Rough Science

["Strickert, Rick" <rstrickert@SIGNATURESCIENCE.COM>]

Has anyone seen the weekly PBS show of this name (http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/) that puts scientists on a tropical island with only materials from 19th century technology and assigns various tasks for them to do (see http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/challenges/)?  It's sort of a "Mr. Wizard meets Reality TV."

Last night the scientists were assigned the tasks of 1) building and operating a radio transmitter and receiver, 2) building a clock capable of sounding a bell on the hour, 3) a portable timepiece, and 4) a kite made from all natural materials on the island.  An attempt to build a ice-maker didn't work.

The show is a little rushed (I suppose to keep the "tedious" parts of science to a minimum), but the ingenuity (assuming it isn't scripted) is interesting.

No nuclear tasks... yet.  ;-)

Rick Strickert
Austin, TX

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.