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Survivor Meets Junkyard Wars for Scientists

Posted by chrisd on from the all-they-need-is-coconuts dept.

MyNameIsFred writes "Stepping back to Gilligan's Island, PBS has a new "reality" show Rough Science where "five scientists are challenged to put their collective scientific knowledge to practical use. Transported to isolated locations, they are presented with a series of tasks, with two notable restrictions: they must complete their work within three days and, with the exception of a rudimentary tool kit, must use only indigenous materials." Could the Professor really build all of those things? We'll soon know." Check out the Episode guide.

2 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My prediction.... by praedictus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >>Scientists weren't designed to survive outside of a lab. =]

    Hrmff! Obviously someone who hasn't done any REAL (ie. non-theoretical) science. As part of my work I have:
    Slept in a snowbank (ambient temp -30C)

    Scaled ice covered rock faces with 30 kilos of equipment

    Faced bears and wolves unarmed. Mind you most predators only attack if you act like prey, and the wolves were mostly interested in having fun, like 50 kilo puppies with big teeth...

    Hiked alone in the Amazon rain forest.

    Not all scientists are wimps, some of us actually get out once and a while. When something breaks in bush camp, you fix it yourself, with what you have on hand. If you fsck up bad, you might die, so you learn to adapt.

    --
    Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
  2. Real surviving by rjamestaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting
    No kidding. Did you see the real-life survivor story this week about the Long Beach, CA man sailing his small sailboat to Catalina Island (truly a "three hour tour") but a storm rose and rendered his ship uncontrollable? He drifted for 3 1/2 months living on sea turtles, birds and fish until a San Diego-based warship found him near the coast of Costa Rica. He was healthy, though thinner, and even knew where he was and what the date was. Oh, did I mention he's 62 years old?

    Sure, he's a moron for not filing a cruise plan (er, the boating equivalent of a flight plan...whatever it's called) with the Coast Guard (but then, who really wants to voluntarily tell the gov't their every move?), or telling friends where he was going and when he'd be back...but he was a true survivor.

    And,. although he was very happy to see the US warship, he wasn't looking for a free ride home: he asked them to repair his mast and he would sail home on his own. That's freakin' impressive.

    • (I may have munged some of te details of the story, but that's why I linked to news.google.com, an awsome resource, for you to follow and be cleansed of my gross inaccuracies.)
    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello