:: 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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If you missed Brian’s Horizon ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’ last night, and you are in the UK, it’s available on the BBC’s iPlayer.

BBC 2, 9pm, tonight.

Brian’s Horizon on Time tonight is brilliant. Honestly. I watched it a couple months ago and even though I knew what was in it, there was one point at which I actually got a kind of vertigo. Brian talks to mathematical physicist Neil Turok about the idea that the Universe has been around ‘forever’ and didn’t, in fact, start at the Big Bang. That’s what did it to me.

Now, this wasn’t the first time I’d heard about M-Theory or Brane Cosmology at all, but for some reason I had one of those rare moments when I actually attempted to visually imagine what it means. The idea of there being a “start” to the Universe is comforting and easy to deal with even if it was 13.7 billion years ago… the idea, however, that it’s been around forever- when I really REALLY think about what that means- makes me feel like I’m standing on the edge of an endless void. My heart starts racing, everything starts getting tingly, I get a bit dizzy and I can’t sit still – I need to get up and move away from where I am because I start to feel that I might just randomly decide to jump.

That’s what happened to me when watching Brian’s Horizon.

And for a TV science programme to do that to me, makes me very excited. I’m so proud of my lovely husband.

These photos are high speed photographs taken during filming.

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The teaser for Brian’s new Horizon is out.

Remember: Horizon, December 2, BBC2, 9pm.

More here.

The director of Horizon, Paul Olding, has put up more behind-the-scenes clips from the new one on Time.

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.

Some more videos from behind-the-scenes on Brian’s new Horizon on Time are up on YouTube.

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…

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TX: December 2, BBC2, 9pm

*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.

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Whenever Brian is on telly he gets inundated with emails from every type of whackjob imaginable. There are the people with bizarre theories about some scientific topic or another – they are never scientists, just people with bizarre theories. Then there are the typical anti-science or religious people who scream at him that he’s evil and he’s going to destroy the planet/universe/Europe. There are the New Age people who tell him he’s evil because he refuted their claims that their necklace/magic box/cream can protect people from electromagnetic radiation. There are the unthinking people who tell him he’s evil because he supports nuclear power and knows that their beliefs don’t stand up to fact. He’s had everything from common abuse to threats of lawsuits.

He shows me only a few of them cos, well, I get upset. How would you feel if someone said shitty things about someone you loved? “I think your mother/girlfriend/son is EVIL!!” You’d kinda want to tear them apart, right? Well, that’s me with Brian. I’m a fricken lioness protecting my family.

Then there are the emails from people who are pro-science but HATE the fact that he’s working to popularise it in order to inspire the population generally and younger people specifically in order to get more people ‘doing’ science. These people are never working scientists. They tend to be ‘older’ – if not biologically, then psychologically (ie dull as hell). They seem to hate the general public. Some even sign their emails with their qualifications ie Joe Bloggs, BSc., Dr. Joseph Bloggs (retired)- They always complain about how simplistic the programme was, how Brian’s an idiot for ‘dumbing down’ science, how he has no right to explain things in a way that a non-scientist can understand.

They seem to want science to remain ‘complicated’, ‘difficult’ and ‘mysterious’. They don’t WANT the average person to understand it. They believe because they understand it, they are part of an exclusive club which is somehow more important than the rest and that Brian is bashing down the door to that club and letting just any old person in. Which, of course, is exactly what he’s trying to do.

Again, Brian tends not to show me many of these, nor does he answer these people that often. Sometimes, however- when he’s not too busy with his actual job of BEING A SCIENTIST – he’ll engage them in a discussion about why people need to learn more about and understand science. They tend to just slip away or back down within an email or two.

Fine.

