10 Apr Enter – Brian Cox

 Britain’s liveliest scientist, Brian Cox, came to record a scene today in which he explains how the earth had come to turn into a giant snowball, not knowing, of course, that it was all Simon Pegg’s fault. As the hair and makeup artists got him ready, we started talking about global warming and ice ages, beginning the most information rich and delightful conversation I have had for a long time.

Among our topics: how ice ages have helped make the human brain bigger, how the resonance of Jupiter affects life on earth, what there was before the Big Bang, what life would be like in multiple universes, what challenges this offers to religion, and just what a bargain Britain gets by investing in university education. (About 100,000 pounds net per student, it turns out).

And having kept me thoroughly entertained for an hour, Brian went on to deliver the lines Terry and I had written about snowball earth so convincingly we almost believed it was true. Bravo, Maestro!