Stephen Presents: Prof. Brian Cox (Extended)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Stephen Presents: Prof. Brian Cox (Extended)
Release Date: May 28, 2025
Host: CBS | The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Guest: Professor Brian Cox, Renowned Particle Physicist and Science Communicator

---

1. Introduction and Light Banter (01:33 - 08:32)

The episode begins with Stephen Colbert engaging in light-hearted conversation with Professor Brian Cox, setting a relaxed and personable tone for the discussion. They touch upon topics ranging from fashion to marine biology, showcasing the versatile rapport between the host and guest.

• Fashion Talk:
  Stephen Colbert comments on Cox's attire, leading to a humorous exchange about vintage styles and patterns.

  "It's like a gingham, right? It's kind of a big gingham. Or a plaid. Sort of a muted plaid." — Stephen Colbert [02:00]

• Whale Sightings:
  The conversation shifts to marine biology, where Colbert shares his experience of seeing a beached humpback whale on Block Island.

  "It's crazy to see a whale on the ground and be like, you know, blown away by the majesty of the sea." — Stephen Colbert [02:38]

This segment serves to humanize Professor Cox, making him relatable to the audience before delving into more complex scientific discussions.

2. Introduction of Professor Brian Cox (08:32 - 09:03)

Stephen formally introduces Professor Brian Cox to the audience, highlighting his role as an English physicist and television host who excels in making science accessible to the masses.

"Please welcome to the Late Show, Professor Brian Cox. Nice to see you again." — Stephen Colbert [08:40]

3. Exploring the Vastness of the Universe (09:03 - 16:32)

The core of the episode revolves around an in-depth discussion on cosmology, the size of the universe, and the implications of recent astronomical discoveries.

• Sheer Scale of the Universe:
  Professor Cox emphasizes the enormity of the universe, sharing staggering numbers that illustrate its vastness.

  "Two trillion galaxies in the observable universe." — Professor Brian Cox [09:26]

  He further elaborates on the multitude of stars and planets within these galaxies.

  "The Milky Way galaxy has what, 400 billion suns. All of those pretty much have planets. So there will be trillions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy." — Professor Brian Cox [09:49]

• Existence of Intelligent Life:
  Addressing the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, Cox discusses the rarity of life developing to a complex, civilization-building stage.

  "It took 4 billion years to produce anything as complex as us. So from cell to civilization, 4 billion years, 1 third of the age of the universe. So that brings many astrophysicists to guess the number of places that have been stable enough for long enough to support an unbroken chain of life for 4 billion years, which might be very low and very rare." — Professor Brian Cox [09:55]

• Elemental Origins of Life:
  Delving into the origins of the elements that make up our bodies, Cox reiterates Carl Sagan's famous notion:

  "Everything in your body other than the hydrogen had to be made in stars. So that's the origin of Carl Sagan's famous quote that we're all star stuff." — Professor Brian Cox [10:57]

• Visualizing the Universe:
  Professor Cox shares insights about the James Webb Space Telescope's deep field images, highlighting the concentration of galaxies in a minuscule portion of the sky.

  "In that tiny little patch, there's 10,000 galaxies that are perceivable by the Webb. And that's what's behind us when he's talking about sort of the ungrippable size of the universe." — Professor Brian Cox [06:15]

4. Comparing the Scientist and the Actor Brian Cox (11:15 - 15:20)

A playful segment ensues as the discussion shifts to the shared name between Professor Brian Cox and the actor Brian Cox, known for his role as Logan Roy in Succession.

• Name Confusion:
  The guests recount amusing instances where restaurants and fans accidentally mix them up.

  "I had to double book the same table. People get worried." — Professor Brian Cox [11:34]

• Distinct Personalities:
  Professor Cox differentiates himself from his namesake, emphasizing his passion for science and cosmology.

  "He's a succession fan, but sometimes it'll be him. They ask him anyway, sometimes you get." — Professor Brian Cox [11:48]

5. Deep Dive into Dark Energy and Cosmic Expansion (12:31 - 16:32)

The conversation takes a scientific turn as Stephen and Professor Cox discuss recent findings from the James Webb Space Telescope concerning the universe's expansion.

