Brian Cox is my favorite physicist because he is just such a kind and down to earth seeming guy. He seems like he is still so excited by science and it makes me want to listen to him even more. 😊
Refreshing to see interviewers/podcasters let the guest speak uninterrupted for nearly 5 minutes. Sometimes it’s nice to let knowledgeable people speak for themselves and let the audience soak it in.
This. It seems to be the modern style of many interviewers to interrupt the guest directly after mildly interesting oneliner has been said. This is refreshing.
Humility is the first step toward learning. You can't learn until you are humble enough to realise that there is something for you to learn. - Robert T. Kyosaki
Happy to admit that Brian Cox is my Man Crush. His understanding of not just science, but communication, blows my mind. This man made me interested in topics which were previously well beyond my comprehension. He is expanding peoples minds, and that is truly beautiful.
@ForbiddenPlanetB Looking at how Oppenheimer was portrayed in the 23 episode Manhattan, he apperaed to be a bit of an arsehole.Regardless ; he was treated like one by the un American activity trial.This was dwelt on well in Oppenheimer
The film is an Ameri9can film about American films. No mention of British science or the brilliant Australian physicist, Mark Oliphant. Oliphant's team at Birmingham University showed that the mass of U238 required to make a bomb was about 28 tons using reflectors. They showed that using U235 the amount was approximately 5kg. This information was put in the MAUD report which was sent to the USA with the Tizard mission. The Tizzard mission also took with them the details of the incredible cavity microton which was small and produced short wavelength high energy radar signals. This was described as the most valuable product to ever cross American shores. It was developed by Oliphant's team. TheUSa ignored the MAUD committee's findings, so Oliphant went to the USA ostensibly to check on the cavity microton, but reality to find out about the MAUD report. Oliphant reported: "The minutes and reports had been sent to Lyman Briggs, who was the Director of the Uranium Committee, and we were puzzled to receive virtually no comment. I called on Briggs in Washington, only to find out that this inarticulate and unimpressive man had put the reports in his safe and had not shown them to members of his committee. I was amazed and distressed." It was Oliphant who pushed the American programme into action. Oliphant met with the S-1 Section. Samuel K. Allison was a new committee member, an experimental physicist and a protégé of Compton at the University of Chicago. Oliphant "came to a meeting", Allison recalled, "and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost 25 million dollars, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us." Oliphant then visited his friend Ernest Lawrence, an American Nobel Prize winner, to explain the urgency. Lawrence contacted Compton and James B. Conant, who received a copy of the final MAUD Report from Thomson on 3 October 1941. Harold Urey, also a Nobel Prize winner, and George B. Pegram were sent to the UK to obtain more information. In January 1942, the OSRD was empowered to engage in large engineering projects in addition to research. Without the help of Oliphant the Manhattan Project would have started many months behind. Instead they were able to begin thinking about how to create a bomb, not whether it was possible. One would have thought that the film would have said something about this.
I remember being taught long ago that if you cannot explain something to a 6th Grader you don't really know what you're talking about. Brian Cox is such a great example of how scientists should be.
I spend a lot of my time writing technical documentation. I often ask people completely unfamiliar with the technology to review my documentation. If they can’t understand it, I’ve failed.
@@pepelemoko01And Confucius said, "A wise man can recognise a fool because he was once a fool. However, a fool cannot recognise a wise man because has never been wise."
I’ve read somewhere that, “The beginning of wisdom is being able to say I don’t know”. Brian Cox is truly wise! He knows how much we don’t know and doesn’t bullshit about it. He is a brilliant communicator. 👍
Best thing i could compliment the man on is that he's one of those rare people who you could just listen to for hours on end in complete silence. He's so good at bringing the fascination he has for physics to us @@johnstirling6597
Personally, I believe that Brian Cox is a worthy successor to the excellence of Carl Sagan. Sagan was without doubt one of the great polymaths who could blend the teaching of science with the teaching of history and an evocative prose of the best writer. Though Brian's prose in his presentations may not be quite as elevated, it is just as evocative, and his sense of wonder and joy in portraying the immensity and mystery of the Universe is magnetic and enthralling. In fact, I think he may have actually taught me more in his Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe series than Sagan did in Cosmos, though perhaps that is due both to his access to more and newer ways of seeing these wonders today. Professor Cox has the unique capacity to gather the information, analyze, synthesize, and teach it with clarity and a quiet power. But he is certainly standing on the giant shoulders of Dr. Sagan,
I love this comment. You can see the examples and inspiration than Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman have offered, as forces of good for humanity, directly in the work of Brian Cox and Tyson De Grasse
💯 I started watching the 'remake' of Cosmos and was put off by the attitude of the host and the slick CGI effects. The sense of wonder was not present as it had been in the original series. The sense of someone who is full of themselves, in the new series, was abundantly clear.
Brian Cox is indeed a great teacher. You can immediately understand it when he begins to speak. All great teachers explain concepts in a simple manner. If s/he cannot explain ideas in simple terms s/he does not understand it! If s/he does not understand it, s/he cannot teach it!
I wish I could have learned from Brian Cox as a kid. I do watch his videos and documentaries and read all the books he's written He makes science so unbelievably interesting. I respect and admire him for what he does and how he does it. He is so cool, smart, well-spoken, and pleasant. We need more people like him and more people like him in every field of study.
The discussion about saying “I don’t know”. The host nailed it. This is the biggest threat to our collective intellect, a peril of the current culture and business hierarchy norms that he mentions. People need to wise up. I listen to the people who say “I don’t know.” Because it’s THOSE things that we can add value in discovering.
@@andrewthomas695 That's basically what I was taught early on. Knowledge is knowing something, intelligence is knowing how to use it and wisdom is knowing when not to.
To this day, Sagan remains unbeaten as the most brilliant science communicator to ever grace the TV screens. Brian Cox is great, with a humble demeanor that for example, lacks in NDGT. Michio Kaku is a bit all over the place and sometimes, like NDGT sticks his foot in his mouth. Sagan however, was a natural, He had this fantastic way of putting extremely complex concepts into easily grasping explanations. A calm, soothing presence and voice that would take you on long voyages across the Cosmos. He is sorely missed.
IMHO Brian Cox is also up there with the great science communicators, he manages to create a sense of wonder when looking at nature, very similar to what Sagan did, I deeply dislike Tyson, he comes off as arrogant and entitled, like most contemporary americans.
James Burke was an amazing communicator and if you were not from Britain in 60's 70's 80's you may not know him. He would have given Sagan a run for his money.
NdGT has great rethoric skills and ample knowledge about a lot of things besides strictly science (which makes him a great entertainer in general) but I also feel sometimes he is a bit too full of himself. It's great to have him, don't get me worng, even if he has this tendency to monopolize debates. Brian Cox is a rock star in my books, both literally and figuratively, because not only he knows a lot of stuff but he also seems eager to learn something form the others, even if that other is you. And his british accent is neat xD
Professor Cox is one of the easiest people just to listen to talking. I love listening to him and Matthew Syed talk. They are two hyper intelligent people that are genuinely excited and love their fields of work but can explain things on the most basic level. Professor Cox is just an incredible teacher.
We need more folks like Professor Cox. An honest expert who doesn't have to bluster and b.shit. The media in general seem to be so lacking in people of this character.
Brian Cox doesn’t know how rare his way of critical thinking is, it’s wonderful to listen to him talk about those giants of humanity, Sagan, Feynman etc, I remember by accident watching Richard Feynman’s “The pleasure of finding things out” when I was about 12 or so, the lectures on TV. I instantly knew this was a very special person indeed, someone that will help to open up this amazing world to me. What a wonderful teacher, the questions he would ask and make you look at more closely was so insightful. One thing that came up only very recently, mentioned here, was this concept of Time being built of smaller things. Oh my goodness I’m looking forward to the next decade of discoveries.
Indeed. Additionally, the BBC has regularily broadcast the Christmas lectures from the Royal Institution, designed to showcase and demonstrate science to younger people, often fronted by well known scientists. They have always been done with a great sense of fun and stimulating content to encourage interest and enthusiasm from their younger audiences. The 2023 lectures explore the science behind Artificial Intelligence.
I love Brian Cox... I was also so influenced by Carl Sagan, but Brian has a humility and fearlessness that is amazing.. (also super cool that he went from being a pop-star to being an astronomer....kind of a reverse Brian May...🙂
"Being delighted, excited and passionate about not knowing" is what has gotten us here. Belief is a certainty. Accepting our ignorance is important for our progress
@@dionlindsay2 What I think they’re really trying to say is that those who assert the superiority of belief, which is a claim to certainly know a revealed truth in which all faith must be invested, over the knowledge that our knowledge is necessarily limited and subject to constant revision (as science and philosophy do), are actually limiting human progress. After all, a claim founded on the belief that something is true - especially those which assert the absoluteness of that revealed “wisdom” - is also likely to prohibit any and all progress as a threat to its own certainties. The quote at the beginning of their comment, which they have cited in praise (I think), illustrates that it is that uniquely curious disposition of mind that has allowed humanity to make it as far as we have - for better and worse. Hence, the last sentence seems to be saying that *not* knowing, yet being willing to be wrong in the quest of finding out, is more necessary than continuing to place faith in systems of belief simply for their own sake.
