Three-quarters of them raised their hands. The fascination the love affair with science, technology, engineering and maths, abbreviated to STEM, is not as it once was.Ĭhubb tells the story of being in a room full of maths graduates, who were asked how many of their parents had tried to stop them from studying the degree. Walter and Eliza InstituteĪnd yet as a nation today we're told by the country's chief scientist, Ian Chubb, a neuroscientist, that we aren't that interested in science or maths, and that we get an F when it comes to embracing it, whether it's in the classroom, business or in politics. Professor Ian Chubb once asked a roomful of maths graduates how many had parents who had resisted their choice of degree. Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Institute in Victoria. When Sumner Miller squeezed an egg into a milk bottle to demonstrate atmospheric pressure it was chiselled into the memories of generations of Australians, so much so that if his name is mentioned in an office or at a dinner party today, you're guaranteed someone will immediately respond by impersonating Sumner Miller's catch-cry, "Why is it so?" Then they'll fondly recall his experiments that aired on TV to large audiences from the mid-60s to the mid-80s. Both those traits were a bonus but the real attraction was his fascinating, simple and highly entertaining experiments. A physicist, he had a slightly mad scientist look and quirky American voice that belonged to narrating a 1950s Hollywood film. My older brother and I would be curled up on a chair in front of the TV captivated by Sumner Miller. Sumner Miller was well known for his catchphrase 'Why is it so?’ and the distinctive way he said it entered the vernacular, but his program is titled Why It Is So (see clip one).One of the earliest television programs I can recall watching as a child was Why Is It So? with Professor Julius Sumner Miller. Through practical experiments and with his own unique style of commentary, Sumner Miller tried to show how nature behaves and, by asking rather than answering questions, aimed to provoke scientific thought and imagination in his audience. Content was based on questions drawn from the natural world. Some I thought out – not too well, to be sure – but I was learning to think.Įach ten-minute episode comprised a lesson in some aspect of ‘quantum physics today’. To some I got the answers in dialogue with my Mama and my Papa and with my teachers. What is the Earth made of? Why is the sky blue? Why is the sunset red? How does a bird soar? Why does a brook gurgle? How does an earthworm crawl? Why is a dewdrop round? Why does corn pop? Why does a wood fire crackle? And a thousand like questions. Writing on his own early childhood and its influence on his philosophy Sumner Miller explains:Īll of a half-century ago – when I was a little boy on the farm in my native New England – I remember asking all kinds of questions. Or, more simply in my own phrase, 'Why is it so?’ To stir your imagination, awaken your interest, arouse your curiosity, enliven your spirit – all with the purpose of bringing you to ask, as young Maxwell put it, 'What’s the go of it?’ – or, as Kepler had it, 'Why things are as they are and not otherwise’. In the preface to his book, Millergrams (1966), a collection of questions and answers originally published in The Australian newspaper, Sumner Miller expresses his core aspiration for his audience: His infectious enthusiasm, animated delivery, wild expressive eyebrows and eccentric turn of phrase meant that science could be fun and entertaining as well as educational. For over two decades, from 1963 to 1986, Sumner Miller and his silent laboratory assistant ‘Mr Anderson’ entertained a surprisingly large ABC television audience in a series of lectures and demonstrations dedicated to questions of physical science. Why It Is So, which was recorded live from the Physics Department of the University of Sydney, featured the iconic Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a professor of Physics from El Camino College, California.
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