BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY

The Science Guy celebrates 20 years on the air (including reruns) with a modest but diverse pocketful of science games, demos and random facts.

A digital desktop with 10 tappable items on top or in a drawer serves as the gateway to a variety of activities. There’s an “alien invasion” with four optical illusions, instructions for six low-cost physics or chemistry experiments, 10 short video clips (each with, take note, a link to buy the entire original episode), a challenging geology-based digging game and an easier one that tours the solar system. Other diversions range from a touch-responsive periodic table of the elements to instructions for tying a bow tie. Along with Nye’s rapid commentary, at many times, a Bill bobblehead spouts facts in his voice or sings out the show’s theme song with a tap. As in the shows themselves, the directions and explanations are concise but clear, with digestible doses of specific terminology.

Not deep but broad and effective in conveying some of the pleasures of scientific enquiry along with the overcaffeinated personality of the show’s host.