• Unexpected Acceleration:
  Professor Cox explains the discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating faster than previously thought.

  "We call it dark energy. So there's something called dark energy which dominates the universe. That's three quarters of the energy in the universe or so." — Professor Brian Cox [13:10]

• Understanding Dark Energy:
  He elaborates on how dark energy is inferred from observations rather than directly measured.

  "We know it's there because we measure that the galaxies are moving apart from each other faster and faster. So you can make that measurement. And then you infer, therefore, that something has got to be stretching space faster than we expected." — Professor Brian Cox [13:28]

• Conceptualizing Space Expansion:
  Addressing a listener's analogy, Cox clarifies the nature of space stretching in the context of the universe's expansion.

  "It's a theory of something called space time. ... the idea really is that that fabric stretches." — Professor Brian Cox [14:02]

• Historical Perspective:
  The discussion touches upon Georges Lemaitre's contribution to the Big Bang theory, highlighting the intersection of faith and science.

  "He was a priest, and he was a physicist and a mathematician and did all this cosmology. ... 'there are two roads to the truth, and I choose to take them both.'" — Professor Brian Cox [15:20]

6. The Profound Implications of Cosmic Scale (16:32 - 17:57)

Professor Cox reflects on the philosophical and existential questions arising from our understanding of the universe's scale.

• Finite Life in an Infinite Universe:
  He ponders the significance of human existence against the backdrop of an immense and potentially indifferent cosmos.

  "What does it mean to live a finite, fragile life in an infinite, eternal universe?" — Professor Brian Cox [16:33]

• Humanity as a Unique Phenomenon:
  Cox suggests that the existence of human consciousness might imply that Earth holds a special place in the universe, despite its physical insignificance.

  "Maybe the Earth is special, very special, notwithstanding its physical insignificance, because it could be the only island of meaning in a galaxy of 400 billion Suns currently." — Professor Brian Cox [16:33]

• Carl Sagan's Perspective:
  Referencing Carl Sagan, Cox underscores the remarkable nature of human beings as complex assemblies of atoms capable of contemplating the universe.

  "Carl Sagan said... a physicist is a hydrogen atom's way of learning about hydrogen atoms... it's a remarkable thing to be a human being." — Professor Brian Cox [17:43]

7. Conclusion and Farewell (17:57 - 19:01)

Stephen Colbert wraps up the episode by thanking Professor Brian Cox for his insightful contributions, encouraging listeners to engage with more of his work.

"Professor Brian Cox, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert." — Stephen Colbert [17:57]

The episode concludes with promotional content, which is outside the scope of this summary.

---

Key Takeaways:

• Vastness of the Universe: The observable universe contains approximately two trillion galaxies, each with billions of stars and potentially trillions of planets, underscoring the immense scale of cosmic structures.

• Dark Energy and Expansion: Recent findings indicate that the universe's expansion is accelerating faster than previously anticipated, a phenomenon attributed to dark energy, which remains one of the most enigmatic components of cosmology.

• Existence of Life: The transition from simple cells to complex civilizations took billions of years on Earth, raising questions about the rarity of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

• Human Significance: Amidst the backdrop of an expansive universe, the unique emergence of human consciousness presents profound philosophical questions about meaning and existence.

• Bridging Science and Public Understanding: Professor Brian Cox exemplifies the role of scientists in making complex scientific concepts accessible and engaging to the general public, fostering a deeper appreciation for the wonders of the cosmos.

---

Notable Quotes:

• "Everything in your body other than the hydrogen had to be made in stars. So that's the origin of Carl Sagan's famous quote that we're all star stuff." — Professor Brian Cox [10:57]

• "What does it mean to live a finite, fragile life in an infinite, eternal universe?" — Professor Brian Cox [16:33]

• "Carl Sagan said... a physicist is a hydrogen atom's way of learning about hydrogen atoms... it's a remarkable thing to be a human being." — Professor Brian Cox [17:43]

---

This episode offers listeners a profound exploration of cosmology, blending scientific rigor with engaging dialogue, and highlighting the delicate balance between our individual existence and the grand tapestry of the universe.

