We may not have a sample size larger than one, or we may not have unlimited resources - it's a TV show, and we generally turn these things around in about a week or so.
Jamie HynemanI always telling people to "not try this at home," because most of what we do on MythBusters is really dangerous. Consequently, we can't encourage people to try that stuff.
Jamie HynemanIf it turns out that we're doing proper science from time to time, it just happens to be that that's the most efficient way of doing it. We go into each of these stories with an open mind, and one of the great things about how the show works is that we're not approaching it from a doctoral point of view, we're just trying to see what happens.
Jamie HynemanWe've found that the biggest thing as far as the danger is simply pressure.When we work with explosives, we've got bomb technicians there, bomb-squad guys who go into unknown situations all the time, and they've dealt with it safely.
Jamie HynemanI don't think our death ray is working. I'm standing right in it, and I'm not dead yet.
Jamie HynemanWhen I figured that I could do anything if I was simply methodical about it. I went to the library - and this was before the Internet - and I searched for a career that was creative, would not fall into a routine, involved problem solving and making things. It also had to be dynamic. I came up with special effects.
Jamie Hyneman