January

After rather unbelievably reading a Tweet from someone within my social media sphere who stated that he believed in the Mayan Prophecy (you know, the whole 2012-the-world’s-going-to-end-nonsense). I felt compelled to write a post about my take on the whole end of the world scenario.

It’s now the most popular post on my blog with an average of around 2000 visits to that page alone per week. At times it’s been as high as 15,000 per week. It’s also been the reason for some disturbed individuals sending me nasty messages because I don’t believe in their crazy fantasy world. Hey ho.

Some outtakes from Brian’s Horizon on Gravity were put up on YouTube.

I also found out that I was going to be working on the new X-Files movie. Some of my Tweets from that time (1, 2, 3, 4) are pretty obvious about that fact, but only really in retrospect…

February

February was really all about our trip to San Francisco and the TED conference where Brian spoke.

I was also working on the very fabulous film Water Lilies.

March

Brian was made Professor while we were still in San Francisco, just after his 40th birthday at the beginning of March. That was pretty cool!

My mum came to visit for a bit and during that time we went beachcombing on the Thames and found some cool stuff.

April

This was the coolest month! Right after visiting CERN with both Phil Plait and Chris Morris, I was delivered the super top secret X-Files script. I had a terrible cold and, I learned later in the year, had asthma which was making me very ill. That is my excuse for looking so utterly terrible in this video. :)

May

OK, wait, THIS was the coolest month. Apart from Brian going off to film his Horizon on Time, it included getting my hair cut and dyed like Dana Scully, then flying off to Cannes to ‘interview’ Harrison Ford and having a chat with X-Files’ producer Frank Spotnitz.

June

June was X-Files-tastic!

Excitement was definitely building for the X-Files film and I was caught up in it all. Towards the end of the month, I went to LA for the LA Film Festival to attend a special screening of a couple clips from the film, along with a Q&A with David Duchovny, Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter.

July

X-Files! X-Files! X-Files!

The film premiered at the end of the month and Chris, Frank, David and Gillian attended the London premiere. The day after the premiere Chris and Frank did a signing at Forbidden Planet.

August

Brian and I went to SciFoo in Silicon Valley and had a fabulous holiday in LA being touristy.

September

This is where things start getting a bit weird for me as I found out I was pregnant so had a bit of a awful time over the rest of the autumn dealing with morning sickness and anxiety over scans and blood tests and the like, all the while being unable to talk about it with anyone.

September was also when CERN swtiched on. Along with all the excitement of the whole build up to it came all the nasty emails from the idiots who thought it was going to destroy the Universe and who thought that Brian was somehow the Sith Lord in charge of the destruction of the human race. All that wasn’t too entertaining. Honestly, it’s just not fun at all to be newly pregnant and then receiving emails calling the father of your unborn child the ‘Black Hand of Death’.

Brian on Newsnight the night of CERN’s switch on reminded me exactly why I love him so much.

October

The main things I was thinking of in October were morning sickness. Obama and Jonathan Ross.

I started keeping a pregnancy diary in October as I wasn’t blogging about it, but after a few entries it was pretty much just, “Nauseated. Constipated. Tired. Fat.’ so I decided to give it up. I realised that even in retrospect it would be boring.

My obsession with Obama, of course, was not unique to me. I mainly kept out of the whole election thing on my blog this time around as the Rightwing Christian Republican Dumbshit Bush-lovers (yes, for long-time readers, I mean Amy Proctor, Bull-headed Donna and the other one) caused me such grief before, during and after the last election (did you know that one of them tried to get me fired from my job on Sunshine?!), I wasn’t up for a second round. I was just hoping that they’d get their reward in November when Obama won. And they did. The twunts.

Now, Jonathan Ross.

The whole Daily Mail-fuelled madness just confirmed to me that most people are absolute illogical fucktards and that includes MANY people in positions of ‘power’ in the media. This whole episode has given me LESS hope for the human race than ever before… Thank Christ Obama changed that in November.

November

OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

This month I was up for a new job on telly. I’ve not done any telly for a few years now, mainly because all the web producing I’ve been doing has been keeping me busy. Also because I was enjoying using my brain, being creative, being able to make decisions *myself* which is pretty much unheard of for most TV presenters.

This job, however, seemed different. Not only was it a ‘tech’ programme, but it was a retro tech programme AND it wasn’t a presenter’s role, but an on-camera expert role. So I did the meetings and the screentest and crossed my fingers that I’d get it cos it sounded like it’d be a lot of fun. I had to wait until December for a decision.

This month was also the most stressful pregnancy-wise. Along with waiting for scans and blood tests looking for chromosomal abnormalities in the baby, I also had to have blood tests for various diseases. Having an HIV test- no matter how sure you are- has this funny way of making one become highly illogical. ‘I wonder what the chances are of it turning up a decade later? Two decades later?!! Maybe it DOES and they’ve just not figured that out yet!!! Oh. God. What will I do when they tell me I’ve got HIV?! Oh. God. I’m feeling a bit ill. It’s HIV, I know it.’

Not fun.

Everyone I’ve told about my HIV test worries who has had an HIV test themselves said they went through EXACTLY the same thing. Every. Single. One. So glad to know I’m not the only lunatic… (For the record, I don’t have HIV, nor do I have Hep C or Syphilis. w00t!)

Also, this month Jonathan Ross surprised me by asking me to be his Neu Meeja advisor (or whatever). First thing I did? Got him on Twitter. He’s been Tweeting up a storm!

December

I found out I got the TV job. It’s called Electric Dreams and will be on in April on BBC4. Right before the Christmas break I did the first bit of filming and it’s been good fun.

Brian and I also found out that we’d got a book deal to write a kids’ book on Physics. So that’s going to keep us busy…

This month, generally, has been good mainly because I was finally able to announce my pregnancy. It was getting increasingly difficult for me to hide it as I was getting pretty big fairly early on. This is me a couple days ago.

The other day Brian and I went off to Llandudno in Wales to visit our friend. I got a lovely snap of Brian and Peter talking politics whilst walking along the beach…

And today, the last day of December and 2008, I’m looking forward to an exciting year ahead. I hope you all have a good year!!

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.

The trailer again, in case you’ve not watched it yet.

There are loads of behind-the-scenes videos on the director Paul Olding’s YouTube channel.

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

More here.

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 ;)…

*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.

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.

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.