It will comes as no surprise to my regular readers that I'm a Prof. Brian Cox fan

(Or 'Professor Lovely' as a delightfully snarky friend calls him). 

When I heard that he was hosting a live tour I jumped at the chance to see one of his lectures 'for real', and headed to Sheffield City Hall on Thursday 6th Oct, ready to be educated in all things space, not really knowing what to expect.

When the show opened with a video of singing muppets I was, to say the least, a bit confused, but certainly entertained. Talk about an intro!

As it happened, the show was effectively an extension of Brian Cox and Robin Ince's Radio 4 programme 'The Infinite Monkey Cage', where Brian and Robin take a look at the world through a scientist's eyes, with Brian to provide the science and with Robin bringing humor and taking on the role of the interested and self-educated everyman. While the focus was on the lecture style, at times Robin would also interject to lighten the mood, banter, and join in with Brian as well as encouraging audience participation, such as through tweeting science questions. Robin was funny and charming and the two got along very well. Having never heard of 'The Infinite Monkey Cage' before, I was intrigued to check it out (but more on that later).

The meat of the show though was, of course, Brian's main lecture. It focused around the discovery of the Big Bang and how we can detect the size and composition of our incredibly large universe, and drifted into questions about the possibility of alien life on other planets and the probability of finding anything that resembles us. While fans will have been introduced to these concepts in varying details in his other programmes, it still managed to be fresh and was delivered with his classic mix of gentle passion and wonder, and his ability to make the concepts approachable without compromising on precision.This made the whole talk very engaging. While time flew during the lecture, Robin's interjections managed to keep everything fresh, which helped keep the energy levels going. All in all it was a great night out for anything with a curiosity for sciences, especially fans of Brian's wide range of work.

Can I still See Him?

If you'd like to check out the show the good news is that it has proved so popular that Brian Cox Live has been given a series of arena dates as well for 2017. These will be visiting Derby, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Wembley in May 2017. There are also a whole host of 2016 dates still on the cards, running up to the 2nd of December, if you can score the tickets. So why not give it a try? I certainly enjoyed myself.

The Infinite Monkey Cage

As I said, Robin and Brian's banter was a lot of fun, so when they mentioned (through muppet-song) that the show was a product of the programme Infinite Monkey Cage naturally I had to go searching to find it.

The great news is that all 14 series' are available to download on BBC radio 4's Iplayer account here.

I've listened to a couple so far and they've been delightful, bringing in interesting guests (both comedians and scientists) to weigh in on a whole variety of subjects. I know where my 5GB data limit will be going on my phone on the morning commute....

When you 'grow up' often a lot of your school-day education gets forgotten.

It's how the brain works, in the end, it doesn't tend to hold onto information that doesn't have a direct application.
 When I was in secondary school I did very well in all three sciences (ie I scored good grades) but I was never really scientifically minded at all. Really, the good marks were more testament to a talent to approaching exams and coursework in the right way rather than scientific intelligence. I have always been interested in how things worked of course, but at the time I was blinkered in science lessons away from how what they were teaching us (all tables and formulae) actually served to make the world tick. I saw no beauty in it.
Now, as an adult, that curiosity has come back, as has an appreciation for what science acrtually is and does. And it frustrates me no end that iIve forgotten so much of what I was taught as a kid in such detail.

Enter PBS Spacetime.

PBS Spacetime is a brilliant Youtube channel that takes astronomical science and makes it acessible but in a very detailed way. Unlike some other youtube channels there is no 'dumbing down' of the science, but they have a talent for keeping the audience engaged and intrigued nevertheless. As a result, they can get into some pretty deep and detailed topics but maintain an open and interactive dialouge with their audience. The hosts are excellent, both being very informed in the subject and clear presenters. It's impossible to leave a PBS Spacetime video without feeling like you have genuinely been taught something valuable.

Some of the topics on offer are:

• Can you trust your eyes in spacetime?
• When time breaks down
• The origin of matter and time
• Why haven't we found alien life yet?
• What does dark energy really do?
• Will the universe expand forever?
• Why the big bang definately happened

So if you're curious about space, you could do a lot worse than PBS Spacetime. Check them out!



Other 'Preludes Recommends' Posts:

-Crash Course
-Brian Cox and the Wonders of the Universe
-PBS Ideas Channel
-Vsauce



Keep in touch....

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Stay curious!

This week I'd like to nudge you in the direction of a fantastic Youtube series: PBS Ideas Channel

As you may have noticed from my previous recommendation for the Youtube channel Vsauce, there seems to be a direct correlation between quality educational videos and awesome, balding, beardy geek-men.
Hrm. 

So, this week I bring you another Youtube channel that I often spend my breakfasts enjoying...





Hosted and written by Mike Rugnetta, the channel explores the links between popular culture, science and technology, maths, philosophy and art.

Quick-paced, bright, interactive and with it's finger on the pulse of internet (and 'real life') pop culture, the channel  encourages you to look deeper into many aspects of our life that we take for granted, pulling them apart and comparing them across a whole host of genres.

Who knew, for example, that retro 'bullet-hell' games could be seen as 'meditative'? Or that seeing the movie Ender's Game could be a political action? Or that glitchy art shows us that broken is beautiful? Or even that a tagged Instagram serves a far greater purpose than being just a photo? You could even ask, if you were feeling seasonal, what Father Christmas and wrestling have in common.

What I enjoy about PBS ideas channel is the philosophical feel behind all of the topics, and the genuine appeal to human curiosity. Mike and his team are very well read and so often the arguments - while very approachable - are quite academic and detailed. Yet they remain light-hearted, and inspiring.

At the end of every episode Mike shows up the best comments from the community of subscribers and interacts with them. He's always open to having his mind changed, and can even openly criticise himself and his own views, occasionally returning to certain topics more than once. The community if vibrant and enthusiastic, and so there's a great dialogue that goes on even when the episode itself comes to an end.

Simply put, I love the channel, and it served as an inspiration for this blog, so you should definitely check it out.

In other news...

I've recently found a couple more PBS-funded channels which look like they have great potential: PBS Games Show and It's Okay to be Smart
I might take a closer look at the latter soon. Alas, this blog isn't gaming-focused, so I'm unlikely to speak about the former any time soon. (If it was, I'd be nudging you towards Pewdiepie, Robbaz and Vanoss too. So many great lets plays out there.)

Who needs TV when you have youtube, eh?