We went to a talk yesterday evening by Prof Brian Cox, physicist and cosmologist.
The presentation was on the origins of the universe, life and everything ; it covered the theory and mathematics of black holes and the space-time continuum. Very heady stuff, very well done, and with a lot of excellent effects and photos from space telescopes.
Despite being impressed I came away wondering two things:
What is the point of these branches of science? It's fascinating and clever but what does it achieve?
Secondly, it's seems more descriptive of the universe than anything else - so is it really about science? Is it closer to philosophy or art-through-technology than practical science?
I doubt I'm the first sceptic in the room, but it's not an area that I've been challenged to think about before.
Tilda Swinton, Ken Loach and Brian Cox (the actor) are some of the British film and TV folk contributing to an auction to raise money for humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza. The Hollywood Reporter has details on how you can bid to win a bedtime story read to you (virtually) by Swinton, a meet-and-greet with Cox and tickets to his play, and a walk-on part in a new film from Gurinder Chadha, director of "Bend It Like Beckham."
For fans of Robin Ince and Brian Cox, today I remembered a beautiful little series that Cosmic Shambles made 8 years ago, about what happened when puppet Brian lost his Wonder. It's six little 7 min films, full of in-jokes. Well worth your time.
🍓 In which some fairly fruity talk leads to a discussion of whether strawberries have souls, when does life actually end and, of course, how to commit the perfect murder.