Apocalypse
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2010
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince return for the third series of the witty, irreverent science show. In the first episode of the series, Brian and Robin are joined by comedian Andy Hamilton to discuss some of the wackier apocalyptic theories, as well as those more grounded in science fact. Did the Mayans know something that we didn't with their prediction of global annihilation in 2012, or should we be focusing our energies and scientific know-how on some of the more likely scenarios, from near earth asteroids, through to climate change and deadly pandemics, or even the more long term possibilities of our sun burning out....although we have got roughly another 5 billion years to ponder the challenge of that problem. Recorded in front of an audience at the Drill Hall in London.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a download from the BBC. |
| 0:02.1 | To find out more, visit bbc.co.uk-radio4. |
| 0:07.3 | Welcome back to the Infinite Monkey Cage. I'm Brian Cox. |
| 0:09.8 | And I'm Robert Inz, and we're back for four more programs, |
| 0:12.0 | and this time for the whole series, we will have an audience. |
| 0:14.6 | In fact, we have an audience before us |
| 0:16.1 | who will make a small noise just to the show that they aren't here. |
| 0:18.8 | CHEERING AND APPLAUSE |
| 0:23.1 | Since we were last on air, I've written a paper on extracting |
| 0:25.9 | the Higgs boson couplings at LHC using a central jet veto |
| 0:29.1 | and broken the San Barrier in an inverted dive from 40,000 feet |
| 0:31.9 | in the Halka Hunter. |
| 0:33.1 | And I've played to a very despondently small audience |
| 0:35.6 | at the El Gever Theatre in Cheshire, |
| 0:37.0 | and I had food poisoning for six hours of the train |
| 0:39.4 | from Newton Aber to Ilkley. |
| 0:41.0 | LAUGHTER |
| 0:42.9 | Yes, you're glamorous life, but have you had a contaminated fish stick? |
| 0:46.2 | Hmm. Have you been sick anywhere recently? |
| 0:49.0 | Yeah, whilst filming in the high-belibbing Andes. |
| 0:51.0 | OK, there we are, OK. |
| 0:53.3 | But why do we care about illness? |
... |
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