TEDSalon London 2010
Brian Cox: Why we need the explorers
Filmed:
Readability: 4.1
1,935,340 views
In tough economic times, our exploratory science programs -- from space probes to the LHC -- are first to suffer budget cuts. Brian Cox explains how curiosity-driven science pays for itself, powering innovation and a profound appreciation of our existence.
Brian Cox - Physicist
Physicist Brian Cox has two jobs: working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and explaining big science to the general public. He's a professor at the University of Manchester. Full bio
Physicist Brian Cox has two jobs: working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and explaining big science to the general public. He's a professor at the University of Manchester. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
We live in difficult and challenging
0
1000
2000
00:18
economic times, of course.
1
3000
2000
00:20
And one of the first victims
2
5000
3000
00:23
of difficult economic times,
3
8000
2000
00:25
I think, is public spending of any kind,
4
10000
3000
00:28
but certainly in the firing line at the moment
5
13000
2000
00:30
is public spending for science,
6
15000
2000
00:32
and particularly curiosity-led science
7
17000
2000
00:34
and exploration.
8
19000
2000
00:36
So I want to try and convince you in about 15 minutes
9
21000
3000
00:39
that that's a ridiculous
10
24000
2000
00:41
and ludicrous thing to do.
11
26000
2000
00:43
But I think to set the scene,
12
28000
2000
00:45
I want to show -- the next slide is not my attempt
13
30000
2000
00:47
to show the worst TED slide in the history of TED,
14
32000
3000
00:50
but it is a bit of a mess.
15
35000
2000
00:52
(Laughter)
16
37000
2000
00:54
But actually, it's not my fault; it's from the Guardian newspaper.
17
39000
3000
00:57
And it's actually a beautiful demonstration
18
42000
2000
00:59
of how much science costs.
19
44000
2000
01:01
Because, if I'm going to make the case
20
46000
2000
01:03
for continuing to spend on curiosity-driven science and exploration,
21
48000
3000
01:06
I should tell you how much it costs.
22
51000
2000
01:08
So this is a game called "spot the science budgets."
23
53000
2000
01:10
This is the U.K. government spend.
24
55000
2000
01:12
You see there, it's about 620 billion a year.
25
57000
3000
01:15
The science budget is actually --
26
60000
2000
01:17
if you look to your left, there's a purple set of blobs
27
62000
3000
01:20
and then yellow set of blobs.
28
65000
2000
01:22
And it's one of the yellow set of blobs
29
67000
2000
01:24
around the big yellow blob.
30
69000
2000
01:26
It's about 3.3 billion pounds per year
31
71000
2000
01:28
out of 620 billion.
32
73000
2000
01:30
That funds everything in the U.K.
33
75000
2000
01:32
from medical research, space exploration,
34
77000
3000
01:35
where I work, at CERN in Geneva, particle physics,
35
80000
2000
01:37
engineering, even arts and humanities,
36
82000
3000
01:40
funded from the science budget,
37
85000
2000
01:42
which is that 3.3 billion, that little, tiny yellow blob
38
87000
3000
01:45
around the orange blob at the top left of the screen.
39
90000
3000
01:48
So that's what we're arguing about.
40
93000
2000
01:50
That percentage, by the way, is about the same
41
95000
2000
01:52
in the U.S. and Germany and France.
42
97000
2000
01:54
R&D in total in the economy,
43
99000
2000
01:56
publicly funded, is about
44
101000
2000
01:58
0.6 percent of GDP.
45
103000
2000
02:00
So that's what we're arguing about.
46
105000
2000
02:02
The first thing I want to say,
47
107000
2000
02:04
and this is straight from "Wonders of the Solar System,"
48
109000
3000
02:07
is that our exploration of the solar system and the universe
49
112000
3000
02:10
has shown us that it is indescribably beautiful.
50
115000
3000
02:13
This is a picture that actually was sent back
51
118000
2000
02:15
by the Cassini space probe around Saturn,
52
120000
2000
02:17
after we'd finished filming "Wonders of the Solar System."
