I want to talk about Brian Cox. Why? Oh this is easy! I attended Professor Brian Cox’s HORIZONS – A 21st Century Space Odyssey, in Dunedin on the 6th December. It was at the Regent Theatre, which if you have never visited ole Dunners, it sits in the heart of the city. No, not U Bar or the Bog, but the Octagon!

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I wanted to see the show because living in New Zealand, we don’t get that many famous international scientists coming here and giving presentations that are open to the public. Having just said that, I’ve been very fortunate in the last five years, to see and meet Neil deGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku. I do have some photos of me standing next to them, with Tyson and Kaku looking amazing, whereas I’m looking like a stunned deer trapped in headlights.

As I was saying, the Regent Theatre was actually pretty intimate, because I had managed to score a front row seat in the Upper Circle. I secured my precious ticket through pre-sales; I’m so predictable. Anyway, it’s quite funny because after being shown to my seat by an attendant, I felt like a vague minor celebrity, mistaken for someone far more important. To prove this point, I wore my Schrodinger’s cat t-shirt, as well as my Spider-Man socks, the pair with a hole in the heel of the left sock. What’s that you ask?, “How do I know which is the left sock?” My response is, “How would I not know?”

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I promised myself I would purchase something from the presentation; whether it was a sticker, a book, or an old banana skin signed by Cox. And sure enough, there was a small table situated just inside the foyer. After looking at all of the items and comparing how much money I didn’t have because of my minor budget, I decided to buy the Horizons booklet. 

This of course was an entertaining read, while I waited for the whole thing to kick off. I would also like to mention that when I told UMC2 that I was going to a science lecture, he wanted me to ask Brian Cox if he knew anything about fossils, especially marine fossils. I told him that Brian Cox was not a paleontologist, so he probably didn’t study fossils.

UMC2 was not happy with that answer and politely stated in his own way, that Brian Cox couldn’t be a real scientist, if he didn’t know anything about fossils. There’s nothing like getting burnt by a 4 year old.

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Anyway let’s talk about the actual show, to which I was quite impressed with. Among the different topics that he covered, Brian Cox talked about the general theory of relativity, black holes, Schwarzschild Equations, stellar evolution, world lines, Roy Kerr (New Zealand mathematician), quantum theory, quantum entanglement, Hawking radiation and virtual particles, and some other things as well. 

Cox was also joined by his Infinite Monkey Cage partner, Robin Ince. He gave the audience some great pearls of wisdom for learning and understanding science. Ince was quite funny, so he’s why I want to revisit some of the Infinite Monkey Cage episodes now.

I believe that it’s the smallest things in life, that can give you the greatest amount of pleasure. Case in point, when Cox was explaining something or when it was leading into something, my Spidey-Sense was saying, “Yeah, I know where are you going with this. I understand it.”

When I say understand, I obviously mean not to the level of anyone with a PhD. I’m talking about grassroots basic science. It did make me think, “Wow, all these books I’ve read and the hours of watching science videos on YouTube, means I have not been wasting my life. Maybe.” It’s always nice to understand at least 10% of what a scientist is explaining to you in a presentation. Awesome.

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Overall the show had great special effects and amazing information, as well as excellent interactions with the audience. I really enjoyed it, because Brian Cox and Robin Ince were fantastic. It’s made me; dare I say it, fall in love with science communication all over again, because it’s something I really want to write more of. Sorry. Which is why I’m going to write more science based content. Though whether my work is good or funny, that’s for someone else to judge. Wow, what a cop out!

Speaking of more content, I’m already on Twitter, but I’ve also joined Mastodon; just so I can do more things, instead of sleeping that will actually help me. I post daily stuff on Twitter at 7 am (NZ Time) and 6 pm-8 pm (NZ Time) on Mastodon, so please visit me if you have the time. Let’s see how stressed I can get with this.

Thanks for reading and following Some Geek Told Me. Please walk your dog, read a banned book, and do yourself a favour; go and watch Croatia vs Argentina in the 1st semi-final this week, then Morocco vs France in the 2nd semi-final. They should be great, unless they’re not. See you next Monday.

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