Nigel Goes to Space Join Nigel as he takes you on his journey to the stars and beyond! Subscribe to Naked Science - http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Nigel’s Fruit Assisted Tour of the Solar System Future Virgin Galactic Astronaut Nigel Henbest uses the fruit in his kitchen to compare the eight planets in our solar system. Nigel looks at some of the differences between the four inner terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and the four giant outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. He discusses the contrasting structure and composition within the planetary system, and uses a vase of water to demonstrate the dramatic density difference between the massive gas giants. Pluto’s demotion to dwarf planet status gets a mention, and of course the Sun, the star of our solar system. Nigel is an internationally acclaimed science populariser and author, specialising in astronomy and space.

Subscribe - http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Every other Wednesday we present a new video, so join us to see the truth laid bare... The sheer volume of water on the move makes a tsunami dangerous, but two other factors make it even more deadly. The first is its speed. Tsunamis travel so fast and so far because their energy is transmitted rapidly and efficiently through the water. The second factor that makes a tsunami so lethal is that it remains a silent and almost invisible threat until the very last moment! The threat of tsunami were brought sharply into focus by the tragic events of December 2004 when almost 300,000 people lost their lives in the Asian tsunami. Governments and scientists worldwide are working together to gain greater understanding of how and why tsunami occur and how we can stop future loss of life. Clip taken from our documentary “Tsunami Warning”. Watch it here - http://youtu.be/k9oLluVyCQ4

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 What begins as a plant hunt in the Peruvian jungle, turns into a terrifying, mind-altering journey… Botanist Piers Gibbon goes on a quest to sample the hallucinogenic ayahuasca, which Amazonian shamans drink to enter the spirit world and talk to the plants, and discover its recipe. As he travels deeper into the jungle, it becomes apparent that Piers notion of plant collecting is hopelessly outdated. After injecting an uncontrollable dose of frog poison Piers finds a shaman who is prepared to reveal his supernatural secrets. But he must prove his comittment, by spending several nights on his own drinking the ayahuasca brew. The final initiation ceremony demands that Piers swallow some of the shaman s phlegm. How far is he prepared to go in pursuit of knowledge and experience, and will he ever find his way back again? 00:00 Intro 01:00 On a mission for Kew Gardens 03:10 About Ayahuasca 05:30 Beginning the journey 09:15 Brewing 11:10 First ceremony 13:30 Morning purge 17:16 Deeper into the jungle 19:00 More poison 21:30 Jungle tabacco 22:45 Extracting 24:33 The frog ceremony 32:08 Deeper into Ayahuasca country 33:40 Assessed by a Healer 36:33 Second ceremony 37:40 The Sorcerer Shaman 39:49 Thoughts on Piers 43:00 Shaman s phlegm 45:00 Mission complete?

In the final episode of Stunt Science, we meet the Ice Man, Wim Hof. The Ice Man is known for his extremely impressive accomplishments and records all while surviving incredibly cold temperatures. He currently holds the world record for a half marathon, bare-foot over ice and snow. We also look at how a previous failed stunt on this show, inspired another. Welcome to Stunt Science! In this show, we bow down to the pros who their life on the life for a living and salute the ""have-a-go"" heroes and amateurs who pull off Hollywood stunts using back-street budgets! Our scientists give us the low down on the physics of fast and the biology of the bizarre. Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

