Comedy and Science collide in this brand new science comedy quiz hosted Neil Delamere. Each week team captains, PJ Gallagher and Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin and their teams of comedians and science personalities are put through their paces as our tenacious panel attempt to answer some of humanity’s most pressing questions like:
Is it possible to have sex in space?
What does cheese made with PJ and Aoibhinn’s own bacteria taste like?
Is a zombie apocalypse scientifically possible?
Each show sees host Neil risk life and limb to celebrate the greatest ‘Eureka Moments’ of our time. Over the course of the series he’ll channel 4 million volts of electricity and shoot lightning out of his fingertips (and a couple of other places while he’s at it), he’ll create an earthquake in Westmeath, undergo astronaut training in a human centrifuge, be blasted by hurricane force winds, master weightlessness aboard a zero gravity flight and go free-diving in a freezing quarry – all in the name of scientific discovery.
Each week PJ and Aoibhinn go head to head in a science-themed “Team Captain Challenge” where they’ll fight robots, try to keep their lunch down during a spin on a virtual reality rollercoaster and dunk their faces into freezing water to test their mammalian diving reflex. Expect vicious competition, much swearing, victory dances and some falling down.
Episode 5
Neil sticks it to Isaac Newton this week as he experiences ‘Zero Gravity’ on a parabolic flight! The simple action of allowing a jumbo jet to plummet towards the earth, allows Neil to float around like Neil Armstrong in Lunar Gravity and then soar through the air in some manoeuvres that would make Chris Hadfield proud.
Back on terra firma, Aoibhinn is joined by Andrew Maxwell (Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week) and Colin Murphy (The Blame Game, Hey Ho, Let’s Go!) while PJ is taking advice from TCD’s Professor Luke O’Neill and Dr Lara Dungan (Futureshock, Eco Eye) as Neil quizzes them on such pressing issues as whether or not hipster man-buns are causing permanent hair loss.
Neil has a surprise for team captain’s Aoibhinn and PJ as he presents them with cheese made from bacteria gathered from between their fingers and toes. Will they be brave enough to eat it ?
Finally, the Team Captains Challenge, sees Aoibhinn and PJ bounce on Non-Newtonian Fluid – a type of liquid that becomes solid when pressure is applied. What inventive ways will they find to stay afloat and avoid sinking into the ooze…?
All of that and lots more on Eureka! The Big Bang Query, Monday April 11th at 22:25 on RTÉ 2.