@@feliscorax I'm to a large degree at the mercy of an epistemology course I took at University about 45 years ago, where knowledge was defined as justified true belief. The kind of belief you're writing about was called faith and it was distinguished from belief as a constituent of knowledge. So I do treat belief as having less credibility than knowledge. Of course there's wisdom to be fitted into the picture somewhere too.
I had a collage educator who told all his classes. " it is not important that you know everything! it is important that you know where to go and how to get the answers you need to accomplish your goals" . Brian is saying the about same thing.
Interesting interview. I am a retired chemical engineer. In my retirement I spent much of my time delving into physics with a special interest in relativity, gravity and quantum mechanics. I now teach the subject whenever I can to A level students, U3A Science groups and university summer schools. Because I have had to go through a 'relearning process' I find that I am now much better at teaching the subject because I now know what it took to learn new and abstract concepts. I freely admit when I don't know an answer to a question and will always go and find out what the answer is and relay it back to the questioner. By the way I have discovered that even the great Feynman sometimes got things wrong. He taught his students that your mass increases as you approach the speed of light. This in fact not the case as rest mass is invariant. Your relativistic momentum tends to infinity but that that is not because of changing mass. Enough said!
It depends on how mass is defined. Today it is unpopular to use the term "relativistic mass". When a physicist talks today about mass he always means "rest mass". But: a hot cup of coffee has indeed a higher mass then a cold cup of coffee. And that’s because the equivalence between momentum, energy and mass.
Its not about popularity. Rest mass is invariant. If relativistic mass were real then fast moving bodies would exert an increased gravitational force etc. etc. Energy and mass are convertible but this does not give rise to relativistic mass which in the limit becomes infinite.@@grandeau3802
I’m a Chem Eng too and I’ve always said science isn’t about knowing all the answers, it’s the process of looking for them. We know a lot, but there’s always more to learn, no matter how good you are.
Impressed they got through this conversation without mentioning that the qualities of science they discussed are direct opposites of how religions think and act: admitting you don't have the answers, embracing new evidence and amending your world view as you learn more.
In Ancient Rome, bathers at the Roman baths would pay to cover themselves (or even eat) the discarded oils that had been used for massaging the celebrities. That there are stupid people in the world is not surprising or newsworthy.
Didn’t they used to have public information films to tell people not to; play on train tracks, climb electrical pylons and what to do if you drink bleach?
No one was legit eating detergent. The exaggeration of that one story haunts your mind, man. That has not been a legitimate problem. How did Oppenheimer the movie get made? Nolan’s movies have made 6 billion worldwide, that’s how. Hahaha
I know very little about science and I am not in any way a mathematical genius... but if given the chance thats the man I would choose to spend a day with.... he is so pleasant listening to...
It’s a tremendous portrait of a complex, fiercely intelligent character, who was completely betrayed and ultimately destroyed by his work. I went back and watched Oppenheimer’s later interviews, and saw a broken man. A brilliant film, only spoiled by the quiet dialogue, which was at times difficult to follow.
I’m a Mancunian like Brian and of similar age, he sounds very much like a kid I could’ve grown up alongside and been good friends with in the 1970s. He’s very likeable and passionate about his interests and communicates that extremely well.
Brian Cox is a gift of our time, where a relatable bloke from Oldham can explain with passion complex scientific topics. (Even though he is a Phd in his field).
Although nearly three hours too long, "Oppenheimer" is a true Hollywood MASTERPIECE. It ranks right up there with "The Three Stooges Go Around the World In A Daze."
Well it's the whole, "if you truly understand a concept you could explain it simply" that holds true. Self important people make it a point that they know more than you do. But when you are humble and understand a topic very well, you want to share and you can explain it in a way anyone can understand.
I see somewhat of a trend developing here; and that is "most people are too stupid to understand us geniuses". WHAT POPPYCOCK! Big Bang? Here are some questions for you geniuses; What Big Bang, Where is the BIG BANG? Time, what time? What is time, has time always existed, was it created or has it existed all along? What is "dark matter/dark energy', what is always here or did it just pop into being? Tell me this when you so called geniuses figure this out and have answers instead of unproved theorems give me a call.
the great thing about Brian, is for someone who is obviously extremely bright, he is able to dumb it down so that the rest of us are able to understand what he is trying to communicate
Brian Cox and Anton Petrov are the 2 reasons my heart and mind is still chasing knowledge and science today. A lot of Science personalities seem to be of late trying to justify their positions on their ideas and such, as opposed to just giving us not only the facts, but in a way that doesn't make me feel foolish for not understanding the "math" of it all...
The title is a bit misleading. He wasn't really giving his honest opinion of Oppenheimer, but using Oppenheimer to talk about his commitment to popular science
Simply love listening to Prof Brian Cox because he never makes you feel you lack knowledge and understanding. You leave feeling there is so much even the experts don’t understand. 🌟
I found Carl Sagan and Cosmos a real eye-opener and an inspiration. His excellent poetic science and wonder of the natural world were groundbreaking; Brian Cox is the new Carl Sagan.
No he aren’t new Carl Sagan, that’s an insult to a great man. Brian Cox is next gen that showing world what men like Carl done which is to educate people on cosmos etc.
@@Jeffro5564 To say it is an insult to compare him to a modern Carl Sagan (not the same as) is rather extreme ,but I find Neil deGrasse Tyson awful; even though he was a student of Carl Sagan, I find him insufferable. Brian Cox is a great informer.
Spot on, when you truly know and understand something, it's pretty easy to find simple ways to explain it and break it down into easily manageable nuggets which Brian has done many times.
Would anyone really want to write 1,000,000 plus letters to mothers explaining why their sons died in 1945/1946 because you didn’t use a weapon that would have ended the war in 5 days. And to all those that say we could have blockaded Japan for up to 5 years when allied soldiers were dying in Burma, Siam, French Indo China, China, Taiwan, Okinawa, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaya, Guinea and the Pacific Islands? How would you explain that to those mothers. Not even mentioning the millions and millions of Koreans and Japanese that would have died.
Bryan Cox is correct when he says you must be delighted when things go wrong. It really does mean you have learned something. I doubt many people use this in their lives. I used to build race engines and if it does not start after a build it has gone wrong. When you subsequently find the issue you have learned not to do that again. Trial and error a great way to learn. As an apprentice I was taught this. It’s a shame many people look down on so called failure. Teachers of any subject need to learn a students failure to understand is their failing not the students. It takes strength of character by the teacher to accept this.
This is really important. I was 'academic' - understanding and memorising the basics, then proving that I had learnt what other people had discovered - learn and churn. I was also 'clever' - I could fix stuff and work out how to do stuff. I was also 'sporty'. But, I never had 'that' kind of intelligence, brilliance, or ability. I became a teacher and being blessed with a good childhood memory, I could remember the difficulties I had faced. I knew the stepping stones to understanding, because I had used them. So, I could guide others, many of whom were far more gifted than I. I was absolutely rubbish at teaching symmetry, or map-reading/scale. I had never experienced a problem with it. It had always been 'obvious' - how can't you see it? And this is the problem that 'really intelligent' people have (not me) when trying to convey meaning to others. This is the problem clever people - sparkies, plumbers, carpenters, fitters, lorry drivers - have, too. They can't train people who 'just don't have it'. As for sports - "They will never be a ... as long as they have a hole in their...". Brilliant people should stick to being boffins, artisans and athletes. They are usually rubbish at teaching.
There those who do but can't teach who then claim that teachers teach but can't do. There are also those who can do AND teach and they are worth their weight in gold. And of course there are those who can't do or teach.
I was the opposite of you: I was poor from a traditional academic standpoint (more due to lack of interest than ability), but give me a problem or scientific concept to unravel and I will knock it out the park. I think I agree with you that too often we confuse academia with intelligence, and I suspect the ‘sweet spot’ (if we are to evolve) is how to properly challenge people rather than how to ‘properly’ teach people….
@@MrArchie800 Sadly, education has become very much a 'one size fits all' and yet, it fits fewer and fewer people. The National Curriculum - jump through hoops, with constant testing - has stifled creativity, piled on pressure and left no time to think and do. I left.
There are good teachers and lecturers and there are bad, I still remember my A level physics teacher who was absolutely brilliant and my chemistry teacher who was stiff and had no idea how to pass on knowledge even though he was very smart. I think being able to teach is as skilful as the knowledge itself,and Professor Brian Cox is one of those people.
