Can Bees Really Fly? Buzzing into Science with Bill Nye!

I worked on trying to be funny, and I've had a lot of people come up to me over the last thirty years and say, hey, I want to do what you did. I want to do science that's fun and makes you lou Every day, every day I learned something that just fills me with joy what I call the JOD in English the joy of discovery, and it's the PB and J which is peanut, butter and jelly, but it's also the passion, beauty and joy of science. I love it. Hi, I'm Bill Nye and this is

That's none other than Bill Nye. You may know him from his work on TV. He made it his goal to share his love of science and learning to kids and grown ups alike.

Basically, he's well, he's the.

Science guy and on top of it all, a man with excellent.

Taste in bow tyes.

Welcome to Growing Up, a Lingo Kids podcast that helps kids discover how to be whatever they want to be. Join us on an adventure to unravel the secrets behind the coolest skills and hobbies and the people who followed their dreams Today Luisa and I will explore the wonders of science and how we can teach others about the fascinating ways our world works.

And it starts in a beehive.

On a day like any other. At go forward, lambs, Emily and Louis buzz into a wild adventure. They are no longer our good old hosts, but bees, yues, bees with wings stripes and a super important mission and super slow mo cameras to capture every tiny detail along the way.

Well, Emily, I see the daisy we were looking for. Can you buzz in with our landing orders?

Well, Louise, since the bee yourself machine works so well, you bet I can buzz in.

I'm a bee just like you.

After all, Good one, Emily, we have some pretty cool wings. Now. Oh hi, Queen bee huh? I always wanted to say, Heart of the Queen. She really is a busy bee today, Yes she is? Okay, Emily, mission recap. We're here because we were watching Bill Love the Science Guy on TV earlier today and he said something that made me go.

What believe it or not? They had this item that said, according to aerynamic theory, bees cannot fly not fly.

Yeah, that's not really true, is it.

Of course it's not true. I mean, look at us. I can fly just fine.

Ooh, I have an idea.

I can record you on our super slow mo cam and we can find out. Try it, Emily recording and three two one fly around, Luis.

Way, Why you got that, Emily?

Yep, got it just right, Emily.

I was just wondering, what's a rodynamics aerodynamics?

Well, it's basically rules.

That explain how both airplanes and birds fly, how the air moves around their bodies and their wings so that they can lift up and up and up and up into the air.

But then, why do people say that bees can't fly if we can actually see bees fly?

Oh right, that's a question that we can answer through observation, Luis. I think we can use our video to find out why some people say bees don't really fly.

Attention be simulation ending interview incoming. Sorry to be such a buzzkill.

Well what's going on, Emily? What happened?

Oh no, I forgot.

I set the Bee Yourself machine to take us out in time for our interview with Bill Nye.

I got the video just in time.

We're talking to Bill Nye. The science guy. No way, I should put on my bow tie just like him. But I hope I can get an answer to this. Bees cannot fly sing? You should try.

Bill is the right person to ask about all things science. He is such an amazing guy. Did I tell you that I worked with him on TV?

Oh? You did? Does he really always wear a bow tie?

I don't think I've ever seen him without one? But yes, I was a correspondent for his show, Bill Nye Saves the world. And you know what makes him truly special, luis what Not only does he know about science, he's also a science communicator, someone who knows how to speak about science well to everyone.

Wow. Does that mean he's like a teacher more or less?

Yes, But outside of school, he's a teacher on TV and on radio and on the internet.

I can't wait to talk to him. Let's go then.

Welcome to our growing up talking game show, and today we are delighted to be joined by everyone's favorite science communicator, Bill Nye.

Hi, Bill, I'm so glad to meet you. Emily and Lewis Phil I'm going right in. I have a super important question. What do you know about bees?

I remember very well. I got stung by.

A bee ooh ouch.

And then following on in the Washington Post newspaper they had a Sunday feature called Ripley's Believe It or Not, and then Ripley's Believe It or Not they had this or this item that said, according to aerodynamic theory, bees cannot fly.

Yes, I heard you say that on your TV show today.

As a kid, I remember thinking that can't be right. The bees are flying. The problem has got to be with the theory.

