Science and Culture: Serious science education, with a chuckle.

Global temperatures are rising. So are the oceans. Climate change has become inevitable and irreversible. To NASA climate scientist JoshWillis that sounds like the setup for a joke. “Greenland’s been on Jenny Craig,” he quipped at a public lecture in February. “It’s lost a couple trillion tons.” Willis, who works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, frequently gives talks on the gloom and doom of climate change. But he’s found a way to educate and inform, while making the topic palatable, using comedy. “It’s just easier to hear bad news if you can laugh about it,” he says. Willis always enjoyed comedy, but realized he could apply it to climate change communication when he was on a Caribbean cruise in 2011. An improvisation troupe was performing on the ship. He approached the director with a humble request: “I’m a climate scientist and I’m in desperate need of comedic assistance.” On that director’s advice, he enrolled in 2012 in the Second City Conservatory program in Los Angeles. With locations in Hollywood, Chicago, and Toronto, Second City has trained many wellknown entertainers, such as Alan Alda, Tina Fey, and Catherine O’Hara. Willis studied improv and sketch comedy, learning to create characters and work in an ensemble. After earning his comedy degree—which he proudly displays next to his doctoral diploma—Willis teamed with Los Angeles