Bang Goes the Theory
| Bang Goes the Theory | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Factual, science and technology |
| Presented by | Liz Bonnin Jem Stansfield Dallas Campbell Dr. Yan Wong |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 38-plus 3 specials (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Paul King |
| Production location | Sussex |
| Editor | Dermot Caulfield |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | BBC Open University |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One BBC HD BBC One HD |
| Release | 27 July 2009 – present |
| Related | |
| Tomorrow's World | |
Bang Goes the Theory or 'Bang' (as it is often referred to by the presenters) is a British television science magazine series, co-produced by the BBC and the Open University, that began on 27 July 2009 on BBC One. Presented by Liz Bonnin, Jem Stansfield, Dallas Campbell and Dr. Yan Wong, the show employs a hands-on approach to test scientific theory and demonstrate how science shapes our world.
Production
Creation
The co-production between the BBC and the Open University was announced in June 2009 and was commissioned by Jay Hunt, controller of BBC One, for ten 30 minute episodes. It promises to "put scientific theory to the test" and examine "how science shapes the world around us".[1] During the announcement, Hunt stated that the series "brings popular science back to the very heart of BBC One",[1] referring to the long-running BBC series Tomorrow's World, which ran from 1965 to 2003 and was cancelled following falling ratings.[2] Comparing Bang Goes the Theory to Tomorrow's World, series editor Dermot Caulfield said,
Rather than simply be a reporting vehicle on what’s new in the world of science, we want to roll up our sleeves, stick our hands in the dirty gubbins of the engine and find out why, what, or where science is happening.[3]
Dr. Stephen Serjeant (Reader in Cosmology at the OU), and Dr Ian Johnston (Lecturer in Engineering for the OU) are the two academic team leaders for the production, covering disciplines including geology, astrophysics, neuropsychology and zoology.[1] The studio elements of the series were initially recorded in a building that housed the supersonic wind tunnel fans at RAE Bedford in Bedfordshire and was also the testing facility for the first prototype Harrier Jump Jet V/STOL aircraft.[4] They were later recorded in the old linear accelerator building on the University of Sussex campus near Brighton, where Jem Stansfield has his workshop. As of Series 6 (from March 2012) no studio is used and linking sections are filmed on location.
To "inspire the audience to get hands on with science", the series is being supported by a number of free events across the country organised by BBC Learning.[1][5]
Presenters
Bang Goes the Theory is presented by Dallas Campbell (The Gadget Show); Liz Bonnin (Science Friction, RI:SE, Top of the Pops), a biochemist with a Masters in wild animal conservation; Jem Stansfield (Men in White, Scrapheap Challenge), an aeronautical engineer, inventor and designer of museum exhibits, and Dr. Yan Wong (co-author of The Ancestor's Tale), an Oxford-educated evolutionary biologist.[1]
Live trailer
Ahead of the start of the series, BBC One aired a live three minute trailer on 14 July 2009 before EastEnders. Described as a television first and emulating the Honda television advert Cog, it featured a continuing chain of scientific experiments, with one triggering the next and so on. The sequence included Bonnin using a bicycle to power a Van de Graaff generator and Stansfield then using the 250,000 volts generated to, amongst other things,
- light a Bunsen burner,
- inflate a large inflatable bunny,
- trigger a thermal switch,
- repel Wong away from Campbell along a track (using electromagnets attached to both presenters), and
- power a robotic hand
The sequence did not quite complete as expected: the bunny did not fully inflate and manual intervention was required to break an infrared beam to allow the experiment to continue – the rest of the experiment was executed without problems. Prior to the broadcast, over 10,000 people voted online for Wong to be propelled using magnetic forces. The trailer was directed by Grant Gee.[6][7]
Live Tour/Roadshow
In 2010 a Bang roadshow happened, and in 2011 a Bang Live toured the UK with an exclusive live show and interactive tent.
