Bill Nye, everybody’s favorite science teacher, believes that there are still many discoveries to make.

Nye, who wrote, produced and starred in the Emmy Award-winning television series “Bill Nye: The Science Guy” from 1992 to 1998, plans to discuss Mars and its exploration and the importance of discovery at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. today at McLennan Community College.

After graduating from Cornell University with a mechanical engineering degree in 1977, the now 50-year-old Nye went to work for Boeing Corp. in Washington state, where he designed a hydraulic resonance suppressor that is still used in Boeing 747s.

Nye later pursued a comedy career, performing with the Seattle-based “Almost Live” skit and stand-up comedy group in the late 1980s before “The Science Guy” took off.

Nye’s lectures will be in the MCC Conference Center. MCC’s Kim Patterson, who organized the event, said those with tickets must be at the conference center 20 minutes before the scheduled time or the seat will be given to somebody else.

Below is the Tribune-Herald’s recent interview with Nye.

Q: How do you view the theory of “intelligent design?”

A: Intelligent design is not an alternative explanation. It’s a philosophy, it’s a faith. The notion that the earth is 6,000 years old is inconsistent with scientific discovery. The earth can’t possibly be 6,000 years old. So, this idea that it is is not appropriate in the science realm.

It is fascinating that we live in this technologically advanced society and we have a huge number of people, including, apparently, the president of the United States, who can’t distinguish between the reasons scientists believe the earth to be very old and the translation of the Bible . . .being taken literally. So, I’d like to talk about that in my talk. And, you know, there’s jokes.

Q: How important is humor in your life?

A: It’s the most important thing. My parents were both very funny. My brother is the funniest person in the world. Humor is really important, especially when you want to entertain.

With regard to the old Bill Nye show, it was entertainment first. I’ve had people disagree with me and say, “No, your show was an educational show.” Duh, I was a producer on the show. Humor is good for holding people’s attention, and humor is good for making people think. You know, irony can provide a valuable perspective, especially scientifically. We did a weather report from a cave, and the strange thing is most large, deep caves, the weather never changes. It’s 17 degrees Celsius for the last 3,000 years. It’s funny, what makes it funny is your perception of the weather cast.

Q: Who or what inspired your interest in science?

A: What I always say is that I don’t remember. What I do remember very well is watching bees as a little kid. I would swear that you could see the same individuals come and go. There’s Mary, there’s Henrietta. They’re all girls. I also remember very well, Ripley’s Believe It or Not (saying), “According to aeronomic theory, bees cannot fly.” And I’m like, that’s not a very good theory. Bees look like they’re doing very well in the flying department. Not everything people tell you is true. That’s the great, wonderful thing about science. You try to find (truth).

Q: What’s your worst scientific experiment or project gone wrong?

A: Oh, definitely the oil drum that didn’t collapse. The idea was you boil water in a metal can, then you take it off the burner and put the top on tightly and the water will condense back into a liquid and take up hardly any room at all and the can gets crushed by atmospheric pressure as though by a giant fist.

So, here’s the idea, we’ll do the same demonstration - not with a soda can, oh no, with an oil drum. And it was going to be really funny.

But on the show, the thing sat there boiling too long and got too hot. What was going to be funny is I was going to cool it off with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. Anyway, the thing didn’t have enough oomph to make the oil drum (collapse), so I’m sitting there (spraying the drum) and it was very, very embarrassing and everybody will tell you it was very funny. I thought my world was crashing down.

Q: Is it true that hot water freezes faster than cold water?

A: So this is a good example. Somebody in the newsroom wanted you to ask me that, right? Does that person know that he or she could try it for him or herself? Then he or she wouldn’t have to ask. There are certain conditions in the right freezer where the hot water will freeze thinner ice cubes faster because the evaporating water carries heat away with it.

Q: Why do dogs and cats seem to like the taste of antifreeze so much?

A: It tastes sweet. Antifreeze, with the glycol, has a sweet taste. A lot of people like it, and it’s not especially good for you. It would be deadly if you drank enough of it.

Q: What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?

A: I hope to have a book out about transportation that will change the world. People don’t understand, they don’t grasp how much energy we’re using for transportation, just to get around, and this is creating all this carbon monoxide and causing all this trouble. I’d like to be a spokesman for science, and I certainly would like to do another television show. I’m working on one called “Nye-1-1: A science emergency.”

Q: Do you consider yourself to be a religious man?

A: No, absolutely not. But I always say that I’m quite reverent. You have to be an agnostic - that is to say, when you look at the universe, there’s so much that we have no idea about, that we just don’t understand at all. You’ve got to figure that there could be anything out there, any entity or force or intelligence or something behind it all that you absolutely cannot know about. That’s one thing, the universe is astonishing, and I have great reverence for that. . . .

As a skeptic and what people call a non-believer, I am very skeptical that a human was born on earth to a mother that didn’t have sex with another person. I just don’t think that happened. It’s a metaphor or something. It’s a representation of some ideal. I don’t think that really happened. I think anybody that was born was as the result of sex between a man and a woman.

Another thing that always throws me off a little is these extraordinary claims are based on the Bible written in English. Do you speak Aramaic: Are you sure you got it all right?

Q: Do you believe that there is alien life out there somewhere?

A: It would be extremely unlikely that there are not (alien life forms). There’s a lot of space in space. This is the thing about exploration of Mars - not to change the subject - if we can find the slushy place there on Mars where there might have been enough water to sustain life at one time in Mars’ past, that would be world-changing. It would mean that life is more likely than people thought and it would change the world the way Galileo and Copernicus changed the world. And the cool and charming and compelling thing is that it’s a team doing it, and it’s not an individual. And I find that’s a really cool and worthy thing for our society to be doing.

Q: You have two patents pending. One is for a piece of equipment that trains you to throw a baseball correctly and the other for an adjustable-toe ballet shoe. Explain them, please.

A: (The baseball trainer patent) was rejected (originally) for being similar to something that helps disabled people climb stairs. Really, Mr. Examiner, I think you’ve got to take a minute.

So anyway, what you have to do in order to throw strongly is you have to turn the ball. When you throw, there’s a moment where the palm of your hand is facing exactly the wrong direction. This device helps you learn to do it. I never learned to do it. This really is, if I may, fundamental to throwing like a girl. It’s what makes you throw like a girl. I like baseball, and I went to fantasy camp. And I don’t throw very well, that’s all there is to it. So I hooked up with a guy . . . and he showed me this, he had this idea (for a training machine), and I said, “That’s a good idea, but this’ll never work the way you have it.” So we worked together, and we split it 50-50, the patent.

I also have a patent on an improved ballet toe-shoe, where, fundamentally, the toe box of the shoe is adjustable. These girls and women get all kinds of crazy injuries, some of which are related to the shoes. The shoes haven’t changed for centuries. The improved ballet shoe is to the old ballet shoe as the (Nike) Air Jordan (basketball shoe) is to the (Converse) Chuck Taylor.