Nigel Goes to Space Join Nigel as he takes you on his journey to the stars and beyond! Subscribe to Naked Science - http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 True or False - Once There Were 60,000 Jellyfish Orbiting Earth? Future Virgin Galactic Astronaut Nigel Henbest talks about some of the pioneering animals that have left Earth for a voyage into space. He also shares some Bioastronautics Research footage showing the effects of weightlessness on cats flying in a reduced gravity aircraft, the Convair C-131 Samaritan, also known as the “Vomit Comet”. Nigel is an internationally acclaimed science populariser and author, specialising in astronomy and space. Animals have always pioneered the way into space. Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first mammal in space in 1949. In 1957, the second-ever orbiting spacecraft carried the first animal into orbit, the stray dog Laika, launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Shortly afterwards Russia launched Sputnik 5 carrying two more female dogs Belka and Strelka. Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight before manned space missions were attempted. Ham the Chimp was launched in a Mercury capsule aboard a Redstone rocket in 1961. The chimp had been trained to pull levers to receive rewards of banana pellets. Animals were later flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them. In 1963 France launched Félicette the cat aboard Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47. Félicette had electrodes implanted into her brain, and the recorded neural impulses were transmitted back to Earth. In the 1970s Skylab 3 even carried the first spiders into space, garden spiders named Arabella and Anita. Credit: National Archives and Records Administration - ARC Identifier 68700 / Local Identifier 342-USAF-33692 - BIOASTRONAUTICS RESEARCH - Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force. (09/26/1947).

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 On 6th July 1989, physicists from the University of Minnesota test out a new low-light camera they plan to use for a high altitude rocket experiment. They point the camera East at some stars and what looks like a distant thunderstorm. When playing the tape back something catches their attention, two funnel-shaped flashes of light lasting just a few thousandths of a second. The team estimates that the flashes are 20 miles above the clouds and an astonishing 12 miles tall. By pure chance they’ve accidentally captured the first image of what would subsequently become known as a “sprite”. Sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground. Clip taken from our documentary “Lightning”. Watch it here – https://youtu.be/i4pWocmL82M

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Fighter pilots are trained to fly themselves and their machines to the limit. In combat lives are at risk, on the ground, and in the air. The dogfight is the ultimate flying challenge! The pilots need skill and raw nerve – in real life only one will survive. At Sky Warriors anyone can learn to dogfight in 1950s fighter planes, even if you’ve never flown before you can come here and fly like an ace Today a police woman, Donna, is about to battle with Jeff, a musician. Neither are flyers, they’re here to live out their fantasies in the skies. Executing 4G turns and aerobatic manoeuvres – it’s time to fly or die!

In the sixth episode of this series, we watch how a skydiver can survive an 8-kilometer plummet without a parachute; investigate a stunt pilot and his sideways solution to air traffic congestion as well as meeting a jump jokey who s idea of fun was high diving off buildings into swimming pools Welcome to Stunt Science! In this show, we bow down to the pros who their life on the life for a living and salute the ""have-a-go"" heroes and amateurs who pull off Hollywood stunts using back-street budgets! Our scientists give us the low down on the physics of fast and the biology of the bizarre. Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

A hideaway cool enough for a secret agent hidden high up amongst the clouds above Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Footage from the 2012 television show, "Extreme Homes". The word "extreme" means different things to different people, and to these homeowners it means pushing the envelope as far as possible. From construction to completion, take an up-close look at some of the world s most spectacular houses ever built. Including a modern Italian castle, a seaside house made of refrigerator panels, a floating home that was a ferry boat and a spherical house that revolves with the sun, and find out what makes them all so unique.

