Thetownend.com

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Brian_Cox.jpg/200px-Brian_Cox.jpg

Part of me wants to hate his fucking smug face and young good looks (Jesus christ he's 43, I think I remember Fred Elliot being that old, no offence Fred but you never looked that good).

I might want to hate him, but I don't. I think it's because he's really good at getting across his enthusiasm without being patronising. I've had my fair of geeky astronomy science background shit all the way up to some spacey-physics modules at university (before I dropped out), and instead of being "well yeah, I knew that", I'm so much more happy when my vague knowledge of what I remember about the universe matches up with what he's telling me.

Anyway, enough of my slightly gay crush.

Wonders of the Universe has started off brilliantly tonight, if you missed it watch it on iplayer.

If you never watched Wonders of the Solar System buy/download/shoplift it, because that was fucking amazing too.

I hate him.

He was on the front of the radio times this week. I hate anyone who is on the front of the radio times.

People still buy the radio times?

Yes.

Loads of people do. You wouldnt believe how many radio times we get in on a monday night, especially something which seems to redundant.

Brian Cos is da man.

Glad to hear he has a new series. I'll catch up with that when it's on youtube.

Don't diss my Dad, you cunt.

I never watched Wonders of the Solar System (I caught little bits and pieces), but I did watch last night. I'll definitely have to give Wonders of the Solar System a proper go.

Being the uber geek that I am, I bloody love all this space/time/sciency stuff.

I find his delivery a bit 'thought for the day'.  A bit 'I was walking down the street this morning and got attacked by a dwarf with a haddock and I thought, isn't that a bit like life.... that haddock was a bit like jesus and should we accept that haddock into our life?'

Well I know what Im talking about.

I found it much harder to take him seriously when I discovered he was in D:ream of Things Can Only Get Better fame.

I can't stand him - no particular standout reason, he just irritates me - and he is definitely NOT as good looking as people seem to suggest he is.  Or at all, in fact.  Just creepy.

i also have a man crush on Prof Cox

Has anyone got Solar system on DVD they would like to lend me?

And I don't see how they can say that the universe will end up as nothing. How can matter just disapear. Wouldn't all the debris left clump together with gravity & then the whole process satrt again ?

That's one theory actually

I have it on Blu-ray if that helps?

Brian May must hate his guts.  Until Cox came along May was the king of the music/astrophysics world...

Cheers Jay, I checked it out and saw it was only a tenner on Blu-ray so have bought it!

Thanks for the offer though, appreciated!

There's still only one King of the music/astrophysics world...

[url width=228 height=336]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_03/PatrickMooreREX_228x336.jpg[/url]

Have you heard him play xylophone?

He's a giant penis, and science is wank

Anyone catch Sky at Night last night? 700th show. Had Cox, May, Jon Culshaw and the guy who stands in from time to time that looks a bit like Russell Howard. Reliving their favourite moments, most revolving around the moon landings. So gutted we've not been back in my lifetime and probably never will.

Moore, particularly his books inspired me as nipper, the whole moon landing thing was a massive thing in shaping thoughts about how I thought the future might develop. Of course it never worked out as conceived, and I must admit to the odd thought that the conspiracy theorists might have been onto something.

Although he didn't know for certain, it's believed Moore is the only person to have met the first person to fly a plane (can't remember who it was and Google's being no help), the first person into space (Gagarin) and the first person on the moon (Armstrong) Quite a feat if true especially as the plane guy was way back in the 30s.

Jim Al-Khalili is a bit good as well.

He's a bit more on the mathematical side of things but still gets well stuck in to the surreal stuff. He makes it interesting as well, even though I'm not that interested in maths. (I should not have done A-level maths) I think that what these guys do well is to make it understandable to dumb fucks, while still making it intriguing to those who can think a bit.

Pity he's such a hatefilled old neo-nazi bastard really

Because the structure of matter can, indeed will, decay into the chaos of energy, and then eventually that heat energy will evenly distribute itself throughout the universe.

It's not going to happen for a fucking long time mind, so I wouldn't worry too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjijteu0gcQ

But how can the energy distribute itself throughout the universe if the universe no longer exists?

I embrace our cold cold inevitable end. That the ever increasing disorder and randomness will eventually lead to the ultimate order of immeasurable unchanging eternity. It turns me on a bit.

A lot of Science is based on bullshit and guesswork......no one really knows...they talk a lot namby pamby and presume they are right.

A bit like the rock that is 10 billion years old....i mean that is so easy to fathom out.
What they should say is that this rock could be 10 billion years old...but we are talking namby pamby and could have been formed last week :D

You haven't got a huge knowledge of this science thing have you?

