Science and Technology Guests on Late Night, Week of October 5

The Jay Leno Show gets a mention this week, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will appear on Wednesday’s show, likely in connection with the swine flu (vaccines should be available shortly).  Regrettably, it will probably be in the show’s Ten @ Ten segment, an execrable segment where Leno asks ten questions of a guest via satellite.  For reasons that escape me, Leno has a hard time dealing with the lag time that happens during a satellite interview.  With 17 years experience conducting interviews, Jay should be able to do better.

Another rare appearance on the list is Jimmy Fallon, who follows Conan on NBC.  They Might Be Giants, a familiar presence on this blog, will perform on Tuesday’s show, most likely in support of Here Comes Science.  On Thursday Alton Brown comes to visit.  His cooking show, Good Eats, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.  While all cooking involves science, Brown makes it an explicit part of his show, and that might pop up during his visit to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  All of the NBC late night shows (Leno, Tonight, and Late Night) are available to watch on the NBC website and at Hulu.com for a few days after the initial broadcast.

The leaders in the S&T on Late Night clubhouse, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, continue their dominance.  Wednesday gives us a one-two punch.  William Kamkwamba visits Jon Stewart, with the story of how he developed wind power for his family and village when he was all of fourteen.  You can watch his two TED presentations on the topic before or after his TDS appearance.  The same evening Stephen will spar with psychologist Alison Gopnik, whose work focuses on the psychology of babies and young children.