Mote scientist tests out "MythBusters: The Search"

You would think that after years and years of studying to earn a doctorate in environmental engineering, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium’s Tracy Fanara wouldn’t have much more to learn.

You’d be wrong.

Fanara isn’t just busting that myth — she’s really busting myths on the Science Channel’s “MythBusters: The Search,” a spin-off of “MythBusters.”

“I was actually hoping that would happen,” Fanara said of the learning experience the television show delivers. “You always want to learn more.”

Her first challenge in the Jan. 7 episode was to determine whether a passenger can easily be ejected from a moving car, ala “The Fast and The Furious.”

Ultimately, Fanara’s first challenge was successful. The scientists were able to eject someone — a dummy — from a moving vehicle.

The following week, Fanara and the remaining contestants tried to paint a room using explosives. While no team was 100% successful, Fanara’s team did manage to cover more of the room than the other two teams.

The show features “the next generation of fearless contenders with killer build skills, science smarts and nerves of steel, ready to be judged each week as they bust myths and vie for the win in becoming the next myth-busting superstars,” The Science Channel’s website said. Fanara was contacted by the show’s producers after they saw videos she did for her dissertation at the University of Florida on stormwater treatment. There are 10 contestants this season.

From a viewer’s point of view, the missions look fun and easy for the scientists. Each week, contestants test myths in teams, and as the show progresses, contestants are eliminated.

Although Fanara can’t say how long she’s on the show, she said it was a positive experience. She said she was never nervous talking on camera, because her job at Mote often involves speaking to the public. The equipment she used on the show, however, was new to her.

“What ‘MythBusters’ is about is taking questions that everybody has or something they saw in a movie that was crazy that they want to know if it can really happen, and we test it through scientific principals,” Fanara said.

At Mote, Fanara focuses mostly on design and scientific theory. Now, however, she said she wants to take what she’s learned on the show — construction as part of experimental science — and apply that to her day job.

She recently built a cell concentrator that doesn’t kill cells that are needed for researching swimming patterns. And, she recently submitted a proposal to optimize her own water treatment media.

Mote staff scientist Devin Burris, who works with Fanara, said Fanara came back with a lot of building skills.

“She’s always been a creative person, but I think the show brought even more of that out and especially with projects that we want to do in the future,” Burris said.

In 2011, Fanara received a scholarship from the Longboat Key Garden Club that allowed her to complete her doctoral degree at the University of Florida. She said without that scholarship, she wouldn’t have been able to register for classes. Now, she manages the environmental health program at Mote, which investigates the effects of marine and freshwater chemicals on environmental and public health.