Mythbusters

Can a headless chicken live for months? Are elephants really afraid of mice? Can tooth-fillings pick up radio signals?

“This excellent show examines the truth behind three popular urban myths each week,” noted Matt Warman of the Telegraph.

Science show Mythbusters has long been a favourite on the Discovery Channel.

In each episode, California-based special-effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (pictured above) devise extravagantly entertaining modern-day ’scientific’ experiments to decide what’s real and what’s fiction.

“Jamie is an imposing inventor with a cascading moustache and Adam is an excitable ginger designer,” said Nancy Banks-Smith in the Guardian. “They remind me a little of Penn and Teller.”

But Savage and Hyneman barge fearlessly into the darkest realms of scientific research where Penn and Teller would fear to tread.

They discovered, for example, how to prevent your dropped toast from landing buttered-side down. The more vigorously you apply the spread, they learned, the less likely it is to fall butter-side down, because this creates a convex indentation that affects how the toast falls.

Like Brainiac: Science Abuse, much of the pair’s appeal lies in their fondness for blowing things up.

Popular props throughout the series include crash test dummies, pig carcasses, scrap cars, explosives and ballistics gel.

“The point of the programme is to present science in an entertaining and accessible way,” said David Chater of The Times.

“And they do provide an answer to that crucial question - will you die if you pee on an electrified rail?”

Watch now for £0.96 per episode

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