HOW YOUTUBE IS POPULARISING SCIENCE

Brian Cox is brilliant for science popularity, but TV is not the only means to communicate science. James Grime explains how small videos are making a big difference to the reach of science

I have been recognised four times now. Four times! I knew you would be impressed. And what has brought me such notoriety? Is it my fancy suits, my outrageous tabloid lifestyle, or is it my world famous impression of a teapot? No. I make videos about maths on YouTube.

I am one of a growing number of science communicators on YouTube, and I know many readers could be doing the same. If there is a subject you're passionate about, whatever it is, I want to invite you to join us. In the meantime, here is a favourite video of mine about a surprising mathematical game called non-transitive dice.

Maths game

I'm a mathematician - and have the chalk marks to prove it - but I do not come from a family of academics. Growing up, my only access to that world was through the television. I remember Johnny Ball jumping up and down talking excitedly about the parabolic path of projectiles; Horizon's documentary on the Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem; and at Christmas the theme music of the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures filled me with even more excitement than the bike that came with six sound effects.

Today the profile of science communication on TV may be at an all time high. My mum may not know what the Large Hadron Collider does, but she knows who Brian Cox is. But television remains a very 20th century method of communication. A channel will gear their science programming towards their perceived audience, be that BBC1 , BBC4 or a Channel 4 audience.

However, with the rise of new media, like YouTube, you no longer need to chase the audience. They find you.

The periodic table of videos

For me, the gold standard of SciComm remains The Periodic Table of Videos. Starting in July 2008, the chemistry department of the University of Nottingham began making a video for each element of the periodic table.

Kade Middleton's engagement ring

This has now grown into weekly videos, including topical ones such as the chemistry of Kate Middleton's engagement ring (above). It has made unlikely stars of the researchers, the technicians, the professor, and the professor's hair.

Sixty symbols

'The Professor' is the well respected chemist Martyn Poliakoff, and Periodic Videos has since gone on to create several spin-off channels for other subjects including physics, language, and theology.

Words of the world

It does a great job of humanising the subject.

Bibledex

You get to know these people and their quirks, like The Professor and his collection of periodic table ties.

A slicker (although that may not necessarily be in its favour) hit for science communication online is the TED series, featuring not just talks about science but 'ideas worth spreading'. The main TED conference has been running annually since 1990 and has featured such high profile speakers as Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. Delegates at the conference are all leaders in their fields. With conference membership next year priced from $7500, this is clearly not affordable. So when they started putting talks online in 2006, the response was huge.

Khan academy

It was at TED that I first heard of Salman Khan, the founder of Khan academy. What started as a series of video maths lessons for his cousins, has now grown into a video resource covering a multitude of subjects such as history, biology, finance and more, and currently stands at over 2000 videos. These may be used by students, teachers, home-schoolers or adult learners. And they are free. This is an example of not just using video and YouTube as science communication, but as an active means of teaching that may reach people without any other access to education.

Video abstract

A few years ago the Journal of Number Theory had the idea of creating a YouTube channel for authors to submit video abstract of upcoming papers. I was very enthusiastic about the idea, but my colleagues were horrified! The idea was not to replace traditional abstract but to give people an alternative.

Today, many universities are actively encouraging their young researchers to engage with the public.

And as it stands, YouTube still gives people the opportunity to stumble across videos they may not have considered viewing before. So instead of simply preaching to the converted (or as well as preaching to the converted), we can now reach an even wider audience. They can then dip into this world in their own time, with no pressure or expectations on them, just as I was able to when watching television growing up.

Could you be doing something? I encourage you to take up the challenge.

James Grime is a mathematician and public speaker, and can mostly be found touring the country on behalf of the Millennium Mathematics Project from the University of Cambridge.

STEPHEN HAWKING: 'THERE IS NO HEAVEN; IT'S A FAIRY STORY'

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the cosmologist shares his thoughts on death, M-theory, human purpose and our chance existence

Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011

Stephen Hawking dismisses belief in God in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. Photograph: Solar & Heliospheric Observatory/Discovery Channel

A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said.

In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.

The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book,The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. The book provoked a backlash from some religious leaders, including the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, who accused Hawking of committing an "elementary fallacy" of logic.

The 69-year-old physicist fell seriously ill after a lecture tour in the US in 2009 and was taken to Addenbrookes hospital in an episode that sparked grave concerns for his health. He has since returned to his Cambridge department as director of research.

The physicist's remarks draw a stark line between the use of God as a metaphor and the belief in an omniscient creator whose hands guide the workings of the cosmos.

In his bestselling 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking drew on the device so beloved of Einstein, when he described what it would mean for scientists to develop a "theory of everything" – a set of equations that described every particle and force in the entire universe. "It would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God," he wrote.

The book sold a reported 9 million copies and propelled the physicist to instant stardom. His fame has led to guest roles in The Simpsons, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Red Dwarf. One of his greatest achievements in physics is a theory that describes how black holes emit radiation.

In the interview, Hawking rejected the notion of life beyond death and emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. In answer to a question on how we should live, he said, simply: "We should seek the greatest value of our action."

In answering another, he wrote of the beauty of science, such as the exquisite double helix of DNA in biology, or the fundamental equations of physics.

Hawking responded to questions posed by the Guardian and a reader in advance of a lecture tomorrow at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London, in which he will address the question: "Why are we here?"

In the talk, he will argue that tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged. "Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in," he said.

Hawking suggests that with modern space-based instruments, such as the European Space Agency's Planck mission, it may be possible to spot ancient fingerprints in the light left over from the earliest moments of the universe and work out how our own place in space came to be.

His talk will focus on M-theory, a broad mathematical framework that encompasses string theory, which is regarded by many physicists as the best hope yet of developing a theory of everything.

M-theory demands a universe with 11 dimensions, including a dimension of time and the three familiar spatial dimensions. The rest are curled up too small for us to see.

Evidence in support of M-theory might also come from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva.

One possibility predicted by M-theory is supersymmetry, an idea that says fundamental particles have heavy – and as yet undiscovered – twins, with curious names such as selectrons and squarks.

Confirmation of supersymmetry would be a shot in the arm for M-theory and help physicists explain how each force at work in the universe arose from one super-force at the dawn of time.

Another potential discovery at the LHC, that of the elusive Higgs boson, which is thought to give mass to elementary particles, might be less welcome to Hawking, who has a long-standing bet that the long-sought entity will never be found at the laboratory.

Hawking will join other speakers at the London event, including the chancellor, George Osborne, and the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Science, truth and beauty: Hawking's answers

What is the value in knowing "Why are we here?"

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can't solve the equations, directly in the abstract. We need to use the effective theory of Darwinian natural selection of those societies most likely to survive. We assign them higher value.

You've said there is no reason to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper. Is our existence all down to luck?

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.

So here we are. What should we do?

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

You had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. What, if anything, do you fear about death?

I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

What are the things you find most beautiful in science?

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology, and the fundamental equations of physics."