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Rough Science Series 5: Zanzibar Science for the Shipwrecked - XS015/DVD
This DVD pack includes the 6 programmes from the series.Shipwrecked
In the first of a new series of Rough Science, presenter Kate Humble takes four intrepid scientists, Kathy Sykes, Jonathan Hare, Mike Bullivant and Ellen McCallie to the tropical island of Zanzibar to test their wits and ingenuity against the Indian Ocean. Frustration builds as the scientists struggle to complete a set of marine challenges without the help of modern technology. With only a few bits of basic kit to help them and a remote beach-side workshop as their base, the team's first test is to mount an expedition to find and explore a shipwreck off Zanzibar's west coast. They have just three days to build an underwater spy plane which will send images back to their local fishing dhow and they have to call on all their knowledge and skill just to get a clean drink of water.
Lost at Sea
It’s nightfall on the island of Zanzibar and somewhere out in the Indian Ocean Kate Humble is in need of rescue. The scientists’ challenge is to equip Kate with everything she’ll need when she’s lost at sea: They have three days until Kate will be in the water, in the dark and putting their creations to the test. Mike has the task of making a distress flare that will pinpoint her position out in the dark. Meanwhile Ellen and Kathy have to make a life jacket it’s got to stay together and keep Kate afloat until the team can get to her. Jonathan’s job is to design a beacon something that will help the team spot her from the rescue boat. The trunk is very bare and this week the pressure is on. The team have no choice but to rely on the natural resources of the island. Mike goes hunting for an explosive ingredient in the local bat cave and Ellen and Kathy get sticky at the island’s rubber plantation. Jonathan, meanwhile, tries to make light from sea water.
Call of the Wild
The waters around Zanzibar are teeming with life and it’s surprisingly noisy. This week it’s time for the team to investigate this underwater world. Their challenge is to find a way of eavesdropping on the sounds of the reef and also to have a look at what’s making all the noise. But the island is also home to some less desirable wildlife including the pesky mosquitoes so they also have to find a way of making a successful repellent. It’ll be Kate’s job to test it out. Mike and Jonathan are given the task of making a hydrophone, or underwater microphone that can pick up the sounds of the fish down on the reef. Kathy’s job is to come up with a contraption that will enable the team to spy on the world beneath the waves. Meanwhile Ellen is in charge of keeping them all a mosquito-free zone. Mike and Jonathan come up with an ingenious design for their microphone which involves them growing a very special crystal. Meanwhile Mike’s chemistry skills are also in demand from Kathy who decides to make a periscope. She needs Mike’s chemical wizardry to help her turn some glass into a mirror. It’s a difficult process with one very smelly raw material. And Ellen decides that the only way to prove her repellent really works is to raise her own mosquitoes, from larvae, and test their bites on Kate.
To the Lighthouse
Zanzibar and its surrounding islands lie at the heart of a busy shipping lane. But what boats sailing these waters cannot see are the treacherous reefs that lie below. Many ships have been wrecked in the past and these days there is a series of lighthouses to warn unsuspecting sailors. But there’s one island without a lighthouse and that’s Bawe, so this week the team’s challenge is to build one. If building a lighthouse wasn’t a big enough challenge, the uninhabited island of Bawe is an hour’s journey from the mainland and covered by dense tropical forest. There’s no electricity, as Kathy finds out when she goes to recce the island to find a good spot for the team to site their construction. Ellen and Mike need to make a light that will be visible from far out to sea. Jonathan and Ellen have the job of making the lighthouse structure and inventing a mechanism to make the light flash and Kathy has the job of making it turn. She decides to rely on rock power but her ideas don’t quite go to plan. We’ll find out whether or not they’ve succeeded on the evening of day three when we take a trip past the island after dusk.
The Reef
This week the scientists are set their most ambitious challenge yet – to protect a coral reef. Chumbe is a tiny island off the coast of Zanzibar which is home to one of the most diverse reefs in the Indian Ocean. Four hundred species of tropical fish and two hundred kinds of coral thrive there. But this unique underwater world is under threat from fishing boats and passing ships. The team have the task of inventing some sort of system which can alert boats that they are entering a protected area. It’s a group challenge and the team come up with an unusual solution – possibly the world’s first coral reef burglar alarm! Mike and Jonathan have the task of making an alarm system to warn the boats. Chumbe is an eco-island so any power they need has to come from a renewable source – batteries are out. Meanwhile Ellen and Kathy have the job of anchoring the system in place. They know that the exclusion zone, which rings the reef, is 300m out from the shore but they have no clue how deep the water is there. In order to fix the alarm in one spot they’re going to have to find a way of measuring the water depth so they can accurately measure the anchor ropes, but with strong currents nothing is as straight forward as it sounds.
Beneath the Waves
This week the four scientists face their toughest challenge yet as they try to build an underwater breathing device for presenter Kate Humble. It needs to be sophisticated enough for her to have the freedom to explore beneath the waves and survive the pressure of the ocean above her. But they only have access to the simplest tools and materials and Kate has to put her absolute trust in the team to get their Rough Science right. The team have only three days in their beach-side workshop on Zanzibar's west coast to come up with the goods before they put their creation to the ultimate test in the Indian Ocean.
Publication Year: 2005
Length: 180mins
ISBN: 9780749221331