Episode 11 Richard Hammond's Blast Lab

Hello, hello, and welcome to my Blast Lab.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you. Thank you.

I should say it was originally supposed to be called

my Super Safe Experiment Lab, but I got told off for false advertising.

Apparently Blast Lab is more "factually accurate."

Anyway, joining me today are the UK's greatest

up-and-coming scientists who will compete for amazing prizes

whilst helping me with some incredibly safe experiments.

Coming up, Oliver's all-powerful Fact Nav 2.0

is here to filter facts from fiction.

In Mini Science, it's raining eggs.

The long-ranging war between jelly and cornstarch is settled

once and for all, with an explosive experiment.

And pieces mean prizes in the one and only Bridge Of Destiny.

The Bridge Of Destiny.

Today's a special day

because Ninja Nan is entertaining her colleagues from the Cobra Squad.

These ladies are the toughest elite squad of fighters in the world.

They're nimble, silent and lethal.

Believe me, you don't wanna be near them when things kick off.

They're like one big coiled spring. Let's take a look at them.

Ah, it looks like it's nap time.

If there's the slightest hint of danger, they'll be right into it.

Let's have a look at who's trying to get into my lab today.

Hold on, hold on, that's not a team of players, that is a yeti!

This is a massive breach of security!

I'm going to break out Ninja Nan and the Cobra Squad. Attack!

Oh, they've already sorted it out.

I feel embarrassed about using this now.

Thank you very much.

Let's meet the real bunch of people trying to get into my lab today.

Ah, that's more like it, actual people.

Yes, come forwards, mind the yeti. Long story, don't worry.

Now, you claim to be the red team, yeah? Can't be too sure.

Identify yourselves by name. You are?

-Lauren.

-Dionne.

-Mia.

Yeah, I've got that written down here.

Under hidden talent, who's gonna do what for us?

We're gonna do dancing.

That's what it says here. Well, good luck, girls, go on.

OK, yeah. What is this, like...?

Ooh, look at that. You see. Oh. OK.

Fair enough, that's some dancing, that'll do. Come into the lab.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Fair enough, no further than that,

because Ninja Nan's got her eyes on you.

You're more or less through security, one final check.

We agreed a password with the real red team.

Pizza.

That's what I've got. Why?

Because when I was little, I put pizza in the cupboard

and then six years later my sister found it.

OK, well, good luck in the lab.

Get settled in for the first game. That is your red team.

We have a red team.

What we need now is a yellow team.

Let's meet three people who claim to be them.

Hello, step forwards, mind the yeti, mind the yeti.

Please, come forwards. Sorry about that. Long, long story.

You claim to be the yellow team. Identify yourselves. You are?

-Benjamin.

-Nathaniel.

-Joshua.

Benjamin, Nathaniel, Joshua.

That's what I've got written down.

Joshua, I have your name next to talent. What are you gonna do?

-I can do sign language.

-Really? Go on, then.

And what did that say?

My name is Joshua.

I've no idea, so I'll let you in.

Please come into the lab. Come into the lab.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Hello, you three, nice to see you. Welcome to the lab.

One last security check, lads, before I let you into the lab.

We agreed a password with the real yellow team,

you would know that if you are them. What is the password?

Sleepover.

That's what I've got. Why sleepover?

Because in year four we had a sleepover and it was rubbish.

What, not like cakes and staying up late and just...?

OK, fair enough then, lads.

Get settled in ready for the first game.

They are your yellow team.

One more thing to do. It's time to introduce everybody's dream car,

assuming everybody dreams of a worn-out old banger

that is super-intelligent. It is, of course, Oliver!

Come here, come in. Hello. Get you connected up.

There you go, system is up and running.

I have just upgraded Oliver with the latest Fact Nav version 2.0.

It's brilliant. Well...

it would be, but, you see, I bought the software

from a dodgy-looking bloke at a car boot sale, which means two things.

Firstly, I've learnt my lesson about buying from reputable dealers,

and secondly, not all the facts in it are correct.

