Season 6
Brainiac: Science Abuse (often shortened to simply Brainiac) is a British entertainment television show with a pseudoscience motif.
As the show focuses on entertainment at the expense of using even basic elements of the scientific method the "experiments" conducted during the production of Brainiac: are of dubious scientific value or the results are forged.
The series originally premiered in the UK on Sky One on 13 November, 2003. There are six seasons to date.
Brainiac airs in South Africa on DStv's Discovery channel. Episodes are an hour long.
Season 6 premiered on Discovery on Sunday 15 March 2008, at 17h00.
Repeats
Mondays: 02h50
Synopsis
Brainiac is a fast-paced, fun-packed series combining entertainment and science in a new and ground-breaking format that proves science really can be fun.
Each episode sees two young presenters and the daredevil team of Brainiacs applying scientific principles to unusual situations - and carrying out experiments that would send most sane science teachers into a mad panic.
Expect lots of bangs, blasts and crazy stunts.
Each and every week we'll bring you all that's weird, wonderful and wild in the world of science, served up with a healthy dollop of explosions, pyrotechnics and anything else we can get our hands on: legally or illegally.
Season 6
This seasons sees the return of Vic Reeves as host and Jon Tickle as co-host. Thaila Zucchi makes her debut on the series in two items: "How Hard is Your Thing?" in which she tests the hardness of different objects using thermite and a tonne of bricks dropped from a crane, and "Shocking Acts" in which she finds out whether variety acts can still perform while receiving electric shocks.
Other new segments included "Gas Bang Wallop" featuring a character called Barry Bernard who destroys things with gas, "Chemistry Deathmatch" in which regular characters Dr Bunhead and Professor John Kilcoyne go head-to-head to produce the best experiments, "Custard Dreams" which follows the adventures of a Brainiac who discovers he can walk on custard, and "Stars in Their Caravans" which sees a variety of UK celebrities trapped in caravans, in a mock game show which results in large explosions.
Uri Abusikov changes his chemical from liquid nitrogen to liquid oxygen, but otherwise remains the same.
Presenters
The original presenters were Richard Hammond and Jon Tickle (formerly of Big Brother). In the second season, Charlotte Hudson joined Hammond and Tickle to bring the total number of hosts up to three.
Hammond left after the fourth season and was replaced by Vic Reeves.
Thaila Zucchi joined the team for the sixth season, replacing Charlotte Hudson.