Symphony of Bang Goes The Theory
This is the name of a 'song' created for the BBC by musician John Boswell using clips from the Bang Goes The Theory shows and website. It features distortion of the presenters' words using pitch-correction software, over the top of original music, in the same vein as Boswell's popular Symphony of Science series. Although conceived originally as a web piece, the song is also used at the end of the Bang LIVE roadshows. Watch The Symphony of Bang video on YouTube.
Episodes
Series One
The first series consisted of ten episodes. At the end of the last episode, it was announced that the programme would return in March 2010.[8]
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gait recognition, vortex rings, genetic engineering and an uncooked egg.[9] | 27 July 2009 |
| 2 | Bugs as food, planet discovery, water powered jet pack | 3 August 2009 |
| 3 | Submarine rescue, plastics, vacuum gloves | 10 August 2009 |
| 4 | Magnetic cows, psychological priming, underwater fireworks, space race | 17 August 2009 |
| 5 | Thrills, non-lethal weapons, snakes and perception, squeaky voices | 24 August 2009 |
| 6 | Helicopters, Brain-Training, Space Entrepreneurs, Melting Glass in a Microwave | 7 September 2009 |
| 7 | Braking Systems, Origins of Speech, British Summers, Optical Illusions | 14 September 2009 |
| 8 | Microwaves, Nature v Nurture, Gyroscopes, Infrared | 21 September 2009 |
| 9 | Multitasking, Hot Ice, Spider Silk, Magic | 28 September 2009 |
| 10 | Toffee powered rocket, sense of smell, electricity and magnetism, fusion | 5 October 2009 |
| SP1 | Human Power Station Note: This was a special hour long episode, also shown in HD. | 3 December 2009 |
Series Two
The second series consisted of eight episodes, plus another hour long special, starting on 15 March 2010. It was also broadcast on BBC HD.
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fire extinguisher go cart, global crude oil supply and exploration, and solving crimes with Forensic science. | 15 March 2010 |
| 2 | Human g-force tolerance, Sport Relief, the atom, and snorkel length. | 22 March 2010 |
| 3 | Darwin's dilemma, Human powered hydrofoil, Lie detectors | 29 March 2010 |
| 4 | Steel making, Eternal life, Dolphin flipper on a human swimmer | 12 April 2010 |
| SP2 | Can You Train Your Brain? An hour long special | 14 April 2010 |
| 5 | Volcanic ash, Power stations, Skiing | 19 April 2010 |
| 6 | Happiness, Burying carbon dioxide, Avalanches | 26 April 2010 |
| 7 | Horsepower, Free diving, Anti-matter | 3 May 2010 |
| 8 | Smell, Coffee fueled car, Origins of life | 10 May 2010 |
Series Three
The third series consisted of six episodes, starting on 8 September 2010. It was also broadcast on BBC HD.
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Einstein's theory of relativity. | 8 September 2010 |
| 2 | Sunburn, psychological priming and shapes of wheels. | 15 September 2010 |
| 3 | Jet lag, the size of the solar system and a square-wheeled motorbike (continued from previous episode). | 22 September 2010 |
| 4 | The origin of weather and seasons, wave power (involving the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter) and the theory of evolution. | 29 September 2010 |
| 5 | The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, gambling in Las Vegas and solar furnaces. | 6 October 2010 |
| 6 | A (failed) recreation of Project Habakkuk, making a boat from 'Pykrete', fibre-reinforced ice.[10] | 13 October 2010 |
Series Four
The fourth series commenced with an hour long special, starting on 10 March 2011. It was also broadcast on BBC HD.
