of an extraordinary claim that needed extraordinary proof. But, there are many people, who believe in extraordinary claims without looking for extraordinary proof. We scientists are always on the lookout.
#11 - Probability
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/19/1996
Probability is a way to measure how likely it is that something will happen. Probabilities are predictions. They’re often just very careful guesses. When a scientist wants to calculate a probability, she or he gathers data and then uses the data to make her or his guess. Probabilities are between 100% (it’s definitely going to happen) and 0% (forget about it, pal, it’s not going to happen). Most things have a probability somewhere in between.
#12 - Pollution Solutions
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/12/1996
Dirty water, land, and air are a result of pollution. People are the only animals on Earth that make pollution. Garbage, burning fuel, chemicals, sewage, oil, and pesticides are all human-made things that make the Earth’s atmosphere, water, and soil unclean. Humans are even leaving trash in space, such as broken satellites, pieces of metal, paint from rocket skin, and even cameras and toothbrushes. Much of the junk people make and leave behind hurts plants, animals, you and me.
#13 - Spiders
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/5/1996
Be sure to get this straight: spiders are not insects, they’re arachnids. Spiders have eight legs, and insects have only six. Spiders have two body parts, a head and an abdomen, while insects have three body parts, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. Insects have antennae, and spiders do not. Some insects sting. All spiders have fangs and venom. There are almost certainly a few spiders in the room with you right now.
#14 - NTV Top 11 Video Countdown
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/1/1995
Join Bill Nye as he counts down the hits from the Soundtracks of Science. Along with the music, Bill does a few new experiments on the lab bench. You’ll see the grunge band Nyevana’s classic “Air Pressure,” Momentisey’s “The Faster You Push Me,” and divas En Lobe’s “Whatta Brain.” There’s even a special appearance by Mudhoney, a real band from Seattle. But if you want to know who’s the number one artist from Not That Bad Records, you’ll have to tune in.
#15 - Earthquakes
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/24/1995
Earthquakes happen when pieces of land in the Earth’s crust scrape together. The crust of the Earth is made of big slabs of land called plates that are constantly moving just a little bit. The plates scrape by one another, and sometimes they don’t move smoothly. An earthquake happens when the plates get unstuck suddenly and jerkily slip past each other. The majority of earthquakes occur along plate boundaries such as the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. One of the most active plate boundaries for earthquakes is the massive Pacific Plate commonly referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire. The fire comes from the volcanoes that form near the edge of the plates.
#16 - Marine Mammals
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/17/1995
Whales, dolphins, otters, walruses, and orcas are just like us, they’re mammals. Well, they’re not just like us. They live in the ocean. They breathe air, have hair, nurse their babies, and they are warm-blooded. They keep the same body temperature all day. To do that in the ocean isn’t easy. Water soaks up heat, so the ocean is really pretty cold. Marine mammals have all sorts of ways to keep warm. Whales, dolphins, and walruses have thick layers of fat called “blubber.” It’s great insulation. It holds their body heat keeping them warm in the cold ocean. Sea otters have thick layers of fur that cover their whole bodies. Otters fluff their fur to trap air between the hairs. It helps them float, it the air keeps them warm even when they dive deep hunting for food. These adaptations make it possible for marine mammals to live all over the world’s oceans.
#17 - Nutrition
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/10/1995
All food, whether it’s protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, or minerals, is made of chemicals. When your body gets a hold of these chemicals, it recombines them and makes energy. Different types of food make different amounts of energy, which are measured in calories. How do scientists figure out the amount of calories in food? In this episode, Bill will reveal the secrets of the bomb calorimeter – an instrument of food science.
#18 - Rivers & Streams
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/3/1995
Water is massive; rivers are powerful. As rivers flow downhill, they wear away rock and soil to form canyons or winding curves in the land, called meanders. Sometimes rivers fill and overflow their banks. Rivers with too much water create floods that can carry away plants, trees, buildings and boulders. Rivers and streams support most of the ecosystems on land.
#19 - Animal Locomotion
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 10/27/1995
Some animals have wings that let them fly and hover. Other animals have legs, from two to more than 200, to get them walking, galloping, or running. Some animals’ legs are really pumped-up for powerful jumps. Animals also strut, stroll, slither, swim, slime, sprint and squeeze their way around.
#20 - Populations
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 10/20/1995
Populations need a couple of basic things to survive – food and a place to live. When two or more populations of living things are crowded into a small area, there is competition for food and space. A population of birds and a population of squirrels compete for seed and bread crumbs in a park. Competition is a natural part of life, but problems can arise if populations get out of balance.
#21 - Birds
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/13/1995
Scientists believe that birds evolved from reptiles. Birds have backbones, and they lay eggs, but they’ve developed a unique feature that sets them apart from all other animals – feathers. Feathers are made of the same stuff human fingernails and hair are made from – a protein called keratin. Feathers, combined with lightweight bones, powerful wings and strong hearts let birds fly.
#22 - Wetlands
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/6/1995
Wetlands are not just home to different animals and plants, but they also control flooding and help keep the Earth’s water clean. Flood waters move more slowly through wetlands because they have to go through barriers of plants and dirt. Wetlands help stop erosion because the plants stop the soil from washing away. Plants and soil in wetlands slow water enough that bacteria and other decomposer organisms can break down and even absorb some types of pollution. Wetlands are wet. Let’s keep them that way.
#23 - Human Transportation
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 9/29/1995
Transportation is all about moving people and their things. You can transport yourself around using your feet, a bike, a car, a train – anything that gets you going from one place to another. Humans have been moving around from place to place ever since they’ve been on Earth. That’s how we get our food and our materials like lumber, concrete and computers from one place to another.
#24 - Fish
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/22/1995
More than 22,000 different species of fish live in the oceans, lakes, and rivers of the world. Fish come in all shapes and sizes. Some eat water plants, some eat other fish. Lampreys and some jawless fish suck onto other fish for food. Stone fish live on ocean bottoms and camouflage themselves as rocks. Puffer fish blow themselves up like a balloon, only they’re covered with spines. There are tons of strange and cool-looking fish everywhere.
#25 - Spinning Things
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 9/15/1995
A lot of things spin – bike wheels, footballs, hard disks in your computer, and even the Earth – they’re all twirling around. Spinning things have inertia, which means they keep spinning unless something slows them down. Bike tires keep spinning until you put on the brakes. A football spirals through the air until you catch it. The Earth keeps on spinning 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s been spinning for over four billion years.