Professor Cox is great, and I think his detractors -- notably the one with three names -- are jealous, science snobs. He has an open mind and is only interested in learning and knowing, not bombastically bullying people into his way of thinking. If you can find it, check out the 1980 PBS 'American Experience' TV miniseries Oppenheimer, starring Sam Waterston. It, too is a masterpiece.
I think the only thing I ever heard Neil de Grasse Tyson say about Cox is that he wishes that there were more of him, that he seems to be the only Brit who appears on tv. I’d add Dawkins. But maybe Dawkins is too controversial for Tyson to champion, much as he agrees with the notion that religions are (almost certainly) just bosh.
This interview reminds me of a quote Sam Harris made in a debate several years ago defending scientists. He said (paraphrasing): “You’re as likely to see arrogance at a scientific conference as you are to see nudity.” The point being, scientists, especially in a setting of their peers, know and appreciate that there may be some in the audience who know more than they do on the topic discussed, and acknowledge it up front. It’s a beautiful combo of confidence and humility that many disciplines don’t naturally embrace or employ.
@tomgio1 they are as frail ss you or I because we share a common curse and blessing. We are human beings. To seperate and elevate them regarding personality traits is to commit the error of othering them. Leading to the additional error that must follow, it reinforces the mistaken belief that we can not become one of them in time. Maybe that's what he meant? Or maybe he was yanking your chain for giggles?
Richard Hamming said: I need to discuss science vs. engineering. Put glibly: In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it. In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
9:10 I respectfully disagree. School, in a sense, punishes us for not knowing. But society today has become extremely anti-intellectual. You get laughed at if you actually _do_ know. It’s almost a social _faux pas_ to attempt to explain something because people don’t want to know. In my opinion, there are several reasons for this. Firstly, they don’t know themselves, so they find that embarrassing or threatening. Secondly, it’s considered very uncool to explain something using nuance and with potentially conflicting information. Finally, they blame the messenger or try to laugh it off because being funny is preferable to being knowledgeable. Brian Cox transcends all of this. His calm, patient demeanour and slightly self-effacing, friendly sort of nature makes him more appealing and far less threatening to most people than a lot of other intellectuals.
Brian Cox is a pearl of great price. Possession of knowledge is a gift from the gods. His ability to connect with others is singular. He is the star-child of Sagan and Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer! He was both a blessing and a curse to the world! He stopped world wars, but put the world in a danger it’s never witnessed before. It’s up to you decide if he was for man’s better or worse. Frankly I can’t
Agreed, Sagan did this extremely well. It's difficult to take NGT seriously on account of being ridiculously dramatic even when talking about the simplest things and he is also clowning too much (a good sense of humour is great, but when you are the one laughing most loudly at your jokes, you probably should stop and start to think). I think Startalk is a low level parody of science communication. Michio Kaku is a lost cause now and I'm glad no one mentioned Bill Nye - he means well, but... I agree James Burke was really good. Brian Cox mentions Feynmann, and for a good reason, we shouldn't forget him.
I think one of the major problems that humans face is this: Not knowing that you don't know something and admitting it that you don't know is easy.... What's difficult is when you don't even know what it is that you don't know and admitting that. You're still in control, with the former. You're able to identify and determine what it is you'd need to understand, in order to know. But with the latter, you have zero control. Not only do you not know, but the thing is so beyond you, that you aren't even aware of what it is you don't know. The former is something that fairly intelligent people encounter and the latter is something that most of the common population encounter regularly.
At the moment, I don't know who these interviewers are but they've instantly earned my subscription for one vital and fundamental interviewing skill. The know when to shut up and let their guest talk. That may seem either cruel or obvious to many but when I was a press and radio journalist, many years ago, I was taught that simple skill. This pair of gentlemen didn't say a word until around 04:40 minutes into this clip; or again until around 08:40 and, finally, around 09:00 minutes. In an 11:04 clip that's pretty impressive. This shows a, deserved, respect for the interviewee and achieves the goal of any good interview. I am sick to death of the 'celebrity interviewer'. They go way back in modern media to David Frost, in 1977, who secured a series of interviews with the disgraced former US president, Richard Nixon. David Frost had the presence of mind to bite his tongue and let Nixon come out with near insane and controversial statements. The result of those interviews, however, rocketed Frost to international fame. Michael Parkinson was a good interviewer who let his guests speak their piece. Sadly, today these celebrity interviewers are thick on the ground and, in some cases, it's a miracle if their guests get a decent thought or statement in edgewise. In this brilliant interview, Brian Cox was, coincidentally, talking about the concept of scientists and others having the 'courage' just to say, "I don't know," and, thereby, starting on the road to proper learning and, ultimately, comprehensive understanding, even if it's the understanding there are some answers we may never know. These interviewers, rightly, knew not to present their own opinions or to 'second guess' Brian Cox. Cheers, gentlemen. You are excellent interviewers, now with a new subscriber. You deserve many more; just keep doing what you’re doing. Bill H.
After watching Oppenheimer, go watch Day After Trinity, a documentary by Jon Else, that interviews a number of the people who actually worked in the Manhattan Project. Real history, not Hollywood.
@@BlackEagle352 I’m confused. What does contemporary theoretical physics have to do with “old history.” (Which expression is pretty redundant, since history is old by definition….depending on what is considered “old.”)
Plato wrote a GREAT book called 'the Theaetetus of Plato'. I was a mathematics postgraduate. I studied a whole bunch from mathsy maths to theoretical physics,and I recently dropped out. In mythird year of my undergrad I took a Greek Philosophy module, we spent the whole semester studying this Socratic dialogue, 'the Theaetetus. This class, and this book, helped me form my perspective on what knowledge is to me. PS psychedelics also helped.
@@ninersix2790 I’m not any old druggy mate, I’m the worst kind. I’m the rob my bedridden mother of her only pain meds type druggy, I’m the shake your hand rob your house kind of druggy, I’m the rob your phone sell it for a tenner type druggy. The tweaker, the no sleeper, the peace preacher! Lol. nah mate, drugs are beyond good and evil. Get serious, leap past those resentments, if it is a conversation you desire.
Loved Oppenheimer and loved Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’ - I saw it when I was a little kid on our ABC in Australia. I watched it with my Dad and that was special. Car was an incredible communicator and so is Brian…..
Oppenheimer died in 1967 so back then you couldn't overwrite film if it was video, but If it's not online then it's probably buried in some archive somewhere. The lecture in text is still available though "Science and common understanding" by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
@@QuasiMonkey Wiping (of videotape) and junking (of film) are colloquial terms for actions taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies by which old audiotapes, videotapes and kinescopes (telerecordings) are erased and reused, or destroyed. Although the practice was once very common, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, wiping is now much less frequent.
@@informedchoice2249 Well ya should have said wiping or junking, ya silly billy! but still can't reuse or "overwrite" film back then. BBC does have a 30min audio recording of it online, I don't know if it's the whole thing or not but if there is part of it online, just maybe they still have the rest somewhere. 🤷♂
I know that despite its title there is virtually no discussion of Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was one of the vilest people to have existed, and massively hypocritical : "Despite many scientists' opposition to using the bomb on Japan, Compton, Fermi, and OPPENHEIMER believed that a test explosion would not convince Japan to surrender. At an August 6 assembly at Los Alamos, the evening of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Oppenheimer took to the stage and clasped his hands together "like a prize-winning boxer" while the crowd cheered. He expressed regret that the weapon was ready too late for use against Nazi Germany." His total lack of imagination and empathy meant that it was only after the bombs were dropped on Japan that Oppenheimer began to think that it might have been a mistake!!! My hero is Lise Meitner, a Jewish Austrian who only just escaped from the Nazis in 1938, was not only a greater scientist but a much greater person. Not only was she the first to describe nuclear fusion but she refused to participate in the making of the bomb. In 1942, Meitner was invited to work on the Manhattan Project but adamantly refused, stating “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!” After the war, Meitner continued to avoid any connection to her research and the atomic bomb. Of course, being Jewish and above all a woman she never got the Nobel prize. She is , of course, forgotten while the pro bombing of civilians Oppenheimer has films made about him. A quote from the BBC Science Focus short article on Lise Meitner: "Much of her energy in the immediate post-war period was spent trying to persuade her former colleagues in Germany to acknowledge and accept their part of responsibility for staying quiet during the horrors that had happened in the Third Reich - over which many of the scientists now wished to draw a veil. The Allied advance into Germany revealed those horrors to the world, and showed Meitner what she had narrowly escaped. When the troops reached the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, she wept as she listened to the radio reports. “Someone,” she wrote to Hahn, who was interned in Cambridgeshire in June 1945, “should force a man like Heisenberg and many million others to look at those camps and at the martyred people.” A very great woman. On her tombstone in Hampshire, southern England, where she died in 1968 is written: “a physicist who never lost her humanity”. A very great human. She realized that those blessed with a brilliant mind and a knack for science have a higher duty that comes before discovery, a duty to humanity. Science can be used for good or evil, so it's up to scientists to ensure that their work makes the world a better place.
