Superstar scientist Brian Cox has become the go-to guy for explaining the universe’s mysteries to an awestruck general public. So how did he fare when answering some of our burning questions? Continue reading to find out.

Do you feel any pressure when discussing big questions about the universe? A central part of the show is that we don’t know the answers to many of your questions. I’m always careful to draw a line between what we know is true, and what is my opinion. So, I’m very comfortable talking about my opinion on some of these big questions. That’s the first step on the road to knowledge, to accept that you don't know. And so, when we start talking, for example, about the origin of life, we have some theories. And then the theories are based on interesting observations about life on Earth, and what we know about the evolution of life on it.

How are you delving deeper into these huge subjects since your last world tour in 2019? It’s a very different feel. It’s trying to go much deeper and focus on these questions of what it means to be human in this vast and possibly infinite universe, which I didn’t do before. Since 2019, there’s been a revolution in our understanding of black holes. So, I talk about black holes a lot in the show, because they are one of the most interesting things in the universe, in the sense that we don’t understand them. But we’re making really rapid progress. We’re beginning to ask questions about the nature of space and time themselves. And a lot of that work was done in 2019, 2020 and 2021. So the subject has moved really quickly since I last did a live show. Also, we’re going to have some new results, which are going to go into the show, from the James Webb space telescope. There are new images coming all the time of the surface of Mars that we didn’t have in 2019. It’s very exciting.

Do you think that people are going to be looking for answers, now more than ever, after the past few years of uncertainty with the pandemic? My friend Robin Ince is in the show and the Q&A to provide some comedic relief. But at the end, he reads a poem that he wrote during lockdown when he was looking at the stars. Like many of us, you know, he had nothing to do but think about the universe. So certainly, for him there was a reflection of life that went on. Maybe that did happen to many people. I think it’s a time that’s affected everybody that went through it, isn’t it? This is a really strange period of our existence. 

The show has been described as a celebration of civilisation due to its use of music and art as well as science. Do you believe that music, art and culture are all science? I wouldn’t say that. What I would say is that science is one of the reactions we have to nature. And so I think the right way to look at science is that it’s something that takes place alongside the other human responses to being human. You can’t understand what it is to be human without knowing our place in the universe, in knowing how many stars there are in our galaxy, and how many planets and galaxies are out there. So, music and philosophy and art are all in the show alongside the science because we’re trying to make sense of the universe. That’s what humans do. We spend our whole lives trying to make sense of our lives. 

^{Picture: Dustin Rabin}

Your last arena tour broke two Guinness World Records for the most tickets sold for a science tour. If you could break any other Guinness World Record, what would you pick? Wow. You know, I think I’d like to break a sporting record, because it’s just so out of the question! I’d love to run 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt. Why wouldn’t you want to achieve something physically, that no one has ever achieved? So, I’d like to break the 100 metres world record. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

Brian Cox: Horizons – A 21st Century Space Odyssey will tour the UK throughout the year.