Nigel Latta is keen to get more Kiwis interested in science and research. Photo / Supplied
We think of him as a celebrity shrink, the parenting guru, the self-styled TV guinea pig who once voluntarily spent a grim night in Rimutaka Prison.
What, though, could Nigel Latta possibly know about science, the weighty subject that seems to be his cosy new home on telly.
Quite a bit, actually.
Yes, the fabulously articulate host of On Thin Ice: Nigel Latta in Antarctica and his latest adventure, Nigel Latta Blows Stuff Up does have some clue as to what he's banging on about.
In an alternate reality, Latta could have wound up in a lab coat, his name appearing atop papers in obscure journals, rather than in this newspaper's entertainment section.
So, when we watch him explaining the dynamics of gravity we might be interested to learn that Latta, holds a Master of Science degree - in marine science - as well as his Masters degree in psychology. Or that he prefers books about maths and physics for recreational reading.
"The idea that four fundamental forces - gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force - and 12 elemental particles are all that you need to make everything from Mars to monkeys is incredibly intriguing," he tells the Weekend Herald.
Circling back to science has been a personal revelation for a man who's still very much the kid who couldn't get enough of the David Attenborough and Jacques Cousteau docos that used to beam into his family's Oamaru living room.
Forty years on, he still hasn't stopped grappling with questions like why nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.
Everyone else loves science too, he assures us; it's just not all of us know we do.
He says we humans are naturally inqusitive about the universe and that's how we've created things like the internet, antibiotics and aviation.
"What's been brilliant about television is that now I have this unique opportunity to show everybody else why science is so interesting, and so important."
The show is having an impact, it seems, and even the Government-funded Science Learning Hub is using episodes as part of its online resources for schools.
Could it be that Latta has accidentally become a bona fide science communicator, crossing that bridge to the public we've seen built by the likes of the late Sir Paul Callaghan and more recently professors Shaun Hendy and Michelle Dickinson?
An accident it isn't.
Latta set out to talk about science quite deliberately, and a long time ago. His public talks have always weaved in a fair dollop of science and research.
"My view is that the practice of science belongs to scientists, but the things that they learn belong to us all," he says.
"Most researchers are too busy doing the science to devote a whole lot of time to talk to the public about it - I'm just fortunate in that I have the time, the interest, and the opportunity to talk about all this with people."
Filming in the white world of Antarctica was an incredible privilege for him, but it was those Kiwi researchers toiling amid the ice that left a bigger impression.
"The Antarctic is so far away it can all feel a bit irrelevant to most of us, but the truth couldn't be more different."
One scientist has referred to the frozen continent as the fly-wheel of the globe's climate system; Latta calls it the planet's heartbeat. Everything that happens there - the collapse of its vast ice sheets pushing up sea levels and changing coastlines and weather - affect everything else.
"Change isn't coming, it's here, and we're only just beginning to understand what that will mean for all of our futures."
As for his current show, the idea crystallised months before he took a Hercules to Scott Base.
"The original idea actually started as a joke - I came into our production office one day and said that I had a brilliant idea for a TV show, it was called "Nigel Blows Shit Up", and basically I'd just go round blowing shit up.
"Clearly that's a dumb idea, but Mark McNeill, the executive producer, liked the title and suggested a series about science.
"I was sold straight off and we just started developing the concept from there."
We now get to watch him burn down a house, crash cars, fall off bridges, jump out of planes and face down hurricane-force winds.
"We've been talking with scientists and engineers all the way through, they fact-checked our scripts, and were there for almost everything we filmed - we really wanted to make sure we got the science right."
Latta has a general understanding of most of the science, but digging deeper into the nitty-gritty hasn't been so simple.
"Lightning is kind of simple at one level, but enormously complex the closer you look - especially when you're wanting to make sure you're saying the right things in the right way."
The winning formula wasn't scientific, he says - you just have to care.
"I love learning, and I love trying to understand complex things, and the best way I've found to do that is to try to explain it to someone else.
"If I'm going to help someone else to understand something, then I have to really think it through myself first."
Making the science cool was the easy part.