Last night, after a fab night out when Sizemore and LondonFilmGeek, Claire and her friend Bruce, Charlie, ‘Annie Mole’ and I were out at the Coach and Horses, both Brian and I received the following email, yet it was addressed only to me:

Subject: Worst Horizon Program For Years

Gia:

Your comments are typical of the lightweight epidemic which demands that Science should be dumbed down to look cool for media types who have absolute-zero attention spans. Maybe that explains why the “Sunshine” film was such a load of parp. Science is about dedication, not limelight. Please stay away until you understand this!

The Horizon program with Brian Cox was largely bloody awful and seemed at times more about showing a road trip and teaching baby physics, rather than taking it as read that those who have watched Horizon for over 20 years, watch it because they are beyond the basic baby-book science. 40 mins before it even got close to the real cutting edge. Sadly, I never thought I would see a Horizon program so suitable for broadcasting on CBBC.

I have no idea who Brian Cox is, but it seems we should be impressed by his media background. WTF?

One of my old friends is a CERN scientist, and I should think he would find the program laughable too.

If Dr Cox is as intelligent as I am sure we are to believe, he has done nothing to assure his credibility – so, on the undertsanding that paradox has not escaped you, just what are we to believe?

(name deleted)

First off I have to say that I was castigated by Ralph in the comments for outing the (vague) location of a commenter – I accepted his criticism and removed my comment. Ralph and Jim have been unfortunate victims of my lack of patience with the willfully ignorant. It’s not their fault that I don’t have patience for those types of people any more and they probably think I’m a bitch. Whatever. It *is* their fault, however, that they choose to remain ignorant. (*ahem*)… I understand that the above is an email sent to me and that the sender’s details *should* remain private, but I am THIS CLOSE to publishing his name, company details, phone number and email address. He is the president of a company which works with very high profile blue-chip companies and I feel he should EITHER be far more grown up than to send petty and abusive emails to the WIFE of the presenter of a programme he didn’t like OR he should be able to publicly take responsibility for the abusive remarks he makes whilst signing off his emails with his title and company details from his work email address. I am using ALL of my willpower to not type his name…D. E. N… Ok. I can control myself… *and breathe*

Now, Brian is my husband, the man I love and want to be with for the rest of my life. The man who makes my heart swell when I look at him even after 7 years together. We’ve seen each other at our best and our worst- happy, sad, angry, excited, with messy morning hair and bad morning breath, laughing til we cry with friends, vomiting in the toilet after drinking too much beer… We’ve had screaming rows and delicious make-ups. And I love him more and more as the days and weeks and years go by and hope that love continues to grow until we are old, gray and rickety. He. Is. My. Husband.

Why the fuck does that idiot think that it is remotely appropriate to send that email to me? Seriously. Brian wrote and presented a programme that this person didn’t like. That’s it. I mean, why does he feel the correct thing to do after watching a programme he didn’t like is to send an insulting email to the wife of the person in that programme?! Seriously. As he so eruditely said: WTF?

My first thought was that perhaps he didn’t realise that Brian and I are married and that he was just being a wanker with an opinion…but then he CCed Brian on the email! Surely, he would only do that if he realised there was some kind of connection and wanted Brian to see his remarks, right? He went through the process of finding both of us on the web, getting our email addresses and writing a nasty email directed to me about my husband.

Then I wondered why the hell he felt the need to say anything to either of us at all? What kind of tiny little man must he be?

Anyway, Brian wrote a short and snarky reply back to him and he’s replied back. Just like all of these science fundie wankers, he’s backed down really quickly and is trying to be reasonable. Backtracking like a weaselly little fool.

He says in his second email: “Science is not politically correct or a democracy. It has no friends. Only devotees. To such extent, Science-discovery demands a apartheid in favour of those who understand this. Touchy feely types should keep out.” Which put his “Sunshine was parp” comment into context. I’m afraid I worked out long ago that anyone who professes an interest in science and doesn’t like ‘Sunshine’ is, in reality, a dull, tiny-minded and emotionless twat.

I am now holding myself back from sending *my* reply to him.

Paul Olding, the director of ‘What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity?’, has put up some unused clips from the programme.