So we're going to need some help sorting fact from fiction.

That, teams, is down to you, so I'll give you science facts,

you tell me if they're true or false.

Oliver will let us know. If they are true, he'll do this.

HORN BEEPS

And if the fact is false he'll let us know by doing this.

FOGHORN SOUNDS

Here's how it works. Three lights on either side,

at the moment all three are lit red.

Every time a team gives me a correct answer,

we'll light one of your lights green.

The first team to get all three lights lit green wins.

Great! Apart from one thing.

If you answer a question incorrectly,

we'll light one of the other team's lights green,

so there's danger of winning the game for the other side.

The first question is important,

because this is the question that gives a team the chance

to seize control of the game, OK?

This is a nearest to question.

I just need the answer nearest to the real one.

OK, it is this,

the first artificial satellite was called Sputnik One

and was launched by the Russians, but in what year was it launched?

Both teams writing answers down, that's a good sign.

Remember the green light is lit for the team closest to the answer.

Are we ready?

Everybody got an answer written down?

Yellows, let's have a look, what have you got? 1996.

OK. Reds, what've you got?

1853. There is some disparity between the two answers there,

quite a lot in fact.

OK, well, the real answer is 1957,

which means the yellows are closest, despite being quite a long way away!

Well done. Sorry reds. Tricky one.

This was the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth.

Yellows, you get the first true or false.

You've got a green light lit, and you've seized control of the game.

Here comes your true or false question.

There was a Frenchman who ate 900 grams of metal a day.

True or false?

Audience, vote with your feet, is it true or false?

Ooh, there's some mind-changing going on,

there's a drift from true across to false.

-Are you sticking with true?

-Yeah, definitely.

-Are you on true just cos there was no room left on false?

-No.

No. What do you think, then?

I read a book once, and it said that there was Frenchman

who ate 900 grams, but I don't think it said every day.

I'd say. That's quite a chunk of metal,

that's like a big chunk of a bicycle every day.

All right, well, audience, we've no idea, is the truth.

Back to your places,

cos you're not playing for the point, that's the teams.

There was a man who ate 900 grams of metal a day,

is that true or false?

False.

False? Oliver, do let us know, is that true or false?

HORN BEEPS

I'm sorry, it's true. Sorry, yellows.

That means there's a green light lit for the reds. See what I mean?

It was bloke called Michel Lotito from Grenoble in France.

He started off in 1959 eating glass, as you do.

Gastroenterologists described his ability

to consume 900 grams of metal a day as "unique".

Right, reds, this is your true or false question.

Air pressure can push against the human body

with a force equivalent to the weight of a small car.

Air pressure can push a human body with the force equivalent

to the weight of a small car.

Is that, do you think, true or false?

-True.

-You think true?

Oliver, is that true or false?

HORN BEEPS

That's two lights lit green for the reds, well done!

Right, yellows. Here is your science fact.

A giraffe has double the number of neck bones a human has.

A giraffe has double the number of neck bones a human has.

Is that true or false, do you think?

-True.

-You think it's true?

Oliver, a giraffe has double the number of neck bones a human has.

Is that true or is that false?

FOGHORN SOUNDS

That means it's false, which means a green light is lit for the reds.

I'm really sorry.

In actual fact, they have the same number as us, seven.

It's just obviously they're a lot bigger in the case of a giraffe.

All of which means, at the end of the first game,

the score now is 1-0 to the reds. Well done, well done.

Now, I'm not saying I'm clever, that's for other people to do.

But I did invent a time machine,

which is the sort of thing a very clever person would do.

Unfortunately, I did then spill my milkshake in it,

which is the sort of thing a very silly person would do,

and as a result my experiment in time travel went a bit wrong.

I did succeed in bringing my old science teacher back

through time, but she came back as a young girl.

She is, of course, Mini Miss!

Hello, Miss. Hello. Hello, Miss.

So, Richard, are you anywhere near to fixing that time machine

so I can finally go home?

Ah, well, yeah, bit of a problem with that.