Transcript

[Roan]

Every day is a chance to move forward, so why settle for gear that holds you back? Roan delivers technical fabrics that breathe, stretch and adapt, keeping you sharp and comfortable from work to workouts. Roan's advanced fabrics fight odor, keep you cool, and move with you. With wrinkle release tech and a tailored fit, you'll always look as good as you feel. Upgrade your wardrobe, because when your clothing performs, so do you. Performance apparel Fit for progress. New customers get 20% off your first [e-mail] with code ROAN20. You ever hit that moment when your kid asks for help with homework and you're like, wait, when did long division get this complicated? Or maybe your child's flying through lessons and getting bored in class? Yeah, been there. Whether they're struggling or soaring, IXL can make a real difference. IXL is an award winning online platform that helps kids really understand what they're learning. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies from Pre K through 12th grade. And it's actually fun, engaging, personalized, and packed with encouraging feedback to help keep them motivated. IXL is used by 96 of the top 100 school districts in the US and it's no surprise it's backed by research. Kids using IXL are scoring higher on tests, and studies from almost every state show they're consistently doing better. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And listeners of this podcast can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixcellearning.com audio visit ixllearning.com audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's the Late Show Poncho with Stephen Colbert. All right.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

That's a great shirt, by the way.

[Stephen Colbert]

Thank you. It's coming.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

How would we describe that vintage? It's almost like cowgirl.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, it's a yee haw for sure. Yeah, it's a lasso effect. It's vintage. It's got a lasso effect.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

That's nice. Also, the big collar is nice.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. And I love a big button. Sometimes I'm just searching depop for big button shoes.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Is that. What would you call that pattern?

[Stephen Colbert]

It's like a gingham, right? It's kind of a big gingham. Or a plaid. Sort of a muted plaid.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Yeah. Or a window panel. What's a sawtooth?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, okay, now you're eclipsing me in the fashion. In the fashion element. All right, well, you're listening to it's not Scrimshaw. What Is scrimshaw.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

You don't know what scrimshaw is? Oh, scrimshaw is images carved onto whale bone. Like, sailors would take whale bone and they would take a sharp object, any piece of glass, whatever, and they would. A knife. They would carve images into scrimshaw, often like a mermaid or something like that.

[Stephen Colbert]

I saw a beached whale last summer. I should have taken some boats.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Where did you see a beach whale?

[Stephen Colbert]

Block Island. Big old humpback. Big old humpback got blown over. But, you know, it was beautiful to see. It's crazy to see a whale on the ground and be like, you know, blown away by the majesty of the sea.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

And it makes you understand why people thought monsters existed for so long.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Because it's a monster.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Yeah. You ever see a beach whale?

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

How could I not have? I've spent so much time on beaches. No. I've seen a lot of live whales out in the ocean, though.

[Stephen Colbert]

See, I've never seen a live whale. Would love to. Yeah.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

God. I've done. I'm not a big sailor, but I've done some big sailing. I've done three open ocean races. So you're basically a week out of sight of land for a week and going like a thousand miles out. And just to know that you have to, like, fall off the wind so you don't hit a pod of whales. That's a really exciting thing. Or off to, you know, starboard. Suddenly, a pod of sperm whales breaching and slamming back into the water.

[Stephen Colbert]

Cool.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Unbelievable. Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

God. You're listening to the Late Show. Pod show. If you're just tuning in.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Had we not even introduced the show yet?

[Stephen Colbert]

No, not yet.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

My apologies.

[Stephen Colbert]

But you've heard some fashion and some talk of whales.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Exactly.

[Stephen Colbert]

Some marine biology.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I feel it's my job to kind of get in the way of Becca's agenda every day. I'm an obstacle. This is a steeplechase for you. Yes. And I'm the crossbar in the water pit on the other side.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's good training for me. It's good training for me to stand up for myself and say, you know what? I'm starting the pot. You.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Let's start it.

[Stephen Colbert]

And this is something we do when we're on break. There's no new shows, unfortunately, on the air this week, but fortunately for the pod listeners.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Yeah. We've.

[Stephen Colbert]

We're putting out extended content with our host Stephen Colbert here in the podcast booth. Just for you listeners playing stuff that is. That had been cut down for broadcast, but we fit it back all in.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

We plump it back it up.