The plane guys were the infamous Wright brothers who successfully built and flew non-powered and powered aircraft at the turn of the 20th century, far earlier than you think.

Probably more than you would think Lumps.....my post was said as a tongue in cheek comment.

I mean lets face it the great scientists of the past all thought the world would be ended by now anyway....what did they know :D

As i said a lot of science(like global warming)is complete hogwash based on a few theories by a few so called eminent scientists.

I prefer real scientists....the ones who discover remedies etc than the new wave lot we have now.....is it really that important to know when the world is going to end or how deep a black hole is.
Granted it is mind bogling..............but it wont feed starving kids in nations who havn't even got clean water to drink.

Do like the man Cox though,seems to be down to earth(sorry).....and is certainly getting people interested in Science again.

To be fair the bloke's a theoretical physicist. He's not going to breed you any super spuds or cure cancer, but he is a real scientist.

Just because something is difficult to understand, doesn't mean it isn't important. Read his book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=why+e+mc2&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=6826679341&ref=pd_sl_7jqrle9096_e

It'll make your head hurt. Then you'll read the chapter again, think you've got it, try to explain to to someone else, and read it for the third time.

Fair enough.......quick question though....would Einstein have been so brainy if he couldn't read and write?
That was my sort of point......this kind of science is of course incredible and mind boggling.....things like splitting the Atom is wayyyyyyyyyy past my point of being able to understand.

A mate has the book by Cox,and is spellbound by it.

Well in some regards the universe will still exist, there'll just be nothing left in it and no concept of time.

I fucking love all science. I think that the desire to understand not only the world around us, but ourselves and our place in the universe, is what really sets humanity apart as special.

Searching for the building blocks of matter and searching out the fundimental building blocks of everything might not solve cancer or world hunger tomorrow, but increasing our understanding of the way everything works can't be a bad thing.

Yes, but we know the answers.  God did it all in 7 days and if you dont believe that you will go to hell.

No really.  An ex nazi youth bloke with a big house in rome and a pointy hat told me.

Leefer

A lot of this stuff really does help us and sooner than you might think. You might think that the size of a black hole is irrelevant, for example, but the maths that even thinking about it produces helps is on all sorts of ways.

Look at the LHC, they are looking for something that they aren't even sure exists. They are also researching powerful energy sources that you hear about on star trek and stuff. This can make an enormous difference to many people in the future.

And what if the like of Cox weren't looking into physics, do you think they'd just switch to medicine instead? People get this good at stuff because they are interested in it. If they are not interested in medicine they'd probably just and up doing something non-sciency instead.

I wasn't going to join in with this cos I really am not a scientist, and could never get beyond arithmetic in Maths!  But with GKN's wind up, I now can't resist.....  All I would say is don't just discount or poo hoo the religious stuff.  Whatever may be argued about specific belief systems and teachings of various religious traditions, the fact is that human beings have had the religious instinct within their make-up since for ever.  It may just be some wild, uncontrollable gene which desperately searches for an answer to everything even to the point of irrationality...but it may not.  You might be surprised (or not) at how many of our premier scientists worldwide not only retain their faith but actually find it strengthened by their scientific exploration...on the basis that the more knowledge that is gained, the more remarkable and mysterious the world/universe becomes.

What are you waffling on about?

However, I agree there are weak similarities between science and religion.
Take the Large Hardon Collider for example, billions have been spent to create this fucking thing to search for something (Higgs Boson, or the aptly named God Particle) that may or may not exist.
In the same vein, people who are religious believe in god, and live their life by him, and he may or may not exist.

Of course people are searching for answers all the time, about their existence and origin, but this has fuck all to do with religion.

The difference being that scientists are aware that the Higgs may or may not exist and everything they think they know might be wrong.

The religious believe that god is absolutely true and anything to suggest the contrary is absolutely false.

Science isn't absolute, religion is. There's a mahoosive difference between the two.

You seem like a reasonable bloke, and I know you're some sort of preacher but for crying out loud! People lean towards religion because of fear of death. That is the only reason.

Organised religion and the study of science are polar opposites.

Oh yes, the age old religion vs. science debate. I don't think even the might of TEF is up for solving this one.

I bet we give it a good go though.

I bet alarm bells are ringing in the Vatican as we type.

I'll solve it.

Religion is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, though clearly not to an individual. Given the tertiary nature of evidence of religion, it can only be relied on as at best providing guiding principles. Lets pretend its true. On the day of reckoning how will we be judged at the pearly gates? Given the reliability of evidence available, God only knows, quite literally.  So why bother to second guess, live by your own morals and see what happens.

Science is good, mostly.

In summary: Being religious is akin to being an English literature undergraduate. Lots of people get enjoyment/worth out of it, but its all guesswork unless the author is alive and talking.