53
122000
2000
02:19
So it isn't in the series.
54
124000
2000
02:21
It's of the moon Enceladus.
55
126000
2000
02:23
So that big sweeping, white
56
128000
2000
02:25
sphere in the corner is Saturn,
57
130000
2000
02:27
which is actually in the background of the picture.
58
132000
3000
02:30
And that crescent there is the moon Enceladus,
59
135000
2000
02:32
which is about as big as the British Isles.
60
137000
3000
02:35
It's about 500 kilometers in diameter.
61
140000
2000
02:37
So, tiny moon.
62
142000
2000
02:39
What's fascinating and beautiful ...
63
144000
2000
02:41
this an unprocessed picture, by the way, I should say,
64
146000
2000
02:43
it's black and white, straight from Saturnian orbit.
65
148000
3000
02:46
What's beautiful is, you can probably see on the limb there
66
151000
2000
02:48
some faint, sort of,
67
153000
2000
02:50
wisps of almost smoke
68
155000
2000
02:52
rising up from the limb.
69
157000
2000
02:54
This is how we visualize that in "Wonders of the Solar System."
70
159000
3000
02:57
It's a beautiful graphic.
71
162000
2000
02:59
What we found out were that those faint wisps
72
164000
2000
03:01
are actually fountains of ice
73
166000
2000
03:03
rising up from the surface of this tiny moon.
74
168000
3000
03:06
That's fascinating and beautiful in itself,
75
171000
3000
03:09
but we think that the mechanism
76
174000
2000
03:11
for powering those fountains
77
176000
2000
03:13
requires there to be lakes of liquid water
78
178000
3000
03:16
beneath the surface of this moon.
79
181000
2000
03:18
And what's important about that
80
183000
2000
03:20
is that, on our planet, on Earth,
81
185000
2000
03:22
wherever we find liquid water,
82
187000
2000
03:24
we find life.
83
189000
2000
03:26
So, to find strong evidence
84
191000
3000
03:29
of liquid, pools of liquid, beneath the surface of a moon
85
194000
3000
03:32
750 million miles away from the Earth
86
197000
3000
03:35
is really quite astounding.
87
200000
3000
03:38
So what we're saying, essentially,
88
203000
2000
03:40
is maybe that's a habitat for life in the solar system.
89
205000
3000
03:44
Well, let me just say, that was a graphic. I just want to show this picture.
90
209000
3000
03:47
That's one more picture of Enceladus.
91
212000
2000
03:49
This is when Cassini flew beneath Enceladus.
92
214000
3000
03:52
So it made a very low pass,
93
217000
2000
03:54
just a few hundred kilometers above the surface.
94
219000
2000
03:56
And so this, again, a real picture of the ice fountains rising up into space,
95
221000
3000
03:59
absolutely beautiful.
96
224000
2000
04:01
But that's not the prime candidate for life in the solar system.
97
226000
3000
04:04
That's probably this place,
98
229000
2000
04:06
which is a moon of Jupiter, Europa.
99
231000
2000
04:08
And again, we had to fly to the Jovian system
100
233000
3000
04:11
to get any sense that this moon, as most moons,
101
236000
3000
04:14
was anything other than a dead ball of rock.
102
239000
2000
04:16
It's actually an ice moon.
103
241000
2000
04:18
So what you're looking at is the surface of the moon Europa,
104
243000
3000
04:21
which is a thick sheet of ice, probably a hundred kilometers thick.
105
246000
3000
04:24
But by measuring the way that
106
249000
2000
04:26
Europa interacts
107
251000
2000
04:28
with the magnetic field of Jupiter,
108
253000
2000
04:30
and looking at how those cracks in the ice
109
255000
2000
04:32
that you can see there on that graphic move around,
110
257000
3000
04:35
we've inferred very strongly
111
260000
2000
04:37
that there's an ocean of liquid surrounding
112
262000
2000
04:39
the entire surface of Europa.