[Stephen Colbert]

Uh huh. For the full podcast.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

We plump it back up. I said we plump it back it up. Which also sounds like a lyric to a pitbull lyric.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Plump it back it up.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Okay, so I have a quiz for who this tonight's guest is.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Okay. We often do this where she tries to get me to guess based on a hint who we're about to roll.

[Stephen Colbert]

This guest shares the name of another guest we've had on the show before.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I guess we've had another. Oh, well, there's two Jon Lovitts. There's two Jon Favreaus, not a John.

[Stephen Colbert]

Okay, that narrows it down.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Give me something. The other one who's not this person. What the other person does.

[Stephen Colbert]

Logan Roy is his character.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Oh, this is Brian Cox.

[Stephen Colbert]

This is.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

This is Professor Brian Cox, the particle physicist.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, yes.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

He's like English Neil Degrasse Tyson.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Tell us about him. How did you first get in touch with him? How do you know about his stuff?

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Well, I love popular science.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I love cosmology. I love the ungrippable, ineffable, incalculable size of the universe. I don't feel small. I feel like I'm. I don't know, I feel weightless, like I'm falling. When I think about how big the universe is, I kind of picture myself out there floating with it. But that's not how I got to know him. I had him on the old show in character. I had him on, and we've never had him on this show. This is only the second time I've ever spoken to him. And just a joy. I think we did like eight, nine minutes or something. And maybe this is gonna be longer. The. But I could have talked to him for an hour. Man. His voice is both soothing and enthusiastic. And I like the way he thinks. I love the grandeur of the concept. He's asking you to drink in. And there's a childlike quality to him, meaning like the joy of the world. He's a balm to listen to.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. And I think it's a really special, rare talent to be someone who understands these like huge concepts that are so scientifically challenging so well, but then to be able to communicate it to people who don't have the same level of education he does in a very human way that gets everyone else excited about it. That's a super yes. Yeah, that's what. And that's like a great example of how much variety we have on our talk show.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

This is. This is Obviously a podcast you're not going to see. There's a big image we put on the screen behind my desk. There's a giant HD screen behind my desk, which usually has a view of Central Park. But this, it turns into. I can't remember the name. It's one of the deep field shots that's taken by the web. And it basically it surveys something that's about the half the size of the full Moon. And the full moon, keep in mind, in the sky is about the size of a dime held at arm's length. You know, we think of the moon as bigger. It's really a tiny portion of the sky. And half of that size, half of that area of the sky. The Webb Telescope took a long exposure in the infrared of that. And there are. In that tiny little patch, there's 10,000 galaxies that are perceivable by the Webb. And that's what's behind us when he's talking about sort of the ungrippable size of the universe.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

And every one of those galaxies has billions and billions of stars.

[Stephen Colbert]

Insane, Insane. Insane to comprehend.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

You can sometimes see stars in New York.

[Stephen Colbert]

I see some stars and I love night clouds.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

What'd you say?

[Stephen Colbert]

Night clouds. When, like, the light pollution so bad that you can, like see all these kind of spooky clouds at night because they're getting the underlit.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

You can see major things like you can see Sirius and you can see. You can see Orion and you can see Aldebaran. It's very hard to see the Pleiades because the sisters up there, they're very faint, but nothing like, oh, Venus. You can always see not a star, but the planets. You can see Jupiter and Venus and Mars is good. It's great just to go out into the city and look up and remind yourself that you'd be seeing the same sky, but just better out in the country. But you're still there. Like, it connects you, gets you out of the city just to look up.

[Stephen Colbert]

Totally.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

All right.

[Stephen Colbert]

All right. This is Professor Brian Cox on the Lecho Bacho.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. My next guest is an English physicist and television host who makes science accessible to the masses. He's just brought his live Show Horizons, a 21st century odyssey to the United States. Please welcome to the Late Show, Professor Brian Cox. Nice to see you again.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Nice to see you. Happy birthday.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Thank you very much, very much. It's been too long. Had a chance to chat? Yeah. World renowned particle physicist. You guys use huge numbers. How's your Math.

[Professor Brian Cox]

They are huge numbers. I mean, 13.8 billion years.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Yeah.

