LECTURE REPORT:  “Incredible, Brilliant, Amazing” these are just some words used by those who attended the Astronomy Ireland April lecture, which was delivered by Prof. Brian Cox of CERN in Geneva and Manchester University.  “It was probably the best lecture we have ever had” said David Moore, Chairman of A.I.  The applause at the end was deafening with over 200 people overflowing the theatre meaning there was standing room only.

 

Prof. Cox gave a powerfully concise explanation of the fabric of the universe from the tiniest sub-atomic particle to the Big Bang in what was, by far, the most erudite, thorough and calm explanation we have ever heard.

 

Brian described his work on the Atlas section of the 10 billion euro Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva and what the most expensive and most important experiment ever conducted hopes to achieve when it comes into operation this summer.  He showed the crowd some fascinating pictures, which really demonstrated the size of the project, both construction and manpower.  His anecdotal description, of his work on the LHC was received very well by the crowd and kept everyone glued to him and his presentation for the duration of the talk. 

 

The LHC experiment hopes to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang, one of the strangest, yet, most feasible theories that man has put forward to date.  The LHC hopes to create mini Black Holes by smashing parts of atoms into each other in conditions similar to what scientists have speculated were present at the time of the birth of the universe.  They also hope to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson particle, that will explain Dark Matter and no doubt, lead to a Nobel Prize, or two.

 

Brian was a member of the 90’s hit band D:Ream and he still continues his show business career, with his BBC Horizon TV documentary “Time”, which he was due to start filming in Japan after our lecture.  A truly unique speaker indeed!