113
264000
3000
04:42
So below the ice, there's an ocean of liquid around the whole moon.
114
267000
3000
04:45
It could be hundreds of kilometers deep, we think.
115
270000
3000
04:48
We think it's saltwater, and that would mean that
116
273000
2000
04:50
there's more water on that moon of Jupiter
117
275000
3000
04:53
than there is in all the oceans of the Earth combined.
118
278000
3000
04:56
So that place, a little moon around Jupiter,
119
281000
3000
04:59
is probably the prime candidate
120
284000
3000
05:02
for finding life on a moon
121
287000
2000
05:04
or a body outside the Earth, that we know of.
122
289000
3000
05:07
Tremendous and beautiful discovery.
123
292000
3000
05:10
Our exploration of the solar system
124
295000
2000
05:12
has taught us that the solar system is beautiful.
125
297000
2000
05:14
It may also have pointed the way to answering
126
299000
3000
05:17
one of the most profound questions that you can possibly ask,
127
302000
3000
05:20
which is: "Are we alone in the universe?"
128
305000
3000
05:23
Is there any other use to exploration and science,
129
308000
2000
05:25
other than just a sense of wonder?
130
310000
2000
05:27
Well, there is.
131
312000
2000
05:29
This is a very famous picture
132
314000
2000
05:31
taken, actually, on my first Christmas Eve,
133
316000
2000
05:33
December 24th, 1968,
134
318000
3000
05:36
when I was about eight months old.
135
321000
2000
05:38
It was taken by Apollo 8
136
323000
2000
05:40
as it went around the back of the moon.
137
325000
2000
05:42
Earthrise from Apollo 8.
138
327000
2000
05:44
A famous picture; many people have said that it's the picture
139
329000
2000
05:46
that saved 1968,
140
331000
2000
05:48
which was a turbulent year --
141
333000
2000
05:50
the student riots in Paris,
142
335000
2000
05:52
the height of the Vietnam War.
143
337000
2000
05:54
The reason many people think that about this picture,
144
339000
3000
05:57
and Al Gore has said it many times, actually, on the stage at TED,
145
342000
3000
06:00
is that this picture, arguably, was
146
345000
2000
06:02
the beginning of the environmental movement.
147
347000
2000
06:04
Because, for the first time,
148
349000
2000
06:06
we saw our world,
149
351000
2000
06:08
not as a solid, immovable,
150
353000
3000
06:11
kind of indestructible place,
151
356000
2000
06:13
but as a very small, fragile-looking world
152
358000
3000
06:16
just hanging against the blackness of space.
153
361000
3000
06:19
What's also not often said
154
364000
2000
06:21
about the space exploration, about the Apollo program,
155
366000
3000
06:24
is the economic contribution it made.
156
369000
2000
06:26
I mean while you can make arguments that it was wonderful
157
371000
3000
06:29
and a tremendous achievement
158
374000
2000
06:31
and delivered pictures like this,
159
376000
2000
06:33
it cost a lot, didn't it?
160
378000
2000
06:35
Well, actually, many studies have been done
161
380000
2000
06:37
about the economic effectiveness,
162
382000
2000
06:39
the economic impact of Apollo.
163
384000
2000
06:41
The biggest one was in 1975 by Chase Econometrics.
164
386000
3000
06:44
And it showed that for every $1 spent on Apollo,
165
389000
3000
06:47
14 came back into the U.S. economy.
166
392000
3000
06:50
So the Apollo program paid for itself
167
395000
2000
06:52
in inspiration,
168
397000
2000
06:54
in engineering, achievement
169
399000
2000
06:56
and, I think, in inspiring young scientists and engineers
170
401000
3000
06:59
14 times over.
171
404000
2000
07:01
So exploration can pay for itself.
172
406000
2000
07:03
What about scientific discovery?
173
408000
3000
07:06
What about driving innovation?