[Professor Brian Cox]

That's what, nine zeros after that? Yeah, yeah, big numbers. Two trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Two trillion.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Two trillion.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Has that number gone up recently?

[Professor Brian Cox]

Well, no, our understanding of it has changed. I'd say it's not, but I just.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Feel like when I was a kid, it was like, there are billions and billions of galaxies. Now we're talking about multiples of a thousand above it.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Two trillion. And each of those, I mean, the Milky Way galaxy has what, 400 billion suns. All of those pretty much have planets. So there will be trillions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I've heard you say that you might be worried that you're worried that we might be the only intelligent life out there.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Yeah. And you know, if you say 400 billion suns in a Milky Way galaxy, we think there are maybe 10 or 20 billion potentially earth like worlds. So you might say, well, surely there are others out there. But the evidence that we have from life on Earth is that life began around 3.8 billion years ago. 4 billion years, let's say here. But it took 4 billion years to produce anything as complex as us. So from cell to civilization, 4 billion years, 1 third of the age of the universe. So that brings many, or leads many astrophysicists, cosmologists, to guess the number of places that have been stable enough for long enough to support an unbroken chain of life for 4 billion years, which is what it took to produce us. Might be very low and very rare.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Is our star, our sun and our planets, they're not the first go around for the coalescence of that hydrogen, that helium, Are they, Are they the results of other stars that formed and exploded and heavy elements and that sort of things? Absolutely.

[Professor Brian Cox]

So when you go back 13.8 billion years, all there was in the universe was hydrogen and helium. So that implies that everything in your body other than the hydrogen had to be made in stars. So that's the origin of Carl Sagan's famous quote that we're all star stuff. But it's true.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Well, you share a name with the actor Brian Cox.

[Professor Brian Cox]

I do.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

And best known as Logan Roy in succession. Here's the two of you together. Do people ever get. Do people ever get confused when you show up?

[Professor Brian Cox]

You know, that was a restaurant and I'd gone in first and I'd said, oh, yes, a table, table for Brian Cox, please. And they'd ushered me to the table. And then he came in later and said, table for Brian Cox. And they panicked. They're like, oh, no, we've only got one table for these guys.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Did you literally double book the same table?

[Professor Brian Cox]

Well, no, we'd planned it that way so they'd be very worried about it. But people do get worried. He always says to me that sometimes it's a 50, 50 thing. So sometimes I'll get in a car and they'll turn around and they'll go, oh, shock. You know, they're a succession fan, but sometimes it'll be him. And they've got all their things, like the questions about the size and scale of the universe. And then he gets in and it's like, oh. They ask him anyway, sometimes you got.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

The new live show. As I said before, Horizons, a 21st century space odyssey arrived in the United States a few weeks ago, coming to New York this coming week.

[Professor Brian Cox]

I'm on in about an hour, so if you could.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

All right, let's keep going.

[Professor Brian Cox]

I'm going to go over to this.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I want to ask you some other stuff about space. In December, the James Webb telescope, which is about a million miles out there, right in one of the Lagrange points, confirmed the universe is expanding at an unexpectedly fast rate. And, well, first of all, why is it unexpectedly fast and why does it matter?

[Professor Brian Cox]

Well, it matters. I mean, you're right in some sense it doesn't matter, but it matters in the. So the universe is expanding, and we found out a few decades ago that it's accelerating in its expansion, so it's expanding faster and faster.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Do we know why?

[Professor Brian Cox]

We don't really know why. So in astronomy, if you don't know what something is, you just put dark in front of it. So we call it dark energy. So there's something called dark energy which dominates the universe. That's three quarters of the energy in the universe or so.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

And you know that it's there. Is it measurable?

[Professor Brian Cox]

We know it's there because we measure that the galaxies are moving apart from each other faster and faster. So you can make that measurement. And then you infer, therefore, that something has got to be stretching space faster than we expected.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

So, wait, wait. Let me ask. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Space stretching space.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Does that sound a bit complicated?

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Space feels a little weird because, okay, so you have all these galaxies. Let's just say these galaxies, all the galaxies in the world were in like a. A one by one by one cube, like one foot by one foot by one foot cube. And if I pulled the cube like this and made the space of the cube bigger, and the galaxies sort of stay in the sort of gelatinous material of space that's inside of it and move with the sides of the walls as I pull them out. So they spread apart from each other. Are they really expanding or are they just changing their position relative to each other because the space that they occupy is growing further apart?

