His name is Alexei Filippenko and he is much more than just a TV scientist like Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye. Alex is often on the show “The Universe” on the History Channel. The reason that I like him so much is that he seems to always be smiling.
My favorite episode is one which describes several ways that life on earth could suddenly be destroyed. With all of his descriptions of horrific events unfolding he has a huge smile on his face. That’s the kind of attitude that I would like to have as strange gamma bursts from space melt my body or as a black hole approaches Earth and sucks my particles into itself. I say we elect Alex as President and then he can give us bad news about the economy or catastrophes with a giant smile. He should at least be Press Secretary.
Here is a little snippet. He is not quite as smiley in this one, but it is all I could find.
So outstanding! I have to agree. If I ever get cancer (which is likely, given my family history), I hope Alexei Filippenko delivers the news. That way, I can be happily devastated.
The more I read about Dr. Filippenko, the more impressed I am with him. Despite the demands on his time in research, TV, etc., he teaches an intro Astronomy course for non-science majors. The smile he always seems to have is the look of a person who loves his profession and wants to share his knowledge with anyone who is interested. How cool would it be to spend a few hours with him picking his brain?