Written In The Stars

In the offices of Penguin Ireland, particle physicist Brian Cox is venting his frustration as his co-author and close pal, theoretical physicist Jeff Forshaw, looks on. Well, we say frustration. It may be impossible for the perma-smiling, floppy-haired TV favourite charged with ‘making science sexy’ to come across as anything less than disarmingly lovely. Even when he’s expressing irritation at the media’s insistence on bringing up his pop star past (apologies Professor), he seems more wide-eyed and fascinated than anything.

Given all he’s achieved since then – presenting for BBC’s Horizon, his own Wonders series, receiving an OBE – the constant references to his time behind the keys for ‘90s pop act D:Ream must grate by now
“I’m bordering on being sick of that,” he admits in soft Mancunian tones. “Simply because it was so long ago. I’m far better known for science now, particularly if I go into schools. It initially started as, ‘Look, there’s a science teacher who’s been on Top Of The Pops!’ But kids today don’t remember Top Of The Pops. Now I’m the person who works at CERN and makes TV programmes.”
So if we refer to Cox and Forshaw as the ‘Morrissey and Marr of Quantum Mechanics’ in this piece they won’t be best pleased?
“No, no, we will!” they both shout in unison as Brian backtracks. “That’s a great reference to Manchester!”
“I presume I’m Johnny Marr?” asks Forshaw. We’ll let the two of them work that out themselves.
“The thing is,” says Cox. “I like a steak, so that rules me out of Morrissey’s good books straight away.”
He could always be Mike Joyce…
“The drummer. That will do! And, of course, because our new book has a Peter Saville cover, it’s linked very firmly to the Manchester music scene. It looks like a Madchester album. I don’t mind being compared to them.”
And so to their new work, The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen. The second book on which the two have collaborated, it aims to explain quantum physics in layman’s terms whilst taking care not to dumb anything down. Remarkably, you can read it over a rainy weekend, as this writer did.
“It’s nice to hear it can be read!” says Jeff. “There are a lot of books which have described quantum physics and give you a feel that there’s something remarkable about the universe. But that’s not why professional physicists get so excited about it. That’s not why it changes their lives. That comes from actually understanding it. We wanted to spell things out in a way that delivers proper understanding. Brian Cox concurs. “We set out to write a book that explained in as simple a way possible – and no simpler than that – what quantum theory is. Virtually every time I give a talk or do anything on television, people say to me, ‘I’d love to understand quantum theory.’ There’s no compromise in the book, we really try to explain everything. There has to be a bit of work on the part of the reader but that’s just the way it is.”
“I actually nearly didn’t do physics after school,” says Jeff. “I had a bad teacher, I struggled and didn’t find physics easy at all. It shouldn’t be just the domain of a few high-brow intellectuals. If I can do it… I don’t believe in this idea that there’s super-brainy people who understand all of these things and the rest of us will have to make do with half-baked descriptions.”
Given the complexity of the subject, the contrary, counter-intuitive nature of the sub-atomic, it can be easy for people to take a quantum leap and come up with barmy conclusions regarding mysticism and alternative universes. The Quantum Universe aims to debunk such nonsense, so you don’t have to worry about your cat instantly teleporting off somewhere.
“Actually…” begins Brian. “There is the possibility your cat could end up in a different galaxy! But that doesn’t mean that we don’t understand it or that everything’s possible. It can be used to allow all sorts of charlatans to say what they want – ‘I can make a bracelet that’s protecting me from microwaves emanating from my oven’ – there’s a lot of that stuff. This idea that quantum physics supports the existence of mystical phenomena. It doesn’t! Quantum physics is as concrete and as well-defined a theory as anything Newton ever wrote down.”
Still, part of the beauty of the scientific process is that it has no qualms about doing away with established theories, as long as the proof is there. The Quantum Universe often references the early 20th century, when people like Werner Heisenberg developed a new understanding of the universe and rendered the old guard irrelevant. The work currently being done by CERN – of which Brian Cox is a part – on the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva may bring about a similar era of new discovery. In September, there was much excitement when news broke that CERN had clocked neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light, previously thought to be impossible.
“It was just one fascinating measurement,” says Cox. “You would have to make many more measurements of this type to really believe you need to build a new theory of how the universe works. If it proved true, it would basically mean jettisoning Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ and replacing it with a better theory.”
“It should be emphasised,” warns Jeff, “that for every scientific discovery, there are a hundred or so false alarms. I don’t know how many times the Higgs Particle has been discovered!”
The pair’s caution proves well-founded when further tests show that the initial reading was likely due to a systematic error. It remains a fascinating field. Understandably, Cox finds it hard to tear himself away to shoot TV documentaries for the BBC. Is it tough juggling his media career with his academic work?
“It is. I’d love to be sat at the LHC analysing the data, for example. But if there are several things that could take all of your attention than you’re probably doing something right! The reason the University of Manchester, the Royal Society and the majority of my colleagues are happy with what I do is because it’s all based on a very firm belief that the scientific way of thinking is the way to proceed. There’s a slight political edge to what I do. I want more public funding for science, I want more kids to do science and I want science to be more widely respected and known about. And I think people who publicise science should be grounded in the academic sector. If you lose that connection then you become a lesser commentator. It would be bad for me but it would also weaken my case.”
Currently distracting Brian Cox is production on a new series of Wonders Of Life.
“It’s a bit of a learning curve because we’re applying physics to biology. Basically it’s about the underlying science of natural history. I’m enjoying it a lot. We’ve filmed one of them already in Mexico and now we’re off to the Philippines to do the next one. We decided to film each episode in one country, to try to restrict ourselves and get more of a sense of place and tell more of a story.”
As for Jeff Forshaw, he’s working on improving the accuracy of a calculation for the Large Hadron Collider. They’re busy men, so we’ll only trouble them with one more question. Guys, we know you probably get this the whole time but… if we are to live by Einstein’s ‘Theory Of Relativity’, do muon neutrinos grow younger as they travel?
“That’s a great question,” laughs Brian. The two professors start to debate, as they likely do most of the waking day.

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen is published in Allen Lane Hardback on November 3.