One of the world s best UFO hotspots resides in the UK. More specifically, central Scotland as it has its very own Area 51 known as the Falkirk Triangle , encompassing the now infamous village of Bonnybridge which claims the highest concentration of the region s UFO activity. This episode features a myriad of extraordinary cases including the 1991 sighting of a glowing red disc flying over the Polmont Reservoir. For the first time - it s official UFOs are real. As UFOs move from conspiracy theory to receiving top level government approval - an extraordinary new ten-part series launches on Sky History investigating some of the world s most jaw-dropping and recent unexplained UFO sightings. Our hosts, Craig Charles and Sarah Cruddas, will turn to world renowned UFO experts, whistle-blowers and first hand eye-witnesses to build their cases! ►Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 All the scientists’ calculations cannot cope with the unpredictability of nature. We do not know when the next devastating eruption will occur. Many volcanologists are still haunted by the memory of failures of volcanic prediction, tragic failures that cost the lives of more than 20,000 people in one gigantic eruption. In 1976 the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe hears a terrifying warning. Volcanologists say that the islands massive La Soufrière volcano may soon erupt. They report that gas pressure is building up, and the authorities heed the scientists’ grim warning, 72,000 people are evacuated at a cost of millions of dollars. For four months the capital city of Basse-Terre is left as a ghost town. As the scientists continue to monitor the volcano that looms over the area houses are abandoned and desperate farm animals roam the streets looking for food. But the scientists have got it wrong, La Soufrière never did violently erupt. Less than a decade later that failed prediction comes back to haunt volcanologists, when smoke starts rising from the 17,000 foot snow covered summit of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. Scientist warn that a likely eruption will send volcanic floods of melted snow and ice towards nearby towns. This time the scientists have got it right, but the authorities do not order a full evacuation. The volcano erupts in November 1985 and the predicted floods bury the entire town of Armero under a sea of grey ash and mud. An estimated 23,000 people die, 4,500 are injured, and 8,000 made homeless. The disaster perfectly illustrates the dilemma facing all volcano scientists, cry wolf too often and nobody listens, fail to issue a strong enough warning, and thousands may die. Their task is of vital importance as many of the 1500 active volcanoes on the planet currently are still considered utterly unpredictable, killing an average of 800 people per year, and threatening 500 million more who live near potentially dangerous volcanoes. Clip taken from our documentary “Volcano Alert”. Watch it here – http://youtu.be/xVRlL2gd4Fc

Subscribe - http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Every other Wednesday we present a new video, so join us to see the truth laid bare... The moon is far more than just a beautiful object in the night sky. Ever since its creation 4.5 billion years ago the moon has been edging away from Earth into space. Throughout its journey, it has influenced our planet in different ways. But one things clear, without it life would never have emerged on Earth. 4.5 billion years ago the moon forms when another planet slams into the early Earth. The impact knocks our planet “off-balance” onto an axis of 23 degrees, which we still rotate around today. This is what gives us our seasons. Without it we would have no summers, springs, winters or falls. 4 billion years ago the solar system endures the most violent meteorite bombardment in its history, the Lunar Cataclysm. The Earth, being 50 times bigger than the moon, exerts a massive gravitational pull on incoming space debris. Because the moon is still so close to Earth it too gets hit. 99% of all craters on the lunar surface visible today are a result of this bombardment. 3 billion years ago the Earth has water and oceans. Because the moon is far closer its gravitational pull is far stronger on the Earth. The tides it creates are thousands of feet high and smash hundreds of miles inland every day. Scientists believe that these tides feed the Primordial Soup with the minerals required to start life. Without them only the most basic microbes would be on Earth today. Today the moon has the same gravitational pull as a mosquito landing on your head, yet some people still believe it can influence our planet in bizarre ways. The San Francisco Police Department tell us how crime appears to soar during a full moon. But the scientific data suggests otherwise, studies show no correlation between the Full Moon and violence. Naked Science investigates. Scientific research into the moon is allowing some scientists to predict when natural disasters will strike. Some researchers believe that when the sun and moon align and pull together on the Earth they can trigger both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In the future the moon will move so far from Earth that it will affect the fine balance of our planet, sending our climate tumbling out of control.

Subscribe - http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Every other Wednesday we present a new video, so join us to see the truth laid bare... What was the purpose of the Pyramids? What drove the ancient Egyptian to devote so much energy and manpower into building the pyramids? While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of "resurrection machine." The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the narrow shafts that extends from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the centre of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaoh s soul directly into the abode of the gods. Clip taken from our documentary “Pyramids”. Watch it here - http://youtu.be/FnMCIrKRkQM

