Health and Safety in Particle Physics II. I love this video from the University of Nottingham where physicists try to answer tricky but valid physics questions in real time.
Seeing them think, and say they "don't know" sometimes, gives a better feel for research (and teaching) than a bevy of meticulously prepared seminars. The first question is "What would happen if I put my hand in the beam at the Large Hadron Collider". There were a variety of answers, but as far as I can tell my colleague Ed Copeland has most of the facts right. My guess is it would blow a hole and give you radiation sickness. (Answered, like Ed and his colleagues, without preparation). Some other comments: One of the physicists mentions the vacuum, which might be unpleasant.
Also, although I don't want anyone to do the actual "hand in beam" experiment (it would delay data taking), it would be fairly simple to build a software model of a hand and body and do it virtually. Ed has invited me to give a seminar in Nottingham in November. Guardian science blogs: We aim to entertain, enrage and inform. It's nearly the end of summer holidays, and there are plans afoot in the blogosphere.
You would not know it from general media coverage but, on the web, science is alive with remarkable debate. According to the Pew Research Centre, science accounts for 10% of all stories on blogs but only 1% of the stories in mainstream media coverage. (The Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at a year's news coverage starting from January 2009.) On the web, thousands of scientists, journalists, hobbyists and numerous other interested folk write about and create lively discussions around palaeontology, astronomy, viruses and other bugs, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, evolutionary biology, extraterrestrial life or bad science.
For regular swimmers in this fast-flowing river of words, it can be a rewarding (and sometimes maddening) experience. The Guardian's science blogs network is an attempt to bring some of the expertise and these discussions to our readers. Faith in science is not enough – people deserve proof. The Orrery by Joseph Wright of Derby. 'Few of us know how to prove that the Earth orbits the Sun.' Photograph: The Gallery Collection/Corbis I am an evangelist.
But instead of spreading the gospel or any other religious message, I spend my time trying to share the knowledge of what I believe to be humanity's greatest cultural achievement: science. There is a more mundane term for what I do – "science communication". The UK's best known science communicator is probably Professor Brian Cox. As much as I love Brian's work, I don't think we need any more like him at the moment. It seems to me that many of these people are looking for an identity, something to believe in, and they've "found" science in much the same way that others find religion or spirituality.
I have encountered priests who seemed simply to want to increase the numbers of their flocks, and I've met others who genuinely want to pass on their understanding of god. A physicist, a chemist and a zoologist walk in to a bar … Hey, we just hired a molecular biologist!
Man, is he small. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Somewhere along the line, science got funny. PhD comics are pinned to noticeboards and Facebook has groups dedicated to those who spend too long in the lab. Or, at least, it found some funny friends. And, no, science isn't simply the butt of the jokes. Philosophers, sociologists and psychologists of humour will tell you that jokes often stem from a sense of the ridiculous. Did you hear the one about the statistician? But wipe that grin off your face, because here's the serious bit.
There's been some debate recently among science fans over the relative worth of "being a dick" (see also some humorous advice on how to avoid being one); whether laughing at those you disagree with will do your case more harm than good. A few weeks ago Channel 4 news journalist Samira Ahmed tweeted a request for some maths help.
The trick is to be aware of the politics at play. Bada-boom.