Category Archives: Prof Brian Cox

Why Do The Clocks Change Prof Cox?

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Hello all, Prof Brian Cox here, and once again I am using my unrivalled intelligence to improve your humdrum lives. I have recently been asked by many of my celebrity fans, such as Meryl Streep and Zoe Ball, as to why do “the clocks change” in Autumn and Spring. The answer is, like so many of today’s conundrums steeped in mystery, but I can tell you now that once again it’s down to our old friends the Romans.

We have to go back to 103BC when the Roman’s lust for entertainment was at it’s height, and audiences we were especially keen on timed gladiatorial fights. The only problem was no one could actually time them as time itself was yet to invented. The promise of time had been bandied about about for centuries ever since a Greek had mentioned it in passing, but no one could actually define it. The roman people were growing restless and wanting to pacify them Roman Emperor Julius Timius demanded that someone invent time and set it as a competition. Many scientists and philosophers tried and failed, but one day a lowly scribe, Minitus Hourius, noted that maybe time could be described as “the duration between the sun rising and setting”, and “that if divided into smaller bits such as hours and minutes things could at last be timed.” Through trial and error over many months it was found that daylight could be divided into 12.03 hours with each hour being roughly 60 minutes long (the 24 hour day and seconds would not be invented for another 200 years). At last citizens could time gladiator battles and were very happy, young Minitus was even given his own chariot as way of thanks … but a few years later unrest returned. Because the daylight hours weren’t exactly 12 hours long every six months there was a whole spare hour left over that no one knew what to do with (hence the expression “to have time on your hands”). Once again it was our friend Minitus who came good and his solution was to put the clocks backwards in Autumn, and to maintain decorum, forward in the Spring. A tradition that continues to this day.
So there you go, another Did You Know This fact complete. I’m off to play dominoes with my old friends Morrissey and Sir Bruce Forsyth, but i’ll see you soon no doubt. Thanks, Prof Brian Cox.

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(Above) Prof Brian Cox polishing his clocks before turning back time earlier today

Professor Cox’s Did You Know This: Who Invented The Ring Binder?

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Hello all, Brian here, and once I’m again using my vast knowledge of the universe to improve your lives. Today, i’m answering one of the BIG questions. The sort of questions that keep people awake at night. Who invented the ring-binder?
Well, we have to go back to the days of pre-history when plague, famine and foreigners were the scourge of the land, and battles between neighbouring countries were an everyday occurence. It was like the Vietnam war but without the choppers. Then one day a lady with a lamp, Florence Nightingale, happened upon the cause of all the conflicts. The European countries lacked convenient file storage. Whole continents were in turmoil over misfiled accounts and everyone wanted paying. Calmly Florence decided to give over her life to finding a solution. After six years of late nights (thankfully she had her lamp), poor health and many failed attempts she at last invented the ring-binder we know and love. Almost instantaneously countries adopted her filing system, and with invoices being paid on time there ceased to be a need for war. At a stroke Flo had invented world peace… That was until someone realised the need to invent the hole punch.

So there you go, another Did You Know This fact complete. I’m rushing off now as i’m giving Loyd Grossman a lift to the vets. Thanks, Prof Brian Cox.

Florence

(Above) Stationery heroine Florence Nightingale waiting at the Doctors
(Pictured without her lamp)

Professor Cox’s Did You Know This: Why Do We Have The Longest Day?

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Hello all, Brian here, I’m once again using my immense knowledge of the universe to improve your lives. Today, as you probably know is “the longest day” and all over the planet people are celebrating but how many of us know why? The answer is, like so many of today’s inventions, down to our old friend the Romans.

