Tag: brainiac

2325: Science Club

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I’ve never thought of myself as particularly “scientifically minded” — I always felt like I hated maths at school, although thinking about it I did end up doing reasonably well at it at GCSE level, and I did actually genuinely enjoy science lessons — but in the last few years in particular I’ve found myself very interested in TV shows that deal with scientific principles, preferably in an entertaining sort of way.

There are a few shows I have in mind for this sort of thing which if you, like me, are interested in generic sciencey things but perhaps don’t have the opportunity to study them as a career (or as a hobby), you might want to check out.

First up is Brainiac, which I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about on these pages before. Brainiac is a show that aired on satellite channel Sky One between 2003 and 2008. Featuring Richard Hammond (best known for Top Gear and Total Wipeout) in the presenter’s chair, sternly reminding viewers Not To Try This At Home, the show was designed to be “science entertainment” in that it set up all manner of experiments with genuine scientific principles in mind, but executed them with a fair degree of tongue in cheek. This made it both genuinely interesting and informative to watch as well as being something you could just chill out in front of and have a good laugh with. Despite having watched most of the episodes several times, I happily return to it every so often; it’s a pity it’s not on a service like Netflix for some better quality videos — I have to rely on dodgy downloads or YouTube at present.

Next up is Mythbusters, an American show which takes nuggets of popular wisdom and puts them to the test in various ways. The show’s hosts have a background in special effects, so they often make use of this knowledge to perform their experiments in unnecessarily spectacular ways. It takes a little while to get into the show’s groove if you’re not accustomed to the hosts’ rather dry, deadpan sense of humour, but it’s very entertaining and, again, informative if you pay attention to the science bits.

Finally is my most recent discovery, Dara O’Briain’s Science Club. O’Briain is primarily known as a comedian and host of topical panel show Mock the Week, but over the last few years he’s been spreading his wings a bit and taking on subjects such as mathematics and now science. He’s clearly a clever man, and he has some even cleverer friends who come out to play for Science Club. Each show focuses on a specific topic and explores it in detail, and the topics under the microscope (sorry) range from the human brain to the possibility of space travel and Mars colonisation. The show incorporates experiments, “live” studies involving the studio audience, documentary-style footage and layman’s explanations of complicated scientific concepts. It’s an extremely compelling show, and it’s probably a mistake for Andie and I to watch it when we’re trying to get to sleep, because it’s the kind of show you want to pay attention to!

And on that note, I’m off to bed to learn some science and perhaps, maybe, get some sleep.

#oneaday Day 538: New Scientific Discovery

Just a few days after I bemoaned the fact television is generally awful, today I discovered Brainiac. I had heard the name before, but I had never watched it before. Now I’m hooked, already.

For the uninitiated, Brainiac is essentially a kids’ science show for adults. This means that it undertakes thoroughly silly experiments, such as attempting to see which pieces of hospital equipment make the most practical vehicles when propelled by carbon dioxide fire extinguishers, and infuses them with a layer of good old-fashioned British innuendo, such as a leather-clad scientist lady asking “how hard is your thing?” before inviting a selection of nerdy-looking men to display their hard objects to her, which she then drops a ton of bricks on, angle grinds and sets fire to.

Hosted initially by Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame and later Vic Reeves of, err, Vic Reeves fame, it’s a thoroughly silly show that doesn’t try to be anything more than it is — a bunch of grown men and women performing throughly silly yet visually entertaining exercises under the tenuous pretence that they’re “doing Science”. GLaDOS would be proud.

I suppose thinking about it, it’s perhaps, ironically, not the most cerebral show in the world — the last one I watched featured an experiment to determine which foodstuffs produce the smelliest farts, judged by a member of the crew who’d been on holiday recently rating them out of ten and memorably describing the smell of a fart from a man who’d been eating nothing but Brussels sprouts as “like a hermit’s earmuff”. But then there are genuinely interesting scientific titbits, too, such as the revelation that custard is a non-Newtonian liquid, which means when impacted it has the properties of a solid and otherwise has the properties of a liquid. This means, as the team (including Jon Tickle of Big Brother fame) demonstrates, that it’s possible to walk across a swimming pool filled with custard, so long as you keep moving. If you stop, you’ll sink into it like quicksand.

I haven’t sat down and genuinely watched kids’ TV for quite some time — I’ve had no real reason to, as I’ve not had a hangover for quite a while — so I’m not sure if kids have an equivalent “YAY SCIENCE!” programme available for them to watch. I remember there being quite a few programmes involving “YAY SCIENCE!” and “YAY MATHS!” when I was little — mostly involving Johnny Ball, as I recall — but I have to admit I’d be surprised if the same sort of thing still existed today.

Still, there’s nothing stopping the kids from watching Brainiac, of course — it appears to air on Sunday mornings, so what’s to stop them wondering why the men with the objects look so uncomfortable when the nice lady in the tight suit asks them how hard is their thing?

Here’s a clip for you to enjoy if you’ve never had the pleasure.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkJdaU92Ln8]