Oh, just like us, let's write that down, Luis. Maybe we need to look at the problem differently.

The problem's got to be with the theory.

The bee staying led to me just watching bees. I watched bees and I realized that not everything grown ups tell you is true. That was I talk about this from time behind, because that really was inspirational for me, Like, you can do your own investigation. You don't have to take grown up's word for it.

I knew it. We got to do our own investigation with the bees. Emily agreed.

Science is about being curious, asking questions and looking for answers, and that's my favorite part of it too. This and making experiments.

By the way, did you know that there are different types of scientists.

Yes, like scientists to study.

Stars, yes, astronomers, other study animals, zoologists.

Yes, and many other cool stuff. Bill, What kind of science person did you want to be growing up?

I became a mechanical engineer because I like airplanes and bicycles. I mean, that's really the thing, that's really what got me into it is science. Engineering is using science to make stuff and solve problem.

Yes, as a fellow engineer, and that's what I love the most about it. But Bill, something I love about your work on TV is how you make science entertaining and funny.

How did you learn to do all that?

I mean, as the youngest kid in my family, I have an older brother, older sister, you become extroverted. You try to get attention. You're the last to come along, and you try to you make funny faces. You concentrate on things that make grown ups laugh. It was reinforced. If you said something funny, that was good. And so later in life, I was a professional joke writer.

You were a professional joke writer too. Wow.

I worked on it. I worked on trying to be funny. And I've had a lot of people come up to me over the last thirty years and say hey, I want to do what you did. I want I want to do science that's fun and makes you laugh.

Bill, You've done so much cool stuff over the years. You worked on TV and helped design the airplanes we fly today. I just want to show everyone You've marked generations of people all over the world and all out of love for science.

Wow. I want to help people love science too, Emily.

Yes, it's a beautiful thing to do.

I just want to know, now, Bill, what makes you love science so much.

Science is the way that we learn about nature. It's where we observe things in the universe, wonder about why they're happening.

And how do you do science? Bill?

Come up with an idea? What the word is hypothesis, which means idea underneath, the underneath, idea for why something happens.

Wait, hypo what hypothesis?

The word hypothesis.

Actually comes from ancient Greece, where a scientists did some of the first recorded experiments.

Oh, I see, so, Bill, what do you do after you have a hypothesis?

Then we create a test or an experiment, and then run the experiment, run the test, and compare what we thought would happen, what actually did at and then start.

Over hypothesis, test, experiment, then test, and then experiments and compare. Huh. Sounds like a lot of work, but also like trying to.

Be the game, and that's what drives the world's best scientists, such as yourself. Bill, You've had an amazing career, of course, but were you ever worried that, well, you wouldn't make.

It constantly, continually all the time.

Really, but you look so confident on TV.

I took the risk and I don't regret it. And you may have heard this expression. People don't regret what they do. They regret what they don't do. So go for.

It, Bill, Motivational skills are just as awesome as your cool bow ties.

So Bill, what should I do if I want to go for it and be a science communicator?

Take stuff apart, try things, and if you make a mess trying things, be sure to clean it up. Otherwise the grown ups in your life will not let you try.

Take things apart and make a mess. I'm loving these tips so far.

Absolutely, the best discoveries happen when you take things apart and look at them piece by piece to see how.

They work, and then in the kitchen is where you can learn a lot about how materials work cooking. When you cook things, you see how temperature effects chemicals.

Huh, now that you mention it. The kitchen is like a science lab tasty experiments.

You should see my kitchen when I'm in my experiment mood. Yes, times you do have to make a mess and play around with stuff to find your next discovery.

And speaking of playing, Emily is a game show time?

You got it?

Hello everybody, and welcome to our game show with the fabulous Bill Nye Luise.

What are we playing today today?

It's trivia time. Bill. I have a few fun sciencey questions for you. Ready to try to answer them?

Yeah, let's see. Le's go, let's go, Let's go.

It's great, awesome, okay. Question one, almost the first food eaten by an American astronaut in space was it a mac and cheese, B, apple sauce or C vanilla ice cream?

