Dixi-Brain! Ultimate Brain

What happens when you wash up a plate covered in milk?

Can Guinea Pig save this cat from a fate worse than

falling off a seesaw?

And will this week's science minds design the ultimate flying machine?

Flex your thinking muscles. It's time for Ultimate Brain!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hi there! How you doing? My name is Dr Brain

and my task is simple - to find

beings crackling with cleverness, bubbling with brainy brilliance,

and sizzling with scientific sparkle. Shoom!

Ha-ha-ha-hey!

We're going to have a ball, folks.

Yes, this is Ultimate Brain!

ROBOTIC BLEEPING

Let's meet the magnificent minds

hoping to excel in today's experiments.

In green, from Cardiff in Wales,

it's Caitlyn, Krish, and Seren!

CHEERING

From Folkestone in Kent, they're keen as mustard,

dressed in the colour of custard,

Finley, Charlie, and Arthur!

CHEERING

And in blue, our celebrity team are from the CBBC drama Dixi.

Yes, it's Kerry, April, and Jordan!

CHEERING

Three times of fine young minds are readying

themselves for the greatest tests of mind-boggling brilliance

available to man, or monkey, or half-man, half-monkey.

First we have the Green Team!

Now, then.

Dr Seren, what would you like to be

when all that school stuff's behind you, that time they call growing up?

What do you think? What would you like to do?

I would like to be a doctor.

A doctor! Now, why particularly a doctor?

Because I would like to help people when they're ill.

HE SOBS

That's so lovely! Let's sing a song about it.

# We just want to help everybody

# Cos you are the future of tomorrow. #

Seren, I think that is absolutely wonderful.

What is your team name for today, Greens?

ALL: The Green Brainiacs!

-I love it!

-CHEERING

Ha-ha! Now, then. How are you, Dr Charlie?

-I'm fine, thank you.

-Good, good, good. Nice to see you.

You looking forward to the show?

Yeah. I'm confident that our team's going to win this!

YES!

I like that. Put it there.

Bosh! Marvellous.

And what is your team name today, team?

ALL: Team Whizz-Bangers!

Team Whizz-bangers! Bish-bang-pop-pang-poom-ping-pong!

Ooh. Frightened meself there.

CHEERING

Now, then.

Dr Jordan, I hear that you're a bit of a language expert.

-Yes.

-Is this correct?

I can speak English, French, and Spanish.

That's marvellous. And can you speak, er...

Fran-ish,

which is a mixture between French and Spanish?

Yes, I can.

Go ahead. Let's hear it.

OK, then.

SHE SPEAKS ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH

CHEERING

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

Hey-hey-hey! Marvellous, wonderful.

Now, then, Dr Kerry.

Yes?

I hear that you are a dancer of extreme wonderfulness. Is this true?

It is true.

Very, very good. Now, would you mind doing a few little moves for us?

Could do a bit of tap?

Yeah, that'd be nice.

TAP MUSIC PLAYS

Oh, look! That is marvellous! I can do the splits.

Banana splits. Ho-ho-ho! Marvellous.

What's your team name today?

ALL: We are the Dixi-Chicks!

-CHEERING

-The Dixi-Chicks! I love it.

That's the teams. Remember!

To win points on this show with the hope of walking away with

honour most audacious, you are here to demonstrate extreme

levels of genius in the face of thrilling awesomeness!

Can you handle that?

ALL: Yeah!

I knew you could!

Let's have the first round.

Psh-stoink!

CHEERING

Now... This brain ignition challenge is all about marvellous,

marvellous, lovely milk.

I do like a nice glass of this ice cold stuff, don't you? Ha-ha-hm-hm!

Mm. Oh, it's so cold. Brr!

Sorry! Had a bit of a brain freeze then. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Where was I?

Oh, yes! What we have here is a pool of milk, you see.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to add some inks

here of different colours into the milk.

Little splosh of red, which in French is, of course...

Rouge.

Rouge. Merci.

There, you see.

I like this, having a bit of language in with the science today.

And, of course, as well as science and language, we are now making art.

It's a wonderful rainbow of milky goodness.

Now, my brain boffins!

The question is - what do you think will happen when I add

some of this wonderful stuff here, washing up liquid, into the milk?

