Science for the mindless and the mindful.

You know, I never thought I'd see science debased in such a manner for the sole purpose of entertainment. Tonight, I watched Brainiac, which screens on Tuesday nights at eight-thirty on the Ten Network. "The show which sticks its fingers down the throat of science", the host claims. He also constantly alluded to some sort of scientific validity to the show throughout the program. And mind you, not only does the show stick its fingers down science's throat, Brainiac chases science down a dark laneway and rifles though her purse, only to steal a stick chewing gum instead of going for gold.

Among the 'experiments' they perform are several "will it float?" jobs, an attempt to cook an egg with the radiation from a hundred mobile phones, throwing a TV out of a van while wrapped in various packaging materials and the mindless dropping of a caravan onto a stereo playing Twisted Sister's You Can't Stop Rock And Roll. I have no idea how that last experiment even rated as vaguley scientific. I suppose that the hypothesis was that a falling caravan will ultimately stop rock and roll. The only real scientific justification came when the pommy host explained that the caravan would fall twenty metres at a rate of ten metres per second per second due to the Earth's gravitational potential energy (it's closer to 9.8 metres per second per second, but I'll let that slide).

Explosions featured prominently too. One segment involved reacting alkali metals with water, which is always fun to watch. But then the whole show was wrapped up at the Big Bang House, where busty lasses blow shit up. Tonight's episode featured an outhouse being obliterated by det cord. Classy.

That said, it was pretty entertaining. A nice change from thinky science that some have to deal with from one day to another. Hmm, snobbery abounds, methinks.

In other science news, a pair of Western Australians won the Nobel prize.


Listening to:
Title: Ban The Tube Top
Artist: Reel Big Fish
Album/station: Cheer Up (2002)
Length: 3.10