The physicist has no time for debates about whether or not the Earth is round
Professor Brian Cox has shared his brutal response to questions about whether or not the Earth is flat.
Musician-turned-physicist Cox (no, not the guy from HBO’s Succession, the other one) is one of the UK’s best known popular scientists. Thanks to his work on scientific documentaries such as Human Universe, Wonders of the Solar System and Brian Cox’s Adventures in Space and Time; the 56-year-old has managed to prove time and time again that he is definitely more than the keyboard player on D:Ream’s one hit wonder ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.
However, being the nation’s most recognisable physicist means that Cox also finds himself being forced to address some of the public’s most bizarre conspiracy theories about life beyond planet Earth.
Brian Cox the physicist, not the actor (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
The ‘Flat Earth’ debate
Cox has often been asked to share his thoughts on the topic of Flat Earth, which still lingers around to this day despite thousands of years of scientific arguments on the contrary.
The University of Manchester professor has in-fact been asked to share his thoughts on whether our planet is round and bouncy ball shaped or as flat as an A4 piece of paper numerous times, which means he’s had plenty of time to perfect his snarkiest responses.
Cox was recently asked about his feelings towards Flat Earthers while taking part in LADbible’s Honesty Box series, and he didn’t hold back.
Check out the full video below:Play
Listen to Newton’s Principia
When asked what he would say to a Flat Earther in order to prove that our planet is actually round Cox responded by saying: “I always say that I would hit them over the head with Newton’s Principia.”
For those who aren’t experts in physics, Newton’s Principia is Isaac Newton’s 1687 book outlining his ideas of laws of motion and gravity.
Expanding on why the idea of the Earth being flat is so bizarre to him, Cox continued: “Can you imagine that if every time you get on a plane and fly somewhere, the person who’s in charge of the plane is part of a vast conspiracy that’s trying to deceive you?
“Just imagine that. How nervous would you be on the plane if the people who are flying it are actually just keeping you in the dark about the real nature of reality.”
According to Brian Cox, a Flat Earth would mean air travel wouldn’t make sense (YouTube/LADbible)
Flat Earthers shouldn’t bother with travel, then…
Cox then went on to joke that by using this logic, Flat Earthers should be too nervous to embark on space travel.
“That would be great be great ’cause then when I’d go on holiday I’d never bump into a Flat Earther. Because they don’t travel.”Featured Image Credit: YouTube/LADbible / Getty Stock Images
Topics: Science, Space, Brian Cox
Brenna Cooper
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Published 20:27 20 Jun 2024 GMT+1
Professor Brian Cox explains why he thinks we still haven’t heard from aliens
It’s a pretty compelling reason why E.T. hasn’t phoned home
Sometimes people go and gaze up at the stars in wonderment, specifically wondering if aliens are out there and making plans to come and see us.
Either we are alone in the universe or we are not, and both outcomes are pretty terrifying.
However, the idea that aliens could come to Earth and make contact has long held a fascination for our species.
Professor Brian Cox was recently marvelling on social media at how the interstellar probe Voyager could be fixed from all the way back here on Earth.
Sadly, the responses he got on social media led him to wonder if perhaps aliens didn’t make contact as ‘civilisations are inevitably crushed by the weight of nobheads shortly after inventing the internet’.
There are plenty who think that the internet is the greatest communication tool ever devised, and plenty of others who reckon it’s ultimately not been a very good thing for our species in the long run.
There might be a reason why the aliens don’t visit us. (Twitter/@ProfBrianCox)
For reference, the Fermi Paradox is about the lack of evidence of other life in the universe and the likelihood that extra-terrestrial life exists somewhere.
Essentially, with so many stars and so many planets in the universe, there must surely be some others which can sustain life like Earth? Many of these are older than our own world, which means that if there are alien civilisations out there, they could be far more advanced than we are.
However, while we know that’s the case, the Fermi Paradox poses the rather obvious question: where the hell are all the aliens?
Cox has said in the past that he reckons it’s possible we’re alone in our own galaxy at least, though the question of whether there might be other civilisations elsewhere in the universe is still open.
He’s also not the only expert who’s got a similar line of thinking about why aliens don’t ever bother to visit us.
Professor Brian Cox has some idea why we’ve never met any aliens. (David Levenson/Getty Images)
Some brainiacs have theorised that alien life does exist and they could visit us if they so desired, but they reckon we’re a bunch of idiots and not worth interacting with.
That may sound a bit harsh, but if you were an alien and were monitoring what we were up to, would you want to deal with all of our drama?
Thought not.
Then, of course, there’s the more sobering thought that pretty much any civilisation advanced enough to travel to other planets also likely has the capability to destroy themselves.
If we were technologically advanced to visit other solar systems, then we’d also likely have the ability to ruin our entire species (not that we already don’t with nuclear bombs), so it stands to reason that the same would be true of aliens.
It’s a bit of a sad thought isn’t it?Featured Image Credit: David Levenson/Getty Images / Getty stock
Topics: Brian Cox, Space, Science, Aliens
Joe Harker
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Published 15:14 15 May 2024 GMT+1
Professor Brian Cox shut down the Flat Earth theory in best way possible with simple response
The Earth isn’t flat you bunch of dingleberries
If you have any notions of being a Flat Earther around Professor Brian Cox then you might want to ditch those, as he pretty much has no time for any of that malarkey.
Despite a plethora of scientific evidence and actual pictures of our planet taken from space showing it to be spherical, there are some people who seem to think the world is instead a flat disk.
Flat Earth advocates have some strange ideas about what makes up our world, and indeed the things beyond it, in an attempt to uphold the notion that it is flat.
Among them is former boxer Carl Froch, who said he believes ‘the Earth is flat, 100 percent’ and claimed images showing the curvature of the Earth were ‘like cartoons’.
He said he’d believe the Earth was round ‘when someone like Richard Branson goes up there and starts doing chartered flights’ and people can look back at the planet for themselves.