Ah!

This could be about reactions, chemistry

and all that kind of stuff. Look at the confusion on their faces!

Now the answer is actually quite easy,

but to make it even simpler, we're going to give you four choices.

Will the washing up liquid...

Blb-blb-blb. A bit like I do in the bath

when Mummy Brain makes one of her lovely banana curries.

Or will be something else entirely different that perhaps

I haven't thought of... Me? Dr Brain?

Something that I haven't thought of? Is that possible, do we think?

Well, it might be, mightn't it? Ha-ha!

So mash your mighty minds together and decide amongst yourselves.

Your conferring time starts...

now!

So just four choices here.

It should be pretty easy, don't you think?

Now the teams need to think carefully about

what will happen to the milk.

Have you thought of your answer?

Introducing new Dairy Washing Up Liquid.

It cleans your dishes while making them all milky at the same time.

# Primate paws that clean dishes

# Feel soft and stink of milk

# Yes it's mild multicoloured Dairy Liquid. #

BUBBLING

Teams! Thinking time is over. Have you thunk hard enough?

ALL: Yes.

You're pretty confident with the answers?

ALL: Yes.

I like that. Now, reveal your answers now!

Let's see what we've got.

B, a C, and a B.

Oh, BBC! CBBC. Brilliant! He-he-he!

Bit of free advertising there. Lovely. Thanks, guys.

So, marvellous. I think we're going to start with the Greens! Now, then.

You've gone for C. Now, what's your thinking behind that?

When you use washing up liquid to wash your dishes, it makes bubbles.

Oh, it does, doesn't it? Of course, yes.

It sort of foams it all up, doesn't it?

-So that's what we thought.

-I like your thinking there. Scientific.

Now, then. Yellows,

you've gone for B. Now,

what's your thinking behind that?

We think that it'll cause it to swirl

because all of the liquid hitting it will,

like, add more liquid to it, so it'll start to turn more liquidy.

That's very, very good.

So you think it's going to all swirl

around in pretty patterns and things.

Ooh, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Ooh, I hope it is.

Now, then. Blues, you've gone for B

as well. Now, what was your thinking there?

We think that the soap is going to react with the milk.

So what do you think is going to make it react?

Cos it's so... It's going to split the liquids.

Well, that's some pretty fine thinking going on there, I think.

And what did you think, and are you correct? And are you correct?

Who's correct?

Be warned, Boffins! The truth might just melt your milky minds!

Let's see what happens

when we actually add the washing up liquid here to the milk.

In three, two, one...

Bombs away!

It looks like a brain! But a messy brain.

Ooh, look!

Pretty!

# Beautiful patterns

# In the milk of science. #

Look at that!

The fat-seeking molecules of the washing up liquid move to the

fatty parts of the milk. They just love fat.

They actually bind with the fat,

making the surface bonds in the milk weaker at these points.

This allows the surrounding stronger bonds to pull the milk

away from the washing up liquid, creating this soapy, swirly,

technicoloured dairy dance.

That means the amazing answer is B!

The washing up liquid causes the ink to swirl into the milk.

So who chose B?

Yes, the Yellows and the Blues. You'll both get five honour points.

Well done, you! Yeah, yeah!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now. Next up, our teams get to flex their c-c-creative muscles...

DOINK!

..in the creative challenge!

My fellow thinkers, reboot your brilliant brains

and get them ready for this!

You'll need to be as sharp as a clever cutlass for this

challenge, because dear old Captain Blue-Whiskers here,

he's got stuck at the end of the plank,

suspended over water!

Now, the only way to rescue my little feline friend is to

travel to the end of the plank and collect him.

And you'll be asking yourselves, "Where's the science in that?"

So we've made this sturdy plank more of an unsturdy seesaw.

Can you brainy buccaneers design a way to safely reach

Captain Blue-Whiskers without the seesaw plank...

DOINK!

..tipping him into the water - wargh, splash!

Yes, that's one precariously placed pirate puss.

MEOW!

Our teams were given two days

and a budget of £50 to design a solution to this challenge.

The further GP gets, the more points the team wins.

Neither GP or Captain Whiskers should touch the water at any point.