It's crazy how 3 giants in the film industry did historic pieces this year and only Ridley crashed and burned. It's no coincidence considering he had an almost non-existent commitment to character and truth.
Agreed. The best thing about Napolean is how much it showcases just how truly great films like Oppenheimer really are. Napolean is the cold, wet day that makes you appreciate the beautiful sunny day that is Oppenheimer (maybe ironic given the dark message of Oppenheimer lol)
I liked it as a film on its own merits but no one should use it for a history lesson eg: a baker rifle apparently has a range of 1200yds?. The truth (you might say unfortunately) is most people will be going to see it because they want a good film and nothing else.
@@sivikasi are you telling me the movie isn't historically accurate? No, this can't be... when did something like this ever happen??? Surely historical accuracy is of supreme importance to movie audiences, this will not stand!
Looks like most commenters just wanted to spout off about their lack of knowledge not letting them enjoy the film. Instead they should try listening to what Brian says and then apply a bit to themselves.
Someone told me once you teach best what was hard for you to learn, I think that's what Cox is saying. Because if you understand something intuitively, instinctively, instantly, how could you ever hope to explain that to someone else? You don't even know how you know it yourself. . .
I always knew when an instructor had hit their limit of understanding, or at least the limit of their ability to explain something, when they would use the phrase, "And it's intuitively obvious that...." Most people are not effective teachers, which is why so many tend to learn from the school of hard knocks rather than a talented instructor/communicator.
Even my Mum loved Carl Sagan but I think it was more his voice as she didn't really understand a lot of the science. His Cosmos series was extraordinary for the time when the only 'Space' program (at least what I can recall) was Patrick Moore's The Sky at Night.
At least 75% of what you say is fundamentally based on what you think, believe and feel. Is that what you base your "science" on? No doubt. The same as everyone else.
I completely agree. Film and TV trailers have started doing it again too. It used to be a thing in the 80's (maybe earlier) where they'd show you a few clips of what was going to happen this episode. As if you needed teasing when you're already sitting there about to watch it. Thankfully that died off but it seems to have come back.
I'm too young to have lived when Feynmann was waxing eloquent but have had the great fortune to listen to Sagan and BC explaining the BIG challenges that we face. Privileged.
I am really grateful that I completely concur with Prof Cox. I am expert in my own field and as consequence understand that I am not capable of making judgements on others expertise. The vast majority of leading politicians, economists and economic world leaders said Brexit would be a bad thing, so I voted Remain. The vast majority of health professionals and virologists said we all should have vaccination, so I got vaccinated. The vast majority of climatologists say global warming is a clear and present danger so I support reducing greenhouse gases. What I fail to do is people is understand why would peopler prefer to listen to no marks like Johnson, Trump, Garage etc?
You can easily be lead to the garden path by majority consensus that might be wrong. Scientists doubt and question. If that is suppressed it is by definition not science but politics. Consensus builds more consensus over time. A mistake repeated and consolidated is still a mistake. You really need a skeptical and independent mind, even as a non scientist. Most people simply follow the majority. No man is an island. But consensus is highly weaponized nowadays. You have to be on guard. Don't be a sheep.
1, understanding physics is difficult, but not because it is complex. on the contrary, it is simple, but abstract. the deeper, more fundamental level we go, the simpler the systems and their model-like descriptions become, but at the same time the more abstract the topic becomes, and this is what makes understanding itself more difficult. 2, understanding something and making something understood have a non-linear relationship. the better we understand something, the better we can make others understand it, and the more we are forced to make others to understand something, the better we understand that particular thing. anyone who works in a university or academic environment is guaranteed to have experienced this. 3, in the second half of the video they talk about self-reflection, which is the fundamental, core logic in science.
I can listen to Brian Cox all day. If only more people had his humility to admit they don't understand something, we would be in a much better place. I liked it when they spoke about people who bluff and bamboozle their way to the top...a certain blonde clown comes to mind! 😆
I was told, as a consultant, that you only need to know more than your audience. It stands to reason, therefore, that if the audience is dumb enough, anyone can be a thought leader. The double edged sword of the internet is, you can get a huge audience as long as you have good SEO skills...
My dad, a teacher, used to say that jokingly about teaching. I don't think it's true of the analytical element of consultancy. Anybody's guess how the idea plays out/will play out in thought leadership!
Brian Cox is my favorite physicist because he is just such a kind and down to earth seeming guy. He seems like he is still so excited by science and it makes me want to listen to him even more. 😊
He probably has half a dozen heads on his Mantlepiece at home from people that disagreed with him . haahahahah
Check out Brian Greene WOW!!!!
He just a great tosser of incredible lies !
you mean weak and cowardly
A kind and down to earth seeming guy is what I think 80% of the human race is..... we are being led by pschicopaths.
Thanks to the interviewers/hosts for letting Brian speak and inspire. All too often people don't get the chance.
You think these divs interviewing him have anythhing worthwhile to say??
Refreshing to see interviewers/podcasters let the guest speak uninterrupted for nearly 5 minutes. Sometimes it’s nice to let knowledgeable people speak for themselves and let the audience soak it in.
Shame rhe adds didnt 🙄
He’s a very interesting man Mr Cox so worth listening to.
This. It seems to be the modern style of many interviewers to interrupt the guest directly after mildly interesting oneliner has been said.
This is refreshing.
You think these divs interviewing him have anythhing worthwhile to say??
@@kevw333I’m not sure you understand cost and afford something for free
“When I’m wrong, I’m delighted: I can learn something new” what a fantastic way to live your life. BC is a treasure.
Humility is the first step toward learning. You can't learn until you are humble enough to realise that there is something for you to learn. - Robert T. Kyosaki
This is a different definition of empathy. I like it.
This is bullshit and goes against every instinct.
Yes, they were hypnotized by intelligence!
@markjohnson7488 he doesn't?
Happy to admit that Brian Cox is my Man Crush. His understanding of not just science, but communication, blows my mind. This man made me interested in topics which were previously well beyond my comprehension. He is expanding peoples minds, and that is truly beautiful.
When Brian Cox starts speaking, things can only get better 👍
I see what you did there...
Dare to D:Ream
Every middle school Science class in the world she be required to play at least one Brian Cox lecture. He is such a great communicator.
Have you watched the film? Let us know if you agree with Brian's comments 👇
the film is not very good, let's be real here. The acting is good, the editing. direction are terrible.
100%@@gordonpepper1400
@ForbiddenPlanetB Looking at how Oppenheimer was portrayed in the 23 episode Manhattan, he apperaed to be a bit of an arsehole.Regardless ; he was treated like one by the un American activity trial.This was dwelt on well in Oppenheimer
The film is an Ameri9can film about American films.
No mention of British science or the brilliant Australian physicist, Mark Oliphant.
Oliphant's team at Birmingham University showed that the mass of U238 required to make a bomb was about 28 tons using reflectors. They showed that using U235 the amount was approximately 5kg.
This information was put in the MAUD report which was sent to the USA with the Tizard mission. The Tizzard mission also took with them the details of the incredible cavity microton which was small and produced short wavelength high energy radar signals. This was described as the most valuable product to ever cross American shores. It was developed by Oliphant's team.
TheUSa ignored the MAUD committee's findings, so Oliphant went to the USA ostensibly to check on the cavity microton, but reality to find out about the MAUD report.
Oliphant reported: "The minutes and reports had been sent to Lyman Briggs, who was the Director of the Uranium Committee, and we were puzzled to receive virtually no comment. I called on Briggs in Washington, only to find out that this inarticulate and unimpressive man had put the reports in his safe and had not shown them to members of his committee. I was amazed and distressed."
It was Oliphant who pushed the American programme into action.
Oliphant met with the S-1 Section. Samuel K. Allison was a new committee member, an experimental physicist and a protégé of Compton at the University of Chicago. Oliphant "came to a meeting", Allison recalled, "and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost 25 million dollars, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us."
Oliphant then visited his friend Ernest Lawrence, an American Nobel Prize winner, to explain the urgency. Lawrence contacted Compton and James B. Conant, who received a copy of the final MAUD Report from Thomson on 3 October 1941. Harold Urey, also a Nobel Prize winner, and George B. Pegram were sent to the UK to obtain more information. In January 1942, the OSRD was empowered to engage in large engineering projects in addition to research. Without the help of Oliphant the Manhattan Project would have started many months behind. Instead they were able to begin thinking about how to create a bomb, not whether it was possible.
One would have thought that the film would have said something about this.
I remember being taught long ago that if you cannot explain something to a 6th Grader you don't really know what you're talking about. Brian Cox is such a great example of how scientists should be.
He always looks amazed
What one fool can understand, another can.
Richard P. Feynman
I spend a lot of my time writing technical documentation. I often ask people completely unfamiliar with the technology to review my documentation. If they can’t understand it, I’ve failed.
The more you understand a subject, the more you're able to simplify it.
