Brainiac: Science Abuse
| Brainiac: Science Abuse | |
|---|---|
| File:Brainiac logo.gif Brainiac logo | |
| Starring | Richard Hammond, Jon Tickle |
| Production | |
| Producer | Granada Productions |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Sky One |
| Related | |
| Brainiac: History Abuse | |
Brainiac: Science Abuse is a television programme made by Granada Productions, showing in the UK on Sky One (and repeated on Sky Two and Sky Three). The presenters are Jon Tickle (formerly of Big Brother) and Richard Hammond (from Top Gear). It premiered in the US on G4 on August 29, 2005 as part of the late-night Barbed Wire Biscuit programming block.[1], and is also shown on VIVA in Germany, JIM in Belgium, Veronica and Discovery Channel in the Netherlands, Channel Ten in Australia and Arts Central in Singapore.
It has been a huge ratings and creative success for Sky and is now one of their flagship programmes and regular recommissions.
The programme's premise is that they perform unusual experiments "so you don't have to". This includes such activities as:
- Items that shouldn't be put in a microwave oven. (Don't try this at home. No, really, don't.)
- Attempting to destroy a black box (which is in fact usually red or yellow).
- Walking across a swimming-pool full of custard to demonstrate the properties of a non-Newtonian fluid.
- Does being happy enhance your mental performance?
- The Lazy Man's Guide.
- Which fruit floats?
- What's this?-A sample from an object has been magnified under a microscope and you have to guess what the object is.
- Comparing the effects of what would happen to a fat guy and a thin guy (the advantages and disadvantages) in a given life threatening situation.
- Comparing the advantages of being tall or short.
- Situations in which it's better to be either tired or wired.
- Investigating the propulsive possibilities of CO2 Fire extinguishers.
- Office Buoyancy Aids- What items in an office work best as flotation aids in the event of a sudden flood due to global warming?
- Blowing up pretty much anything - but preferably caravans.
- Things Jon Tickle's body can't do.
- Things Jon Tickle's body can do.
- "Tickle's Teasers" - questions to which there isn't really a right answer to...
- Things you can't do while being electrocuted.
- Things you can do with Thermite.
- 47 second science: things you can and can't do such as open an umbrella underwater and play a pot machine for free.
- Dropping things from a height and seeing if they will break or bounce.
- Testing chemical reactions and seeing if the chemical reaction will fizz or bang.
- Pub Science - performing experiments in a pub with ordinary items. Invariably this results in the experimenter (Dr. Bunhead) being theatrically ejected by security staff and banned.
- At Home with Dr. Bunhead - household mayhem usually involving some explosive chemical reaction.
- 101 Uses for a Wee - unusual applications for urine.
- You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll - a ghettoblaster is subjected to various forms of violence (such as having a caravan dropped on it) until it ceases to play a tape of the Twisted Sister song of the same name.
- Things they don't say in the instructions - eg they don't tell you not to put dangerous chemicals in an appliance but Brainiac shows you why they should. Eg: Plastic explosives in a toaster, Potassium in a washing machine.
Series 2 started at the end of August 2004 and included an interactive element where you can win a chance to blow something up as well as "I can do science, me" where viewers were encouraged to send in ideas for experiments. The first show in the series had: what happens when you put soap in a microwave, can you cook an egg with a hundred mobile phones (no) and Tall v Small -e.g.Is it better to be tall or small walking in London (tall)?
The second series also included "Brainiac Snooker", where a pool table had each pocket wired to one of six caravans, each filled with a different gas mix, such as acetylene and oxygen. Quentin Hann was brought in to pot the last six balls, with one shot shown each episode. The third series has continued the tradition with golf holes, each caravan rigged with a different explosive, producing a differently-coloured flame each episode.
The 3rd series premiered on Sky One on August 25.
A sister programme, Brainiac: History Abuse, presented by Charlotte Hudson, began on Sky One on 1 June 2005.
Criticism of the show has focused on the similarities of the experiments performed by Mythbusters (which actually transmitted after Brainiac), usually ending in either contradictory results to the work of Mythbusters or performed using an inaccurate scientific method. This would of course be missing the point - it is, after all, called Brainiac - Science Abuse!