Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 14, 1995                   TAG: 9511140064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: IOWA CITY, IOWA                                LENGTH: Medium

DR. SCIENCE'S TAKE ON SCIENCE SEEN AS NO LAUGHING MATTER

He helped build the jet stream. He explains that Velcro is what holds your skeleton together. And he might convince you that your vacuum cleaner would be silent if it weren't for all that noisy dirt it's sucking up.

So, who couldn't like Dr. Science?

``I think it's people who don't have a sense of humor,'' he said. ``I offend their sense of propriety.''

Dr. Science, played by Dan Coffey, has been offering scrambled science since 1982. The daily 90-second Dr. Science show runs on 80 public radio stations, and Coffey is a frequent guest on National Public Radio's ``Science Friday'' talk show.

``Some people think he's denigrating science or putting it down,'' said Jim Trefil, a physics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

``They should lighten up a little. Dr. Science isn't into science, he's into humor.''

Trefil is often paired, via satellite, with Dr. Science on ``Science Friday.'' Trefil gives the real science, while Coffey explains, for example, that rainbows had psychedelic colors in the '60s but now come in subdued corporate shades.

``We get a lot of mail about Dr. Science; and if you must know the truth, some of it comes from people who write 16-page diatribes that we have a responsibility to be more serious,'' said NPR producer Karen Hopkin, a former biochemist.

But she said most people in science can take a joke.

``He makes everything sound so serious. He has that deep, authoritative, I'm-going-to-tell-you-the-ultimate-truth voice. What comes out is sheer lunacy,'' she said.

Coffey said it's not unusual for a public radio station to ax Dr. Science.

``Usually why I get kicked off, they're not used to having programming that's controversial. If five people call the radio station and say I hate that, they'll take it off the air. Public radio, they're thin-skinned,'' Coffey said.

He said he makes about $300 a month from the show. His real job is selling TV advertising in Iowa.

Some people have complained that Dr. Science is dangerous to education, but his manager, Steve Baker, just laughs.

``He sounds like an authority, but the kids spot him as phony right away.''

Coffey, 45, and Merle Kessler, who plays his announcer, took their Dr. Science show to television in 1987-88 when Fox agreed to 13 half-hour episodes on Saturday mornings.

``We got great reviews, but we got clobbered by the Muppet Babies and the Care Bears. The Care Bears, they're ruthless,'' Baker said.