@@pepelemoko01And Confucius said, "A wise man can recognise a fool because he was once a fool. However, a fool cannot recognise a wise man because has never been wise."
I’ve read somewhere that, “The beginning of wisdom is being able to say I don’t know”. Brian Cox is truly wise! He knows how much we don’t know and doesn’t bullshit about it. He is a brilliant communicator. 👍
Myself and my 2 sons attended a lecture he gave in Perth a few years ago and it was one of the most illuminating 2 hours we have ever spent.
Best thing i could compliment the man on is that he's one of those rare people who you could just listen to for hours on end in complete silence. He's so good at bringing the fascination he has for physics to us @@johnstirling6597
Exactly! He's not a sensationalist, he knows the limits of his knowledge and isn't affrid to say! Thats how all scientists should be!
Tip for life: The more you know, the more you know that you don't know anything.
@@OriginalPuro so true. I know stuff, and I know stuff-all! 🤣
Personally, I believe that Brian Cox is a worthy successor to the excellence of Carl Sagan. Sagan was without doubt one of the great polymaths who could blend the teaching of science with the teaching of history and an evocative prose of the best writer. Though Brian's prose in his presentations may not be quite as elevated, it is just as evocative, and his sense of wonder and joy in portraying the immensity and mystery of the Universe is magnetic and enthralling. In fact, I think he may have actually taught me more in his Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe series than Sagan did in Cosmos, though perhaps that is due both to his access to more and newer ways of seeing these wonders today. Professor Cox has the unique capacity to gather the information, analyze, synthesize, and teach it with clarity and a quiet power. But he is certainly standing on the giant shoulders of Dr. Sagan,
I love this comment. You can see the examples and inspiration than Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman have offered, as forces of good for humanity, directly in the work of Brian Cox and Tyson De Grasse
Thank you Melanie for you comment. I very much agree! I can't help but listen when Brian starts speaking because his curiosity is so magnetic!
💯
I started watching the 'remake' of Cosmos and was put off by the attitude of the host and the slick CGI effects. The sense of wonder was not present as it had been in the original series. The sense of someone who is full of themselves, in the new series, was abundantly clear.
Way better than Tyson who's just a jester.
Tyson should never have got that role, he didn't deserve it..
He is arrogant and thinks he is better than everyone..
Brian Cox is indeed a great teacher. You can immediately understand it when he begins to speak. All great teachers explain concepts in a simple manner.
If s/he cannot explain ideas in simple terms s/he does not understand it!
If s/he does not understand it, s/he cannot teach it!
The man is an absolute genius. His way of articulating things is so good, could listen to him all day.
I wish I could have learned from Brian Cox as a kid. I do watch his videos and documentaries and read all the books he's written He makes science so unbelievably interesting. I respect and admire him for what he does and how he does it. He is so cool, smart, well-spoken, and pleasant. We need more people like him and more people like him in every field of study.
The discussion about saying “I don’t know”. The host nailed it. This is the biggest threat to our collective intellect, a peril of the current culture and business hierarchy norms that he mentions. People need to wise up. I listen to the people who say “I don’t know.” Because it’s THOSE things that we can add value in discovering.
Smart is knowing the answers, but wise is knowing when you don't. Few achieve the latter.
@@andrewthomas695 That's basically what I was taught early on. Knowledge is knowing something, intelligence is knowing how to use it and wisdom is knowing when not to.
Those folks who say
'I know All'
Actually tend to know fu
Dunning /Krueger.
To this day, Sagan remains unbeaten as the most brilliant science communicator to ever grace the TV screens.
Brian Cox is great, with a humble demeanor that for example, lacks in NDGT. Michio Kaku is a bit all over the place and sometimes, like NDGT sticks his foot in his mouth.
Sagan however, was a natural, He had this fantastic way of putting extremely complex concepts into easily grasping explanations. A calm, soothing presence and voice that would take you on long voyages across the Cosmos.
He is sorely missed.
Taken from us too soon. He only got to see the rough cut of "Contact" before he died.
IMHO Brian Cox is also up there with the great science communicators, he manages to create a sense of wonder when looking at nature, very similar to what Sagan did, I deeply dislike Tyson, he comes off as arrogant and entitled, like most contemporary americans.
James Burke was an amazing communicator and if you were not from Britain in 60's 70's 80's you may not know him. He would have given Sagan a run for his money.
I like NDT.
NdGT has great rethoric skills and ample knowledge about a lot of things besides strictly science (which makes him a great entertainer in general) but I also feel sometimes he is a bit too full of himself. It's great to have him, don't get me worng, even if he has this tendency to monopolize debates. Brian Cox is a rock star in my books, both literally and figuratively, because not only he knows a lot of stuff but he also seems eager to learn something form the others, even if that other is you. And his british accent is neat xD
Professor Cox is one of the easiest people just to listen to talking.
I love listening to him and Matthew Syed talk. They are two hyper intelligent people that are genuinely excited and love their fields of work but can explain things on the most basic level.
Professor Cox is just an incredible teacher.
We need more folks like Professor Cox. An honest expert who doesn't have to bluster and b.shit. The media in general seem to be so lacking in people of this character.
All women love Cox
@@wallstreet_au 📠
Not just the media, all walks and areas of life, the most damaging of which is indeed the media, politicians and corporate leaders.
Brian is such a chill bloke
I can listen to Brian talk for hours, humble yet so knowledgeable
I can't
Yep, not a 'like, like...' anywhere. Dear Americans out there please take a lesson?
KP ;0)
He's a f lying establishment shill who promotes the "moon landing". Wth is wrong with you⁉️
Brian Cox doesn’t know how rare his way of critical thinking is, it’s wonderful to listen to him talk about those giants of humanity, Sagan, Feynman etc, I remember by accident watching Richard Feynman’s “The pleasure of finding things out” when I was about 12 or so, the lectures on TV. I instantly knew this was a very special person indeed, someone that will help to open up this amazing world to me. What a wonderful teacher, the questions he would ask and make you look at more closely was so insightful. One thing that came up only very recently, mentioned here, was this concept of Time being built of smaller things. Oh my goodness I’m looking forward to the next decade of discoveries.
Its not rare, this is how most scientist think
rare? what?
@n0body550 I don't see a lot of scientists anywhere these days or critical thinking being taught in schools, so I would say yes, very rare.
Why don't you get married!
Indeed. Additionally, the BBC has regularily broadcast the Christmas lectures from the Royal Institution, designed to showcase and demonstrate science to younger people, often fronted by well known scientists. They have always been done with a great sense of fun and stimulating content to encourage interest and enthusiasm from their younger audiences. The 2023 lectures explore the science behind Artificial Intelligence.
I love Brian Cox... I was also so influenced by Carl Sagan, but Brian has a humility and fearlessness that is amazing.. (also super cool that he went from being a pop-star to being an astronomer....kind of a reverse Brian May...🙂
about as cool as cancer... (unt
"Being delighted, excited and passionate about not knowing" is what has gotten us here. Belief is a certainty. Accepting our ignorance is important for our progress
Wot? So "I believe" is as convincing as "I know"? That's not even rational. If that's not what you mean by "Belief is a certainty", what do you mean?
@@dionlindsay2^ Looks like someone hasn’t understood the comment.
@@feliscorax Pretty sure George understood it perfectly well 🙂. Not sure I did, by the look of it. Did you?
@@dionlindsay2 What I think they’re really trying to say is that those who assert the superiority of belief, which is a claim to certainly know a revealed truth in which all faith must be invested, over the knowledge that our knowledge is necessarily limited and subject to constant revision (as science and philosophy do), are actually limiting human progress. After all, a claim founded on the belief that something is true - especially those which assert the absoluteness of that revealed “wisdom” - is also likely to prohibit any and all progress as a threat to its own certainties. The quote at the beginning of their comment, which they have cited in praise (I think), illustrates that it is that uniquely curious disposition of mind that has allowed humanity to make it as far as we have - for better and worse. Hence, the last sentence seems to be saying that *not* knowing, yet being willing to be wrong in the quest of finding out, is more necessary than continuing to place faith in systems of belief simply for their own sake.
@@feliscorax I'm to a large degree at the mercy of an epistemology course I took at University about 45 years ago, where knowledge was defined as justified true belief. The kind of belief you're writing about was called faith and it was distinguished from belief as a constituent of knowledge. So I do treat belief as having less credibility than knowledge. Of course there's wisdom to be fitted into the picture somewhere too.
I had a collage educator who told all his classes. " it is not important that you know everything! it is important that you know where to go and how to get the answers you need to accomplish your goals" . Brian is saying the about same thing.
