Ash stops play

For those of you expecting the start of the tour...unlucky...we're grounded for the time being and hoping to fly on Friday but until then I'll be writing a post instead for those of you in the audience who gave up on physics at school. Those of you who said no to neutrons, renounced science and left it to the fusty's in lab coats. 

To you I dedicate this blog and to you I say look once more. Here are five reasons to think again:

1) Physics is beautiful

Take this image of the bug nebula. Seriously, how visually stunning is that. Yes, it's falsely coloured. Yes, it's further away than our Solar System and therefore we're likely never to go. But wow. This should be hanging in the Tate Modern instead of International Klein Blue (a blue square in case you were wondering...).

2) Physics explains a lot of stuff

Why rainbows form.

Why you "stick" to the Earth and don't whiz off into space.

Why TV's work and why you can walk on custard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN2D5y-AxIY)

3) Physics makes your life easier

Physics has implications beyond the laboratory. There's the story of the creation of the internet - at CERN (the research facility in Geneva). Pretty much everything on the NASA spacecraft has filtered down to be used by us; smoke detectors, shock absorbers in trainers, tyre rubber recycling, fans in laptop computers, sunglasses, the list goes on and on...

4) Physics has some great characters

Like Newton who stuck a ruler in his eye to see if it was spherical or Patrick Moore who wears a monocle...in the 21st Century. Wild hair and wild lives; people who have irradiated themselves, electrocuted themselves, smoked pipes to induce discoveries, expanded their brains to unlock extra dimensions and all in the name of science. 

5) Physics is philosophy

It's a bold claim but leave aside those pesky equations for now. How many other subjects encourage you to ponder the meaning of life? 

What happens if I fall into a black hole? How will it feel?

How can 100 trillion neutrinos pass through my thumb every second?

What is outside the Universe? [Don't think about this too hard or your brain will explode]

So in a nutshell (did you know the whole of the human race could fit into a space the size of a sugar cube...we're just a lot of empty space really) this is to inspire you to follow us on our science tour and take part in the experiments or just gaze up at the stars and have a think...

Hopefully I'll be writing to you next from Ghana!