So, we’re only hardcore crushing on Bill Nye’s mom
Right now, there’s an amazing Kickstarter in the works to bring us The Bill Nye Film. It’ll follow our favorite science teacher, Bill Nye, on all sorts of science adventures. The film is also going to give us a look into Nye’s personal life, and that includes stories about his upbringing, too. Like, how his mom, Jacqueline, was a World War II code breaker.
Say what? Yes. That is just as cool as it sounds, and not only does Mrs. Nye sound like an incredibly lady, her son is also incredibly proud of her.
The two guys behind The Bill Nye Film, David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg, are hard at work making the movie right now. They’ve completed a few scenes, and their latest one was just posted online. In the new video, Nye talks fondly about his mom, and how she “was a big believer in women doing everything.” His mom was really good at math, so when the time came, the Navy recruited her as a code breaker.
Mrs. Nye worked with Enigma machines, which are basically giant code-cracking machines, and those were used to decipher German messages during WWII (Remember the Enigma machines during last years Imitation Game? Just like that). It’s thought that the codes cracked through these machines shortened the war by a year and a half, and Mrs. Nye totally had a hand in that.
According to Nye, “She wasn’t Rosie the Riveter, she was Rosie the Top Secret Code Breaker!” Yes, yes, yes to this. Also, we love how much Bill Nye the Science Guy love and admires his mom.
If you’re not already crushing hard on Mrs. Nye, there’s one other thing Nye mentions about her. According to him, his mom was always saying that “half of the humans are girls or women. So why don’t we have all half of the scientists be women?” GOOD POINT, MRS. NYE. We like the way she thinks.
Mrs. Nye sadly passed away in 2000, but she’d probably be thrilled to see all the women in STEM fields today. While we’re still not at the half quota she was looking for, we’re certainly making strides towards getting there. Let’s keep making Mrs. Nye proud.
You can check out the full clip below, and there’s still time left to donate to The Bill Nye Film. Which is good, because we’re still going to need to know so much more about this rad woman who raised our guy Bill (Bill Bill).
Bill Nye Film Scene – Mom and Women in STEM from David Anthony Alvarado on Vimeo.
See more about the film: bit.ly/billnyefilm
(Image via Structure Films)
PSA: Classic episodes of ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ are now on Netflix