Interesting interview. I am a retired chemical engineer. In my retirement I spent much of my time delving into physics with a special interest in relativity, gravity and quantum mechanics. I now teach the subject whenever I can to A level students, U3A Science groups and university summer schools. Because I have had to go through a 'relearning process' I find that I am now much better at teaching the subject because I now know what it took to learn new and abstract concepts. I freely admit when I don't know an answer to a question and will always go and find out what the answer is and relay it back to the questioner. By the way I have discovered that even the great Feynman sometimes got things wrong. He taught his students that your mass increases as you approach the speed of light. This in fact not the case as rest mass is invariant. Your relativistic momentum tends to infinity but that that is not because of changing mass. Enough said!
It depends on how mass is defined.
Today it is unpopular to use the term "relativistic mass". When a physicist talks today about mass he always means "rest mass".
But: a hot cup of coffee has indeed a higher mass then a cold cup of coffee. And that’s because the equivalence between momentum, energy and mass.
Its not about popularity. Rest mass is invariant. If relativistic mass were real then fast moving bodies would exert an increased gravitational force etc. etc. Energy and mass are convertible but this does not give rise to relativistic mass which in the limit becomes infinite.@@grandeau3802
Serious question please 🤗
What about a frozen cup of coffee
Doesn't a frozen liquid expand 🧊 ?
I’m a Chem Eng too and I’ve always said science isn’t about knowing all the answers, it’s the process of looking for them. We know a lot, but there’s always more to learn, no matter how good you are.
Same logic applies. @@grahamfisher5436
Impressed they got through this conversation without mentioning that the qualities of science they discussed are direct opposites of how religions think and act: admitting you don't have the answers, embracing new evidence and amending your world view as you learn more.
How they snuck around that elephant in the room without waking it, was pretty impressive.
We need more people like him. He should be a role model for young children, not those who are right now.
He is a role model, no doubt
He’s a WEF puppet
@@SLSAMG And you know that how?
@@LetsKeepThePeace google is your friend. He literally has a bio on their website 🤣
So? Who cares if he has a short bio on their site?
What does that have to do with him as a scientist and a science communicator? Absolutely nothing.
When the interviewers are captivated by the interviewee you know you have something special.
How this movie got made in an era where we have to tell people not to eat detergent is a movie in itself.
In Ancient Rome, bathers at the Roman baths would pay to cover themselves (or even eat) the discarded oils that had been used for massaging the celebrities.
That there are stupid people in the world is not surprising or newsworthy.
Didn’t they used to have public information films to tell people not to; play on train tracks, climb electrical pylons and what to do if you drink bleach?
No one was legit eating detergent. The exaggeration of that one story haunts your mind, man. That has not been a legitimate problem. How did Oppenheimer the movie get made? Nolan’s movies have made 6 billion worldwide, that’s how. Hahaha
Not really it just shows you consume too much media and have a skewed view of reality.
@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549 yes, PSAs targeted at children. Now we have to tell the Magas. So, no change then.
I know very little about science and I am not in any way a mathematical genius... but if given the chance thats the man I would choose to spend a day with.... he is so pleasant listening to...
It’s a tremendous portrait of a complex, fiercely intelligent character, who was completely betrayed and ultimately destroyed by his work. I went back and watched Oppenheimer’s later interviews, and saw a broken man. A brilliant film, only spoiled by the quiet dialogue, which was at times difficult to follow.
I’m a Mancunian like Brian and of similar age, he sounds very much like a kid I could’ve grown up alongside and been good friends with in the 1970s. He’s very likeable and passionate about his interests and communicates that extremely well.
Brian Cox is a wonderful example of "the child and the closed box" Natural Curiosity, something which we lack in these days.
😂
Brian speaks a lot of sense. I have huge respect for him. Unfortunately our, all, political systems favor psychopaths.
"...political systems favor psychopaths" So does big business!
"You should be delighted to be shown that you were wrong, 'cause then you learn something" - THERE'S a paradigm to be followed!
Brian Cox is a gift of our time, where a relatable bloke from Oldham can explain with passion complex scientific topics. (Even though he is a Phd in his field).
Wonderful man. And i respect him almost as much for getting Jake to shut up and listen as i do for his many other achievements.
This man is an observer, and has the honesty of insight., or maybe it’s the insight of honesty.
He doesn't speak much about Oppenheimer here but all his words are so deep and important.
Although nearly three hours too long, "Oppenheimer" is a true Hollywood MASTERPIECE. It ranks right up there with "The Three Stooges Go Around the World In A Daze."
Saw the clip when I went to see Mission Impossible last year and thought it looked so boring! 3 hrs of utter dross
Brian Cox, Brian Greene, and Sean Carroll all have a wonderful ability to communicate complex ideas in an easily digestible way.
Well it's the whole, "if you truly understand a concept you could explain it simply" that holds true. Self important people make it a point that they know more than you do. But when you are humble and understand a topic very well, you want to share and you can explain it in a way anyone can understand.
Robert Sapolsky makes biology/primateology so easy to digest and fun, he's a superb educator.
I see somewhat of a trend developing here; and that is "most people are too stupid to understand us geniuses".
WHAT POPPYCOCK! Big Bang? Here are some questions for you geniuses; What Big Bang, Where is the BIG BANG? Time, what time? What is time, has time always existed, was it created or has it existed all along? What is "dark matter/dark energy', what is always here or did it just pop into being?
Tell me this when you so called geniuses figure this out and have answers instead of unproved theorems give me a call.
Neil Degrass Tyson is also a worthy successor to Carl Sagan as an astrophysicist and a brilliant communicator.
the great thing about Brian, is for someone who is obviously extremely bright, he is able to dumb it down so that the rest of us are able to understand what he is trying to communicate
he has a passion not just for science but humanity as well
This professor is such a genuine person!
Brian Cox and Anton Petrov are the 2 reasons my heart and mind is still chasing knowledge and science today. A lot of Science personalities seem to be of late trying to justify their positions on their ideas and such, as opposed to just giving us not only the facts, but in a way that doesn't make me feel foolish for not understanding the "math" of it all...
This man is a world treasure
The title is a bit misleading. He wasn't really giving his honest opinion of Oppenheimer, but using Oppenheimer to talk about his commitment to popular science
Simply love listening to Prof Brian Cox because he never makes you feel you lack knowledge and understanding. You leave feeling there is so much even the experts don’t understand. 🌟
I found Carl Sagan and Cosmos a real eye-opener and an inspiration. His excellent poetic science and wonder of the natural world were groundbreaking; Brian Cox is the new Carl Sagan.
No he aren’t new Carl Sagan, that’s an insult to a great man. Brian Cox is next gen that showing world what men like Carl done which is to educate people on cosmos etc.
@@Jeffro5564 To say it is an insult to compare him to a modern Carl Sagan
(not the same as) is rather extreme ,but I find Neil deGrasse Tyson awful; even though he was a student of Carl Sagan, I find him insufferable. Brian Cox is a great informer.
No he aren't? @@Jeffro5564
Another crip tipper I presome? @@funjuror
I have no idea what that means :)@@imwelshjesus
Spot on, when you truly know and understand something, it's pretty easy to find simple ways to explain it and break it down into easily manageable nuggets which Brian has done many times.
Brian Cox .Forever young
Would anyone really want to write 1,000,000 plus letters to mothers explaining why their sons died in 1945/1946 because you didn’t use a weapon that would have ended the war in 5 days.
And to all those that say we could have blockaded Japan for up to 5 years when allied soldiers were dying in Burma, Siam, French Indo China, China, Taiwan, Okinawa, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaya, Guinea and the Pacific Islands? How would you explain that to those mothers.
Not even mentioning the millions and millions of Koreans and Japanese that would have died.
Very interesting interview, especially with the interviewers letting him talk and not constantly interrupting him.
You think these divs interviewing him have anythhing worthwhile to say??
Bryan Cox is correct when he says you must be delighted when things go wrong. It really does mean you have learned something. I doubt many people use this in their lives. I used to build race engines and if it does not start after a build it has gone wrong. When you subsequently find the issue you have learned not to do that again. Trial and error a great way to learn. As an apprentice I was taught this. It’s a shame many people look down on so called failure. Teachers of any subject need to learn a students failure to understand is their failing not the students. It takes strength of character by the teacher to accept this.
Brian Cox is stellar scientist, fantastic communicator and a gift to all of us.🌿
And the Sub - Humans kill peoples like this , Beware Mr Cox the Scary people
This movie is absolute masterpiece
Why? How?
This is really important. I was 'academic' - understanding and memorising the basics, then proving that I had learnt what other people had discovered - learn and churn. I was also 'clever' - I could fix stuff and work out how to do stuff. I was also 'sporty'. But, I never had 'that' kind of intelligence, brilliance, or ability.
I became a teacher and being blessed with a good childhood memory, I could remember the difficulties I had faced. I knew the stepping stones to understanding, because I had used them. So, I could guide others, many of whom were far more gifted than I.
I was absolutely rubbish at teaching symmetry, or map-reading/scale. I had never experienced a problem with it. It had always been 'obvious' - how can't you see it? And this is the problem that 'really intelligent' people have (not me) when trying to convey meaning to others.