Mass Destruction. The efficiency of destruction has been a recurring them in war, and in modern times the capability for carnage on the battlefield has grown exponentially. This episode looks at the destructive capability of machinery across all scales, the inventions that unleash maximum carnage then and now. From the portable Mk2 Grenade to Oppenheimer s historic bomb which brought an end to WWII. From the beginning of the twentieth century to today, war has radically transformed. Through mechanisation and industrialisation, the methods used to settle conflicts have made the art of war more hi-tech, more expensive, and more devastating than ever before. Violence, it seems, is the mother of invention. Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 The complex geology of the continental slope produces some of the weirdest features on our planet. 2000 feet down in the midst of the barren sea floor, the Johnson-Sea-Link submarine finds something that seems to upturn the laws of physics. A pond of water with ripples on its surface. A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulphide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Cold does not mean that the temperature of the seepage is lower than that of the surrounding sea water. On the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species. Perhaps the best evidence that life can flourish at extreme depths comes from one of the strangest creatures of all, Lamellibrachia luymesi. This tube worm can reach lengths of over 10 feet, scientists marvel at their size, and are astonished when they figure out their age. Clip taken from our documentary “The Deep”. Watch it here – https://youtu.be/D_EzajUgx7Q

Tornadoes are some Earth s most violent and dangerous natural creations. With wind velocities that can exceed 200 miles per hour, tornadoes are unpredictable and can cause immense damage. In this video, we cover all you need to know about tornadoes. Learn how they form, the science behind them, the people who chase them and some weird facts you may not know about tornadoes! ►Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 🌪️Chapters🌪️ 0:00 Intro 0:16 Tornado Alley 1:52 Survivng A Tornado 2:20 Science Behind Tornadoes 4:11 Categorising Tornadoes 4:41 Bizarre Tornado Facts 5:21 Space Tornadoes 5:40 Storm Chasers 7:38 Outro #tornado #caughtoncamera #naturaldisasters

With the ever-increasing destructive output of weapons, appropriate countermeasures had to be developed over time. Suits of armour became bulletproof vests, castle walls and ramparts became trenches and mines. As the nature of war has changed over time, we see modern applications of defensive measures in smaller-scale developments. Pre-empting and nullifying opposing weaponry with newer and better technology is more important than ever before. From the beginning of the twentieth century to today, war has radically transformed. Through mechanisation and industrialisation, the methods used to settle conflicts have made the art of war more hi-tech, more expensive, and more devastating than ever before. Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

The safe is floating on a raft in the moat around Caerphilly Castle. To open it and claim £5000 the teams must build harpoon boats that can race around the moat, shooting at and collecting targets that hold the numbers to open the safe. It s a battle between science and history - compressed gas harpoon and a crossbow - But which weapon is more accurate and whose boat will survive the shallow moat? Over two days, and with a limited budget and materials, two teams attempt to build a vehicle which will help them travel to a safe in a seemingly inaccessible location. On the third day, the teams race their vehicles towards the safe. The teams pick up the safe s combination, with the first team to arrive entering the combination, and taking home the contents of the safe - £5,000 in cash! Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 There have been many attempts to build a car that could rule the waves. The Amphicar was designed by Hans Trippel and produced in Germany in the early 1960s, but it was a failure. It had a basic design fault, the steel hull rusted in salt water. 40 years later, one car manufacturer finally succeeded. The Dutton Mariner is the brainchild of designer Tim Dutton. The Mariner is the worlds only production amphibious car. Based on a standard Ford Fiesta, but with a boat shaped watertight body shell constructed from fibreglass. It may look like a bath tub on wheels but it drives like a normal car with a top speed of 95mph. Clip from the documentary “Extreme Machines – Car Crazy”. Watch it here – https://youtu.be/BZD-T5E0T78

Subscribe – http://goo.gl/wpc2Q1 While some might prefer to play a round of golf to relax, these tank fanatics love playing with their favourite toys. A machine gun enthusiast from Missouri has brought his two M5A1 Stuart tanks to Fort Knox for a weekend of war games. He’s part of the 14th Armored Division, a group of civilian hobbyists whose idea of fun is to blast thousands of shells at each other in battle re-enactment events. This is no cheap hobby – the battle involves over one million dollars of vintage hardware.