Rough Science S06E02 · Safety

Overview

For this programme the team are tackling two environmental hazards: fire and pollution. Fire is a major hazard in the dry Colorado environment and Mike and Jonathan’s challenge is to build a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. The basis of the extinguisher is a simple reaction of baking soda plus acid, which fizzes up to create the gas they want. But to make the acid they need Mike has to go out and find fool's gold and then work out how to transform it. Jonathan's task is to make the extinguisher itself. He needs to find a way to keep the components separate until needed. It's a tricky problem, but Jonathan works out a clever and elegant solution. Unfortunately, the first test goes badly wrong leaving him with less than an hour to fix it in time for the final test when they have to extinguish a blazing fire. Will the pair pull it together, or will their challenge go up in smoke? Meanwhile, Hermione and Ellen have an even tougher task. They have to find a way to clean up the polluted water flowing out of an old mine. The mine water is acidic and contains high levels of toxic metals and this mine run-off flows into streams and rivers killing off aquatic life. Hermione's plan is to use a rock - limestone - to neutralise the acidity. She manages to find a local source of limestone - and even proves that it works in a small scale test. But making a full size system that can cope with a continuous flow of polluted water is another matter... Ellen's task is to deal with the toxic metals in the water, and she harnesses the power of bacteria from a surprising source - horse manure. She builds a bioreactor hoping that once the bacteria start working they'll take the metals out of the water. But getting the system up and running in 3 days proves a very tough challenge. Waiting for them at the end of the test is a highly sensitive panel of judges - a group of water fleas will determine if they've made the water pure enough...

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. Power2005-11-02 · 30mKicking off the new series of Rough Science, at their high altitude base in the Rocky Mountains, the team attempt to make the old mill a little more hospitable - they’ve got to sup
2. 2 2. Safety2005-11-09 · 30mFor this programme the team are tackling two environmental hazards: fire and pollution. Fire is a major hazard in the dry Colorado environment and Mike and Jonathan’s challenge i
3. 3 3. Mountain2005-11-16 · 30mThe Rough Science base this year sits on the slopes of a magnificent mountain: Mount Kendall. And for this week’s challenge the team will have the task of getting to know this peak
4. 4 4. Clean2005-11-23 · 30mThree challenges down, and by now the team are starting to look a little worse for wear - and to be honest, they’re not smelling great either. So this time their challenge is to ge
5. 5 5. Mine2005-11-30 · 30mFresh and spiffing after last week's cleaning challenges, our Rough Scientists are about to get all messy again. This week's challenge is to find a way to detect radioactive rocks
6. 6 6. Photo2005-12-07 · 30mThe Rough Science team face their final challenge. They must take a memento of the mill and send it, by air, along a valley to Kate. Mike and Hermione decide to take a silver-nitra