174
411000
2000
07:08
Well, this looks like a picture of virtually nothing.
175
413000
3000
07:11
What it is, is a picture of the spectrum
176
416000
2000
07:13
of hydrogen.
177
418000
2000
07:16
See, back in the 1880s, 1890s,
178
421000
3000
07:19
many scientists, many observers,
179
424000
3000
07:22
looked at the light given off from atoms.
180
427000
2000
07:24
And they saw strange pictures like this.
181
429000
2000
07:26
What you're seeing when you put it through a prism
182
431000
2000
07:28
is that you heat hydrogen up and it doesn't just glow
183
433000
3000
07:31
like a white light,
184
436000
2000
07:33
it just emits light at particular colors,
185
438000
2000
07:35
a red one, a light blue one, some dark blue ones.
186
440000
3000
07:38
Now that led to an understanding of atomic structure
187
443000
3000
07:41
because the way that's explained
188
446000
2000
07:43
is atoms are a single nucleus
189
448000
2000
07:45
with electrons going around them.
190
450000
2000
07:47
And the electrons can only be in particular places.
191
452000
3000
07:50
And when they jump up to the next place they can be,
192
455000
2000
07:52
and fall back down again,
193
457000
2000
07:54
they emit light at particular colors.
194
459000
2000
07:56
And so the fact that atoms, when you heat them up,
195
461000
2000
07:58
only emit light at very specific colors,
196
463000
3000
08:01
was one of the key drivers
197
466000
2000
08:03
that led to the development of the quantum theory,
198
468000
2000
08:05
the theory of the structure of atoms.
199
470000
3000
08:08
I just wanted to show this picture because this is remarkable.
200
473000
3000
08:11
This is actually a picture of the spectrum of the Sun.
201
476000
2000
08:13
And now, this is a picture of atoms in the Sun's atmosphere
202
478000
3000
08:16
absorbing light.
203
481000
2000
08:18
And again, they only absorb light at particular colors
204
483000
2000
08:20
when electrons jump up and fall down,
205
485000
2000
08:22
jump up and fall down.
206
487000
2000
08:24
But look at the number of black lines in that spectrum.
207
489000
3000
08:27
And the element helium
208
492000
2000
08:29
was discovered just by staring at the light from the Sun
209
494000
3000
08:32
because some of those black lines were found
210
497000
2000
08:34
that corresponded to no known element.
211
499000
2000
08:36
And that's why helium's called helium.
212
501000
2000
08:38
It's called "helios" -- helios from the Sun.
213
503000
3000
08:41
Now, that sounds esoteric,
214
506000
2000
08:43
and indeed it was an esoteric pursuit,
215
508000
3000
08:46
but the quantum theory quickly led
216
511000
2000
08:48
to an understanding of the behaviors of electrons in materials
217
513000
3000
08:51
like silicon, for example.
218
516000
2000
08:53
The way that silicon behaves,
219
518000
2000
08:55
the fact that you can build transistors,
220
520000
2000
08:57
is a purely quantum phenomenon.
221
522000
2000
08:59
So without that curiosity-driven
222
524000
2000
09:01
understanding of the structure of atoms,
223
526000
2000
09:03
which led to this rather esoteric theory, quantum mechanics,
224
528000
3000
09:06
then we wouldn't have transistors, we wouldn't have silicon chips,
225
531000
3000
09:09
we wouldn't have pretty much the basis
226
534000
3000
09:12
of our modern economy.
227
537000
2000
09:14
There's one more, I think, wonderful twist to that tale.
228
539000
3000
09:17
In "Wonders of the Solar System,"
229
542000
2000
09:19
we kept emphasizing the laws of physics are universal.
230
544000
3000
09:22
It's one of the most incredible things about the physics
231
547000
3000
09:25
and the understanding of nature that you get on Earth,
232
550000
3000
09:28
is you can transport it, not only to the planets,
233
553000
3000
09:31
but to the most distant stars and galaxies.
