Discovery Channel’s SMASH LAB returns for its second season beginning Tuesday, August 5th. The episodes will air on Tuesday nights at 10PM ET/PT.

For those of you that are SMASH LAB virgins, its kinda similar to Mythbusters in that the each week the crew members spend alot of time testing and breaking things. But the real deal about the show is that they try to come up with better solutions to issues by tackling engineering problems that could have everyday applications.

Image Source: Discovery Channel - Michael McDermott

Science Network’s show, How Its Made, which airs on the network Tuesdays-Fridays at 7PM ET/PT shows the viewers how everyday things are made.

This episode of How its Made originally aired on February 22 2008 and shows how globes are made from scratch.

Science Network’s show, How Its Made, which airs on the network Tuesdays-Fridays at 7PM ET/PTshows the viewers how everyday things are made.

This episode of How its Made originally aired on February 21, 2008 and shows how chainsaws are made from scratch.

The premier episode of João Magueijo’s “Big Bang” aired on the Science Network on Tuesday, May 27th. The documentary presents what I have been calling the highly controversial views on cosmology and from João Magueijo’s perspective. On April 18th, I wrote on of my original postings on the show and have to date received 27 comments in this topic alone.

If you’re an avid reader or television watcher, I’m sure you frequent the New York Times website from time to time to see what kinds of reviews books or programs often receive. Well, Big Bang did not do so favorable. Check out the article here and see for yourself how the author, Mike Hale, rips into Magueijo as well as discredits alot of his “science”.

The premier episode of Discovery Channel’s Some Assembly Required, which aired back on January 8, 2008 at 10PM ET/PT featured the making of a Wes Paul/Gibson Guitaras well as how the make Burts Bee’s Lip Balm.

The show is hosted by Brian Unger and Lou Bloomfield and they explore how things are made and manufactured. The visit the home of the Burts Bee’s Lip Balm factory. The Burts factory is in North Carolina where the make about 16,000 tubes of lip balm each day.

Before they start making the lip balm, the hosts vists a bee hive in Smithville, North Carolina where they will shop for beeswax. While at the farm they see how beeswax gets it color. Back at the beeswax factory they measure out two of the key ingredients for lip balm, sunflower oil and peppermint oil. These ingredients act as lip protectors and moisturizers.

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Discovery Channel’s Some Assembly Required, which aired back on January 8, 2008 at 10PM ET/PT is hosted by Brian Unger and Lou Bloomfield and they explore how things are made and manufactured.

EPISODE 1
What puts the bounce in a moonbounce? Hosts Brian Unger and Lou Bloomfield learn how to design and sew with experts from the premier manufacturer, Magic Jump.  Next, the duo gets an ice resurfacing lesson from the folks at Zamboni, the king of the rink.  Finally, at the VIWINCO factory, Brian and Lou turn a pile of sand into pristine plate-glass windows that can withstand hurricane-force winds.
Premiere: Dec. 27 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 2
Brian and Lou travel to the Gibson guitar factory to handcraft a classic six-string Les Paul electric guitar, a high-voltage work of art.  Then they head for the Batesville Casket Company to discover the secret ingredient built into caskets to make them last.  Finally, the duo heads off to Burt’s Bees to find out why the company’s amazingly popular lip balm melts on your lips and not in your pocket.
Premiere: Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 3
Brian and Lou find themselves at the Ebonite bowling ball factory, where they discover the center of a bowling ball isn’t round.  It’s specially designed to improve the odds of bowling a strike — every time.  Next, the guys meet Herm Roland, the “Willy Wonka of jellybeans,” and find out why Jelly Bellies aren’t your basic bean.  Finally, our duo ends up making an environmentally compliant toilet.
Premiere: Jan. 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 4
Brian and Lou visit Henning’s Cheese Factory to understand how cheddar cheese gets its distinctive flavor. It’s a microscopic world of enzymes and bacteria.  Then the guys run over to New Balance to get a custom-fit running shoe that perfectly balances cushioning and stability.  Finally, our hosts build a Steinway piano, doing everything from shaping the wood to helping rig the piano’s 230 strings.
Premiere: Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 5
How do you make the perfect steel knife?  Brian heads to Japan to visit descendants of Samurai sword masters, while back home, Lou reveals the molecular properties of steel.  Then Brian and Lou land at the John Deere factory, where they assemble a complex, highly-engineered cutting machine — the lawnmower.  Finally, the duo travels to the country’s oldest chocolate factory in San Francisco to find out how a bitter bean becomes a scrumptious treat.
Premiere: Jan. 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 6
Brian and Lou take a swing at making high-tech golf clubs engineered to improve a player’s shot every swing. Then they cross the pond to Austria to build a redesigned BMW diesel engine that’s no longer slow, noisy or dirty.  Back on U.S. soil, the duo goes underground to blast salt out of the mines.
Premiere: Feb. 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

