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Wonders of the Universe


hogmaw

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Hi, I'm Professor Brian Cox, I'm one of the Wonders of the Universe (BBC2, Sunday). Here I am, on top of a mountain, triumphant in outdoor clothing. Why are we here? Where do we come from? These are the most enduring of questions. And why is it that you are a little bit in love with me? Is it my enormous mind? Or my boyish good looks, the NME hair, the expansive wardrobe coupled with exotic locations, the soft modest enthusiasm with just a hit of Lancashire, the winning smile . . . this winning smile – ah, that's got you, hasn't it? Look how proudly I stand, while the helicopter circles. I've conquered this mountain, just as I'm conquering your heart.

 

Now I'm somewhere else, in a cream-coloured safari anorak and stonewashed jeans, in front of the sun, bathed in light and glory. I am the golden boy, the sun god, I am the sun. Now I'm staring out to sea, in an aubergine T-shirt, thinking big thoughts. And very big numbers. A billion billion billion billion billion billion. That big. Look, I'll write it in the sand, to show you how massive my number is. It's all about the vast sweep of cosmic time and astrophysics. And turtles. As the story of time unfolds, a fundamental truth is revealed: nothing lasts for ever.

 

Now I'm back in Gore-Tex, by Berghaus, with a Patagonian glacier as backdrop. And posing next to a picture of the death of a star. The death of one star, the birth of another – that's me. Because time goes only one way, the arrow of time says the future, like my clothes, will always be different.

 

The second law of thermodynamics demonstrates everything that is profound and powerful and beautiful about me, and physics too. It explains why I'm so hot, but also why time goes forward and why there's a past and a future. Entropy – that's something as well, a gradual decline to disorder, like my hair in the wind. I'm now in the Namibian desert, wearing an apple-green T-shirt. And some kind of technical neoprene hoodie.

 

For a moment, you thought you understood what I was talking about didn't you; you thought, you got it? Maybe you did, or perhaps you just got me, you'd fallen under my spell. Here's another enormous number, even bigger this time. A billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion. Amazing, isn't it?

 

It won't last, nothing does. Things Can Only Get Better, someone once sang, naively. Because things can only get worse. The most profound consequence of the arrow of time will be when the cosmos cannot get any more disorderly, it will eventually fade and die. Nothing will happen, and it will keep on (not) happening, for ever. A final thought: here's me, on the beach, at sunset.

 

Sums it up nicely.

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Agreed :thumbs: Anyone else think the guy who presents it is a bit creepy? :lol:

 

Yeah, I don't doubt his knowledge but don't think his voice has the grandeur for such things, still an interesting show though. If you are interested in this stuff others to check out at your local torrent shop would be...

 

BBC Space

Space Odyssey - voyage to the planets (Hypothetical solar system trip, a bit cack in places but interesting)

The Planets (BBC)

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I think Professor Terry Christian is chuffing great. This is a programme about rock-hard science aimed at a mainstream audience, so it needs all the help it can get. No one who really knows about this stuff will watch it and no one who couldn't give a toss will watch it, but maybe the people who might grow up to be the next generation's Professors will, and if it takes a floppy haired northerner with a practical yet fashionable wardrobe to help grab their interest then so be it. At least they've got someone who can do both jobs here, rather than just giving a dumbed down script to a mainstream celeb to do a voiceover to some fancy CGI. Let's have more programmes like this, and quick, before someone works out a way to turn it into a reality gameshow format.

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I've not watched it. I didn't watch the last thing he presented either. The whole 'Brian Cox is a superman love machine hit with the ladies' thing puts me off.

 

Obviously you can't please everyone all the time. Do you think his personality gets in the way of the facts, then, or does the whole programme just not appeal? Who would you prefer as a presenter for this kind of stuff?

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Obviously you can't please everyone all the time. Do you think his personality gets in the way of the facts, then, or does the whole programme just not appeal?

 

The programme definitely appeals - I have sky+ it. I don't know, it's just this whole sexing up of the presenter that doesn't appeal.

 

Who would you prefer as a presenter for this kind of stuff?

 

My old science teacher - Mr Goode. :)

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