People I (Mostly) Admire – Episode 170: Finding the God Particle

Host: Steve Levitt
Guest: Brian Cox
Date: November 8, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Steve Levitt sits down with Brian Cox—a physicist, professor, and former pop star—for a fascinating journey through Cox's unconventional career. The conversation begins with deep dives into particle physics, focusing on the Higgs boson (“the God particle”), then transitions to Cox’s unique trajectory from arena musician to public science communicator, and closes with philosophical discussions about the nature of science. Along the way, Cox demystifies some of the universe’s most complex phenomena, including the Standard Model, black holes, and the process of scientific discovery.

Key Topics & Highlights

1. The Importance of the Higgs Boson (“God Particle”)

[02:00–10:33]

• Context: The Higgs boson’s discovery in 2012 created a media storm, but its significance is often misunderstood.
• Standard Model Simplified:
  • 12 fundamental matter particles (e.g., electrons, quarks) making up all we see.
  • Forces: Electromagnetism (carried by photons), strong nuclear force (gluons), weak nuclear force (W and Z bosons).
  • Particle names: Quarks (from Finnegan’s Wake), gluons literally “glue” the nucleus, reflecting a mix of serious and whimsical naming ([04:16]).

"We have a mathematical theory that describes how all that works... So where does the Higgs fit in?"
—Brian Cox [04:29]

• Role of the Higgs:
  • The Standard Model equations broke down if you simply inserted mass; Peter Higgs and others developed a way of mathematically introducing mass via a new field—the Higgs field—predicting a new particle: the Higgs boson ([05:55]).
  • Discovery exemplifies the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the physical sciences”—a mathematically elegant fix that turned out to be real ([08:27]).

"Particles get mass by interacting with the Higgs field... you can almost picture this stuff as filling the universe, and then particles that don't interact with it... do not acquire mass, and particles that do interact with it acquire mass."
—Brian Cox [08:27]

• Further mysteries: The Higgs may be a template for understanding other mysteries like cosmic inflation and dark energy—fields with similar properties ([09:50]).

2. Detecting the Higgs: The Science and Engineering

[10:33–22:00]

• How do we physically find the Higgs?
  • The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a 27 km ring where protons are accelerated to 99.999999% of light speed ([10:55]).
  • Proton-proton collisions create a “big mess,” but sometimes the right circumstances create a Higgs boson, which then instantly decays ([14:13]).

“The basic point is you want to collide these things together and produce, for a very short space of time, something like Higgs boson.”
—Brian Cox [11:53]

• What’s actually measured: Not the Higgs directly, but its decay products—reconstructing the fleeting event like a cosmic forensic scientist ([16:02]).
• Data and theory: The Standard Model predicts various Higgs decay channels, and statisticians study rare, signature outcomes ([17:41]).
• Science in action: Cox’s most cited paper modeled the “absence” of the Higgs, laying out what to expect if it had not existed, revealing how science builds knowledge even from false hypotheses ([19:21]).

3. The Value of Scientific Surprises

[20:50–22:24]

• Why failed predictions are gold:
  • Cox reflects (paraphrasing Feynman) that disproved theories are exciting because they refine understanding ([20:56]).

"Feynman called science a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, which I think is a beautiful definition of science."
—Brian Cox [21:36]

• Taking joy in being wrong: Progress arises from disproved assumptions, not only from confirmation.

4. Large Hadron Collider Safety: Black Holes and Public Fears

[22:00–24:00]

• Debunking doomsday: Cox addresses fears—famously voiced by legal scholar Richard Posner—that the LHC could spawn a world-ending black hole.
  • Such high-energy collisions are routinely exceeded by cosmic rays hitting Earth with no harm ([22:24]).
  • Probability: Billions of higher-energy cosmic rays have struck Earth over billions of years; the survival of Earth places a tight upper bound on risk ([23:45]).

“If you want to collide lots of particles...it’s better to just use protons because they’re easier, but you need a much more complex magnet setup.”
—Brian Cox [13:04]

5. Black Holes, Information, and the Boundary of Knowledge

[27:22–44:49]

• Hawking & black holes: Hawking’s 1974 discovery that black holes emit radiation (Hawking radiation) showed black holes aren’t completely “black” ([27:22]).
  • Raises the "black hole information paradox": If black holes evaporate and radiation carries no information, does that mean info is destroyed? Fundamental laws say information can’t be destroyed—posing a major paradox ([31:00]).

