This goes back to exactly what I said when the lecture was put on-line , and that is that some things can not be simplified and understood to any usfull level. Sure have some vaague descriptions and get people intrestead but then make sure you tell them that it simply cannot be understood unless you do some research into it and understand the principals behind it to a reasonable depth.



http://videosift.com/video/Professor-Brian-Cox-A-Night-with-the-Stars

"I actually think its probably futile trying to explain or teach Quantum physics to the general public other than saying it exists and this is how things are. It would be far more productive teaching the importance of science and the scientific method and the philosophy of science as that is something that can be grasped fully by sum-one of very limited knowlage of the subject matter and has the largest ramifications. "

>> ^Fletch:

Everything NDT says sounds like the most astounding fact he's ever heard, and that you should be astounded by it too. His meter - every enunciation, accentuation, and pause - sounds affected and I, for some reason, can't stand to listen to him. I've tried. He talks about things I'm interested in and I enjoy reading what he has written (I have "Pluto Files" and "Space Chronicles" on my Kindle), but when he starts talking, it just sounds like he's talking to five year-olds to me.
F ck it, upvote.


I know exactly what you're saying. There's a british version of this and he's called Brian Cox. Every single time he speaks, i feel my skin crawling that he knows that he has to try and manipulate the audience into feeling emotion that they just don't feel.

I subscribe to the principle as well. I agree, the connectedness of the universe is absolutely amazing. When you think about the familiar vs. the unfamiliar, the known vs. the unknown.... we know each other, we know the planet we live on and we feel safe here, but there's an infinite chasm in all directions around us. Sometimes when i consider this i can give myself vertigo.

If i were trapped in a cave with the most fundamental islamist ever, and we didn't know what lay on the other side of the collapsed wall, we'd eventually cooperate and work together to get out, to see what's there. Maybe we find something great out there, or maybe we have to build some defences to make ourselves safer in the cave.

Put us on earth, and we put bombs in each other's homes. The knowledge of how amazing the universe is really does lift you up, places you above all the stupid racism and general jingoism. But you can't fake it or inspire it, you either feel it or you don't.

Having said that, at least they're getting the field of physics more attention, and maybe they might influence some kids whilst they're influence-able.

Yea, that's true...you do have some pretty ignorant "sods" over there don't you? (btw I love the word "sod")>> ^alien_concept:

>> ^rottenseed:
Well, we've got that whole "middle bit" that drives the average down.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^rottenseed:
I do. We are.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^Edgeman2112:
After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.

Who on earth suggested you were?


Oh right, you mean in general? Because out of the Top 8 Smartest People Ever (based on IQ) 3 of them are American...


And we have chavs. Idiocracy reality here we come!

>> ^rottenseed:

Well, we've got that whole "middle bit" that drives the average down.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^rottenseed:
I do. We are.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^Edgeman2112:
After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.

Who on earth suggested you were?


Oh right, you mean in general? Because out of the Top 8 Smartest People Ever (based on IQ) 3 of them are American...



And we have chavs. Idiocracy reality here we come!

Well, we've got that whole "middle bit" that drives the average down.>> ^alien_concept:

>> ^rottenseed:
I do. We are.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^Edgeman2112:
After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.

Who on earth suggested you were?


Oh right, you mean in general? Because out of the Top 8 Smartest People Ever (based on IQ) 3 of them are American...

>> ^rottenseed:

I do. We are.>> ^alien_concept:
>> ^Edgeman2112:
After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.

Who on earth suggested you were?



Oh right, you mean in general? Because out of the Top 8 Smartest People Ever (based on IQ) 3 of them are American...

I do. We are.>> ^alien_concept:

>> ^Edgeman2112:
After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.

Who on earth suggested you were?

>> ^Edgeman2112:

After watching this, Americans (I'm one) aren't all that stupid in comparison. This was painful to listen to the unfunny, high school wise cracks. I feel bad for Cox.


Who on earth suggested you were?

>> ^kronosposeidon:

Tim Roth was such an excellent baddie in this film. You SO wanted Rob Roy to dice him up like Hannibal Lecter.


This might be the best sword-fight ever captured on film. Certainly is my favorite.

Interesting you bring up Hannibal Lecter. Brian Cox (who was in Rob Roy) was the original, and still the best actor to play the role in "Manhunter" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/. His Hannibal Lecktor was menacing and chilling- much more so than Anthony Hopkins in my opinion. Tom Noonan as the serial killer "The Tooth Fairy" was positively terrifying and utterly convincing.

Now, as for Videosift's very own crazed killer, I wonder how @choggie is doing these days?

*promote

>> ^bareboards2:

philosophy
I love this talk. I find that some atheists can be just as dogmatic and invasive in imposing their point of view as any evangelical. This guy has it nailed.


There were some interesting ideas, but mostly I wasn't impressed.

He opens by talking about the "kind of atheist that likes christmas carols". So, for example, Richard Dawkins?

He then talks about how we can use the "tools of religion" to make our lives better. He's essentially talking about 2 things, community and indoctrination.

