“Smells like science!”

Today’s blog is a little different. I’m not going to talk about some new discovery, or a cool animal, or something from NASA, or even a scientific question I’ve always wondered about. Instead, I’m going to talk about my favorite TV show. Bear with me, this actually does have something to do with science!

The one TV show that we always watch regularly is called “Mythbusters,” and it’s been on the Discovery channel for 5 or 6 years. The premise of the show is that there are innumerable urban myths floating around our culture that people assume to be true. But are they really true? The cast of Mythbusters takes these myths and scientifically tests them to find out whether they are impossible, possible or true. (Actually, what they say on the show is whether the myth is busted, plausible or confirmed.) They test chemicals, explosives, cars, bridges, elevators, food, toys, sporting equipment, historical stories, things from the movies, boats, animal legends, famous criminal escapes… and on and on. The list of myths they have to test is seemingly endless.

There are 5 mythbusters on the show. While none of them have formal scientific training, most of them are engineers by trade, specializing in building robots, electronic gadgets and other high-tech toys. And though none of them are scientists, I am usually impressed by their ability to design and execute their experiments to test the myth of the day. Their experimental designs are highly scientific – hypothesis-driven, well controlled, and with a limited number of variables. They do their best to eliminate alternate hypotheses that could explain their results, and they seldom over-interpret what they see. All in all, I think they are actually very good scientists. (Actually, the title of this entry – “Smells like science!” – is one of the lines from my favorite cast member, Adam.)

There are many things I love about this show. First, it’s really fun. The cast works very well together, and they obviously have a lot of fun with what they do. Second, they demonstrate some really neat technology and concepts, both in science and engineering, with the robots and gadgets they make. Third, it’s fun to see the different ways that a scientific question can be tested. And finally, it’s really fun to guess whether you think a myth will be busted or confirmed – and even more fun when something that sounds completely impossible turns out to be true!

Here are some examples of the myths that have been tested on the show over the years (as well as their results):

1. If you drop a piece of toast, it will preferentially land butter-side down. (Busted – unless you drop the toast from a 5-story building.)

2. You can survive in a falling elevator if you jump right before the elevator hits the ground. (Busted – you can’t jump fast enough to counteract the speed of the falling elevator.)

3. You can carry on a conversation with someone while you are in free-fall (during parachuting). (Busted – there is too much noise from the wind.)

4. Sharks are afraid of dolphins. (Plausible – a shark is less likely to attack someone if they are swimming with a dolphin. They don’t know for sure whether this is because the shark is afraid of the dolphin, but the result was pretty clear, and supports multiple stories of shark attack victims being saved by a dolphin pod.)

5. You can stop a car from running if you jam a banana or a potato in its tailpipe. (Busted – the pressure of the exhaust pushes the banana or potato out.)

6. You can safely float to the ground from the top of a tall building if you use an umbrella as a parachute. (Busted – a huge golf umbrella will slow you down some, but it’s still a rough landing. A regular umbrella is too small to do anything.)

7. A needle in a haystack is really hard to find. (Confirmed – though that’s not surprising.)

8. In the old west, someone could be sprung from jail if you blew the bars of their cell out with a stick of dynamite. (Busted – the amount of dynamite you’d need to break the bars open would kill anyone inside the cell.)

9. You can raise a sunken boat from the bottom of the sea using ping-pong balls as ballast. (Confirmed – the only trick is getting enough ping-pong balls down there!)

As I said, this show has been on for several years now, so they have tested hundreds of myths. So if you haven’t ever watched the show, but would like to see some really fun and cool scientific principles in action, I would highly recommend that you check this show out. It’s funny, it’s goofy – but hey, it’s science!