While you may have never tried it, let’s be honest… you’ve thought about trying it… or making someone else try it. Drink as much Diet Coke as possible and then eat a few Mentos. It’s every 8th grader’s dream… either you spew a volcano of soda or you explode. Either way, it’s funny. Last night episode of Two and a Half Men just proves that one of the show’s writers is a science geek with a sense of humor.
Although I’m sure thousands of people (okay, 8th graders) have tried it, you just can’t turn your body into a human volcano with erupting geysers of diet soda. During the first year of my agreement with the company that makes Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle), there were rumors of a Brazilian boy who drank a bottle of soda and chased it with a roll of Mentos… and he exploded. I was asked by PVM to explain the science of why this can’t happen. This lead to the writers at snopes.com posting a great article on the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction with a reference to our site as part
I do a live weekly science experiment segment on the NBC affiliate in Denver. I practice the demo before I go on, check and double check my materials and do everything I can to ensure a flawless performance. On live TV, there are no do overs. This week during my Science Monday on 9News, I attempted to show my cohort in crime, news anchor Mark Koebrich, how to pull a cork out of a wine bottle. Sounds easy, right? It didn’t exactly go as planned until the last 5 seconds of the segment.
I remember having to sit through my fair share of horrible chemistry videos in high school. I must say this is a much better way to learn about the noble gases, but I’m not sure which version I like better.
… and things didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned. Back in December, I had the great opportunity to speak to professional speakers in Canada. Seems a little strange for a speaker to be speaking to speakers about the art of speaking, but that’s how it works. In the U.S. we have the National Speakers Association (NSA), and in Canada they have the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). After I stepped off the stage, I met Paul Huschilt who introduced himself as a professional speaker who was asked to perform a comic recap of my keynote. He wanted to know if I had any extra MENTOS® and a bottle of Diet Coke for his recap of my presentation at the end of the conference. After you watch this video, you’ll see why I consider Paul to be one of the most brilliant speakers on the circuit today. And I laughed until I cried when I saw it happen live. Take a look at the video.
The Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies are Friday night and to celebrate, the Morning Men of 9News tried out for Team USA.
Okay, I’m a science geek, but I’ve always dreamed of being an Olympic athlete. To realize this dream, I joined my on-air co-workers at 9News – Gary Shapiro, Gregg Moss, Graeme Nistler and Rob Proctor – to form the 9News ice skating team. Here’s the problem… we received some ill-advised guidance from legendary but shadowy Olympic coach Boris Kreskov. This opportunity, along with the $500 I gave him, proved to have some flaws. I also made a bad judgment call when I brought my fire extinguisher. Take a look…
Kreskov put us through a series of unusual exercises that involved both yoga and psychological intimidation before turning us loose on skates.
Shapiro, Nistler and Proctor actually stayed upright. Moss looked fetching in his Spiderman helmet, while I stunned the coach and a handful of onlookers with my use of a fire extinguisher to propel myself across the ice.
