Did you make science sexy?
I don’t know. I’m certainly responsible for introducing people to science through my programmes.
Why is the discovery of the Higgs boson so important?
It’s absolutely fundamental to understanding how the universe works at a basic level. If you look at your hand, it’s got mass because the empty space is full of Higgs particles and all the other particles in your body are bumping off those and that’s how they get mass. Without the Higgs you wouldn’t exist, there would be nothing solid in the universe.
Do you agree with its other name, the ‘God particle’?
No, because it’s meaningless. It comes from the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, who referred to it as the ‘goddamn particle’ because he couldn’t find it. His publisher left out the ‘damn’.
Would you accept a seat on Virgin Galactic’s first flight into space?
Oh yeah, I think it may transform our society. The more people go up and see the Earth from space, the more people will value what is a very valuable place.
You’ve just launched a science summer school, did you ever misuse Bunsen burners during science lessons?
All I remember is that you were allowed to set fire to things with a Bunsen burner when I was at school in the 1970s. I don’t remember anyone ending up in hospital as a result.
You were a member of D:Ream (‘Things Can Only Get Better’), did you ever get teased for being a geeky rock star?
I was very geeky at school but I got un-geeky by joining a band for a while. But no one gets teased for being a geek any more; it’s a label of approval. Science is the new rock’n’roll.
The Science Summer School at St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets is sponsored by the Catlin Insurance Company, Andrew Mawson Partnerships and the London Legacy Development Corporation