You see, the thing is, I put it in a safe place

-so the government couldn't find it.

-Why is that a problem?

I forgot where it was.

Sorry, Miss, sorry. Anyway, today's game, what are we doing?

-We will talk about that again later.

-Yes, I'm sorry, Miss.

-Today, we're looking at air resistance.

-Bear resistance?!

-Air resistance, Richard, don't be ridiculous.

-Sorry.

Today's game is called...

-Wow!

-Our two teams will drop eggs from the balcony

with parachutes attached.

Right, so our teams have to attach these parachutes -

OK, thank you - on to the egg.

They pass them to their team-mate on the balcony,

who has to throw them off again.

Now, if the egg lands in the yolk, there, they get two points.

If it lands in the white, one point. And if it cracks, no points.

-Very good, Richard.

-Yeah, and no bears? OK.

Right, well, we all know what we've got to do, if we're all ready?

Get as many eggs into the yolk as you can without breaking them.

Good luck, teams. Here we go, your time starts,

ooh, I dunno, let's say NOW!

KLAXON SOUNDS

And they're off, beginning the fiddliest part

of this most serious of mini sciences.

The teams are focused and the crowd excited,

whilst hens throughout the Home Counties look on

in a mixture of dread and hateful anticipation.

With parachutes attached, the first batch of eggs

are hoisted aloft to face their fate.

Here we go, they throw in unison and smash in much the same way, as well.

Ah, well, onwards and upwards.

And then downwards again, of course, very quickly.

Both teams have production lines,

nothing free range about this operation.

More eggs are thrown, and I think one may have survived.

Too hard to tell, but it is raining eggs out there

so all to play for.

It might surprise you,

but parachutes were first invented about 500 years ago.

I guess they had to wait a few hundred years

before planes were invented so they could actually use them.

But the way they work is by giving falling objects a larger area.

As our eggs fall, gravity is pulling them towards the ground.

But there's a force known as air resistance

that's pushing the other way.

So if we can make the area of the falling egg bigger

by attaching a parachute,

there's more area for the air resistance to act on,

pushing up, which means it'll slow down the egg's fall.

Eggstraordinary. Huh, huh, thank you!

Apologies for the gag. The teams aren't laughing,

there's a job to be done and not much some time left to do it.

The floor now layered with the best efforts of yellows and reds alike.

Only a fool or a lab rat would try and predict the final result

at this point.

KLAXON SOUNDS

The time is up.

Both teams working very, very hard there.

We must now do the big add up.

Two points for eggs landing on the yolk,

one for eggs landing on the white,

none for eggs landing anywhere else or getting cracked.

Let's do the big add up.

So, for the red team we have a total of four points.

Yellows, we have a total of ten points,

which means the yellows take it.

Well done, well done, teams,

using that air resistance to fight gravity.

So we've seen how you can defy gravity using air resistance.

Maybe you've wondered how to make the most of gravity?

Have you? No? Are you sure? Definitely not.

Never mind, because we've done the experiment anyway, and here it is.

Every year, Ninja Nan and her age-old, old-age superhero friends

go off together on the annual Super Women's Institute coach tour

of the Cotswolds.

Well, we think it's the Cotswolds they go to,

it's difficult to tell, because it's a Ninja coach,

so it's completely undetectable to the naked eye, ear, radar,

or any sort of recording equipment, including television cameras.

Last year, a reporter from the local Cotswolds News

thought he caught the tour coach going past.

I'm not so sure.

I think there's more chance of a yeti walking behind me right now,

and me not even noticing.

Anyway, Nan's planning on joining her friends again this year,

so she needed to arrange for someone to cover security for her

while she's gone.

Nan being Nan, she has to do things her own way,

so rather than put an advert in the local paper,

she decided to launch a full-scale televised national campaign

to find the country's best undiscovered superhero.

And now, after months of tedious auditions,

she's whittled the candidates down to the final two.

For the first finalist, dreams of a summer job guarding my lab

seemed a million miles away.

