Inside Bill Nye’s Unseen Family Health Struggle – What He’s Finally Opening Up About Will Shock You
Remember when Bill Nye the Science Guy was the cool teacher everyone wished they had? Yep, that same science wiz who turned complicated concepts into pure entertainment for kids across the nation is stepping back into the lab — but this time, he’s tackling something deeply personal. At 69, Bill opened up to Woman’s World about ataxia, a tricky neurological condition that’s hit several members of his family. What’s wild is that while he’s likely to dodge symptoms himself, he’s wrestling with a heavy dose of “survivor’s guilt.” Why did some get it and not him? What keeps him motivated to raise awareness and get back on TV with a new series? Buckle up, because this isn’t just science — it’s family, legacy, and some real heart. LEARN MORE
Children all over the country grew up watching Bill Nye the Science Guy explain a variety of scientific terms to them. And now, the 69-year-old is ready to do so again. In a recent sitdown with Woman’s World, Nye opened up about a condition called ataxia, which has affected several of his family members. He also shared that while he most likely won’t develop symptoms, there is a sense of “survivor’s guilt” that he feels. Read on for the entire conversation.
Bill Nye the Science Guy explains ataxia
According to Nye, “A taxi is a car that gets you around. Ataxia is where you can’t get around very well. If you’re apolitical, you have no politics. If you’re ataxic, you have no taxi.”
There are four types of ataxia—sporadic, Friedreich, spinocerebellar and episodic—and currently Nye has teamed up with the National Ataxia Foundation and Biogen to help raise awareness for all of them, including Friedreich.
“Friedrich ataxia is generally regarded as the most common form, at least in the US. And so it’s estimated there are about 5000 people with Friedrich Ataxia, and then overall, it’s 100,000 people with all the various ataxia combined,” Nye said. “But Friedrich is recessive. So you people can be carriers of the gene, repeat, but it’s only when somebody with the recessive gene has babies with somebody else with the same recessive gene, then their offspring have one half have a one in four chance of getting Friedrich ataxia symptoms.”
“My family doesn’t have Friedrich. We have good old Spinocerebellar Ataxia 20, which, oh, my goodness, it’s so exciting. No, that’s ironic. It may prove to be even more common than Friedrich’s. We say this because there are genetic tests now available to show that it’s a repeating gene, a different gene in my family,” he continued. “The more repetitions you have, the stronger your symptoms are. That’s what’s generally believed now. So I have so few repeats on this one gene, but I almost certainly will not have ataxia symptoms even though I spent my whole life thinking it was coming.”
Finding out that the condition wasn’t coming was “a great relief,” Nye said, although it did give him a sense of “survivor’s guilt.”
“Why did it affect my older sister and my brother and not me? Why does it affect my nephew but not my nieces and so on and so on,” he said.
Bill Nye the Science Guy talks about his return to TV and his star on the Walk of Fame
Alongside his campaign, Nye is also releasing a new series entitled The Science Guy: Back in the Lab for FA (Friedreich Ataxia) in an effort to draw even more attention to the condition.
“My claim is, I never really left the studio. I’ve done other shows wearing lab coats, so it’s always fun,” Nye said. “What happened this time was we reproduced a lot of features of the Science Guy, which was fun. We had the sliding door, the Yellow Crane, the shelves of bubbling flasks and beakers. That’s a lot of fun.”
Also a lot of fun? Nye’s new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“I was delighted and thrilled,” he said. “The ceremony last week, rather earlier this week, was really something. We had Ross Schaefer, who coined the phrase Bill Nye, the Science Guy. We had Joel McHale, whom you may know from Community and now Animal Control. He started on the same comedy show I started on. And then we had Jalen Brown, who was a point guard for the Boston Celtics. He flew across the country just to speak at my dedication ceremony. It was really something. It was really cool. It means the world to me and as far as I know, the star has there all week.”
To learn more about Bill Nye’s new show, Science Guy: Back in the Lab for FA click here!
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