“On this day, of all days.”

As of this writing, teh interwebs is alight with conversations about his quote and – again as of this writing- it’s the fourth most popular Digg. Brian’s been getting requests for interviews from all over the planet.

There are about three people behind these scares. They have no knowledge, but very loud voices. Anyone who has been following blog posts about CERN and the LHC will have seen JTankers pop up everywhere spewing shite. He always refers to the main centre of this crap, the LHC Concerns site.

The other day the “death threats” article was written about there. Brian responded:

Dear all,

I’m quoted in the article posted here as being rather abusive to people who are worried about the LHC – I’d like to clarify!

I certainly don’t think that people who are worried about new scientific endeavors are “tw*ts” ! Skepticism is a valuable and vital part of our society, and one which is perhaps sadly lacking in public debate. For the record, the concerns about LHC are certainly wrong from a scientific perspective – nature is rather more robust than we give her credit for, and nothing we can do at the low energies we can manage at LHC or anywhere else in the foreseeable future will affect us in any way. But – I would always encourage a rational debate about future advances in science, and in that sense I support the goals of this forum.

What I would say is that it is not sensible to hold an opinion in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whilst I understand that much of the language of particle physics is opaque, there does come a time when it is worth accepting the views of experts. The analogy I would give is the design of aircraft wings – I am happy to trust an expert in aerodynamics to get it right rather than offer my own opinion about what shape they should be. It’s really the case that the particle physics community are sensible, rational human beings who go about their research because they believe that exploring the subatomic world is good for our civilization, not to mention interesting. It is also true that if anyone, including myself, had any doubt about the safety of what we are doing, we would stop immediately. I and all my colleagues consider our personal safety and the safety of our families to be FAR more important than the search for the Higgs particle – indeed, if the risk were even as high as 1 in a billion, or whatever people quote, then I would be campaigning with you to stop it.

But honestly – the case advanced against the LHC is based on the rather loud pronouncements of a couple of people who really do not have the knowledge to make them. This “jtankers” chap who posts all over the place began one statement claiming that we collide particles together at twice the speed of light, and Otto Rossler, whilst clearly a distinguished biochemist, has based his argument on a pretty basic error in General Relativity. Now I am not criticizing these gentlemen for offering an opinion, but wisdom comes from noticing when ones opinion is disproved by evidence. This is the key to science.

So, in summary – I support this forum as a place where skeptical voices can be raised, but skepticism must go hand in hand with rationality. When theories are shown to be false, the correct thing to do is to move on.

Yours,

Brian Cox.

**EDIT** Brian did a little ‘diary’ piece in the Telegraph this weekend which mentions the ‘twats’ thing.

Why should we want to understand Time?

How the minus sign protects the past from the future.

On Life in the Universe.

Loads more here.

The documentary explores the idea of Time – what we think it is, what it isn’t and asks ‘does it exist at all?’ He talks to all kinds of people from the Director of the US Naval Observatory which keeps the Master Clock, to cosmologist Max Tegmark (who acts out what it would look like if he were to fall into a black hole), to theoretical physicist Neil Turok who talks about how Time may *not* have had a beginning. He explores Einstein’s theory of Time as well as newer theories of ‘granulated’ Time…

I’d like to point out the videos where he is talking about the idea that the Maya of Mexico predicted the end of the Universe in 2012. The sensible amongst you may not realise, but there are a sizable number of people around who seriously think that the world is going to end in December 2012 because one of the many calendars used by the Maya ‘ends’ then. Here is what I think of that.

I’m not alone, of course, in my distaste for this kind of ‘whacky stuff’ being taken seriously… Here’s what Brian thinks…

They filmed loads and loads of stuff which won’t end up in the programme, so the director Paul Olding is putting some of it up on YouTube. Here’s a bit of Brian and Jerry from the Talking Heads messing around which won’t be in the documentary ;)…

“Simply stated, end vacuum is a jagged collection of orchestral music Michael Einziger has been writing for the past year. A horrendously turbulent, and at times serene, aural interpretation of complex patterns and geometric shapes that assemble themselves firmly into my consciousness. A 40 minute-long insomnia induced orchestral anxiety-attack.”

*UPDATE* 16/11/08

The teaser is out.

NOTE: UPDATES TO THE POST ARE BELOW

Brian is off filming a new Horizon at the moment. His last one about Gravity was rather popular (thanks for watching, everyone!) and was very well received indeed. They asked him if he’d do another one. This one is about Time- humans’ concepts of it and what it actually means and, of course, relativity.

The first place they’ve been filming is in Mexico on Mayan pyramids. Here’s Brian with director, Paul Olding.

As you already know, the Maya ‘had very advanced concepts of mathematics, astronomy and Time.’ Hence why they are filming there. They will also be filming in Boston, Washington, D.C., San Diego and San Francisco (I think).

I was told there were ‘creepy crawlies’ in Mexico. Brian won’t cope well with that.

EDIT 06/06/08

Here’s the first behind the scenes clip.

EDIT 31/08/08

Brian explains why he wanted to do a documentary on Time.

EDIT 04/09/08

Brian explains why he wants to understand Time.

Saying that…

Brian and I just had an excellent day with Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage and Didcot. Conservative. Brian met him during the course of this whole STFC funding crisis thing (Newsnight piece here) and really liked him a lot. Ed came out to CERN to visit ATLAS and CMS, have a look at the tunnel, meet some of the VIPs as well as loads of the British scientists working at CERN. He asked tons of questions and was really into it all. In fact, by the time I got him, he’d already blogged about it! Yes, he has a blog.