EPISODE 7
Get into the whiskey business at Jack Daniels in Louisville, Ky.  Brian and Lou take part in everything from building the whiskey barrels to charcoal filtering.  Next, they head off to West Virginia to learn how to put the “eye” in a prized cat’s eye marble.  Our guys wrap things up in Florida where they use foam and fiberglass to build a double-hulled Boston Whaler motor boat.
Premiere: Feb. 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Image Source: Discovery Channel - Brain and Lou in Germany

The Mythbusters: Lead Balloon episode originally aired on Discovery Channel on January 23rd. The episode featured two myths:
1. a lead balloon can fly
2. you can surf on a wave generated by explosives.

With the lead balloon myth, the tested the statement “going down like a lead balloon”. Basically, the first step was to determine if you could actually make a balloon out of lead. Adam and Jamie first began the testing experiments to see what materials they could make balloons out of. They made balloons out of tinfoil, which is about 6x lighter than lead. It pretty much didn’t work, and in Jamie’s words, “tinfoil is like wet toilet paper”.

With the full-scale balloon tests they made a design that looked like origami that got them to have the balloon inflate into a cube-like shape. As Adam had designed it, the balloon did unfold into the cube shape when inflated. The balloon was about 11kg and the more height it gained the less stable it became. Pretty much the myth was BUSTED!!!

Image Source: Heinrich Van Den Bers

Ever wonder how things are made? Discovery Channel’s  show, How Its Made, airs on Tuesdays-Fridays at 7PM ET/PT takes a look at how everyday objects are made. Its similar to the other Discovery show Some Assembly Required, and I can’t tell the difference between the two just yet.

Some of the episodes will feature how things are made such as chain saws, globs (for science classes), and the pin ball machine. Watch the clip below as you learn how to make a pinball machine.

In the Mythbusters episode where the test the shooting fish in a barrel myth they also tested to see if your mouth is on fire do the various remedies that we know of actually work.

Grant, Kari and Tory are the test cases for this hypothesis and they test various remedies for a spicy mouth attack. Some of the things they test were also contributed by fans so you know they were GROSS!!

Kari starts this one out by making a jalapeno puree for Grant and a habanera one for Tory. The test will use whole-fat milk as the control.

The test has Grant and Tory each taking ½ teaspoon of their puree, holding it for 30 seconds in their mouths and then doing the cure. The cures are rated from 1-10, where milk set the bar high at a whopping 5!. The other cures that we are familiar with such as water, beer and yes tequila do well, but don’t earn anything over a 3.

And then, there were the fan cures. There were some TRULY disgusting crap that I’d never even thought of before, like toothpaste. But then jelly and wasabi sauce!!!

Toothpaste gets zeros and is kind of disgusting. Petroleum jelly, Kari thinks will induce vomiting, but scores better than toothpaste. Finally, the wasabi sauce almost chokes Grant to death. He first gave it a -10 and then a -100. But as always, the main prankster Tory, thinks it’s a “wonderful Mexican-Japanese fusion” and gives it a 3.

Outcome: When your mouth is on fire, reach for a glass of milk.

Who would the Mythbusters be if they didn’t have their hand in Discovery Channel’s Alaska Week Special episodes. Well they did it again but this time to a level that I never thought they would take it. This episode features a dog, a moose and some sleep deprived guinea pigs.

Myth 1: Dynamite Dog
Adam and Jaime are tasked to test the myth about the fisherman who decided to blast through the ice of Alaska using dynamite. He of course forgets about his dog, a golden retriever, who fetches back the dynamite.

Myth 2: Moose steps out in front of a speeding car
Grant, Kari and Tory are testing whether or not it is safer to speed up or stop when a moose steps out in-front of your speeding car, which I’m assuming happens alot in Alaska.

Myth 3: Cabin Fever
Jaime and Adam agree to spend 48 hours alone in isolation in two separate cabins to see if cabin fever is indeed a real thing. Hilarious!!! 

Watch the video below as they test the fetching dog myth.