:: gia’s blog ::

Last year I did a run-down of my year and thought I’d do the same again this year.
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Anyone following the CERN switch-on in the media may have seen the article in the Telegraph this week about how some physicists have been getting death threats. Brian was quoted as saying, “Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat.”

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.

I read an article written by the lovely Mike “Sizemore” Atherton today on the Creative Choices blog. It’s about Chris Morris, CERN, Science and the Arts.

I won’t go too much into what he wrote, because I’d like you to go there and read it, but he wrote about how he’s never really been interested in science, but enjoyed Chris’ article in the Guardian yesterday. Sizemore said:

Science needs the arts. It takes a satirical writer like Morris to reveal the absurdity and potential combined in something as jaw dropping as a God Particle emerging in a Compact Muon Solenoid. If this were not science it’d fit just as snugly on Brass Eye.

I wrote a reply and tried to post it on the blog, but all text formatting is lost entirely within the comments so it all came out as one, unreadable blob of text. I will post my reply here, link to it from there, and hopefully they’ll sort out the comments so i can post it in its entirety there. (below the fold)
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What a great time I’ve had over the past five days! As you will have already known, Phil Plait was over in the UK to visit CERN with us over the weekend. You can read about it on his site and, of course, the podcast he and Brian did will be going live soon, too.

Last night, Phil did a talk at Skeptics in the Pub. I was so happy to see Andrew Jaffe and Violet Berlin who both wanted to meet Phil. They only got a few brief moments with him as Phil was mobbed by the throngs of people there.

Phil is now on his way back home. I think he had an excellent time and hopefully he’ll be back soon.

This afternoon, I’m off to the House of Commons for the Intelligent Robots in Science and Society seminar. I’m really looking forward to it. I met up with Julian Mayers this morning (he’s producer of the CERN Podcast) and found out that he’s going as well! Weeeeee!!

After today… X Files…

I just thought I’d let everyone know that I’ve updated the design of CERNPodcast today. It might still be messy in places, but I can’t do anymore on it. I’ve been staring at a screen for 6 hours straight and now have eyestrain…

Still, I think it’s so beautiful that my temporary partial blindness is acceptable.

OK, well, not quite. Firstly, because I am a foreign national in the UK and can’t vote. Secondly, because I’m a Democrat (American, like), I still equate ‘rightwing’ with ‘neocon’ and it makes me fume and get all angry and want to argue with Bush-loving Fundamentalist Christian Military Housewives.

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.
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Brian and our friend Alom Shaha made a series of films about CERN and physics last year. Alom has re-cut some of it into a kind of ‘trailer’ for CERN. Lovely.

On first thought, I’d say that 2007 was fairly uneventful. My past few months have consisted of me being ill and feeling like I’ve done very little other than try and get healthy again… Then, when I properly think about it, I realise that the whole year has been MENTAL!

January

Me and Charlie Brooker

I was doing lots of stuff for Sunshine and Channel4.com, saw Ben Folds in concert, the Sunshine trailer was leaked by resourceful fans and I was interviewed for Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

February

/Cat blog

MASSIVE Sunshine stuff, loads of Channel 4 stuff, went to LIFT where Brian spoke and my Screepwipe interview was broadcast.

Watch Video

March

Danny Boyle on the Sunshine set

I know the photo above wasn’t taken in March, but the month was so freakin’ mental I didn’t take any photos. I was doing 7 days a week, 18 hour days mainly for Sunshine- press and bloggers’ screenings, press interviews, cast and crew screening, Manchester screening, messageboards, emails, IMDB, generally mentalness. There was also Channel 4 stuff, a discussion I took part in at the ICA, went to Cambridge with Brian who spoke at their Science Festival… and I’ve also got ‘Milton Keynes’ in my diary on the 16th. I’ve got no memory of what that was about at all.

April

Danny Boyle, Cillian Murphy, Brian

Another insane month. Sunshine was released, screening and Q&A with Danny at the Ritzy cinema, trip to Russia for the premiere, the 28 Weeks Later premiere… and I bought some ‘Sunshine’ props and costumes. :)

May

Tiger in my face

My Sunshine props and costumes were delivered. :) Was starting to get properly frustrated with the Channel 4 stuff, was weaning off Sunshine, I went to the Arthur C. Clarke Awards nominations, did a Social Media Club photo walk with Lloyd, went to Anna and Julian’s wedding and started looking at secondary schools for my son.

June

Brian at the Star Wars exhibition

Trying to get back into life and recover generally from Sunshine insanity. Sunshine was at the IMAX, spoke at Music Tank, Daywatch screening, more secondary school stuff (including an entrance exam… yikes!)

July

Me at the Gormley exhibition

Secondary school interview (yikes!), started on the Sunshine DVD release, bit of Daywatch work, David Hoyle started Magazine again… my son was offered a place at a secondary school (yay!)

August

Brian, Mo, Benny Wong, Cliff Curtis

Sunshine DVD release, 28 Weeks Later DVD release, Daywatch, more David Hoyle at Magazine… QR Codes.

September

QR Codes

QR Codes for 28 Weeks Later, interviewed about QR on various tv and radio programmes, my son started at his new school, I was invited to talk to the Nuclear Industry Association, recorded the Nature podcast sponsor stings, went to more David Hoyle shows, saw Prince’s final aftershow gig, got properly ill.

October

CERN

Still ill. Started working on a project looking at the Ageing Population, went to CERN twice – the first time with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery, the second time with Quentin Wilson- took part in a Nuclear Industry Association roundtable discussion, met Arvind from Slingshot Studios.

November

David Hoyle

Lots of meetings, dinners and lunches. Ageing Project roundtable meeting and dinner… And, of course, the wonderful David Hoyle.

December

My father came to visit, I attended the Juno bloggers’/Twitterers’ screening, fell in LOVE with ‘Juno’ (you’ll be hearing more about this), started Twittering (finally), went to see the King Tut exhibition, attended the Nuclear Industry Association annual dinner, my son had his birthday, recorded a Digital Planet with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, more talks with Slingshot Studios, David Soul…then…

…today.

After all that, I really need to rest over the next few weeks. I feel like I’ve still not recovered from my illness properly and still need to catch up on all of the sleep I lost last spring with Sunshine… My next 10 days will consist of POWER RESTING. I won’t do any work (except for watching the pile of screeners I’ve got), I won’t worry about whether or not I’ll have any work in the new year… I will just relax in the most hardcore way…