234
556000
2000
09:33
And one of the astonishing predictions
235
558000
2000
09:35
of quantum mechanics,
236
560000
2000
09:37
just by looking at the structure of atoms --
237
562000
2000
09:39
the same theory that describes transistors --
238
564000
2000
09:41
is that there can be no stars in the universe
239
566000
3000
09:44
that have reached the end of their life
240
569000
2000
09:46
that are bigger than, quite specifically, 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.
241
571000
3000
09:49
That's a limit imposed on the mass of stars.
242
574000
3000
09:52
You can work it out on a piece of paper in a laboratory,
243
577000
3000
09:55
get a telescope, swing it to the sky,
244
580000
2000
09:57
and you find that there are no dead stars
245
582000
3000
10:00
bigger than 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.
246
585000
2000
10:02
That's quite an incredible prediction.
247
587000
3000
10:05
What happens when you have a star that's right on the edge of that mass?
248
590000
3000
10:08
Well, this is a picture of it.
249
593000
2000
10:10
This is the picture of a galaxy, a common "our garden" galaxy
250
595000
3000
10:13
with, what, 100 billion
251
598000
2000
10:15
stars like our Sun in it.
252
600000
2000
10:17
It's just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
253
602000
3000
10:20
There are a billion stars in the galactic core,
254
605000
2000
10:22
which is why it's shining out so brightly.
255
607000
3000
10:25
This is about 50 million light years away,
256
610000
2000
10:27
so one of our neighboring galaxies.
257
612000
2000
10:29
But that bright star there
258
614000
2000
10:31
is actually one of the stars in the galaxy.
259
616000
3000
10:34
So that star is also
260
619000
2000
10:36
50 million light years away.
261
621000
2000
10:38
It's part of that galaxy, and it's shining as brightly
262
623000
3000
10:41
as the center of the galaxy
263
626000
2000
10:43
with a billion suns in it.
264
628000
2000
10:45
That's a Type Ia supernova explosion.
265
630000
3000
10:48
Now that's an incredible phenomena,
266
633000
2000
10:50
because it's a star that sits there.
267
635000
2000
10:52
It's called a carbon-oxygen dwarf.
268
637000
2000
10:54
It sits there about, say, 1.3 times the mass of the Sun.
269
639000
3000
10:57
And it has a binary companion that goes around it,
270
642000
3000
11:00
so a big star, a big ball of gas.
271
645000
3000
11:03
And what it does is it sucks gas
272
648000
2000
11:05
off its companion star,
273
650000
2000
11:07
until it gets to this limit called the Chandrasekhar limit,
274
652000
3000
11:10
and then it explodes.
275
655000
2000
11:12
And it explodes, and it shines as brightly
276
657000
2000
11:14
as a billion suns for about two weeks,
277
659000
2000
11:16
and releases, not only energy,
278
661000
3000
11:19
but a huge amount of chemical elements into the universe.
279
664000
3000
11:22
In fact, that one is a carbon-oxygen dwarf.
280
667000
3000
11:25
Now, there was no carbon and oxygen
281
670000
2000
11:27
in the universe at the Big Bang.
282
672000
2000
11:29
And there was no carbon and oxygen in the universe
283
674000
2000
11:31
throughout the first generation of stars.
284
676000
3000
11:34
It was made in stars like that,
285
679000
2000
11:36
locked away and then returned to the universe
286
681000
2000
11:38
in explosions like that
287
683000
2000
11:40
in order to recondense into planets,
288
685000
2000
11:42
stars, new solar systems
289
687000
2000
11:44
and, indeed, people like us.
290
689000
3000
11:47
I think that's a remarkable demonstration of the power
291
692000
2000
11:49
and beauty and universality of the laws of physics,
292
694000
3000
11:52
because we understand that process,
293
697000
2000
11:54
because we understand
294
699000
2000
11:56
the structure of atoms here on Earth.
