Although many people had sent in questions, there was very little time for this part of the show, which was a shame. One question that was asked was why we observe gravitational lensing effects if photons have no mass, a question which sums up the audience better than anything I could write.
Next was Helen Arney , sadly the only woman on the bill, a singer-songwriter cum trained physicist who sang us some great songs about love in a laboratory and why doing "it" like an animal might not always be a desirable thing child-friendly if they know the facts of life :. Ben Goldacre is a doctor and Guardian journalist who authored the book Bad Science , which I am trying to convince everyone I have ever known read. He is dedicated to uncovering mis-information in the press and helping the public understand the way science is reported.
Ben explained all about trials and studies, and how the data from these can be twisted by pharmaceutical companies to suit their own agendas. The penultimate act of the show was Dara O'Briain , one of the most popular comedians working in the UK today and well-known for his geekiness, with material featuring video games, science and IT. He is also known amongst the geek community for having performed at a LARP event after spending two days with the group getting to know what makes them tick.
Dara's routine for the night focused on two of his most geeky topics: his take on the National Childbirth Trust , a UK charity which provides ante-natal classes and advice to new parents, and a recap of the movie which contains one of the most nonsensical lines of pseudo-scientific claptrap that has ever been committed to celluloid:. Finally, Professor Cox took to the stage to wrap up the night with a small collection of photographs taken from space. He left us with the infamous "Pale Blue Dot" photograph taken by Voyager 1 as a recording of Carl Sagan discussing the photograph played, the night ended to rapturous applause.
Uncaged Monkeys brought together a collection of truly fascinating and funny people and gave them free rein to discuss their subjects of interests with an audience who wanted to learn and to laugh. The resulting enthusiasm was contagious and as we left, people could be heard discussing the subjects we had heard about in detail.
If schools could find a way to present science in an equally captivating manner, there might well be a lot more children today with an interest in science and maths.
New tickets are being released daily, check Twitter for details. While Robin Ince ensured that the introductions were gag-filled, it wasn't always easy to mix matters with mirth.
In't moon nice? While the ever-youthful brainbox did reach for the occasional easy laugh, Cox left on a striking message about the small percentage of government spending on science, noting that the banking bailout had cost "more money than the UK has spent on science since Jesus". Ben Goldacre similarly inspired as much disbelief as he did wonder with his aforementioned contribution to the evening that had merits other than artistic on which it could be judged.
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