A Conversation for 'Brainiac: Science Abuse' - the TV Programme

Staying warm

Post 1

Bill Parker

I have just watched one of the most fatuous features I have ever seen aired outside of Facebook and You Tube. A Granada TV programme called Brianiac, which purported to prove hypothermia is induced faster through heat lost from the feet, head and hands than from the limbs neck and torso.
It is extremely misleading to the untutored because the sensation of cold (which is unrelated to the heat loss)is felt more in the body's extremities, making such nonsense believable - and it is subjectively 'provable' using the child like experimentation that provides the show's 'grab'.
I can appreciate the popularity of the dead-head presenters who purvey this garbage but, surely, the programme makers could have elementary science advisors, to convey some effort in representing fact!
Hypothermia kills around 500 people a year, in Britain. Telling people fairy stories about its causes is hardly likely to reduce this number.


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Staying warm

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