295
701000
2000
11:58
This is a beautiful quote that I found --
296
703000
2000
12:00
we're talking about serendipity there -- from Alexander Fleming:
297
705000
3000
12:03
"When I woke up just after dawn
298
708000
2000
12:05
on September 28, 1928,
299
710000
2000
12:07
I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine
300
712000
2000
12:09
by discovering the world's first antibiotic."
301
714000
3000
12:12
Now, the explorers of the world of the atom
302
717000
2000
12:14
did not intend to invent the transistor.
303
719000
2000
12:16
And they certainly didn't intend to
304
721000
2000
12:18
describe the mechanics of supernova explosions,
305
723000
3000
12:21
which eventually told us where
306
726000
2000
12:23
the building blocks of life
307
728000
2000
12:25
were synthesized in the universe.
308
730000
2000
12:28
So, I think science can be --
309
733000
2000
12:30
serendipity is important.
310
735000
2000
12:32
It can be beautiful. It can reveal quite astonishing things.
311
737000
3000
12:35
It can also, I think, finally
312
740000
3000
12:38
reveal the most profound
313
743000
2000
12:40
ideas to us
314
745000
2000
12:42
about our place in the universe
315
747000
2000
12:44
and really the value of our home planet.
316
749000
2000
12:46
This is a spectacular picture of our home planet.
317
751000
3000
12:49
Now, it doesn't look like our home planet.
318
754000
2000
12:51
It looks like Saturn because, of course, it is.
319
756000
3000
12:54
It was taken by the Cassini space probe.
320
759000
2000
12:56
But it's a famous picture, not because of
321
761000
2000
12:58
the beauty and majesty of Saturn's rings,
322
763000
3000
13:01
but actually because of a tiny, faint blob
323
766000
3000
13:04
just hanging underneath one of the rings.
324
769000
2000
13:06
And if I blow it up there, you see it.
325
771000
2000
13:08
It looks like a moon,
326
773000
2000
13:10
but in fact, it's a picture of Earth.
327
775000
2000
13:12
It was a picture of Earth captured in that frame of Saturn.
328
777000
3000
13:15
That's our planet from 750 million miles away.
329
780000
3000
13:19
I think the Earth has got a strange property
330
784000
2000
13:21
that the farther away you get from it,
331
786000
2000
13:23
the more beautiful it seems.
332
788000
2000
13:25
But that is not the most distant or most famous picture of our planet.
333
790000
3000
13:28
It was taken by this thing, which is called the Voyager spacecraft.
334
793000
3000
13:31
And that's a picture of me in front of it for scale.
335
796000
3000
13:34
The Voyager is a tiny machine.
336
799000
2000
13:36
It's currently 10 billion miles away from Earth,
337
801000
3000
13:39
transmitting with that dish, with the power of 20 watts,
338
804000
3000
13:42
and we're still in contact with it.
339
807000
2000
13:44
But it visited Jupiter, Saturn,
340
809000
2000
13:46
Uranus and Neptune.
341
811000
2000
13:48
And after it visited all four of those planets,
342
813000
3000
13:51
Carl Sagan, who's one of my great heroes,
343
816000
3000
13:54
had the wonderful idea
344
819000
2000
13:56
of turning Voyager around
345
821000
2000
13:58
and taking a picture of every planet it had visited.
346
823000
2000
14:00
And it took this picture of Earth.
347
825000
2000
14:02
Now it's very hard to see the Earth there, it's called the "Pale Blue Dot" picture,
348
827000
3000
14:05
but Earth is suspended in that red shaft of light.
349
830000
3000
14:08
That's Earth from four billion miles away.
350
833000
3000
14:11
And I'd like to read you what
351
836000
2000
14:13
Sagan wrote about it, just to finish,
352
838000
2000
14:15
because I cannot say words as beautiful as this
353
840000
3000
14:18
to describe what he saw
354
843000
2000
14:20
in that picture that he had taken.
355
845000
2000
14:22
He said, "Consider again that dot.