Karen Quarterwit is a tear duct technician from East Anglia.

She works to fund her dream of becoming a superhero.

But her real passion in life is jelly.

She eats jelly, drinks jelly and even makes jelly sculptures.

Karen's dream is for her alter ego to make it big

and move on to superhero work full-time.

Karen Quarterwit.

Jelly Woman.

So, let's meet our next contestant, Colby Cobb.

After twisting his ankle playing a game of hide and seek

on his parents' farm, Colby was helped by a family of corn,

who took him into their crop and showed him the way...

..of the corn.

# You raise me up

# So I can stand on mountains... #

There's no-one in the world more corny than Colby.

In fact, this whole story is corny.

So is the music, actually. Who picked that?

Enough already. Let's get on with the excitement.

More like it. The rules are simple.

One crane, two competitors,

each with a bag of the source of their super powers.

Jelly Woman has bag of her most precious strawberry jelly.

Whilst Corn Man is mixing up a concoction of cornstarch and water.

Our wannabe superheroes will take it in turn to drop their bags

30 metres from the crane to see which will cause the most damage

to the paving slabs below.

We all know jelly is wobbly.

This is because it's halfway between a liquid and a solid,

what scientists call a colloid.

It's make up of long chains of solid proteins

with liquid water trapped in the spaces between,

whereas corn starch and water is different.

It's what scientists call a non-Newtonian fluid.

This means it can change from acting like a liquid when poured,

to being like a solid when hit.

But today we will find out, once and for all time,

who is the strongest, and that winner will be crowned

Britain's best ultimate new superhero talent person thing.

They'll get a badge, or something.

OK, so here we go.

Jelly Woman is first up.

Let's hoist her jelly bag to 30 metres.

Now it does take a while, this crane.

At least I'm not standing in the rain, they are.

OK, it's ready.

Let's start the countdown as it looks really cold out there.

In fact, is that sleet? Yeah, that's sleet.

OK, five, four, three...

Oh, hang on a second, we haven't asked the question.

Which will do more damage to the paving stones,

the jelly or the corn starch?

You stay out here in this wonderful British summer,

whilst I ask the teams in the studio.

OK, well, I don't think we should worry about them too much.

Let's think about this, because there's another point up for grabs

for the team that can tell me which will cause more damage,

jelly or corn starch mixed with water.

Important to remember, in the case of the jelly,

that water is locked up in it, but it can leave the jelly,

and leave a pretty solid mass.

But then the corn flour, when that's mixed with water,

that is a non-Newtonian substance,

so it can become solid when it's hit.

There is a point up for grabs for whichever tells me.

It's 1-all now, so this would be useful to win.

Teams, what do we think?

-Jelly.

-You think the jelly.

-Jelly.

-Corn.

-You're on the side of corn causing the most damage,

you're on the side of jelly.

OK. Let's have a look and carry on with the experiment.

OK, so let's drop the bag of Jelly Woman's jelly

and see what damage it does to the paving stones below.

This time, for real. I promise.

Five, four,

three, two,

one, drop.

Well, not quite a direct hit, there,

but enough that we can see the damage the jelly caused on impact.

Remember, it's the damage to the paving stones we're looking at here.

Corn Man can't believe it. Come on, that's not good sportsmanship.

Right, let's get the corn starch up to 30 metres like before.

We've made the contestants stand in the rain for long enough. Probably.

So let's just get on with it. Three, two, one, drop.

Again, not quite a direct hit,

but we will definitely be able to see the damage clearly enough.

Corn Man looks happy. Well, that's just weird.

I'm not sure what all of that is about.

You can see the corn starch has caused more damage to the stones.

Jelly Woman, not impressed, and what's this? She's after revenge.

Definitely not good sportsmanship.

So, after thorough examination of the results,

we can now announce that Corn Man

is Britain's best ultimate new superhero talent person thing.

He'll get a badge, he'll be happy.

Looks like victory wasn't enough for Corn Man.

He's got one last surprise for Jelly Woman.

