Who was it that said learning couldn’t be fun?

With two scientists running around the stage, lighting fires, blowing things up and creating as loud a bang as possible, the young audience certainly enjoyed themselves, and also learnt a great deal from the Ministry of Science LIVE show, held at the Gaiety theatre last Friday.

The Ministry of Science show featured two scientists, going by the names of ’Explosive’ Olivia Birchenough and ’Mayhem’ Mike Globe, who gleefully conducted a range of live, madcap experiments on stage to demonstrate the various types of energy, and some of the fun ways of unlocking their potential.

Mike had the crowd jumping in their seats after he ignited a bowl full of methane gas, and used a Van der Graaf generator to create static electricity, which he demonstrated how electricity could be conducted through the body.

A plasma ball was used to good effect to demonstrate light energy, and also demonstrated the freezing power of liquid nitrogen.

They brought up a succession of volunteers from the crowd to help them along, and used a phosphorescent board to ’capture’ the shadows of two young scientists, and let them perform static energy experiments

All through the show, Olivia and Mike presented the hypothesis of their experiments, and then set about to demonstrate them, making the science on stage perfectly understandable for the young audience, who soaked up the information while being thoroughly entertained by the exhilarating stage show.