Deadly Straw 

The Myth: A straw can be blown through a palm tree in a tropical storm.

The Expert: Dale Motiska, who is an expert on palm trees, believes that it is possible.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie:  If I get this piece of wire to go sailing right through the concrete brick wall in the back of the shop, that’ll be what gets my juices flowing!

The Action/Results:
Jamie finds out that the highest recorded wind speed from a storm was 318 miles per hour, recorded in Oklahoma City in 1999.  So, they use that as their benchmark.  Adam makes a breechloader for the air cannon, and Jamie installs a pilot assisted diaphragm valve to help launch the straw very quickly.  Then they use Adam’s laser to make sure that the barrel of the air cannon is straight and level.

Adam goes to expert Dale Motiska to get a palm tree.  It weighs over 3000 pounds, and getting it into the shop is a real challenge.  But, after getting it in, it turns out that this particular species (Washingtonia robusta) does not grow in an area where there are tropical storms. So they pull that palm out and get a queen palm instead, which is as close to a coconut palm as they can find.


The first test for the air cannon is with a cotton ball, and it works just fine.  Then, once the correct tree is found, they are ready to start shooting straw.  The next test, with regular straw, shows the stems shooting about 3/8th of an inch into the trunk.  Next, they try thatched reed, which is a much stronger material, but it still looks like straw.  It penetrates about two inches into the trunk.  The guys decide to ramp things up, so they shoot some piano wire at the trunk.  That goes all the way through the trunk, through the piece of wood behind the trunk, and into the cinder block wall!

The guys have also heard a theory that states that the trunk, when bent, would be easier to pierce.  So they bend the tree over, and shoot the straw at it from point-blank range.  The straw fails to penetrate any farther than before.  They try the thatched reed, but it does the same as before – it goes in about two inches.  So, unless the palm tree is only two inches wide, this myth is BUSTED.

Also, as a side myth, Adam has heard that a tropical storm can blow all the feathers off of a chicken.  So, they hang a dead chicken in front of the air cannon, and shoot the bird.  Nothing happens.  No feathers fly off, and so that myth is BUSTED as well.

Primary Perception:
The Myth: Plants have feelings, and you can see their reactions on a machine.

The Experts: none

Memorable/Quotable Moment:
Tory: (to Grant, during the polygraph test) Did you ever make or want to make a female robot?

The Action/Results:
First, Grant and Terry go to the store to get the test subjects.  These are some broad-leaved plants from the genus Dracaena.  When they get back to the shop they unwrap the polygraph machine, and they have to test it to make sure that it is working properly.  After a bit of fun with the polygraph, they hook it up to the plant.  They take the plant and the polygraph machine into the bunker, so that it will be shielded from electromagnetic impulses that might confuse the machine.  The camera crew stays outside the bunker.

For the first test, Tory slaps the plant repeatedly, and then sprays it with the fire extinguisher.  Each time, the needle connected to the plant moves.  Then he just stands there and thinks mean thoughts at the plant.  The needle moves again!  Tory and Grant are rather baffled by this, but decide to continue the experiment by moving outside of the shipping container themselves, and doing the experiment remotely.

In this remote test, Tory thinks mean, then evil, then happy thoughts at the plant.  Again, it appears to be reacting to the thoughts that Tory is having!  So, they try a different approach.

According to Cleve Baxter, who originated this theory, all living organisms have feelings and can sense feelings from other organisms.  So, the team gets some yogurt, which has live bacteria in it.  They put the yogurt in two test tubes, and hook one up to an EEG machine, which is another machine that Baxter used in his experiments.  One test tube is left alone, while the other has boiling water poured in it.  There is no reaction on the EEG machine.

They try the experiment again, but this time they use Tory as the guinea pig.  They obtain some of his white blood cells from his mouth, and then Kari gets to shock Tory with a stun gun.  Tory goes hopping all around the shop, but his white blood cells show no reaction.

Finally, they prepare an experiment that leaves no room for human error.  Grant constructs an egg-dropping machine, which drops eggs at random intervals into a pan of boiling water.  They hook the plant up to the EEG, set the timer on the egg dropper, and leave the room.  The whole experiment is filmed by remote cameras.  The plant has absolutely no reaction to the eggs hitting the boiling water.  The myth is BUSTED.