He was such a nice, funny and NORMAL guy that I thought, ‘I’d vote for him.’ Now, I’ve not had a look at his voting record and I’d expect there are TONS of things we’d probably disagree on, so before anyone jumps on me saying, ‘But he voted for this/He didn’t vote for that’, I’m talking about him as a person rather than as a politician. He’s an interesting, down-to-earth, *intelligent* person who was just, well, normal. I genuinely liked him. I’d much rather have someone I can relate to, someone who I can imagine in my group of friends, in government than people who I don’t understand at all. I mean, I genuinely can’t imagine sitting down for lunch or dinner with Gordon Brown and actually being able to have a normal conversation about anything.

As for disagreeing with his politics, well, I think the only politician I seem to mainly agree with is Obama anyway- I tend to agree with the Democrats most often (I can’t think of when I’ve really disagreed with them), I agree with the Republicans almost never, I agree with Labour about half the time, Conservatives half the time, Lib Dems… I think the last I heard from them I thought, ‘WTF?!’ I don’t even agree with Brian on politics 100% of the time. So, I will reiterate, I’ve not looked at Ed Vaizey’s voting record, so there may certainly be things we disagree with… Though I expect if there was anything I particularly disagreed with (I’m socially very liberal, so, on the whole, meddling in people’s personal lives is something I disagree with, for example), then I expect I could spend an hour with him, arguing, and he’d have the proper understanding of the issue. ;)

Maybe it’s best that I can’t vote in the UK.

I was particularly keen on the fact that Ed is the Shadow Minister For Culture. I’m hoping that he starts to think like Brian and I and understand that Science should be an integral part of popular culture. Maybe then we’ll stop seeing people on tv joyously BRAGGING that they are clueless about science. Can you imagine a BBC Breakfast presenter being *proud* of the fact that they have never seen a Shakespeare play or ‘don’t get’ Beethoven or that Francis Bacon’s paintings are ‘way over their heads’? Of course not. Amongst the ‘educated classes’ being knowledgeable about the arts is a given. Being seen to scorn, dislike or, most worrryingly, be seen to be too stupid to understand science is almost a point of pride.

What the hell is that all about?!

Yep, Brian has been promoted to Professor. Weeeeee! We found out a few weeks ago, but couldn’t say anything until it had been announced at the University of Manchester. I’ve just re-designed his website, so make sure that if you link to it you use the words Professor Brian Cox in order to help all the search engines catch up.

Now, that he’s so respectable, I’m wondering if he needs an image change to live up to the title?

THE PROFESSOR
When I was growing up, my very favourite programme on tv was Gilligan’s Island. Apparently, when I was very little my imaginary friend was Gilligan, that is how much I loved it. I probably stopped watching Gilligan’s Island when I was about 12 or 13… long before I realised just how hot The Professor was. Though I’m not sure the look would suit Brian.

PROFESSOR UTONIUM aka THE PROFESSOR
I love the Powerpuff Girls. I tried so hard, mainly unsuccessfully, to get my son into the Powerpuff Girls in order to legitimately watch the show. The girls’ ‘creator’, Professor Utonium, is pretty much the standard 1950s idea of a professor. When I told my son that Brian had been promoted to Professor he asked, ‘Is he going to start smoking a pipe now? He’s got to smoke a pipe if he’s a professor.’

PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH aka THE PROFESSOR
My son is pretty much obsessed with everything Matt Groening does, including, but not limited to, Futurama. The Professor on Futurama is pretty much Professor Utonium in about 50 years’ time, shrivelled and insane. I think Brian’s got some time before he hits this stage.

So far, the positive things we’ve learned from cartoon representations of Professors (and, no, I didn’t forget Professor Professor from The Secret Show (which rules, by the way), I just couldn’t find a good picture of him), is that from now on Brian should be referred to merely as THE PROFESSOR. Not quite as cheeky as ‘Dr. Cox’, but it’ll have to do.

But what about real world Professors? Well, the number one Google UK image search result is a photo of Professor, Lord, Professor Lord, BARON Robert Winston. I’m telling you right off, I don’t think Brian even has enough facial hair to achieve anything near this look.

Now, dear old Professor Einstein is single-handedly responsible for the mad-scientist stereotype. He even smoked a freakin’ pipe. Yea, he kinda owns this look, so it’d be silly to try and emulate it. Besides, Brian looks shit in jumpers.

Richard Feynman was a Professor, had ‘long hair’, was a musician and was a god. damned. horndog. Seriously. The guy was sexy beyond belief. I mean *look*!

So, I think Feynman has the best ‘Professor’ look out of them all… What do you think?

And as far as the look of a ‘professor’s wife’ is concerned…? Forgeddaboudit.

Brian and I

Me

Brian

Brian on stage at TED before the audience was let in

And again.

Brian during his talk (from ‘whatcounts’ at Flickr, click through)

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Dork

Dork Dressed up

Two Dorks Ready For Dinner

Dinner

It’s Freakin’ Sputnik, For Christ’s Sake!!!

Brian On Stage – The only photo I took. I didn’t even look at the camera when taking it. I hope we can get copies of TED’s photos!