Science Friction

Science Friction

Now I know they're probably only being polite, but the fact that the Royal Institute liked my tweet alerting them to the fact that Episode 30 includes 1977 Christmas Lectures by Carl Sagan (as well as 'Terry And June') meant quite a lot to someone who has being slogging away in chemistry labs for the best part of thirty years.

I'm not sure what Michael Faraday would have made of our style of podcasting, but I hope he'd be mildly pleased that we've got a copy of his 'Chemical History Of A Candle' lectures knocking about amongst all our daft sitcoms.

There's an old saying about science thar goes something along the lines of : If it's green or it wiggles, it's biology, but If it stinks, it's chemistry and If it doesn't work, it's physics.

Which is all a trifle cynical, I suppose, but as a kid the best type of science demonstrations were definitely the ones that exploded at the end. In my book, it's the mark of a good chemistry teacher if they've lost their eyebrows at some point due to the after-effects of some over-enthusiastic sodium. Or potassium if they were feeling really adventurous...

It's nice that our Christmas Special seems have entertained a few people already, which has encouraged us to make our accompanying video even sillier than usual. But when it comes to that business with the insides of crackers, definitely do not try this at home!

Our 'Episode 30 Now Available' video can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)