What is it like being a scientist?
Being able to have some understanding of how the world works is wonderful, and it’s hugely gratifying when I’m asked to explain something to a non-scientist and seeing the pleasure they derive when some mystery is dispelled.
What inspired you to become a scientist?
As often with so many people, it was an inspirational teacher who got me hooked on physics, when I was about 13.
What is the best thing about being a scientist/ your job?
I am very lucky with what I do. I get to do my research into quantum physics, teach, write books, and make television and radio programmes. It keeps me very busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you could go back in time which scientist would you like to meet and what would you ask them?
I would like to meet the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell and ask him what he felt like when he first wrote down the equation that showed how light is just made up of electric and magnetic fields of energy moving through space.
What do you do in your free time?
I enjoy cycling, watching movies with my wife, playing the guitar and practicing card tricks.
What is the first science you remember doing?
That’s tough. It was a long time ago. Possibly a chat with my father about the nature of time, when I was 11 or 12. Is chatting about science the same as doing science?
What advice would you give a school child who is interested in science?
It depends whether they just want to know the best place to find out about something, in which case I can easily point them to websites, YouTube clips of tv programmes, popular science books or science festivals nearby, or whether they wish to pursue science as a career. Either way, I reckon I could get them hooked.
What’s the funniest/strangest/most surprising experience you have had in your career?
Turning up in Bangkok to give a lecture about Einstein, to be greeted by ten thousand school children, an astronaut and a princess (Maha Chakri Sirindhorn) who sat at the front of my lecture on a throne, taking notes.
What discovery or invention could you really not live without?
Email.
What do you think is the most important thing yet to be discovered/invented?
Clean energy from nuclear fusion.