This is the problem clever people - sparkies, plumbers, carpenters, fitters, lorry drivers - have, too. They can't train people who 'just don't have it'. As for sports - "They will never be a ... as long as they have a hole in their...".
Brilliant people should stick to being boffins, artisans and athletes. They are usually rubbish at teaching.
There those who do but can't teach who then claim that teachers teach but can't do. There are also those who can do AND teach and they are worth their weight in gold.
And of course there are those who can't do or teach.
I was the opposite of you: I was poor from a traditional academic standpoint (more due to lack of interest than ability), but give me a problem or scientific concept to unravel and I will knock it out the park. I think I agree with you that too often we confuse academia with intelligence, and I suspect the ‘sweet spot’ (if we are to evolve) is how to properly challenge people rather than how to ‘properly’ teach people….
@@anathardayaldar Geniuses who are great teachers are a rare breed indeed. They set the world alight.
I'd be happy if I have created a few sparks!
@@MrArchie800 Sadly, education has become very much a 'one size fits all' and yet, it fits fewer and fewer people.
The National Curriculum - jump through hoops, with constant testing - has stifled creativity, piled on pressure and left no time to think and do.
I left.
Feynman was a good teacher
There are good teachers and lecturers and there are bad, I still remember my A level physics teacher who was absolutely brilliant and my chemistry teacher who was stiff and had no idea how to pass on knowledge even though he was very smart. I think being able to teach is as skilful as the knowledge itself,and Professor Brian Cox is one of those people.
Professor Cox is great, and I think his detractors -- notably the one with three names -- are jealous, science snobs. He has an open mind and is only interested in learning and knowing, not bombastically bullying people into his way of thinking. If you can find it, check out the 1980 PBS 'American Experience' TV miniseries Oppenheimer, starring Sam Waterston. It, too is a masterpiece.
I think the only thing I ever heard Neil de Grasse Tyson say about Cox is that he wishes that there were more of him, that he seems to be the only Brit who appears on tv. I’d add Dawkins. But maybe Dawkins is too controversial for Tyson to champion, much as he agrees with the notion that religions are (almost certainly) just bosh.
This interview reminds me of a quote Sam Harris made in a debate several years ago defending scientists. He said (paraphrasing): “You’re as likely to see arrogance at a scientific conference as you are to see nudity.” The point being, scientists, especially in a setting of their peers, know and appreciate that there may be some in the audience who know more than they do on the topic discussed, and acknowledge it up front. It’s a beautiful combo of confidence and humility that many disciplines don’t naturally embrace or employ.
Harris’s point is just wrong
Unless it's Neil Degrasse Tyson.
@@andrewbell7579 , 😂
@@bryanwilson2680 , thank you for your reply. Please explain your rationale, I would welcome the dialogue.
@tomgio1 they are as frail ss you or I because we share a common curse and blessing. We are human beings. To seperate and elevate them regarding personality traits is to commit the error of othering them. Leading to the additional error that must follow, it reinforces the mistaken belief that we can not become one of them in time. Maybe that's what he meant? Or maybe he was yanking your chain for giggles?
I like how the interviewers let the man speak without constantly interrupting. A refreshing change.
That is something I love about British programs they tend to let the guests (the ones people want to see and hear) actually speak.
Richard Hamming said: I need to discuss science vs. engineering. Put glibly: In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it. In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
9:10 I respectfully disagree. School, in a sense, punishes us for not knowing. But society today has become extremely anti-intellectual. You get laughed at if you actually _do_ know. It’s almost a social _faux pas_ to attempt to explain something because people don’t want to know. In my opinion, there are several reasons for this. Firstly, they don’t know themselves, so they find that embarrassing or threatening. Secondly, it’s considered very uncool to explain something using nuance and with potentially conflicting information. Finally, they blame the messenger or try to laugh it off because being funny is preferable to being knowledgeable.
Brian Cox transcends all of this. His calm, patient demeanour and slightly self-effacing, friendly sort of nature makes him more appealing and far less threatening to most people than a lot of other intellectuals.
"You have to be delighted to be wrong, because then it means you learned something."
Brian Cox is a pearl of great price. Possession of knowledge is a gift from the gods. His ability to connect with others is singular. He is the star-child of Sagan and Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer! He was both a blessing and a curse to the world! He stopped world wars, but put the world in a danger it’s never witnessed before. It’s up to you decide if he was for man’s better or worse. Frankly I can’t
Mr Cox is a national treasure.
Professor Cox 😊
@@balthazarasquith Dr. Cox
Baron Cox.
Agreed, Sagan did this extremely well. It's difficult to take NGT seriously on account of being ridiculously dramatic even when talking about the simplest things and he is also clowning too much (a good sense of humour is great, but when you are the one laughing most loudly at your jokes, you probably should stop and start to think). I think Startalk is a low level parody of science communication. Michio Kaku is a lost cause now and I'm glad no one mentioned Bill Nye - he means well, but... I agree James Burke was really good. Brian Cox mentions Feynmann, and for a good reason, we shouldn't forget him.
Watch
ON THE 8TH DAY
Sagan certainly isn't laughing on that topic 😮
Great lesson from Brian. Something I always apply to myself. I always think I now nothing and then the world becomes so interesting and wonderful.
I think one of the major problems that humans face is this:
Not knowing that you don't know something and admitting it that you don't know is easy.... What's difficult is when you don't even know what it is that you don't know and admitting that.
You're still in control, with the former. You're able to identify and determine what it is you'd need to understand, in order to know.
But with the latter, you have zero control. Not only do you not know, but the thing is so beyond you, that you aren't even aware of what it is you don't know.
The former is something that fairly intelligent people encounter and the latter is something that most of the common population encounter regularly.
I can't believe Brian Cox is actually starting to show age. Turns out that he's in fact NOT immortal 😔
Holy shit. I had no idea he was 55 years old already. I would have guessed late 30's at the most.
Once the aging process kicks in, it really moves quickly.
All questions answered x 1000, thank you Brian
Could listen to Brian Cox for hours😅
I should be so lucky as to look like Brian Cox at age 55.
Carl Sagan would be proud of Brian Cox. Top bloke
At the moment, I don't know who these interviewers are but they've instantly earned my subscription for one vital and fundamental interviewing skill. The know when to shut up and let their guest talk. That may seem either cruel or obvious to many but when I was a press and radio journalist, many years ago, I was taught that simple skill. This pair of gentlemen didn't say a word until around 04:40 minutes into this clip; or again until around 08:40 and, finally, around 09:00 minutes. In an 11:04 clip that's pretty impressive.
This shows a, deserved, respect for the interviewee and achieves the goal of any good interview.
I am sick to death of the 'celebrity interviewer'. They go way back in modern media to David Frost, in 1977, who secured a series of interviews with the disgraced former US president, Richard Nixon. David Frost had the presence of mind to bite his tongue and let Nixon come out with near insane and controversial statements. The result of those interviews, however, rocketed Frost to international fame.
Michael Parkinson was a good interviewer who let his guests speak their piece. Sadly, today these celebrity interviewers are thick on the ground and, in some cases, it's a miracle if their guests get a decent thought or statement in edgewise.
In this brilliant interview, Brian Cox was, coincidentally, talking about the concept of scientists and others having the 'courage' just to say, "I don't know," and, thereby, starting on the road to proper learning and, ultimately, comprehensive understanding, even if it's the understanding there are some answers we may never know.
These interviewers, rightly, knew not to present their own opinions or to 'second guess' Brian Cox.
Cheers, gentlemen. You are excellent interviewers, now with a new subscriber. You deserve many more; just keep doing what you’re doing. Bill H.
wow - this was great- truly an honest conversation
After watching Oppenheimer, go watch Day After Trinity, a documentary by Jon Else, that interviews a number of the people who actually worked in the Manhattan Project. Real history, not Hollywood.
After that take theoretical physics classes, real knowledge, not older history.
@@BlackEagle352 I’m confused. What does contemporary theoretical physics have to do with “old history.” (Which expression is pretty redundant, since history is old by definition….depending on what is considered “old.”)
@@mencken8 don't think about it too much.
@@BlackEagle352lol🤣
Plato wrote a GREAT book called 'the Theaetetus of Plato'. I was a mathematics postgraduate. I studied a whole bunch from mathsy maths to theoretical physics,and I recently dropped out. In mythird year of my undergrad I took a Greek Philosophy module, we spent the whole semester studying this Socratic dialogue, 'the Theaetetus. This class, and this book, helped me form my perspective on what knowledge is to me. PS psychedelics also helped.
Lewis Carrolls’ book on mathematical logic helped me look at so many things differently not just maths
Great, another druggy.
@@ninersix2790 Not all drugs are evil good sir, especially if regulated
@@ninersix2790 I’m not any old druggy mate, I’m the worst kind. I’m the rob my bedridden mother of her only pain meds type druggy, I’m the shake your hand rob your house kind of druggy, I’m the rob your phone sell it for a tenner type druggy. The tweaker, the no sleeper, the peace preacher!
