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Bad Astronomy
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Brian Cox: A Day in the Life

My friend, the ex-rock star and particle physicist Brian Cox, is featured in The TimesOnline today in a bit they have called A Life in the Day. He talks about his typical day as a guy trying to figure out why things have mass.

Brian will be in the States in April as part of a conference I’m helping organize called The Conference on World Affairs. As time goes on I’ll have lots more info on it, but in the meantime you can check out the guest list online. Other attendees you may recognize: James Randi, Alex Filippenko, and Andy Ihnatko. If you are within 500 kilometers of Boulder from April 7 – 11 this year, you should come. CWA is awesome.

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February 24th, 2008 10:25 AM by Phil Plait in Cool stuff, Science | 15 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

15 Responses to “Brian Cox: A Day in the Life”

  1. 1.   GodlessHeathen Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 10:39 am

    Trying to figure out why things have mass…

    … wow …

    It never even occurred to me to ask that question. I love science for all the times it points out something I’ve never even considered.

  2. 2.   Ben Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    April 7 – 1? Either your conference runs backwards in time (which would be very cool yet horrifically disturbing) or I think you made a typo. The conference sounds pretty cool. Too bad the semester will not have ended by then.

  3. 3.   Yoshi_3up Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Hey, that’s nice.

  4. 4.   Jewel Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 11:50 am

    I wish… sounds like a cool conference! I did just buy TAM 6 tickets for me & hubby, though, so yay!

  5. 5.   Gavin Flower Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Ben wrote “April 7 – 1? Either your conference runs backwards in time…”

    Don’t you realize that to a physicist, all things work equally well in either time direction…

    -Nivag

  6. 6.   The Bad Astronomer Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    Ah, slight date typo there, but it’s fixed now. My typing is bad today for some reason. Probably because I have an article deadline. :-)

    And Jewel, great! It’ll be good to see you both again!

  7. 7.   Kevin Conod Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

    Don’t sweat it…BA just has his Arrow of Time nocked backwards! :-)

  8. 8.   Dualist Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    I’m interested in both of the two:

    - Brian Cox used to play keyboard for a rock band and started for university at 22.
    - Why things have mass?

  9. 9.   Dualist Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    I’m interested in both of the two:

    - Brian Cox used to play keyboard for a rock band and started for university at 22.
    - Why things have mass?

    Just read the feature at times online.

  10. 10.   Rob Vary Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    “ex-rock star and particle physicist Brian Cox”

    Not to be confused with long-time rock star and astrophysicist Brian May.

  11. 11.   Michael Lonergan Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    I can’t say why things have mass, except for one thing, me. I eat too much chocolate.

  12. 12.   Gary Ansorge Says:
    February 25th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    So, I guess they’ll verify the Higgs boson?

    Your friend, Brian Cox, is an excellent writer. Clear, concise and entertaining. Maybe he should do a book, “Looking for Mass in all the Right Places”.

    GAry 7

  13. 13.   PsyberDave Says:
    February 25th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    It is good to see Alex Filippenko listed. I have been greatly enjoying listening to his podcasts of his college classes. I came across his lectures just a few weeks ago when I was looking for astronomy podcasts on ITunes.

  14. 14.   Stimpy Says:
    February 25th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Oh boy. The Amazing Randy… is he out to poo-poo something someone believes they saw again? What is it with people like this jerk anyway? They always have to say the exact opposite of what everyone else says and then demand that he’s the only one who is right. I would not spend a penny or a moment of my life on Earth listening to a damn thing this guy says. This site really is a bag of crap.

  15. 15.   tim Says:
    February 26th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    Forget 500 km – I’m 2160 km from Boulder and I’m coming to CWA!

    Very kick-ass of you to bring Brian and Randi to CWA this year. Now to get you working on Kari Byron…

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