Who would be on your fantasy #science team? #scio13

Bill Nye the Science Guy at The UP Experience 2010. Note: this photo is Creative Commons Attribution. You are welcome to use it with “photo by Ed Schipul” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In my quest in advocate science education and science literacy, this thought came to me as I was laying in bed last night. There are fantasy everything leagues. I’ve even participated in Fantasy Nascar and Fantasy Golf (don’t tell anyone). My wife has even been in a Fantasy Celebrity League. What about a Fantasy Science League? Who would you want on your team (they must be living)?

I’m going to give away my draft strategy…

I would start with a ringer; someone high profile that does a lot for humanity. Since a majority of Americans can not name a living scientist, this is difficult. I would have to start with Bill Nye. He is a beloved TV personality and advocate for action on climate change and science literacy. Heck, he even has ‘Science’ in his name (The Science Guy).

Second I would go another high profile in Neil Degrasse Tyson. A great director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC.

Next, I would pick someone probably less known to the masses, Lucy Shapiro,  member of the National Academy, life long researcher who has mentored some of our best scientists including Sean Crosson and Christine Jacobs-Wagner.

Following Lucy would be Derek Lovley. With a great PR department at UMass, Lovley has created a major buzz in the microbial and alternative energy world. Lovley’s work with Geobacter has discovered the potential to create a microbial fuel cell due to extracellular electron transfer. In other words, bacteria conducting electricity as a by-product of cell metabolism.

George Church would be a great addition to any fantasy science team. He recently made headlines due to awful translation. He had pioneered genetic research and to add a cool factor, has appeared on The Colbert Report. He most recent book was ‘translated” onto DNA. 20 million copies of his book were encoded onto DNA and is kept in a small vial.

I think 5 team members is a good start. I may pick up some more scientists off the waiver wire later, but I like my chances to make it to the championship. We’ll see…

Dr. at the November 29, 2005 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council, in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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