356
847000
2000
14:24
That's here. That's home. That's us.
357
849000
3000
14:27
On it, everyone you love,
358
852000
2000
14:29
everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of,
359
854000
3000
14:32
every human being who ever was
360
857000
2000
14:34
lived out their lives.
361
859000
2000
14:36
The aggregates of joy and suffering
362
861000
2000
14:38
thousands of confident religions,
363
863000
2000
14:40
ideologies and economic doctrines,
364
865000
3000
14:43
every hunter and forager, every hero and coward,
365
868000
3000
14:46
every creator and destroyer of civilization,
366
871000
3000
14:49
every king and peasant, every young couple in love,
367
874000
3000
14:52
every mother and father, hopeful child,
368
877000
2000
14:54
inventor and explorer,
369
879000
2000
14:56
every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,
370
881000
3000
14:59
every superstar, every supreme leader,
371
884000
3000
15:02
every saint and sinner in the history of our species,
372
887000
3000
15:05
lived there, on a mote of dust,
373
890000
2000
15:07
suspended in a sunbeam.
374
892000
2000
15:09
It's been said that astronomy's a humbling
375
894000
2000
15:11
and character-building experience.
376
896000
2000
15:13
There is perhaps no better demonstration
377
898000
2000
15:15
of the folly of human conceits
378
900000
2000
15:17
than this distant image of our tiny world.
379
902000
2000
15:19
To me, it underscores our responsibility
380
904000
2000
15:21
to deal more kindly with one another
381
906000
3000
15:24
and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot,
382
909000
3000
15:27
the only home we've ever known."
383
912000
2000
15:29
Beautiful words about
384
914000
2000
15:31
the power of science and exploration.
385
916000
2000
15:33
The argument has always been made, and it will always be made,
386
918000
2000
15:35
that we know enough about the universe.
387
920000
2000
15:37
You could have made it in the 1920s; you wouldn't have had penicillin.
388
922000
3000
15:40
You could have made it in the 1890s; you wouldn't have the transistor.
389
925000
3000
15:43
And it's made today in these difficult economic times.
390
928000
3000
15:46
Surely, we know enough.
391
931000
2000
15:48
We don't need to discover anything else about our universe.
392
933000
2000
15:50
Let me leave the last words to someone
393
935000
2000
15:52
who's rapidly becoming a hero of mine,
394
937000
2000
15:54
Humphrey Davy, who did his science at the turn of the 19th century.
395
939000
3000
15:57
He was clearly under assault all the time.
396
942000
3000
16:00
"We know enough at the turn of the 19th century.
397
945000
3000
16:03
Just exploit it; just build things."
398
948000
2000
16:05
He said this, he said, "Nothing is more fatal
399
950000
2000
16:07
to the progress of the human mind
400
952000
2000
16:09
than to presume that our views of science
401
954000
2000
16:11
are ultimate,
402
956000
2000
16:13
that our triumphs are complete,
403
958000
2000
16:15
that there are no mysteries in nature,
404
960000
2000
16:17
and that there are no new worlds to conquer."
405
962000
2000
16:19
Thank you.
406
964000
2000
16:21
(Applause)
407
966000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Brian Cox - PhysicistPhysicist Brian Cox has two jobs: working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and explaining big science to the general public. He's a professor at the University of Manchester.
Why you should listen
Based at the University of Manchester, Brian Cox works at CERN in Geneva on the ATLAS experiment, studying the forward proton detectors for the Large Hadron Collider there. He's a professor at the University of Manchester, working in the High Energy Physics group, and is a research fellow of the Royal Society.
He's also become a vital voice in the UK media for explaining physics to the public. With his rockstar hair and accessible charm, he's the go-to physicist for explaining heady concepts on British TV and radio. (If you're in the UK, watch him on The Big Bang Machine.) He was the science advisor for the 2007 film Sunshine. He answers science questions every Friday on BBC6 radio's Breakfast Show.
Brian Cox | Speaker | TED.com