The night started with Robin Ince, with a great stand up intro to the night, and then Ben Goldacre who gave a whistle stop run through BadScience and how journalists are crap at reporting science, including some wonderful examples from the Daily Mail of what causes cancer and what cures it, (often the same thing....), and of course the scandal surrounding the MMR vaccine, and the lies peddled by Andrew Wakefield and how they were reported. Ben can talk so fast I wonder about how his brain and mouth are connected. I also think he must be who Wybie was based on in Coraline!
Separated at birth?
Matt Parker gave a great introduction to number theory, including explaining how bar codes are validated, and how text messages are like big Sudukos, and Helen Keen presented a very swift history of the space race, linking Nazis and Satanists. Then Brian Cox came on, for some great science - the cosmos, particle physics and the LHC, (Large Hadron Collier) . He is so charismatic, and makes science so relevant. And if anyone thinks we waste money on science (how could they??), he showed a wonderful graphic of how much government departments spend - and science is hardly visible - and we've spent more on the bank bailout that we've spent on science since Jesus!Also during the evening we had Helen Arney singing her wonderful songs, including Lets Make Love like Animals - always make me laugh. The last main act was Simon Singh, who managed to explain and demonstrate Einstein's law of relativity, amongst many other things, including electrocuting a gherkin!
Afer a great night, we finished with Brian Cox, and a amazing excerpt from Carl Sagan reading from his book Cosmos, about our Earth - the Pale Blue Dot:
A fantastic evening - great to see Science getting the support it deserves - cheering and clapping for just a mention of Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman. Nerds rule!
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