It was apple sauce. I say that because it would fit in a tube like toothpaste.

That's correct. Astronaut John glenn Ate a tube of apple sauce in his space mission in nineteen sixty two.

And do you know why it was in a tube.

Louise, m oh, because things float around in space. I guess it would get pretty messy if it were in a bowl or something.

Yes, you got it all right.

Next question question two, Bill, which are the following things that grow on trees can be used to predict weather? A pine cones, B oranges or C. Figs?

I think a pine cone. When they open up, that's when it's getting warm.

You're right. Pine cones open up when the day is dry, and they close when it's about to rain. That's why they can help predict rainfall.

You're going to roll today, Bill.

You guys, I didn't know the answer is. This is based on my lifelong experience. Back to you.

I knew you'd do great bell Okay, Next question, Louise.

Question three, Which of these animals has the largest brain? A? Elephants, B, silver backed gorillas or C. Sperm whales.

The sperm whale. They have huge brain. They're houch.

Correct again, sperm whales have the largest brain in the animal world. I wonder if sperm whales can get a brain freeze.

We have to feed them ice cream to find out.

Maybe that can be our next experiment.

Maybe, I'm sure Wales wouldn't mind trying some Rocky Road ice cream. Bill, We had so much fun. Any final thoughts you'd like to share before we let you go.

Well, I love science because it's how we learn about the world. It's how we learn about what I like to call our place in space, our place on this planet, going around this star, in this galaxy, part of this universe and cosmos. And every day, every day, I learned something that just fills me with joy, what I call the JOD in English, the joy of discovery, and it's the p B and JA which is peanut, butter and jelly, but it's also the passion, beauty and joy of science. I love it.

Oh, that's beautiful, Bill.

We're all part of the universe, and the stars that are in space are also inside us too. Those are the same reasons I love science. Thank you so much for being with.

Us here today. So, Louis, what did you learn from Bill?

Oh?

I want that to do science, you have to make a mess and clean it up. And I also learned that we're made of stars and that grown ups we're wrong about bees.

Excellent, And speaking of bees, let's go back to our mission, shall we. So Louis, are you ready to.

Solve the question that's been buzzing in our minds? I am excellent. Let's recap. What question did we want to answer?

It's how come bees can fly if science says they're not supposed to exactly?

For many years, science weren't sure how they could fly if they had such small wings compared to the rest of their body.

I don't know, Emily. When I change into a bee, the wings on my back felt pretty large, like like the size of my arms.

You're right, but let's think of birds. Bird wings are usually much larger compared to the rest of their body.

Oh, so the reason science people thought bees couldn't fly was because they thought only birds could fly bingo.

Yes, but let's figure it out for ourselves. Let's check out the video I took with our super slow motion cam.

Yes, let's do it. I want to see what a bee looks like in slow.

Mo activating slow motion view.

Oh, Emily, the wings don't move up and down like birds. They're moving back and forth.

You got it. That's what helps bees be in the air.

Both birds and bees can fly, they just fly in their own ways.

So that's why science is so important. We need to ask questions like do bees fly or not? Then make a wait, Emily, what was that Greek word again?

Hypothesis?

Yes, a hypothesis.

Our hypothesis was bees fly. But there must be something there that we're not seeing.

And then we want experiments and try to test it.

So we filmed bees flying.

And that's how we learn new things that bees fly but not like birds fly.

And since science can sometimes be super specific and with big words, that's where science communicators like Bill and I come in.

Yeah, science communicators make it easy for people to fall in love with science and have fun with it.

Exactly.

By the way, all this talk about science makes me want to go get something to drink.

I'm thinking bobait are you in?

Oh? Yes, please, and I want my Boba Ti with honey.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Growing Up. I hope you enjoyed learning about how fun science can be and why it's so important to be curious and observe the world around us. Remember a little listener, dream big, and always stay curious.

Luis, are you.

Ready for more adventure?

There's more?

Yep, there is loads.

More to explore on the world's number one kids learning app, Lingo Kids. It has tons of videos, games and songs and every single one is fun and educational. Download the Lingo Kids app today for.

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