He's going to drop one giant bag of corn starch

on her precious jellymobile.

Oh no, her jelly!

Oh, devastation, there,

the bag crushing the back end of the car completely.

Let's watch that in very slow motion.

That brings the score to 2-1 to the Yellows.

Anyway, it is time now for my favourite bit of the show.

-Because it is....

-The Messy Messy Mess Test.

Oh, yes, today, teams, you face the Bridge Of Destiny.

The Bridge Of Destiny.

I thought the Cobra Squad had taken care of you!

Lab Rats, get him, get him, track him down. Here's how it works.

Teams, you have to fish around in there to find parts of a bridge.

Your prizes, such as a model speed boat, chemistry set and world orbs

need to be transported across this revolting tank of rank.

Construct your bridge out of the pieces in the fluids all around,

and when you've finished, you pull this lever to release the car

that pulls the trailer of prizes across the Bridge Of Destiny.

The Bridge Of Destiny.

Put him with the others.

There are some squeegees in there too, to clean your bridge.

It's up to you how much time you spend cleaning

before you pull the lever.

Yellows, you get a five second advantage.

Reds, you go on the second klaxon and not before.

The race to get your prize pods across the tank starts...now!

KLAXON

And there go the Yellows,

moving as one being in their pursuit of greatness.

There's the second siren

and three waterproof clad present hungry bridge builders,

the Red Team, burst into what could quite rightly be called action.

And it looks as if the Reds might be first off the mark

with a decisive piece of bridge section placement.

The Yellows also look to be making their move,

but the huge effort on both sides seems to be drawing a blank.

It's too close to call at this stage.

Fascinating experiment late last night,

I managed to cross a lobster with a tiger.

It's big, but I think I got it out.

They'll find it. Probably.

Or it might find them.

Now whilst I was chatting, there, the whole landscape has changed,

with both teams making huge progress.

It's still neck and neck, though.

I'm proud of this, it is proven to be

able to start an argument amongst any group of people.

We once got some monks that'd been living on a mountain for centuries,

put them in there, within seconds, a big fight.

This lot, though, are doing very well indeed.

And the Reds have pulled the lever to release their payload of prizes.

Looks like the Yellows have frozen in fear.

The car is dragging the prizes ever nearer. Will it slip on the goo?

-Yeah!

-No, it's through. A glorious comeback win for the Reds.

Wow!

Woo-hoo! Well done.

I mean, clearly, the result is the Reds win. Well done, Reds.

But that was so hard, that.

Well, Reds, let's find out what you've won, then. Your prize pods.

Ninja Nan, are you ready? Each of you taking home battle spinners.

World orbs.

Butterfly garden. Nice!

Model speedboat for each of you.

A card set.

Electronic game.

And a chemistry set.

A heart rate monitor for each of you.

All of those prizes for the Reds, that's great.

I mean, it must feel great right now, excited little faces, look.

On the other side of the tank,

slightly different set of circumstances,

because you would have been taking those prizes with you,

but you're not. Instead, on Blast Lab we have a fine, fine tradition

that we must now uphold, because it's time for Bidet Goes Bang.

Reds, well done, congratulations, you won through.

All your prizes, coming home with you, which is a great feeling.

On this side, Yellows, sorry.

It was going so well, and then that last game is tough. Bad luck.

But it's OK because as some sort of consolation,

instead of taking them home with ya,

you still get them, but then you blow them up.

It's time for the walk of shame. Follow me.

Aah!

Yeah. It's heartbreaking. It's very sad.

Oh, yeah. It's a moving scene all round.

You've been a great team. Great sportsmanship, great skill.

Great knowledge. And you still lost. You're going to blow your prizes up.

Lift the handle, please. Lift the handle.

Five,

four,

three, two,

one.

Thanks for coming in.

Today we have learnt how air resistance can aid egg preservation

and the impact jelly and corn flour can have on concrete slabs.

That'd make a strange episode of Junior Masterchef!

See you next time!

Sorry, chaps.

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