Bang! Week three
Science has literally driven Jem up the wall and sent Liz plumbing the depths. And we're loving it.
In the third instalment of Bang Goes The Theory, Dallas Campbell traces the incredible global journey of 30,000 indestructible plastic ducks, while Liz Bonnin goes on manoeuvres at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the Royal Navy's latest search and rescue sub.
Dr Yan Wong challenges the people of Cardiff to take on the might of friction, and Jem Stansfield uses two domestic vacuum cleaners to climb up the side of a building.
Want to know more about the science behind all these features? You're in the right place...
More about the programme
Don't wake the python
Can you make enough light to escape without waking the slumbering snakes by a flame?
Thurleigh, deeply, madly
Ian Johnston tells the history of the series' location - a story from sonic booms to Bang!
From bbc.co.uk
Get all the information on this week's programme - and watch for up to three months after broadcast - on the BBC One website.
More about the science
The vacuum climb
Bungee jump or suicide leap?
Could Bruce Willis have saved the world with a singlet and a hosepipe - or would he just have created a nasty way to Die Hard?
From the OU on iTunes U
From the basics of drawing to turning ideas into products, follow course materials in design and designing.
From the OU on iTunes U
Innovative technologies could make entire communities sustainable. Find out how with innovation design.
From the OU on iTunes U
Eileen Scanlon of The Open University discusses her research into inquiry learning.
From OpenLearn
What's the difference between ideas, innovation and invention? Just one of the questions answered by invention and innovation.
From OpenLearn
If you don't have your users at the heart of what you do, you've failed. Uncover people-centred designing.
Plastic soup
The power of plastic
From supermarkets to warzones, plastic has been able to adapt to all manner of situations. Peter Taylor shows us how plastic works.
Running on empty
We drive with it, grow food with it, even use it in our beauty regimes - oil is pretty central to our lives. But could we do without it? How much do we need oil?
Sustainable futures
It's a question of when, not if, oil will run out. What does that mean for the planet? Can we live without oil?
After the pumps run dry
Adam and the Science Shack team create a haven for alternative energy. Their aim: to see how we'll cope when the oil runs out.
From OpenLearn
From Babylonian asphalt to modern plastics, follow the history and science of humanity's love affair with petroleum.
From the OU on iTunes U
From eco tourism to climate change, make your stand on environmental responsibility.
From the OU on iTunes U
Watch our short videos looking at the future of energy in a world built on a finite resource: Fossil fuels.
Submarine rescue
Creating subaqua life
Could you create an ecosystem underwater? See if you can create life in a bottle with the underwater challenge.
From OpenLearn
No matter what you're engineering, nor where, sooner or later you'll be having to face the challenge of temperature.
Friction
From OpenLearn
The world as we know it depends on motion. But how do we talk about it? Get tips for describing motion.
From the OU on iTunes U
More from the edge of science: subscribe to The Open University's Take-Away Science podcast.
Content last updated: 07/08/2009