The team whose design allows him

to reach the cat the fastest will be the winner.

And here he is!

Yes, folks, it's the stunt man of science, too fearless to fail,

too smart to do anything but succeed,

ready to brave this pirate plank challenge, it's the guinea pig!

CHEERING

Ha-ha! Here he comes.

Good boy. Good boy.

Now, Guinea Pig,

I know you like playing pirate games

but you shouldn't really wear two eye-patches, you know.

It's very dangerous.

But, Dr Brain, it's double the pirate fun!

Ow!

Ho-ho-ho! Ha-ha!

Now, then. The challenge must begin!

First of all, let's see what happens when GP attempts to rescue Captain

Blue-Whiskers without the help of our brilliant, genius

scientific minds here.

Yes, this is what we call the planless plan.

FANFARE

Get it, yes! Give him a bit of encouragement.

Well, as you can see, there is nothing to support him,

and Guinea Pig is on a one-way ticket going down!

Hee-hee-hee! Unlucky, Guinea Pig.

SPLASH

So let's see what our teams have come up with.

Now, first of all, it's the Green Brainiacs!

What's the name of your plan?

The name of our plan is The Weight of Wonder.

The Weight of Wonder.

Dr Krish, what is the guinea pig wearing? What's this all about?

Guinea Pig is wearing a rucksack, which contains weights...

Wait, wait! He's got weights on?

What are you going to do with those weights?

When he climbs up the plank,

he's got to drop a little bit of weight...

Ah.

..behind him.

So you're going to spread the weight along the plank

so it'll all be equal, and hopefully it won't tip.

The Green team will get Guinea Pig to place the heavy

bags down as he goes.

They hope this will spread out the weight evenly,

and stop the plank from tipping.

Or will it? Mu-ha-ha-ha!

CAT MEOWS

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.

Right, Guinea Pig, are you ready?

I was born ready, Dr Brain!

Fantastic. Green Brainiacs, are you ready?

-ALL:

-Yes!

Then let's do it.

-Here we go.

-HORN BLARES

You've got to tell him what to do. Tell him what to do.

-Go slowly.

-Slowly, slowly, yes.

-CAT MEOWS

-When do you want him

to put the first weight down?

THEY TALK When he gets...

When he gets onto the fulcrum there.

The pivot, yes.

There we go. So very gently. That's it.

Nice, Guinea Pig. Good work.

-Good.

-Where do I put the next one?

-Yes.

-Erm...

-Keep walking.

-Over that. Keep walking.

So, at the moment, all his weight is there

and there's a little weight in the middle. OK.

How far?

-Erm...

-A two pound...

-Yes.

-There.

-HEARTBEAT

-OK.

-Now this may get...

SEESAW SQUEAKS

-Oh!

-Oh!

Unlucky!

In he goes again.

I liked your thinking, though, because you were placing the weights

along the seesaw there to try and make it all equal.

But what do you think really went wrong there?

We didn't put the weights first.

Ah! So they weren't quite in the right place.

Because, yes, Guinea Pig, of course, is the biggest weight

and then, as he went along, all the weight went up that end, didn't it?

-Yeah.

-Unlucky there, Green Brainiacs!

And unlucky, Guinea Pig. Nice try.

Next up, it's the Yellow Whizzbangers.

What's your plan called?

The Sandbag 3,000.

-ROBOTIC VOICE:

-Sandbag 3,000.

I like that. Now, I can't help but notice

that you've got something there,

you've got some sacks of something there. What's in those sacks?

-Erm, sand.

-And what are you hoping that that sand is going to do?

-We're hoping that it'll weigh the board down.

-Yes.

So that enough weight is produced on the end of the board

so that Guinea Pig can walk across and save the cat successfully.

Ah! Possibly what went wrong with the Green Team's plan was

the weights were evenly distributed, weren't they? Which is fine

when you're dealing with pressure,

but this is about turning forces, isn't it?

So you're going to put them all on one end here

and hope that that counterbalances the weight of the guinea pig.

-Is that right?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

The Yellow Team are hoping that by placing all the weight down one end,

-CAT MEOWS

-it will be enough to counterbalance

the weight of Guinea Pig as he moves along the plank.

-DR BRAIN LAUGHS

-Fingers crossed!

Are you ready, Yellows?

-ALL:

-Yes!

-Yes, come on! Let's do it.

-Guinea Pig, are you ready?

-I'm ready, Dr Brain.

-Go, Guinea Pig!

-HORN BLARES

Now, you can instruct him. So, yes...

-Put that where your foot is.

-King Arthur wants you

-to put it right at the end.

-Right there.

-Good plan, my liege.

-Then pick the next one up.

-And then put all of them on the next side.

How do you want him to do this?

-All on top of each other, or...?

-No. Just all in a line.

-Or in a pyramid, or...?

-Yep. CAT MEOWS

You need to sort of get a little bit of a move on, I think.

Otherwise you might find you don't even get on the seesaw.

Right, OK, you've got the weight on now.

-HEARTBEAT

-So now we're hoping...

-that this is going to be enough.

-CAT MEOWS

SEESAW CREAKS

-Oh, no!

-ALL:

-Oh!

-DR BRAIN LAUGHS

-Oh, no!

The cat's still on!

-The cat is still on, but he's in.

-LAUGHTER

Well, that was unfortunate. Now, what do you think went wrong there?

I think maybe we should have told him to go on his knees.

-Ah!

-Because it wouldn't have been as much weight.

So you think that if he perhaps spread himself a little bit more...

-Yeah.

-..that would have spread his weight

-and he could have reached out to the cat?

-Yeah.

Unlucky, Guinea Pig! How do you feel?

-Very wet.

-Well, you might have to get used to that,

because it's now time for the Blue Plan!

Which is what exactly?

-It's called Roller Rescue.

-Ooh, I like that.

And it's basically going to focus on kind of counterbalance

with equal weight distribution.

-Very good.

-Yes.

It looks to me like you've got a skateboard,

-a box and a guinea pig with giant hands.

-Yep.

-Yep.

-THEY LAUGH

-Yes.

-The box is our weight, so...

-Ah, right!

..hopefully it will be enough to make sure that GP

doesn't fall into the water and it's attached to a skateboard,

so he can roll out on his front, which will make him longer and,

-hopefully, his giant hands will be able to grab the kitty.

-Ah, I see.

Yes, because, of course, the seesaw isn't 50-50, is it?

It's sort of like that, not like that.

He'll have to not go all the way to the end, won't he,

-for it to work?

-ALL:

-Yes.

The Blue Team have weighed down the far end of the plank

and are hoping that, by lying down and using the giant hands,

less of GP's weight will be placed on the tipping point. Interesting!

Sounds like they kind of know what they're talking about.

Let's find out if they do!

-Are you ready?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

-Are you ready?

-Not really, no.

-LAUGHTER

-Well, get on with it anyway.

-HORN BLARES

-Go, Guinea Pig.

-You can instruct him. Tell him what to do.

-Maybe go on your belly a bit.

-On your belly, that's it.

-Right, now push with your feet.

-Here we go.

-Ooh.

-Well, he's not wet so far, so we're all right.

-Slowly!

If you call "cat",

-he might come to you.

-CAT MEOWS

DR BRAIN LAUGHS, THEY CALL

-Kitty, kitty!

-That's it. SEESAW CREAKS

That's it, yes. Always give encouragement to a stuffed cat.

-THEY SHOUT

-Oh, oh, oh!

-Slowly.

-HEARTBEAT

-Now, now...

-Slowly!

-You've got this, you've got this.

-Ooh!

-Come on, come on, cat!

-Ooh, he's nearly got...!

-THEY SHOUT

-He's nearly got the cat!

-Go on!

-Go on, GP! Oh, no. He's starting to tip!

-THEY SCREAM

-No!

DR BRAIN LAUGHS

-Oh, dear!

-TEAM LAUGHS

Oh, deary, deary me.

You had a good theory, but it didn't quite work, did it?

-ALL:

-No.

-Unlucky!

Ha-ha! What a brilliant round that was. I wonder what your plan was.

Now, all three teams did mentioned the weight,

which was KIND of what it was all about.

But what was really all about was counterweight

and counterbalancing Guinea Pig's weight.

There, you see. I knew I could COUNT on you.

