I was saddened the other day to learn that Don Herbert, aka Mr. Wizard, died of multiple myeloma on June 12 of this year.
My own direct experience with Mr. Wizard is limited to the revival show Mr. Wizard's World that aired on Nickelodeon in the 1980's. Beyond that, however, are multitudes of cultural references -- be it the "Ted Olson, Scientist" segments of the original Police Squad! series or imitators of the format like Beakman's World. Every time you see some kid saying on TV "Gee, how does that work?", and prompting some guy in a lab coat to appear and say "Well Timmy, that's just an application of the Bernoulli Principle. Here let me show you...", that's the legacy of Mr. Wizard.
Even more than that though, I think that Mr. Wizard is responsible for educating a couple generations of kids in the basic principles of science. For that, we all owe Mr. Herbert a debt of gratitude. Thank you, Mr. Herbert. We'll miss you.
said drgeek
on 2007-06-20 at 10:14 p.m.
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