A chat with Professor Jim Virdee, CMS’s spokesperson.
Listen:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/jimVirdee.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Author: giagia
Science and Politics
Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage and Didcot, visited CERN last spring. He had a Q&A with John Ellis on the physics being done at CERN, was shown around ATLAS and had a chat with Brian Cox about science, politics and UK science funding.
Listen:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/EdVaisey.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Chris Morris
Chris Morris is considered to be one of the greatest satirists ever and has been responsible for some of the most controversial, and let’s face it funny, programmes on television. In the UK, comedy writers and performers ranked him number 11 out of the 50 greatest comedy acts ever, above people including Bill Hicks, Peter Sellars and Eddie Izzard.
Apart from being a comedy great, he’s an incredibly interesting guy. He’s performed with Peter Cook, Stereolab used his sketches as lyrics on one of their albums, he won a BAFTA for his first short film and, for ‘Brass Eye’, he tricked a British politician into asking questions in Parliament about a made-up drug called ‘cake’ (which still remains in the public record).
Oh, and he’s also really into science.
Brian and Chris have been friends for several years now. When they get together, conversation tends to start on politics (Brian’s favoured topic of conversation) and move swiftly onto what’s being done at CERN (Chris’s favoured topic of conversation). Brian decided to invite Chris out to Geneva in order to see it all for himself.
Along with Brian, Chris also spoke to other CERN physicists Thorsten Wengler and Albert De Roeck. This podcast takes us to both ATLAS and CMS. We normally go to ATLAS, this is the first time CERN Podcast has recorded at CMS. If you’ve never seen CMS before, make sure you have a look.
Then listen:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/ChrisMorris.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Subscribe to CERN Podcast on iTunes or RSS.
More images of Chris at CERN available at our Flickr account (opens in new window).
You may also be interested in our podcasts with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery.
Bad Astronomy
Who better to invite to CERN, than the internet’s most popular astronomy blogger, Dr. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer?
Phil and Brian originally met in 2005 when Brian interviewed Phil for a BBC programme about the Deep Impact mission. Since then, they’ve stayed in touch regularly. Phil was even interviewed about science in science fiction for ‘Sunshine’, the film on which Brian worked as the science consultant.
Phil has written loads about his trip to CERN already (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4) and made a video…
All we have is this:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/PhilPlait.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Subscribe to CERN Podcast on iTunes or RSS.
Phil Plait, satirist Chris Morris and physicist Albert De Roeck at ATLAS
Phil talking to Brian at ATLAS
Phil podcasting away at CMS
Back off, man, I’m a scientist.
Science and Religion
Recently, Dr. Brian Cox was invited to take part in a discussion entitled ‘Is Physics The New Religion?’ at Guildford Cathedral. During the discussion, he and the Dean of Guildford Cathedral, The Very Reverend Victor Stock, found they shared a lot of common ground.
As Victor had invited Brian along to his place of work, Brian decided to return the invitation and take Victor on a tour of CERN. The result is one of the most interesting and enlightening podcasts we’ve done so far.
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/DEAN.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
The Very Reverend Victor Stock
Brian Cox and Victor Stock
Victor Stock and Brian Cox
Quentin Wilson
Quentin Wilson is one of Britain’s best-known motoring experts. He presented the BBC’s Top Gear for over a decade before leaving for Channel Five’s rival motoring programme, Fifth Gear.
We invited Quentin to come to CERN because of his interest in engineering, he left with a deeper understanding of the Universe and humanity’s place in it.
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/QuentinWillson.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Newsround
“If you can’t explain what we’re doing to a 10 year old then you’ve got no chance of explaining it to an adult.” – Brian Cox
BBC’s Newsround, the world’s first tv news programme specifically aimed at kids, has been running since 1972.
Newsround’s presenter Lizo Mzimba came to CERN to do a news item for the programme.
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/CBBCNewsround.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery
PART ONE
Listen to Part Two
Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery are well-known to British comedy fans.
Also known by his stagenames of Alan Parker: Urban Warrior and The League Against Tedium, Simon Munnery is a comedy writer and experimental standup comedian.The Observer newspaper called Simon, ‘One of the most original and talented comedians in the country’. He’s recently released two DVDs of his work and one of his songs, Grey Clouds – a take-off of The Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds– was featured on Annie Nightengale’s CD Y4K.
Kevin Eldon will be recognised from comedy projects such as Brass Eye, Black Books, I’m Alan Partridge, Spaced, Big Train, Fist of Fun and Hyperdrive, and appeared as Sergeant Tony Fisher in Hot Fuzz alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He also appeared in Simon’s surreal comedy series Attention Scum. Have a look.
Brian Cox invited them out to Geneva for a tour of CERN and they proved to be extremely informed and interested in physics and the work being done at CERN. And, it goes without saying, they were very funny, too.
Listen to Part 1 of Kevin and Simon’s Big Adventure:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/KEVIN_AND_SIMON_01.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Watch:
Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery
PART TWO
Listen to Part One
Kevin and Simon are taken on a tour of CERN’s computer centre – the Vatican of The World Wide Web- as well as the tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider.
Listen:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/KEVIN_AND_SIMON_02.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
At the ‘computer graveyard’.
More images on Flickr.
John Ellis
Brian talks to CERN Theoretical Physicsist, Professor John Ellis, about Supersymmetry, Super Strings, Dark Matter and Dark Energy and a Super picture of Peter Higgs in a bathing suit.
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/JohnEllis.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
cernpodcast 