Tom Pringle on faked Brainiac science
"They could not go home empty handed. So they rigged a bomb in the bottom of the bath and then blew the shit out of it."
- Tom Pringle, as quoted in the Guardian
In today's Bad Science column, Ben Goldacre revealed that Sky's science TV show Braniac has been known to fake the science demonstrations for maximum entertainment. Tom Pringle, the show's science consultant, told the Guardian that when a sequence featuring the expected explosive combination of the element cesium in a bathtub full of water fizzled out, the show's makers decided to rectify nature's deficiencies with a generous helping of more reliable explosives. Although a Sky spokesperson admitted that they sometimes enhance the outcomes of the experiments, they say they always tell the viewers when they do it. Goldacre, however, found no evidence of any disclaimers in the disputed clip.
You can read the rest of the article here, and view the doctored bathtub clip on badscience.net.