Rough Science Information

Rough Science is a British documentary reality television series made by the BBC in collaboration with the Open University. Six series were made between 2000 and 2005. It was broadcast in prime time on BBC Two and is considered something of a "break-out hit" for the Open University.

The series formula consists of a group of four or five scientists with specialities in different fields who are given a task that they must complete using the natural resources of the surrounding area together with a small set of supplies. Each programme features a different task and follows the scientists as they use their knowledge and ingenuity in attempting to fulfil it and, in the process, educate the viewing public — despite failure being common.

Each episode either requires the team to work together in smaller groups to create requirements for the overall challenge, for the small groups to fulfil vaguely related challenges or even to complete the same task in competition. It has been set in a different scenic location each series, typically somewhere with plenty of plants for use by the group. The series is presented by Kate Humble, with most of the scientists appearing in several series.

This series is set on the Mediterranean island of Capraia and features four episodes, and various tasks:

The scientists featured are:

This series takes place on the Caribbean island of Carriacou and features five scientists, including three (Mike Leahy, Mike Bullivant, and Jonathan Hare) from the first series. It has six episodes and many challenges:

New scientists featured in this series were:

Anna Lewington and Vanessa Griffiths from the first series were not featured in this series.

This series takes place on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, has six episodes, and features the same scientists as the previous series.

This series takes place at Darwin Mine, adjacent to Death Valley National Park in California and has six episodes, all involving space exploration. Four scientists from the previous series (Ellen McCallie, Jonathan Hare, Mike Bullivant, and Kathy Sykes) are featured plus a new scientist, Iain Stewart, the shows first geologist. Mike Leahy from the previous series is not featured in this series.

This series takes place on the coast of Zanzibar and has a strong ecological theme running through the challenges. The line-up of scientists is Ellen McCallie, Jonathan Hare, Mike Bullivant, and Kathy Sykes. The episode challenges for this series are:

This series, shown in 2005, takes place in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. For this series, geomorphologist Hermione Cockburn replaced Kathy Sykes.

Rough Science was originally shown by the BBC and all six series have since been shown on Discovery Science (UK). Series 1–4 have been shown on PBS in the US, series 3–6 have been aired on TVNZ 6 in New Zealand and series 1–3 have been shown on TV3 in Catalonia, Spain.

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