By Charly SHELTON

Bill Nye the Science Guy and co-author Gregory Mone made a stop at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse on Sept. 14 to sign copies of their new middle-grade book, “Jack and the Geniuses: In the Deep Blue Sea.” This is the second in the series that follows boy and girl geniuses as they explore, solve problems and stop bad guys by using science. Nye and Mone addressed the audience prior to the signing, covering topics ranging from the benefits of green living to getting more women into science occupations to the origins of Bill’s scientific curiosity.

One young scientist asked a question about which field is the best to go into for the future. Nye, with all the passion he displayed in his hit TV show, got the audience enthralled with his response.

“Follow your passion, but right now the advances that are being made in genetics are something else. I grew up with the space age, the competing rockets to put people on the moon, and that was cool. But what’s happening now with biology is even cooler,” Nye said. “It’s reasonable to think that people my age would be the last people to have certain diseases because science will figure out [the cure].”

The talk broached topics of current events, the then-imminent finale of the Cassini spacecraft, history and women in science.

“You are coming of age in a time when women are empowered more than they ever used to be,” Nye said to a little girl in a “Girl Power” shirt. “When I went to engineering school, we had three ladies in my graduating class. Now that same school has 50% [women graduates]. When we have women scientists and engineers, we have twice as many brains working toward solutions.”

The take-away point that Nye and Mone left the audience with is one of hope for the future.

“In the big picture, there are three things that I want everybody on Earth to want for everybody on Earth – the first one is clean water, the second one is renewably produced electricity that is reliable, and the third one is access to the Internet, or whatever the Internet comes to be called in the future. They might go back to calling it the Yellow Pages, I don’t know,” Nye said.

After the talk, Nye and Mone signed copies of the new book, as well as the first book, “Jack and the Geniuses at the Bottom of the World,” and Nye’s books “Undeniable” and “Unstoppable.”

For more information on all of these titles, visit BillNye.com.

  Charly Shelton