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| SP3 | Bang Goes The Winter Weather – an hour long special | 10 March 2011 |
| 1 | Japan Earthquake Special | 14 March 2011 |
| 2 | In vitro fertilization and 360 degrees on a playground swing. | 21 March 2011 |
| 3 | A 1000mph car, stuff sticky, and homemade glues. | 28 March 2011 |
| 4 | Calories and antibiotics. | 04 April 2011 |
| 5 | Lasers, the speed of light, and citizen science. | 11 April 2011 |
| 6 | Genetically modified foods, House dust mite vs Asthma and allergies, and shattering glass with music. | 18 April 2011[11] |
| 7 | A Royal Wedding theme and Liz uses Genetic genealogy to track her family tree right back to the earliest humans.[12] | 25 April 2011[13] |
| 8 | The future of Recycling and how GPS works.[14] | 02 May 2011[15] |
Series Five
The fifth series began airing on the 15th of August 2011 on BBC One and in HD on BBC One HD
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Making Diamonds, the science of Popcorn and curing Cancer. | 15 August 2011[16] |
| 2 | Liz hits the beach with the RNLI to experience the power of rip currents. | 22 August 2011[16] |
| 3 | Jem witnesses the awesome power of rockets with the Bloodhound land speed record project. | 29 August 2011[16] |
| 4 | Topics include new stem-cell research and the Nocebo effect. | 5 September 2011[17] |
| 5 | Bedbugs, statistics, visit to Caltech. | 12 September 2011[18] |
| 6 | Causes of tooth decay and gum disease, why food refreezing should be avoided, sleeping problems caused by electric lights. | 19 September 2011[19] |
| 7 | Helium shortage, public knowledge about radiation, airport security technologies. | 26 September 2011[20] |
| 8 | Nuclear reactor, clean-up of nuclear waste, radiation influence on the human body. | 3 October 2011[21] |
Series Six
The sixth series began airing on the 12th March 2012 on BBC One and in HD on BBC One HD, in England and Scotland. It is shown a day later, on BBC Two in Northern Ireland and Wales.
| Episode | Topics | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Fuel for Free". The team investigates why petrol costs so much, and whether we can use science to make fuel for free. Liz experiences life on an oil rig, Jem and Dallas compete to make their own DIY fuel alternatives, and Jem discovers the link between fossil fuels and a recent earthquake in Lancashire. | 12 March 2012[16] |
| 2 | "Is Life Too Loud?". The team asks whether modern life is damaging our ears. Dallas explores how safety-conscious scientists are putting the noise back into driving, Liz learns to like the sound of being sick, and Jem sets out to record the sound of a centipede's footsteps. | 19 March 2012[16] |
| 3 | "Cyber Security". Liz finds out how safe digital storage formats such as DVDs and memory sticks are, and whether the Cloud answers all our problems. Dallas and Jem see what it takes to properly wipe your computer memory, and Maggie Philbin revisits a Tomorrow's World feature on phone security after nearly 30 years, investigating how hackers can access your smartphone. | 26 March 2012[16] |
| 4 | Dallas finds out how crowds can co-operate subconsciously, Liz sees how architects control the flow of crowds, and Jem meets scientists trying to understand how crush injuries can occur. Plus, 80s number cruncher, Johnny Ball, demonstrates just how biologists measure population size. | 2 April 2012[16] |
| 5 | Wireless energy transfer, wi-fi health concerns. | 16 Apr 2012[16] |
| 6 | Jem dreams of flying under his own power by pedalling a homemade plane into the air. | 23 Apr 2012[16] |
| 7 | Jem heads for his workshop to build a solution to traffic jams: a man-powered aeroplane. | 30 Apr 2012[16] |
| 8 | Philippa takes her pet to a lab to find out how dogs can be good for people's health. | 14th May 2012 |
References
- ^ a b c d e "New series, Bang Goes The Theory, puts popular science at the heart of the BBC One summer schedule". BBC Press Office. 3 June 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
- ^ Michael Rosser (3 June 2009). "BBC1 revives spirit of Tomorrow's World". Broadcast. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
- ^ Bambury, Adam (24 June 2009). "Meet Dermot Caulfied". open2.net. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ BGTT: Janet Sumner gives a brief intro to the show. The Open University on Youtube. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2009.
- ^ "Roadshow and hands-on events". BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ Video accessible at "Bang Goes the Theory". BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ Wardrop, Murray (14 July 2009). "Bang Goes The Theory: BBC braves potential disaster with live scientific experiments". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
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- ^ "Ice boat sinks at sea". The Daily Telegraph. 30 September 2010.
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