He Blinded Me with Science

The man that all of my generation knew as Mr. Wizard has passed on.  Don Herbert was his real name.  You could have paid me a million dollars to guess it and I still wouldn't have gotten it right.  I JUST now found out that was his actual name.  Anyway, he died Tuesday after a bout with bone cancer.

It is ironic that this news came about because for some reason, I was just thinking about his television show the other day.  Whenever I see a magician, one of his shows comes to mind.  I often recall odd things so I wouldn't be surprised if no one else can remember this.  Anyway, they had a magician on their show and Mr. Wizard would slow the camera down to see how he did certain tricks.  Even at extra slow speed, they still couldn't figure out a couple.

It was Mr. Wizard that taught us shorties that science could be fun.  He didn't bog us down with formulas and theorems and whatnot.  He just did simple experiments that we could do at home that got us intrigued.  Of course, this would have been at a time when we only had four channels to choose from so our choices were rather limited.

I want to thank you for showing me the opposing magnets trick and all the other nuances of simple science, Mr. Wizard.  Rest in peace.