Community, I think we can all agree happens easily without religion. Just look at this site. For a more real world example, last years earthquake in my home town saw groups of people coming together to dig out liquefaction from each others houses.

Indoctrination, on the other hand, I can live without.

As for the sense of mysticism or wonder, again that's not an issue I worry about. On this site alone there are hundreds of videos that talk about a secular sense of wonder about the universe (pretty much anything with Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Brian Cox). At a more local level, that "sense of belonging to something bigger" comes back to community for me. Whether that's a group of friends, a city trying to rebuild itself, or even in the larger sense that we all inhabit the same rock flying through space.

>> ^alien_concept:

>> ^Gallowflak:
On the one hand, popularizing science is important. On the other hand, if you need pop-science to interest you in the subject, it's probably not for you.

I don't think so. It's great for anyone to have even the smallest grasp of a subject and if "pop" science will make those who aren't necessarily academic interested, then it's all good. It's impossible to be wholly interested in anything that you can't understand well, so I'm sure tons of people who don't like science would be fascinated if it were put into layman's terms


Thats totally fine for things that can be put into layman's terms but why bother when you can teach people that know absaluty nothing about science about things that will get them intrestead in science and not require analogies that are abstract to the piont that they become absurd.

for example evalutoin can be explained and understood by sum one that has no prior knowlage of science or anything you can demon-strait it tangibly , you can also demonstrate the scientific method and how its the best way to understand reality and inspire people to then get involved with aireas of science that require a deep scientific knowlage or mathematical background.

Still i think its worth having lectures on quantum phisics and exsplaning how the world works i just think its important not to make analogies that ultimately are of no real use, In this lecture the most valid and usfull thing about quantum physics cox explained was

along the lines of - " this is an equation a clever guy came up with and a good propotion of the scentific comunity belive is logicaly sound , using the equation scientists have been able to make an acuret prodiction about the universe that we have then observed in reality thus proving that the equation has utility and is not bullshit or useless"

Don't get me wrong this lecture was 100x better than the fucking bullshit documentaries with bullshit CGI and I wish this sort of lecture was weekly if not daily on the tv I mean why the fuck is that not the case ? ITS MENTAL

also I love popular science but I think the real thing of importance is installing the spirit of the scientific method in people if everyone understood what the scentific method was properly and how to evaluate information properly we would have a far better soicity and far more people acting on reality rather than being traped in some bullshit fantisy world.

>> ^Gallowflak:

On the one hand, popularizing science is important. On the other hand, if you need pop-science to interest you in the subject, it's probably not for you.


I don't think so. It's great for anyone to have even the smallest grasp of a subject and if "pop" science will make those who aren't necessarily academic interested, then it's all good. It's impossible to be wholly interested in anything that you can't understand well, so I'm sure tons of people who don't like science would be fascinated if it were put into layman's terms

>> ^cosmovitelli:

>> ^MycroftHomlz:
Just for a bit of conversation, did any of you catch that he doesn't tell us what holds the "other" end of the spring? He says the nucleus acts like a box. How so? What are the ends of the box?

Elementary my dear Mycroft. (Elementary particles) -Constituent parts of the nucleus manifest as mass & therefore gravity.
Actually I'm not that smart but couldn't resist. Might be some other force at that scale - sift physicists?


The last time I looked, it involved virtual particle that pop in and out of existence (lots of them) and do other unusual things to tether the electron. This is of course known as the electromagnetic force, which is very well known and understood, however understanding just exactly how it works involves very complicated quantum physics which I don't know a lot about. As far as I know these virtual particles create a sort of a photon field with which the electrons interact which in turn gives rise to the electromagnetic wave.

So it's not gravity, the electromagnetic force is much, much stronger and is one of the primary reasons everything (that we experience) holds together rather than collapsing in on itself into a black hole.

>> ^MycroftHomlz:

Just for a bit of conversation, did any of you catch that he doesn't tell us what holds the "other" end of the spring? He says the nucleus acts like a box. How so? What are the ends of the box?


Elementary my dear Mycroft. (Elementary particles) -Constituent parts of the nucleus manifest as mass & therefore gravity.
Actually I'm not that smart but couldn't resist. Might be some other force at that scale - sift physicists?

>> ^Deano:

>> ^Quboid:
>> ^Yogi:
Dude Famous audience members...so far I've seen Jonathan Ross, Charlie Brooker with his wife Konnie Huq.

Peter Snow and his son Dan too, not that we're getting caught up in the celebrity aspect (hasn't Brooker done well for himself, Konnie Huq is yummy!).
Jim Al-Khalili is probably the smartest person there, I've seen a few of his documentaries on the BBC. He's Iraqi I think, and he's nuclear physicist with an Arabic name so he's probably never got on a flight without getting a cavity search before

Jim Al-Khalili's shows are better than Cox's big budget, smiley, standing on a mountain while a helicopter flies around style of pop science programming.


IS THERE ANYTHING YOU FUCKING LIKE!??! Jesus Christ I thought I was a Cynic. Get the fuck out with your self loathing over critical bullshit you fucking faggot!