Dr. Brian Cox explains the Holographic Principle in a very nice vineyard in California.

Brian and Leonard Susskind on String Theory

Brian talks with Leonard Susskind about Extra Dimensions.

For those of you in the UK who missed Brian’s ‘Horizon’ – ‘What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity?’ – it’s available to view on the BBC’s iPlayer.

**UPDATE** More on Brian’s Horizon ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’ here.

Brian was on BBC Breakfast this morning to talk about his Horizon (tonight BBC2 9pm) ‘What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity?“. Click the image to watch the video.

Watch Video

It’s been getting lots of good reviews. The only criticisms are about the ‘style’ of the programme- it’s beautifully shot and edited. I suspect the criticisms come because the reviewers can’t see science as part of popular culture. It’s perfectly acceptable to have ‘stylish’ programmes about music, films, books, etc… but science?! Well, why not?

The Guardian
In an effort to explain the essentially inexplicable nature of gravity, Dr Brian Cox heads to America, where the boffins are bountiful and the astrophysical anomalies are served with fries. It’s a game attempt to de-ice several brain- freezing concepts (Einstein’s theory of relativity, Newton’s doofer, something about “gravity waves”), though efforts to further invigorate the venture via scenes of crew-based japery merely remind us why boom operators should never be allowed in front of the camera.

The Telegraph
The BBC’s flagship science series continues as dishy particle physicist (and how often can one say that?) Dr Brian Cox asks: just what is gravity? Newton predicted its effects and Einstein thought he knew how it worked but Cox thinks there’s more to gravity than even these two giants worked out. Despite some annoyingly modern editing (the programme jumps around all over the place), the arguments are reassuringly intelligent, yet still accessible to novices. AG

You can watch outtakes and clips from the programme, as well as read more about it on the BBC’s ‘Horizon’ site.

A very special thanks to Hugh for Twittering about Brian’s programme.

Finally, the BBC agreed to allow more clips to be released online. Which is nice of them. Considering that Brian’s programme *isn’t* going to get any advertising or marketing at all from the BBC. They choose about three Horizons in a year to publicise… hmmmm…

Anyway, these are pretty funny.

One thing to know about Brian is that he’s afraid of spiders and creepy crawlies. What a wuss.

On the way to the GPS Headquarters.

Here Brian gets angry with director Paul Olding whilst trying to explain gravity waves.

Brian refuses to even mention that some people think the Moon landings were faked.

Yay! We’ve got clips!

These are outtakes from the programme – though when you watch the programme (29th Jan 9pm BBC2 hint, hint) you will recognise that a few bits of this made the final cut.

Watch Video
Click to watch

**UPDATE** 2nd December. Brian’s new Horizon on Time is on tonight at 9pm. More on that here.

For more info on Brian and his research, please visit his website.

And, if you’re so inclined, there is a Dr. Brian Cox Facebook Group you can join.

I just wanted to let everyone know that Brian’s done a Horizon which will be on BBC2 on the 29th of January. It’s called ‘What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity?’. I would very much appreciate it if you could a) make a note of the day and time b) tell your friends c) watch it d) tell the Beeb how much you enjoyed it and that they should continue to make science documentaries that aren’t crap. :)

I’ve seen it already (natch), several times, and it really is very good. I’m so proud. *squee* They traveled all across the States (because, as Brian told US Customs and Immigration, gravity is just so much bigger and better in the US than anywhere else) and is shot in a ‘roadtrip’ style. They travelled to:
Chicago, Fermi Lab
Lousiana, LIGO
Colorado Springs, GPS Headquarters
Sequoia Desert, Kit Peak Observatory
El Paso, Apache Point Apollo Lunar Ranger
San Francisco, SLAC (this stuff didn’t make it into the programme).

The director, Paul Olding, took loads of fantastic photos during the shoot and sent a load through for me to put up online. Click for big ones.

Brian and Paul the director

And for the ‘Brian fans’…