6 Degrees of Separation

According to the BBC press office,

"Everyone or everything on the planet is six or fewer steps away from any other person. The new BBC2 series will bring scientists and celebrities together to take on special challenges, all with the aim of finding out just how well connected they are to each other."

The challenge, then, is to move from "analogue" to "digital" via Galileo, a dung beetle, whipped cream, and the centre of the Earth.

The show emphasised making science fun and entertaining; it included an in-studio demonstration by some dung beetles, and showed us that custard is a non-Newtonian liquid that hardens when it's struck.

Unfortunately, it wasn't so hot about the panel game elements: Brian Cox awarded points in a capricious and inconsistent way, and chided panelists for getting the right answer "too soon". Nor was the science explained well: a week later, we could remember that the link from centre of the Earth to digital is "binary", but could not recount why.

Niraj Chag is credited for "Music".

Aired in a "Make It Digital" season across the BBC.

BBC programme page

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