Now that's solved has anyone wrapped their heads around the universe dissolving into nothingness yet?

Define nothingness

The absence of something ;)

What if the something is impossible to directly detect? ie, Higgs field, dark matter, dark energy.

I don't know. Its too difficult.

Like that, basically a reworking of Pascal's Wager. Richard Dawkins makes a similar point in The God Delusion

Yeah, that's exactly the look I was going for (and definitely not based of the sentiments of James' song God Only Knows. Erm..er.).

I'm off to google Pascal's Wager.

On the subject of anti-religious songs, XTC's Dear God is by far the best.

Depeche Mode's Blasphemous Rumours would be mine.

Sorry for derailing the thread.
--------------------------------------------------------
Back on topic, I found the Brian Cox thing on BBC2 very interesting. I think the theory behind what he said was a bit beyond my understanding. But if I take it as "fact" (which it may not be) without understanding then it pretty engaging stuff.

My favourite bit was when he emphasised how much of a particle of dust on the time-line of the universe we really are. We are used to thinking in century's and millennium when taking of humanities history. A small period of all life on Earth.

But against the backdrop of the creation and demise of the universe, well its beyond normal thinking. We really are 'lucky' to be right here and right now.

OK its all obvious stuff, irrelevant to day to day life. But its stuff I don't normally think about except maybe when looking out to space on a clear night.

Mine is Godpuppet by The Haunted.

"Look who he left in charge: the ill-conceived bastard son..."

Space is something I've been fascinated by since I was kid. It boggles my mind and reading BC the other day in the paper talking about how one day in some inconceivable amount of time the Universe is going to just vanish blew my mind. Ok it's not 100% fact but the thought of it is just incredible. I just don't get how the components that eventually led to the creation of planets, suns etc got there in the first place..

You know it was a joke, right?

Yea...but why not stir them all up...there have been good debates on here before!!!  And i really don't like cox or most religious people (whatever my occupation may be)!!

I think you've described the massive difference between science and religion and completely failed to notice it. CERN has built the LHC specifically to test to destruction the Standard Model of particle physics.

It's the model that all particle physicists now working believe to be true, and it's largely derived from mathematical modelling, tested through experimentation and observation.

For the model to work, (and there still be mass in the universe, which clearly there is), there has to be a Higgs field, and therefore a Higgs particle. They've built this huge fucking thing to accelerate particles with sufficient energy to one and for all demonstrate the existence of the thing.

The difference is that if they don't identify one, then the model will fail, they'll screw it up and start again.
So whilst the existence of the HB particle is open to question, it is disprovable, and the people that believe in it are going to a lot of trouble to do that disproving, and if disproved, they'll stop believing it.

Try that with a theist some day and see how far you get.

Wonders of the universe episodes now on youtube

:)

http://dundalk.patch.com/articles/rare-super-moon-rising-tonight

Just looked,does look rather magnificent.

Should look even better later on.

I watched the first episode: destiny.

I didn't think it was as good as his other stuff, not as many WTF moments. Although I was nursing a raging hangover at the time, which may have affected my viewing pleasure.

About to watch the second one now.

A supernova lasts for only a few seconds.

Literally, not relatively.

That's nuts. I always though that a supernova would be quick in relative terms, like a few gzillion years or something.

I had to read the sentence twice...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-preacher-warns-end-of-the-world-is-nigh-21-may-around-6pm-to-be-precise-2254139.html

Fucksticks! End of the world won't come in time to stop us being relegated. Although, it's making me think twice about the season ticket renewal

Shit. That's only a few days before my birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhn8j7S4uKU

I like this. Especially for the answer to what makes clouds.

Seems he's accounted for division 4 so you should be OK.

Love this bit:


The end of days is apparently more important than racoon hunting in his strangle little world.

http://vimeo.com/21553082

I thought he meant we were all going to the House of Lords. Damn.

Just watched a couple of Horizon programmes with him my housemate had recorded - interesting enough, although I spent most of it in disbelief that he's in his forties.

For some reason I just remembered this article...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/28/invisible-wife-syndrome-celebrity-relationships

His wife is a bit bitter about him becoming so famous.

She sounds like a power cunt.

Do any of you follow Cox on twitter - does come across as something of a smug argumentative arse.

I'd thought that being argumentative would be a fundamental requirement of doing what he does.

I thought his joke about a 2012 series called "The Wonders of The Apocalypse" was pretty funny.

To be fair as with anyone in the public eye on twitter he obviously gets his fair share of criticism/abuse and responds to it. Don't think he does it in a particularly argumentative or arsey way - maybe a bit smug though. Having said that I think I'd be pretty smug in his shoes.