"Stephen Hawking called science a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance."
—Brian Cox [21:36, paraphrased again at 31:00]

• Relativity for everyone:
  • Cox and Levitt explore the counterintuitive idea that space and time are woven together: the impossibility of catching up with or exceeding the speed of light, no matter your starting velocity ([34:05]).
  • Memorable analogy: Throwing a cricket ball from a plane adds speed in the world of baseball, but with light, the speed remains fixed ([34:45]).

"It's so crazy that time and space are the same thing. I find that mind boggling."
—Steve Levitt [32:30]

• Historical tidbit: Early black hole speculation (Laplace, 18th century) imagined “dark stars” so massive not even light could escape—before realizing true black holes require immense density, not just size ([35:42]).

"The largest objects in the universe may go unseen by reason of their magnitude."
—Laplace, as quoted by Brian Cox [37:20]

• Are we in danger from our galaxy’s black hole? No; it’s harmless unless you deliberately fly into it ([40:22]).

6. Brian Cox’s Unlikely Career Path: From Pop Star to Physicist to Arena Science Communicator

[47:39–53:09]

• Stage One: Musician
  • Teenage Cox played keyboards in Dare, a band founded by Thin Lizzy’s Darren Wharton ([47:39]).
  • Got his break because his dad handed Wharton a demo tape; Cox’s knack for electronics made him invaluable.

“What I was good at...is I was good at the tech stuff. So I could take these keyboards and these old synthesizers...and make them work.”
—Brian Cox [48:14]

- Toured with Jimmy Page, recorded in Joni Mitchell’s studio, lived the classic rock lifestyle.

• Stage Two: Dream & ‘Things Can Only Get Better’
  • Joined the band D:Ream almost by accident, just before their hit topped the UK charts ([51:02]).
  • The song became the anthem of UK political change in 1997 (Tony Blair’s campaign), and periodically re-emerges at moments of national optimism.

“Every time there’s a real election that signifies change and optimism, that song comes back.”
—Brian Cox [52:41]

• Stage Three: Arena Science Lectures
  • Cox’s “Emergences” tour fills arenas, combining cutting-edge visualization and astronomical imagery.
  • Inspired by Kepler’s pursuit of underlying cosmic order, Cox aims to make science culturally central, accessible, and spectacular ([53:13]).

“I've always said science is too important not to be part of popular culture, and I really mean it.”
—Brian Cox [53:19]

7. The Philosophical Heart: What Is Science and Where Might It Take Us?

[01:36 & 56:30–57:13]

• Science as inquiry: From Kepler to the present, modern science began just 400 years ago; Cox marvels at our rapid progression from observing distant planets to sending probes ([53:36]).
• The symmetries of nature: From snowflakes to the Standard Model, underlying regularities hint at deeper truths—echoing Kepler’s “Six Cornered Snowflake” ([53:21]).
• Vigilance against ignorance: Science’s progress depends on this mode of interrogation and exploration, not mere acceptance of received dogma ([56:30]).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Brian Cox on prediction vs. discovery:
  "This is how you do science. You guess theories...and then you test the predictions against observation and experiment." [07:05]

• On being proven wrong:
  "You learn...how to be wrong and how to be pleased, because the moment you’re shown to be wrong, you can rule a picture you have about the way that reality works." [21:11]

• Levitt’s meta-commentary:
  "I've made a conjecture around that book [A Brief History of Time] that is the single most unread book in history...but regular people just couldn't read it." [31:00]

• Cox’s humility & luck:
  “I wasn’t a very good keyboard player, but...I could make [synthesizers] work...So I got in the band.” [48:14]

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Time | Topic | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 01:05 | Introduction to Brian Cox’s career path | | 02:00 | Why the Higgs boson (“God particle”) matters | | 10:33 | How the Higgs boson is detected at the LHC | | 19:21 | Cox’s famously “wrong” paper and scientific process | | 22:00 | Addressing black hole/LHC safety fears | | 27:22 | Black holes, Hawking radiation, and the information paradox| | 31:00 | Explaining relativity and the “unread” Hawking book | | 35:42 | Early black hole theories | | 40:21 | Are we at risk from galactic black holes? | | 47:39 | Cox’s music career (Dare, D:Ream, “Things Can Only Get Better”)| | 53:13 | Arena science tours (“Emergences”) and Kepler inspiration | | 56:30 | The essence of science as exploration |

Final Thoughts

Brian Cox’s journey—artist, scientist, communicator—exemplifies science not as a fixed body of facts, but a dynamic quest for understanding filled with imagination, beauty, and joy in the unexpected. He invites the public not only to marvel at the universe’s mysteries, but to participate in the ongoing story.

For more information, including Brian Cox’s “Emergences” world tour, visit briancoxlive.co.uk.