Why have you decided to call your show Show at the End of the Universe?
I think I probably took inspiration for that, from the issue that we have in astronomy, which is that there’s lot of stuff that we know, but there’s a whole host of stuff that we don’t know. Probably one of the biggest questions at the moment is: “What’s going to happen at the end of the universe?” We understand, or have a grasp of, how we think the universe started with the ‘Big Bang’ but we still don’t really have a clue what’s going to happen at the end. Taking inspiration from that, it just highlights that there’s still a lot we don’t know about the universe.
What is the main purpose of the show?
The main purpose of the show is to entertain and educate… what I want to show people is that science and astronomy, in particular, isn’t something that just has to be done by ‘Boffins’ . It’s something that anybody, from any walk of life, with any background, can do and enjoy. There’s no formula in the show at all, there’s no hard scientific concepts, well… a few little bits but I try and make them fun with a good demos along the way.
Can you tell us anything about the sort of demonstrations will you be doing?
I shall be demonstrating the awesome power of hydrogen gas, I shall be doing some demonstrations to explain how rockets work and I think I’ll leave it at that actually… without giving too much away.
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What will people be looking to get out of your show?
They’ll get a better understanding of our basic place in the universe. People think astronomers just look at the stars … whilst that’s true (laughs) primarily that is what we do, but in doing that we’ve managed to infer and learn lots about the universe and the night sky. People will come away with a better understanding of our basic place in the universe.
What made you want to reach out to people with astronomy?
To be honest I get a real buzz out of it. As much as I love doing the astronomy itself, I was about 10 years old when I first got interested in astronomy and over the years I’ve helped lots of new-comers get interested in astronomy, fostered their interest, encouraged them, seen people grow and seeing people get enthusiastic and excited about the universe and I like doing that. I want to make more people aware of how wonderful the universe is and the one of the biggest things is – and we’re all guilty of it – is that we travel round and get on with our everyday business, we don’t stop and look at the things around us, we don’t stop and look at the night sky and there are some beautiful and stunning things up there. I want to make people realise that it’s not just stars up-against a black background, there’s actually some fascinating things up there.
How will you make the show accessible to everyone?
To make it accessible, I’m going to be using lots of visual aids, lots of pretty pictures, and animations, and graphics, but also I won’t be using complicated words. One of the things I have learned over the years is that the beauty of scientific communication is that: if you want to reach out to a children’s audience or an adult’s audience who have no idea on the subject matter at hand, you have to take the jargon out of it and that’s what I do. I take complicated concepts and I simplify it and make it accessible to people. Most subjects and aspects of astronomy and astrophysics are simplifiable and I think science generally is quite bad at making it accessible, but, actually if you break it down to the bare bones the thing’s about most people can understand it.
Have you got any interesting facts for us?
One I can definitely tell you now is that… the universe is expanding faster now than it ever has been in the past. I shall we looking a little bit at that towards the end of the show as well.
Out of interest, how accurate are films like Interstellar?
Honestly, I love films like Interstellar and Gravity and all those kind of movies. I get quite annoyed when I hear my colleagues, not all of them, but I hear some of my colleagues ranting and raving that they’re not accurate. But, by-and-large, they are pretty accurate especially when you look at Interstellar, right up to the scene right at the end when he’s in the big bookcase, I think that’s pushing it a little too far. The rest of it is actually not far off accurate… what I would add actually is that it’s chiefly there to entertain; if you want accuracy then you watch a documentary.
words CAMPBELL PROSSER
Mark Thompson, Show At the End of the Universe, Blackwood Miners’ Institute, Caerphilly, Fri 10 June. Tickets: £12-£14. Info: here.