Brain the size of a planet
11 Mar 2011 01:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karohemdProf. 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...
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...
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Date: 11/3/11 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/3/11 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/3/11 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/3/11 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/3/11 09:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/3/11 09:55 am (UTC)Arthur: "Good God it’s her! Tricia McMillan! What are you doing here?"
Trillian: "Same as you Arthur. I hitched a ride. After all, with a degree in math and another in astrophysics, it was either that or back to the dole queue on Monday."
I do wonder about the impressiveness or otherwise of his speaking for an hour without script though. It could be that he couldn't ba arsed to write a script, and so just enthused on his favourite subject for an hour! (Facetiousness aside, when I have to do public speaking, I do it a lot better with no more than a list of headings and some mental rehearsal than reading verbatim from a script; probably he is similar in that respect.
Sounds like a good night out though.
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Date: 11/3/11 11:08 am (UTC)He had slides of illustrations, graphics and photos as backdrops (but not a list of topics as you would in a powerpoint presentation) so there was definitely a plan. I guess that's all he needed to keep it coherent. He was equally eloquent in the brief Q&A afterwards so this seems to just come naturally to him.