Count! Ha-ha!

Oh, forget it!

And only two teams spotted that little plan.

That was the Yellows and the Blues.

So I've got to award both of those teams

five points for valiant effort.

CHEERING

Well done, Yellows. And well done, Blues.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

See that? Pretty fast, right?

Yes, that's right, because this round is all about quick reactions.

So who will be the quickest?

Even my amazing monkey vision cannot accurately answer that question,

which means it's time to bring out...

-SLOW VOICE:

-The Slowmonizer.

Yes! This super cool camera records in super...

-SLOW VOICE:

-very slow motion,

so that I can accurately see

who the winner is going to be.

Right, my brainy buddies, here's the challenge.

Dr Seren from the Greens,

Dr Finlay from the Yellows

and Dr April from the Blues have been nominated by their teams

to stand behind these balloons here.

Now, each of these balloons is filled with shaving foam, you see.

And on the sound of Dr Brain's sound of the week...

ROOSTER CALL

..you must bring up your hands and clap the balloon to burst it.

The first one to pop their balloon wins the points.

You got it?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-HE LAUGHS

Ready?

COCKEREL CROWS

Wow! Wow! Wow! You were all so quick there.

Let's take a look at that again. Oh, balloon-mongously pop-tastic.

There's not a lot between them.

With my natural monkey vision, I couldn't split you apart at all.

We're going to have to use the ultimate Slomonizer.

Let's have a look. Let's see who won. Who was it?

And here we go. And it's Green is the winner, followed by Blue.

Oh, look at slowcoach Yellow with custard all over his face. Oh, dear.

That means it's ten points to the Greens.

Well done.

So we clearly see the winner there. It's Green with ten points.

But what's that done to the scores? Oh, look, they're all level.

Now it's time for our teams to engage their brains again.

Yes, it's the Inspiration Challenge.

Now, one of my many awesome superpowers is the ability to fly.

I don't use it very often, it's a waste of my excellent boots.

Now, teams, you're going to have five minutes to design

and five minutes to build a super-sized aerodynamic craft

which will be launched from our podium

on to our Ultimate Brain testing range.

Did you get that? You happy? You know what you're going to do?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-Your time starts...

now. Get designing, teams.

KLAXON BLARES

The Dixi-Chicks are go.

Our intrepid teams are looking to build

sleek, slimline flying machines that cut through the air.

Now, a bit of weight could give them momentum when they get moving

but too much of it and gravity will take them down.

Yes, this is aerodynamics in action, folks.

Smooth, sturdy symmetry and a breathtaking balance of weight

is what's needed if they really want to go the distance.

KLAXON BLARES

Time is up. Stop making, stop building,

stop creating, stop science-ing.

Teams, you have designed

your awesomely aerodynamic flying machines,

but whose will soar and score the points?

Let's find out.

Here we are. What's the thinking behind your plan here?

It's in the shape of an aeroplane and we've also got the feathers

because, on a bird, the feathers are used to help it fly.

-Now, are you confident that it's going to fly?

-Erm...

You're not sure.

Dr Krish, what do you think's gone wrong in your design?

-There aren't any wings.

-Yes.

Do you think maybe it might not go as far as you'd hoped

-without the wings?

-Yeah.

-You never know, do you?

Miracles can happen in science. Well, shall we see if it works?

That's right. Dr Seren, if you wouldn't mind

going up to launch centre.

Now, then, we want to see how far it goes

and Guinea Pig will mark where your super-aerodynamic structure lands.

In three, two,

one, lift off.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

CHICKENS SQUAWK

I'm not sure how far that is. What do you think happened there?

It didn't fly very well.

The Greens went slim and lightweight

but, without any wings to take advantage of the air,

it was easy for air resistance to push it round

into an unstoppable tumble.

Well done, you, Green Braniacs. Let's see what the Yellows have got.

Now, what's the theory behind your design?

Well, because it can't really glide,

-we're just going to try and throw it as far as we can.

-Oh, I see.

In technical terms, "I'm go to chuck it, mate, and see where it goes."

Right, well, shall we see if it works?

King Arthur, up you go.

Now, you've got to beat the Green team there.

Are you ready? Three, two,

one, lift off.