"Sometimes the coolness is hidden under a little bit of jargon and a few formulae, but it's always there, just beneath the surface - once you blow off the dust it gets shiny very quickly."
Latta admits it was tough putting together a slick series within the resource constraints of New Zealand television, a world away from the enormous production budgets of broadcasters like the BBC.
"What made that so much easier in this series though was that there are a large number of scientists, engineers, and other experts all round the country doing amazingly cool things."
He happily discovered that our scientists don't just lurk over bunsen burners or crunch data in stuffy university offices. They make lightning, launch rockets and crash things - all you had to do was knock on the door of the right shed.
But behind the show's flashy gimmicks and big bangs lay its true purpose - making us all smarter.
Scientific literacy is a term we've been hearing more lately - the Government has redoubled efforts to get more science in society and our pre-eminent scientist, Sir Peter Gluckman, is leading the charge.
Research has shown the need for science- there are skills shortages for many kinds of scientists and there haven't been enough school enrolments in science-related subjects.
As far as Latta is concerned, without brains, we're on a race to the bottom with other countries around low-paying manufacturing jobs.
"What we need to do is to invest in science education and research, because that's where the bright future is for all of us."
It seems remarkable to him that we live in a time where young people can tap their smartphones to find the entirety of human knowledge - if only it came without all the "trivial crap" like celebrity culture and YouTube cat videos, he says.
"That's why I'm so passionate about the need to get people talking about the really important things - should we care more about the new royal baby, or what the work at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN is discovering?
"My goal is to try to make more young people, young men and young women, understand that if you want to lead an exciting life, one which has real meaning and real value, then maybe think about a career in science."
Latta is also concerned that New Zealand invests a "woefully small amount" of our GDP - a paltry 1 per cent - into science research.
"Antarctic research is a prime example because each year some projects get funded and some don't - the problem is they're all important, they all need to get funded."
And while he's beating the funding drum, he says that we need to stop thinking about "pure" versus "applied" science, arguing that oft-termed "blue sky" research is where the next big economic, social, and environmental game-changers will be found.
So what does the research community think of Latta?
The president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, Dr Nicola Gaston, says Latta is playing a part in science communication that is less accessible for academic or research scientists.
Another of our best-known science ambassadors, Massey University's Dr Heather Hendrickson, says there has never been a more important time to have accessible science education for audiences of all ages.
According to research, the most effective way to get the message through is via shows like Latta's - newspapers, social media, blogs and even the internet itself fall well behind TV programmes when it comes to where Kiwis learn about science.
Yet Peter Griffin, manager of the New Zealand Science Media Centre says that until now, the treatment of science-related topics has largely been confined to overseas-produced shows buried on a Sky pay channel.
"This is arguably the type of science communication that has the most impact because it is reaching around 450,000 people every Sunday night and applying all the tricks that made Mythbusters such compelling TV," he says.
"There's potential for more of it being locally made and I see more appetite in the science sector to have input into these types of shows."
If Latta has his way, there will be more to come.
"Television is often criticised for being trivial but I think both New Zealand On Air and TVNZ have shown they believe in the importance of engaging the public in science, and their faith that there is a substantial and enthusiastic audience," Latta says.
"We certainly feel like we've only just got started on that front."
For the time being, he's plonking his author's hat back on for a book he's writing with top Otago University scientist Professor Richie Poulton.
It will chronicle the discoveries of the sprawling Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, of which Latta is an associate.
"Then there are all kinds of other ideas I probably shouldn't say out loud at this point.
"Watch this space is all I can really say about the future."
• Physics:
"The idea that four fundamental forces - gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force - and 12 elemental particles are all that you need to make everything from Mars to monkeys is incredibly intriguing."
• Antarctic research: "The fact that we are there, and we've maintained a continuous presence down there for over half a century, is one of the great achievements of our national history. It is difficult work, and requires sacrifice and grit, and they do it with a passion that is awe-inspiring."
• Science in young peoples' lives: "Our obsession with celebrity culture and cat videos may well be the biggest threat that we face."
• Science and society: "My view is that the practice of science belongs to scientists, but the things that they learn belong to us all."
Nigel Latta Blows Stuff Up airs on TV One at 8pm on Sundays.
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