Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox descended upon the GMB this afternoon to greet science and non-science Trinity students alike. The ‘Wonders of…’ presenter and the author/co-author of over 950 scientific publications and brought this rhetoric to the chamber with his usual eternal grin.
Phil president, Matthew Nuding, began by welcoming the acclaimed academic to Trinity and awarded him with the honorary patronage of the society. Cox was alight with gratitude, yet somehow maintained his humility throughout the course of the address.
He spoke about the democratisation of knowledge in today’s growth of populism, noting the severity of it as “something we need to take on today.” Referencing President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, Cox referred to institutions such as Trinity, highlighting their need to “exist in times like these to fight the anti-intellectual forces.”
When asked for tips on how to interpose the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist, Cox quipped at “taking the piss” which he also jested at being “probably counterproductive”, citing a tweet of his to a “flat world person”: “NASA pay me one million pounds a year!’, joked Cox.
The question and answers session was in-depth and broached the topics of Brexit, religion, climate change, philosophy, women in science, the financial impact of funding science research and conspiracy theories.
When asked for tips on how to interpose the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist, Cox quipped at “taking the piss” which he also jested at being “probably counterproductive”, citing a tweet of his to a “flat world person”: “NASA pay me one million pounds a year!’, joked Cox.
The questions then turned towards the topic of science education. Cox affirmed that the key to expanding interest in science to the general public is by changing “the way we teach science at school”. When asked about the mutual exclusivity of religion and science, he agreed that it is possible to be both faithful to your religion’s beliefs and to be a scientist, although if someone told him that the world was six thousand years old that he would simply answer, “no.”
A question was posed to Cox about the possibility of the devaluation of the arts being an outcome of increased government funding to the science and engineering industry. He implored the importance of philosophy, expressing that “citizens have to be taught how to think” appertaining to the controversial political results as of late.
Cox walked away from the address wearing as large a grin as he took to the stage with, drowning in a roar of applause.
