As you probably know, Mythbusters has been off the air for years... but at least you can still watch Adam Savage in the spin-off, Mythbusters Jr. But what about MythBusters' other host, Jamie Hyneman? So smart. So stoic. And lately, so elusive. What's he been up to lately?
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00:00As you probably know, Mythbusters has been off the air for years, but at least you can
00:05still watch Adam Savage in the spinoff, Mythbusters Jr.
00:08But what about Mythbusters' other host, Jamie Hyndman?
00:11So smart, so stoic, and lately, so elusive.
00:15What's he been up to lately?
00:16This is like a wheelie machine.
00:22That's great.
00:24Hyndman was quite an intriguing character long before Mythbusters came along.
00:28He used to run a sailing charter business in the Caribbean.
00:31Then he switched careers and started to work as a special effects artist, lending his creativity
00:35to over 800 commercials and several films, including RoboCop.
00:39Some more fun facts.
00:40He received an undergraduate degree in Russian linguistics.
00:43His mind-bending special effects work earned him honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees
00:48from Villanova University and Finland's Lappeenranta-Lati University of Technology.
00:54Regarding the former occasion, he proudly tweeted that,
00:57"...I've never been there or to a white-tie ceremony.
01:00I think it works for me."
01:01Hyndman was also the first of the two co-hosts to get involved in Mythbusters.
01:06After the production company behind the show approached him to host, he came up with an
01:09idea.
01:10As his official Mythbusters bio reveals, he reached out to Adam to join him, feeling that
01:14between his experience and Adam's liveliness, and their straight-guy-foil combination, they
01:19would make a good team.
01:21It turned out to be a great call.
01:23Hyndman and Hyndman had known each other for years by that point, and even worked on
01:27Battle Robots together.
01:28"...Blendo!"
01:29For 13 years, they hosted the show and brought science to the masses.
01:40They also created a whole lot of explosions along the way.
01:43These days, Hyndman spends more time on personal projects and new inventions.
01:47While still filming Mythbusters, he collaborated with Villanova University and the U.S. Office
01:52of Naval Research on some innovative projects.
01:54He made cool sci-fi stuff, like blast-resistant armor and robotic camera systems that track
01:59athletes at sporting events.
02:01Unsurprisingly, he's still obsessed with new technology.
02:04According to Popular Mechanics, his latest invention is a tank to help fight wildfires.
02:09It's called the Sentry, and it was built using a non-armored military tank.
02:14Hyndman reportedly bought the tank from an Army surplus store.
02:17The Sentry can be driven remotely via virtual reality headset, allowing it to brave raging
02:23wildfires.
02:24What was his inspiration for the Sentry?
02:26Hyndman told Popular Mechanics that it was a robot he built for a 7-Up commercial.
02:30The robot had tank treads built into it and could be controlled remotely.
02:34It could also fire bottles of soda into the air.
02:37Hyndman explained the Sentry to Design News like this,
02:40"...let's say a fire makes it into a neighborhood, as happens in some cases.
02:44Well, normally you'd have to evacuate.
02:46But these robotic vehicles are made from surplus U.S. military armored personnel carriers that
02:50we can repurpose.
02:52We could set up a mobile fire brigade and stop the fire."
02:55That's not the only project Hyndman's been working on.
02:58According to New Atlas, he helped design a prototype for a pair of electric shoes called
03:02Vortrex.
03:03The shoes feature wheels that, again, look like tank treads.
03:07There's also motors, Bluetooth connectivity, and infrared sensors for obstacle detection.
03:12Hyndman wants these shoes to help people walk faster with minimal effort.
03:16The idea for Vortrex grew out of Hyndman's old projects, which involved sticking cordless
03:20drill motors onto rollerblades.
03:23Hyndman created six prototypes before launching an Indiegogo campaign for the seventh sample,
03:28but it fell a little short of its goal in 2017.
03:31Beyond that, Hyndman still runs M5 Industries, where most MythBusters episodes were filmed.
03:36He often uses the space as his own personal workshop, and according to Design News, he's
03:41been known to dip his toes in the bioengineering tech.
03:44As he tells it,
03:45"...Bioengineering excites me the most right now.
03:49Bioengineering is having an, as-yet-to-be-fully-appreciated, profound effect — the ability to manipulate
03:55genes."
03:56If you're hoping for a Savage and Hyndman reunion, we have some bad news for you.
04:01In 2016, Savage told Business Insider that he and Hyndman will never work together again.
04:07On the bright side, they're still both obsessed with science, and they still love to blow
04:11things up for the greater good.