by Ben Falk
‘The problem with the issue is that it’s turned into an attack on science on some level. That’s ridiculous. The science is what the science is, and it is completely apolitical. It’s a problematic issue, it’s an issue that will have to have a political solution, but all that scientists can do is tell you what the current level of understanding is. If you don’t think the Greenhouse Effect is a problem, then you should be sent to Venus; that would be the only useful thing to do. Send a spacecraft to Venus full of all the people who don’t think the Greenhouse Effect is a problem. That’d be fun. Get rid of ’em – they’d melt. Quickly.’
5. Tweet as if your life depends on it
At the time of writing, Professor Brian Cox has 584,598 followers on Twitter and has tweeted more than 6,000 times. But that’s not a patch on his wife Gia, an early proponent of the 140-character form as a new media expert, who has tweeted more than 24,000 times, though she’s miles behind her husband in terms of followers with just over 14,000. The small group of people Cox follows are an interesting mix of celebrities – Phillip Schofield and Richard Bacon – and well-known academics such as maths writer Alex Bellos and TV physicist Jim Al-Khalili.
Being apart so much obviously meant online communication became an invaluable tool for Gia and Brian, as well as an opportunity for him to reply to questions about where he was. ‘Sadly I missed myself on #QI,’ he wrote in October 2011, ‘because (honestly) I’m having breakfast next to a volcano in the Philippines filming proton gradients.’ But Cox admitted his wife didn’t only use it to get in touch with him while he was wandering through a desert. ‘Gia uses Twitter to tell me to stop watching TV and come to bed,’ he joked.
He kept his profile up to date incrementally, keeping his ongoing project as ‘working on a book and lecture course at the University of Manchester’ while changing whatever he was filming at the time. Gia’s was simpler, reading: ‘Comedy lover. Science groupie. Professional dork’. Being an open source social network, though, meant Cox and Milinovich’s own views were not the only ones perpetuated in cyberspace. Shortlist set up a hashtag called #briancoxknowseverything and Cox didn’t realise they were the instigators when he mentioned how much he loved the tag to them during an interview. ‘Everyone thinks I know everything now,’ he said. ‘There’s even a hashtag on Twitter called #briancoxknowseverything, where people suggest the most ludicrous, unknowable things that I may have the answer to. I loved it. My favourite response was “Brian Cox knows what Willis is talkin’ ’bout.”’
That Diff’rent Strokes reference was not the only silly Tweet in the strand. Emulating the popular Chuck Norris meme where people suggested things that showed off Norris’s hard man image to ridiculous extremes, Tweeters revelled in creating feats that Cox had either accomplished or could do. @sp3ccylad Tweeted: ‘Brian Cox has Shergar’s address and writes to him regularly: in Horse,’ while @calamitykate suggested: ‘Professor Brian Cox knows where Wally is without even looking.’ @squigmig focused on his scientific nature, writing: ‘Professor Brian Cox knows it’s not butter and has an equation to prove it.’
The hero worship-cum-mickey-taking continued with more than one an entire Twitter handle, run anonymously but Tweeting as @ProfBrianCocks and @Prof_BrianCocks (there’s a theme here). The former ran out of steam pretty quickly, writing 59 entries as a man described as ‘keyboardist for The Universe’, with the comedy set-up that he shares a house with Sir Patrick Moore and astrologer Russell Grant. Pretending to chart the internal feuds going on between the three men as housemates, one Tweet said: ‘I hate them both but I don’t get paid enough to move out. I can only afford this place because of the old music royalties.’
@Prof_BrianCocks was a bit more of a professional lampooning. With more than 3,000 followers, the writer established his parody intentions up front, dubbing himself the ‘Sex Science Dude’ and writing some more philosophical, yet equally crazy entries, as well as flat-out gags. ‘Producers of #bbcstargazing axed segment where Dara and I tell the story of the Universe’s birth through interpretive dance,’ read one, while another added: ‘Please note that there will not be an online Q&A after #bbcstargazing as Wikipedia is down.’ Comedy aside however, Twitter was something Cox took to with verve, even if he had to deal with abuse from those who didn’t agree with his vociferous views about the Mayan Apocalypse and supermoons crashing into earth. In fact, his unyielding refusal to temper his retorts to those who propagated what he believed to be stupidity set him apart from many other celebrity Tweeters, who used the site more as an advertising tool than anything else.
His inability to keep quiet in the face of unbending adherence to non-scientific beliefs has already been documented here but in a sphere where many famous folk have come unstuck with what may have seemed like an offhand remark at the time, Cox was admirably honest. And in the process he may well have become the country’s primary user of the word ‘nobber’. His continuing belief that he was merely a university academic who had taken some time out to do a little bit of telly showed itself in the way he interacted with his hundreds of thousands of Twitter devotees. As did his clear desire to pursue an ongoing dialogue with his audience, whose online questions he sometimes answered. ‘For those that asked,’ he wrote, ‘the origin of low entropy in the universe at the Big Bang is probably THE biggest mystery in cosmology.’
As his celebrity increases even more, it will be interesting to see how much that changes. What won’t change is the closest he gets to advertising on his feed – pushing science into the public consciousness. That’s either in linking to his favourite article about scientific research, or penning something such as: ‘Science is a framework designed to remove the effects of human prejudice’. With so many people hanging on his every word, it’s possible he might just convince them.
The celebrity professor signing the accompanying book to his BBC series, October 2010.
As the science expert on Looking Good Feeling Great with co-host Fern Britton in 2006.
Pictured proudly showing his OBE awarded for services to science in October 2010.
At the Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2011.
The stars of the Radio 4 programme The Infinite Monkey Cage at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival in June 2010.
The man of many faces, beside the ‘digital chandelier’ at Manchester Science Museum.
At the British Comedy Awards with comediennes Jo Brand and Sharon Horgan in January 2012.
Presenting an award at the 2010 BAFTAs.
Applauding the success of participants at The Prince’s Trust and L’Oreal Paris Celebrate Success Awards with Prince Charles.
With his increasing celebrity status the professor opens Manchester Science Museum’s new ‘revolution Manchester gallery’.
Posing for pictures at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Another day, another award ceremony for the professor at the RTS Awards 2011.
Pictured excitedly leaving the Radio 2 studios.
Cox in his element at the 2011 Telegraph Hay Festival.
Smiling for the cameras once again at Edinburgh’s International Book Festival with Mariella Frostrup.
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