[Professor Brian Cox]

It's a great question. So we talked about Einstein's theory of General Rel 1915, this theory, and that's a theory of something called space time. It's often called the fabric of the universe. So immediately there you can see this idea that space and time are kind of woven together into a fabric. And the idea really is that that fabric stretches. And you know, the first person to suspect that from the mathematics, because you were talking about the Pope earlier, was a priest, a Catholic priest called Georges Lemaitre. And he was the first to take the theory seriously. And you imagine he saw it in the equations, this tendency for the space to stretch. So he reasoned, well, then that means everything was closer together in the past. And he wrote a very famous letter to Einstein and said, you, theory suggests there was a day without a yesterday. Because he was imagining, just from the mathematics, he was imagining this time when everything.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Well, that's a major gun. Big Bang, right?

[Professor Brian Cox]

Yeah.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

So he came up with the idea of the big Bang.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Yeah. So he's often called the father of the Big Bang. And he was one satisfied. I was thinking when you were in the interview earlier, he was one satisfactor. How can you be a priest and a physicist and a mathematician and do all this cosmology? He said, there are two roads to the truth, and I choose to take them both. She's a very beautiful answer, isn't it? She's a very poetic one.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

I want to. We have. You brought one of your favorite images here to the show and we have it. Can we put it up on the wall, please? Jim, what are we looking at?

[Professor Brian Cox]

This is a beautiful photograph. So it's a photograph from the James Webb, and it's a tiny piece of sky that's much smaller than a full moon. So imagine this photograph with a tiny.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Piece of sky, a few arc seconds of the moon.

[Professor Brian Cox]

Yeah, Just tiny. And in there, almost everything apart from that, you can see a star like object at the top, which is a star in the Milky Way galaxy because we're looking out through the galaxy to the distant universe. But everything else in that photograph is a galaxy. So all those things are roughly the size of the Milky way with the 400 billion Suns. There are something like 10,000 galaxies in that single image. So I think it's a humbling and beautiful and terrifying, actually.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Why terrifying?

[Professor Brian Cox]

Well, if you think about. You asked earlier about these big numbers. One of the things I say in my live show at the start is the thing that occurs to you when you think about images like that is what does it mean to live a finite, fragile life in an infinite, eternal universe? And I immediately say, I don't know. Nobody knows the answer to that question. But that's actually where you referred to earlier, this potential idea, this possibility. Imagine that we're the only civilization currently in the Milky Way galaxy, which is a guess, but it's possibility. I would argue that that word meaning, what does it mean? Whatever it is, it exists. Clearly the universe means something to us. But I would argue it's a property of the mind, human brains, complex biology. So that implies that maybe the Earth is special, very special, notwithstanding its physical insignificance, because it could be the only island of meaning in a galaxy of 400 billion Suns currently. So there's a clash of ideas when you talk about cosmology. There's the physical insignificance as you see there, 10,000 galaxies in a single patch of sky. But there's also this remarkable fact that collections of atoms like us exist on a world like the Earth. Carl Sagan said, one of my great heroes, said a physicist is a hydrogen atom's way of learning about hydrogen atoms. When you put it like that, it is a remarkable thing to be a human being.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Well, professor, thank you so much for being here. Always lovely to talk to you. His live show is a 21st century space odyssey. Professor Brian Cox, everybody. Thank you for listening to the late show Pod show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing if you want to see more of me me. Come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives. Now playing clock is running. You will never see a movie like this again. Mission Impossible is a symphony of action, scale and spectacle. Tom Cruise has outdone himself. Mission Impossible the Final Reckoning now playing. Rated PG 13 911, six emergency yes. Somebody killed two girls.

[Stephen Colbert]

My grandbaby and my friend.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

A Paramount plus original. She wants to find more young women for him to kill. The untold stories of the real cases. Each one he gets away with. He's emboldened. The FBI can't shake.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's very satisfying to be able to.

[Guest (possibly Brian Cox)]

Look at a bad guy and go, we never forgot you. An all new season of FBI True streaming now on Paramount plus.