EUREKA! The big bang query
Comedy and Science collide as host Neil Delamere puts Team Captains, PJ Gallagher and Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin and their teams of comedians and science personalities through their paces in this brand new science comedy quiz.
Our tenacious panel attempt to answer some of humanity’s most pressing questions like:
Is it possible to have sex in space?
What does cheese made with PJ and Aoibhinn’s own bacteria taste like?
Is a zombie apocalypse scientifically possible?
Each show sees host Neil Delamere risk life and limb to celebrate the greatest ‘Eureka Moments’ of our time – he’ll channel 4 million volts of electricity and shoot lightning out of his fingertips (and a couple of other places while he’s at it), he’ll create an earthquake in Westmeath, undergo astronaut training in a human centrifuge, be blasted by hurricane force winds, master weightlessness aboard a zero gravity flight and go freediving in a freezing quarry – all in the name of scientific discovery and to celebrate the achievements of great minds from Isaac Newton to Robert Boyle and Jocelyn Bell Burnell to William Rowan Hamilton.
Each week PJ and Aoibhinn go head to head in a science-themed Team Captain Challenge – they’ll fight robots, try to keep their lunch down during a spin on a virtual reality rollercoaster and dunk their faces into freezing water to test their mammalian diving reflex. Expect vicious competition, much swearing, victory dances and some falling down.
Eureka! The Big Bang Query is produced by Mind the Gap Films for RTÉ 2 and made with the support of Science Foundation Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
Welcoming the new programme Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland said, “Science Foundation Ireland is delighted to be funding Eureka! The Big Bang Query. This new programme aims to engage audiences with science in a fun and accessible format and attract viewers who wouldn’t usually engage with science programming.
Eureka! The Big Bang Query is funded under our Science Foundation Ireland ‘Discover’ grant. It was assessed by international experts and selected based on its potential to reach new audiences and increase the level of public engagement and understanding of science which is a key objective of Science Foundation Ireland’s strategy – Agenda 2020.”