Lol. nah mate, drugs are beyond good and evil. Get serious, leap past those resentments, if it is a conversation you desire.
@@n0body550
Exactly
there is use ( to open the mind)
And abuse
Loved Oppenheimer and loved Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’ - I saw it when I was a little kid on our ABC in Australia. I watched it with my Dad and that was special. Car was an incredible communicator and so is Brian…..
Cosmos was amazing change my world. It's a shame Oppenheimer's reef lectures probably got overwritten due to the cost of film back in those days
Reith lectures.
@@dr.debajyotibose2928 Yes sorry I often use voice to type if I'm in bed. I can't see the errors. I was aware it was Reith. Appreciated though :)
Oppenheimer died in 1967 so back then you couldn't overwrite film if it was video, but If it's not online then it's probably buried in some archive somewhere.
The lecture in text is still available though "Science and common understanding" by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
@@QuasiMonkey Wiping (of videotape) and junking (of film) are colloquial terms for actions taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies by which old audiotapes, videotapes and kinescopes (telerecordings) are erased and reused, or destroyed. Although the practice was once very common, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, wiping is now much less frequent.
@@informedchoice2249 Well ya should have said wiping or junking, ya silly billy! but still can't reuse or "overwrite" film back then. BBC does have a 30min audio recording of it online, I don't know if it's the whole thing or not but if there is part of it online, just maybe they still have the rest somewhere. 🤷♂
I know that despite its title there is virtually no discussion of Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer was one of the vilest people to have existed, and massively hypocritical :
"Despite many scientists' opposition to using the bomb on Japan, Compton, Fermi, and OPPENHEIMER believed that a test explosion would not convince Japan to surrender. At an August 6 assembly at Los Alamos, the evening of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Oppenheimer took to the stage and clasped his hands together "like a prize-winning boxer" while the crowd cheered. He expressed regret that the weapon was ready too late for use against Nazi Germany."
His total lack of imagination and empathy meant that it was only after the bombs were dropped on Japan that Oppenheimer began to think that it might have been a mistake!!!
My hero is Lise Meitner, a Jewish Austrian who only just escaped from the Nazis in 1938, was not only a greater scientist but a much greater person. Not only was she the first to describe nuclear fusion but she refused to participate in the making of the bomb.
In 1942, Meitner was invited to work on the Manhattan Project but adamantly refused, stating “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!” After the war, Meitner continued to avoid any connection to her research and the atomic bomb.
Of course, being Jewish and above all a woman she never got the Nobel prize.
She is , of course, forgotten while the pro bombing of civilians Oppenheimer has films made about him.
A quote from the BBC Science Focus short article on Lise Meitner:
"Much of her energy in the immediate post-war period was spent trying to persuade her former colleagues in Germany to acknowledge and accept their part of responsibility for staying quiet during the horrors that had happened in the Third Reich - over which many of the scientists now wished to draw a veil.
The Allied advance into Germany revealed those horrors to the world, and showed Meitner what she had narrowly escaped. When the troops reached the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, she wept as she listened to the radio reports. “Someone,” she wrote to Hahn, who was interned in Cambridgeshire in June 1945, “should force a man like Heisenberg and many million others to look at those camps and at the martyred people.”
A very great woman.
On her tombstone in Hampshire, southern England, where she died in 1968 is written:
“a physicist who never lost her humanity”.
A very great human. She realized that those blessed with a brilliant mind and a knack for science have a higher duty that comes before discovery, a duty to humanity. Science can be used for good or evil, so it's up to scientists to ensure that their work makes the world a better place.
It's crazy how 3 giants in the film industry did historic pieces this year and only Ridley crashed and burned. It's no coincidence considering he had an almost non-existent commitment to character and truth.
Agreed. The best thing about Napolean is how much it showcases just how truly great films like Oppenheimer really are. Napolean is the cold, wet day that makes you appreciate the beautiful sunny day that is Oppenheimer (maybe ironic given the dark message of Oppenheimer lol)
I liked it as a film on its own merits but no one should use it for a history lesson eg: a baker rifle apparently has a range of 1200yds?. The truth (you might say unfortunately) is most people will be going to see it because they want a good film and nothing else.
Yeah, because those sex scenes in Oppenheimer really stitched everything together🙄
@@sivikasi are you telling me the movie isn't historically accurate? No, this can't be... when did something like this ever happen??? Surely historical accuracy is of supreme importance to movie audiences, this will not stand!
@@john6203
His bedrooms antics were a big part of his life and downfall.
Looks like most commenters just wanted to spout off about their lack of knowledge not letting them enjoy the film. Instead they should try listening to what Brian says and then apply a bit to themselves.
Someone told me once you teach best what was hard for you to learn, I think that's what Cox is saying. Because if you understand something intuitively, instinctively, instantly, how could you ever hope to explain that to someone else? You don't even know how you know it yourself. . .
And presumably the process of teaching is part of continuing to learn. Later you will have more to teach?
@@ianpunter4486 yes, the more you learn the more you know the more you have to offer as a teacher, good teachers are life long learners
I always knew when an instructor had hit their limit of understanding, or at least the limit of their ability to explain something, when they would use the phrase, "And it's intuitively obvious that...." Most people are not effective teachers, which is why so many tend to learn from the school of hard knocks rather than a talented instructor/communicator.
Great video. Brian Cox, is a great educator. One thing that I kept thinking though is, "this guy is 55 years old!" he's aging very well.
hair
Even my Mum loved Carl Sagan but I think it was more his voice as she didn't really understand a lot of the science. His Cosmos series was extraordinary for the time when the only 'Space' program (at least what I can recall) was Patrick Moore's The Sky at Night.
Einstein once said that if you cannot explain something to a six year old you haven't properly understood it yourself.
Interesting fact: Brian Cox also served as a consultant for Sunshine (2007), also starred Cillian Murphy.
We now live in a time when the people that are wrong, want someone that will lie to them and tell them there right.
At least 75% of what you say is fundamentally based on what you think, believe and feel. Is that what you base your "science" on? No doubt. The same as everyone else.
What's this Deja Vu rubbish people are doing on YT. it's annoying when the first bit is repeated 5 minutes in.
I completely agree. Film and TV trailers have started doing it again too. It used to be a thing in the 80's (maybe earlier) where they'd show you a few clips of what was going to happen this episode. As if you needed teasing when you're already sitting there about to watch it. Thankfully that died off but it seems to have come back.
I'm too young to have lived when Feynmann was waxing eloquent but have had the great fortune to listen to Sagan and BC explaining the BIG challenges that we face. Privileged.
I am really grateful that I completely concur with Prof Cox. I am expert in my own field and as consequence understand that I am not capable of making judgements on others expertise. The vast majority of leading politicians, economists and economic world leaders said Brexit would be a bad thing, so I voted Remain. The vast majority of health professionals and virologists said we all should have vaccination, so I got vaccinated. The vast majority of climatologists say global warming is a clear and present danger so I support reducing greenhouse gases. What I fail to do is people is understand why would peopler prefer to listen to no marks like Johnson, Trump, Garage etc?
You can easily be lead to the garden path by majority consensus that might be wrong. Scientists doubt and question. If that is suppressed it is by definition not science but politics. Consensus builds more consensus over time. A mistake repeated and consolidated is still a mistake. You really need a skeptical and independent mind, even as a non scientist. Most people simply follow the majority. No man is an island. But consensus is highly weaponized nowadays. You have to be on guard. Don't be a sheep.
I appreciate Brian immensely
1, understanding physics is difficult, but not because it is complex. on the contrary, it is simple, but abstract. the deeper, more fundamental level we go, the simpler the systems and their model-like descriptions become, but at the same time the more abstract the topic becomes, and this is what makes understanding itself more difficult.
2, understanding something and making something understood have a non-linear relationship. the better we understand something, the better we can make others understand it, and the more we are forced to make others to understand something, the better we understand that particular thing. anyone who works in a university or academic environment is guaranteed to have experienced this.
3, in the second half of the video they talk about self-reflection, which is the fundamental, core logic in science.
I can listen to Brian Cox all day. If only more people had his humility to admit they don't understand something, we would be in a much better place. I liked it when they spoke about people who bluff and bamboozle their way to the top...a certain blonde clown comes to mind! 😆
100%.
Brian Cox has such a positive influence on the world!. (is it just me, or do I detect a smouldering ethical temper of epic proportions in the man?)
I was told, as a consultant, that you only need to know more than your audience. It stands to reason, therefore, that if the audience is dumb enough, anyone can be a thought leader. The double edged sword of the internet is, you can get a huge audience as long as you have good SEO skills...
My dad, a teacher, used to say that jokingly about teaching. I don't think it's true of the analytical element of consultancy. Anybody's guess how the idea plays out/will play out in thought leadership!