Before the Roman’s no one had any idea about time nor had they noticed that some days were noticeably longer than others. In fact it was the ancient Greeks in about 550BC who first discovered night time, before that people were probably too dumb to care. Anyway in about 220BC a roman scientist and cloud watcher called Cumilus Nimbus noted that at on some days he could apparently watch clouds for longer than others. He got his friend, a jeweller called Timexius Swatchius, to invent the sandclock (the forebare of the egg timer) so Cumilus could time the hours in the days, and sure enough his hunch was correct. Some days were longer. After 6 years of study Mr Nimbus declared that one day in particular was longer than all the others put together, but due to human error he believed the longest day was April 14th. It wasn’t until 15AD that another scientist, and coincidentally also a cloud watcher, Stratus Fractus did further lengthy studies and correctly identified that June 21st was actually most often the longest day. To celebrate the momentus occasion, his friends Blackerus and Deckius invented the barbecue to cook food for the Gods. Mr Fractus didn’t stop with a longest day, as in later life he also discovered there was a shortest day, and he was overjoyed as that almost coincided with the birthday of his good friend and neighbour Jesus, which meant party time! So there you go, another Did You Know This fact complete. I’m off to the pub now as I’ve got a bet on with the Pet Shop Boys to see who can drink the most pints of beer in daylight hours. Thanks, Prof Brian Cox.

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(Above) A Roman centurian enjoys one of the first Longest Day barbecues

Professor Cox’s Did You Know This: Royal Food

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Hello all, I’m being paid a vast amount to use my immense knowledge of the universe to improve the educational value of this website. I will be posting regular facts in between filming science stuff for the telly and doing gigs with my reformed band Tears For Fears. This Information is bound to astound and amaze you. And from time to time, as an added bonus for my fans, I will also post photos of myself for you to download.

So my first big “Cox” fact is: Everyone knows that Royalty has invented many lovely, simple recipes over the years. For instance the Queen made Coronation Chicken sandwiches to celebrate her Jubilee in 1953, her mother, Queen Victoria, invented the Victoria sponge to acknowledge the abolition of slavery and her sister Margaret came up with sherry trifle because she loved alcohol.

But did you know that our Queen’s Uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was the inventor of a rather delicious staple of afternoon tea? I’m talking about the bright yellow and pink cake called Battenburg. So how did Mr Mounbatten come to bake such an innovatively hued sweet dessert I hear you ask? Well, its a long story set in the 1890s that i will outline here:

A young Terry Mounbatten was captain of the steam ship HMS Lard, sailing the South China seas delivering his precious cargo of butter, sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla essense, marzipan and two types of food colouring to the East India Company. When all of a sudden, like a scene out of that film Titanic, the small orphaned, rag wearing, dirty cockney cabin boy on look-out in the crows nest, shouted out loudly in his cockney accent “Ice Berg ahead captain.” There wasn’t a moment to waste, and even though Mountbatten was at the time enjoying a well-earned relaxing bubblebath with his first mate, he rose, towel-dried, donned his best sailor outfit and put all his boy-scout training to good use. For even though the ship was perillessly close to the berg, about two and a half nautical miles to be precise, Terry managed to steer a safe course past the looming ice thingy. Hurrah shouted his men, we need to celebrate with a feast. But what on earth can I make that suitably extols our near death experience thought Mounty? Then he remembered the cargo in the hold. Surely the East India Company wouldn’t deny him using about 175g of the ingredients to bake a celebratery dish? As he had no mobile phone he couldn’t ask permission, so being a brave man he took matters into his own hands and went ahead with the bake regardless. As history attests the dessert was so so delicious that news of Lord Mountbatten’s “We Didn’t Hit An Iceberg” Cake spread the globe and before you could say “He bakes exceedingly good cakes” a Coventry-based baker, Mr Boris Kipling, had bought the recipe.

But Kipling found had a big problem with his new cake. For the name was impossible to fit onto his small boxes. But not to be outfoxed the wiley baker abbreviated the name, at first to Mounbatten’s Hit Cake, and then after extensive market research (he asked Mrs Kipling her opinion) to the Battenberg name we know and enjoy today. So there you are, my first Did You Know This fact! Well, i’m off to indulge in some cake myself before I have to appear on stage with my band. See you soon, Prof Brian Cox.

Ice Battenberg