Brain the size of a planet

Prof. Brian Cox' that is.
This evening, I went down to the RGS in London to see the 9th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture.
After a prelude by the Save the Rhino foundation (see link above) and a very funny introduction by Robin Ince (I think I'm going to go and see his solo thing at The Junction) Cox pretty much talked about life, the universe and everything (at least relating to astro- and particle physics). There were bits on the creation and expansion of the universe and why we know it's happening (redshift etc.), particle physics and the LHC and other aspects of physics and the importance of science in general. Some bits hurt my anti-mathematical brane a bit too much but most of it was very accessible to informed laypeople.
It was also rather entertaining, interspersed with anecdotes and quotes from other scientists and some criticism on (the lack of) science funding by the government.
From the title I'd expected some more information on and arguments for the space programme and projects like the various probes, the Hubble telescope etc. but that didn't really happen although they were mentioned. I guess he got a little side-tracked.
What impressed me most was that Cox talked for one hour about all these complicated themes without a script or teleprompter. This sort of thing is obviously part of his job but it's still impressive.

I'm really looking forward to the Uncaged Monkeys in May now. They're all over the UK, have a look on the website for dates.

I had managed to get out of work on time to catch the 4:45 train to London and also meet up successfully with Sheila (the curse of the spare ticket was apparently finally lifted) and it finished reasonably early so I could get the 10:15 train to Cambridge and the last bus home.

An excellent, very geeky evening. :D

ETA: I just remembered something Sheila pointed out as we were walking back to the tube station: In his bit about Hubble's Law on the expansion of the universe, Cox gave the speed as 42miles/second (which is only a roughly rounded 70km/s). We wondered if that was deliberate (as he surely would use metric measurements) and if it was the source of Douglas Adams' ultimate answer. I sat there thinking, "Why is he using miles? That's unusual." The 42 just didn't click...

From Twitter 03-10-2011

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Sometimes being ugly pays off

Had a fun evening at The Man on the Moon. :D The lineup this evening were

Spucktute who are doing I'd like to describe as beat poetry with an electronica soundtrack. Quite bleak and angry lyrics.

Last July in their new lineup with nevla on guitar. A decent PA and the extra layer of the electric guitar made them so much more fun to watch than last time I saw them. A really excellent gig. I predict a great future for them. :D

I probably don't need to introduce Devilish Presley who play dirty and fun Rock'n'Roll with great impact and charisma while only consiting of a guitar duo and a drum machine. It was during one of their tracks they told us to make scary faces and whoever made the scariest, would get a free CD. I gurned and was chosen to be the scariest, hence the subject. :D

I had taken the camera but the lights at the MotM are notoriously bad so there won't be many good photos but DP had two floor lights pointing up which helped cut through the murk. Might do a little preview before I go to bed.

It was good to see scy11a again, too.