Oh! Look at that!

Ho-ho-ho! That's pretty good.

You've actually gone out of the studio.

I think it may even have gone into space.

Now, why do you think it did so well?

I think because it kind of just, like, shot straight through the air.

Like a Frisbee, it's quite hard so you had the hard bit in the middle.

-Ah, yes.

-Then that slices through the air when you throw it.

So it had lots of nice lift because of the shape of it.

We put a coat hanger in it and then wrapped the paper round it.

Ah, yes. I was a little worried that the coat hanger

was going to weigh it down but, actually,

I think your design was so good,

it actually gave it momentum, didn't it?

With the rigid frame of the coat hanger

and a thin cover of lightweight paper,

the Yellows' design had momentum and very low air resistance.

The spin of their Frisbee throw added stability

to their phenomenal flight.

-You must be pretty pleased with yourselves, lads.

-ALL:

-Yeah.

Well done, you. Well done, Yellows.

Well, let's see if the Blues can do any better.

Well, Blues. What's your design here?

We have here the Dixi Jet

and, basically, for it to be dynamic through the air,

we wanted to make a kind of triangle shape

so that there's a point so the air can just...

-Thrust, that is. You want to give it some thrust.

-Yep.

-Very good.

And we want it to be really smooth so we don't have anything on there

and we've got the feathers here at the back.

Hope they're going to sort of cut through the air

and give it lots of lift, is that right?

Well, I think you've done pretty well there.

This could be interesting. It could be a close one, folks.

-Shall we see it in action?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-Who's going to launch?

-Go, Jordan!

Dr Jordan. There she goes.

We believe in you, Jordan.

Here we go. Are you ready?

In three,

two,

one, lift off.

CLANG

Well, it did move through the air.

It sort of went backwards, didn't it?

Well, unlucky, Blues.

The Blues went for a classic paper aeroplane design

but the huge flippy-flappy structure made it bend too much

when it hit lots of incoming air,

acting like a giant parachute in a slow downward spiral.

I think we know who the winner of that round was, don't we?

Yes, it's the Yellows.

Now, as the final round approaches, let's find out what the score is

with a little thing I call the scores.

The Yellows storm ahead on 20, but I'm feeling generous,

so it's five points each to the Blues and Greens

for their sciencey thinking.

With plenty of points still to play for,

it's anyone's game on Ultimate Brain.

And now, the greatest mind-boggling challenge

ever to be faced by man or monkey.

More nerve-racking than traversing an active volcano,

more thrilling than a lightspeed rollercoaster,

more daunting than matching up all your odd socks before bedtime,

yes, it's the Quickfire Round.

Now, teams, hands on your brains.

Are you ready? Remember, you get two points for each correct answer

but you get nothing, not even a single fluff-covered jelly bean

-from Guinea Pig's pocket for a wrong answer. Shall we do it?

-ALL:

-Yes.

Here we go. Your time starts...

now!

What is the largest planet in our solar system?

Yellows.

Jupiter.

Is the right answer.

True or false, carnivorous plants can eat a whole human child?

-Yellows.

-True.

It's false.

Which famous Stephen wrote a book - The Brief History of Time?

Blues.

Stephen Hawking.

Very good.

A palaeontologist would be more likely to study what?

Blues.

-Bones.

-Fossils.

-Fossils. Dinosaur bones.

It's right.

BEEPING

Time up! That was some seriously super-smart quickfire action there.

The Blue team buzzed, the Yellow team yelled,

the Green team were mean on the answer scene,

but who, out of your marvellous minds, is the winner?

It's time for the results.

In third place with 15 points,

it's the Green team.

Well done.

15, very good.

In second place with 19 points,

it's the Blue team.

But our Ultimate Brain winners with 22 points,

it's the Yellows.

Well done, you lot.

-Wow, they were amazing, right?

-They were wickedly amazing.

Astonishing staff. Fantastic, indeed.

All three teams have shown some seriously scientific pizzazz today.

If it's honour you're after,

then it's Ultimate Brain honour you've won.

Salute the victors, teams. Well done! Yes! See you next time

for more brain-expanding excellent experiments,

all on...Ultimate Brain!

Marvellous!