Science from the Sporran

The Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts

Breaking Science Podcast
Science of envy, sugar and kids ...
19 Feb 2009

Whilst tidying the Naked Scientists' office the other week the team unearthed this rather extraordinary collection of video reels featuring experimental scientist, Dr Ernest Otherford. We suspect he may be an ancestor of our very own Dave Ansell. It seems our forerunner had a penchant for exploring the laws of physics and chemistry using whatever happened to be in his sporran...

If you wish to watch all of these films as we digitise them then why not Subscribe to our podcast feed via iTunes,Yahoo or Google

We present the final outing of this twelveweek featuring the inscrutable Dr Otherford as he succeeds in his efforts to make a simple tennis ball ascend into the air with a most surprising level of rapidity. This he achieves with the sole aid of a ball purportedly obtained from exotic lands.


19th Feb 2009 - Invisibility Cloak

Subsequent to a typical indulgence in his reveries, the daring nature of Dr Ernest Otherford's character compels him to re-enact one particular jaunt: that is to say, obscurity. Post-haste, the dexterous doctor fashions a circumstance of invisibility within a large Pyrex® basin by the witty employment of amber-coloured oil derived from vegetables.


The enthralling conventions that govern a phenomenon commonly described as attraction are mischievously exhibited by the redoubtable Dr Ernest Otherford in this fastidious escapade of escapades. Despite lacking something in the way of good manners, Dr Otherford succeeds in his purpose with three rudimentary items: an inflatable India rubber, an aluminium beverage canister and some disorderly hair.


In anticipation of explorative feats typically confined to the world of Jules Verne, Dr Otherford devises a dirigible that somewhat lacks a means of manoeuvrability. The esteemed Dr achieves this triumph through the utilisation of such extraordinary objects as a refuse receptacle sack, a segment of cardboard and a peculiar clock-regulated electrical bread heater.


29th Jan 2009 - Flying toilet rolls

A sporting Dr Otherford inspects the qualified merits of a vigorous games technique known as "backspin" in which a cardboard cylinder, that one hesitates to venture originated from a temple of convenience, is unbound from a rotary swathe of elastic and proceeds along the most remarkable of trajectories.


22nd Jan 2009 - Cola Eruption

Upon resumption of his ambulatory grounds inspections, Dr Otherford convenes a vessel of carbonated vegetable extract-based imbibation fluid with a mint of salubriousness and produces from within his capacious sporran an eruption of quite heroic magnitude.


15th Jan 2009 - Vacuum Bazooka

A most bellicose form of artillery is ingeniously mobilised by Dr Otherford subsequent to his precipitous detection of a locomotive aspirator from within the dark reliquary of his sporran.


8th Jan 2009 - Defying Gravity

Following an excogitation upon the baroque quality of aqua vitae in the sober milieu of his withdrawing room, Dr Otherford relishes the gravity-defying nature of the most avant-garde materials known to civilisation: to wit "plastic" and "rubber."


18th Dec 2008 - Hurricane in a bottle

An hurricane of most symmetric and yet lilliputian proportions is manufactured with the exploitation of a vessel of synthetic-organic solids, some adhesive strips and water by the highly-regarded Dr Otherford.


11th Dec 2008 - Stabbing Potatoes

The esteemed Dr Otherford partakes of a perambulation within his estate when he abruptly is compelled to thrust drinking facilitators into objects of a vegetal nature. Most invigorating!


5th Dec 2008 - Build a Submarine

Dr Ernest Otherford assembles a material manifestation of his naval warfare reveries through the ingenious employment of a polymer resin bottle and sachet of condiment.


28th Nov 2008 - Levitating balls

The audacious experimenter achieves the most sublime effect of levitation through the engagement of an imbibition flute and an inscrutable electrical contraption which appears to self-generate wind.



Naked Scientists Science Radio Show HomeNaked Scientists Science Radio Show Home Who are The Naked ScientistsWho are The Naked Scientists Information about Naked ScientistsInformation about Naked Scientists
Naked Scientists PodcastNaked Scientists Podcast Ask the Naked Scientists PodcastAsk the Naked Scientists Podcast Question of the Week PodcastQuestion of the Week Podcast
Naked Science ArticlesNaked Science Articles Experiments to do at HomeExperiments to do at Home Science Discussion ForumScience Discussion Forum
Science News StoriesScience News Stories Answers to Science QuestionsAnswers to Science Questions Interviews with Famous ScientistsInterviews with Famous Scientists

Click here for the Naked Scientists PODCAST

The contents of this site are © The Naked Scientists® 2000-2010. The Naked Scientists® and Naked Science® are registered trademarks.