Physicist and broadcaster Brian Cox says humanity’s biggest existential threat is not an asteroid or another pandemic, but its own failure to use scientific knowledge wisely. The University of Manchester professor discusses his early fascination with space, the influence of Carl Sagan and why scientific progress must go hand in hand with responsibility.
Now one of Britain’s best-known science communicators, Cox first found fame as a keyboard player in the rock bands Dare and D before returning to academia. His career has since taken him from particle physics research to presenting major BBC science series.
Discovering a passion for space
Growing up in Oldham, on the edge of the Pennines, Cox became fascinated by the night sky as he watched the constellations change with the seasons on his way to school. A vivid childhood memory is queuing outside a cinema to see Star Wars in 1978.
For him, science fiction, astronomy and space were always closely connected. By the age of 11, he knew physics was the subject that interested him most.
He says the key to learning is recognising what you do not understand. Teaching first-year students at Manchester, he encourages them to keep asking questions rather than settling for a superficial grasp of a subject.
The real reward, he argues, is the moment understanding finally clicks into place — something that can be missed when education focuses too heavily on exams.
The influence of Carl Sagan
Cox credits astronomer Carl Sagan’s television series Cosmos with shaping his view of science and its place in society.
Sagan demonstrated that astronomy could illuminate not only the history of the universe, but also questions about evolution, politics and humanity’s future. The series’ final episode, which addressed the threat of nuclear war, was a powerful example of how scientific understanding could inform wider social debates.
Cox rejects the idea that science should be placed above philosophy, history or the arts. Knowledge, he says, should be understood as an interconnected whole rather than divided into separate disciplines.
Dark energy and the mystery of nothing
Among the most significant discoveries in modern cosmology, Cox highlights the finding that the universe’s expansion is accelerating — evidence of a phenomenon known as dark energy.
The discovery, made in the 1990s through observations of distant supernovae, challenged existing assumptions about the universe. One of the researchers involved, Brian Schmidt, initially suspected his team’s results were wrong before checking the evidence and publishing their findings. Schmidt later shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work.
Cox is currently writing a book with a colleague about the vacuum, or the nature of “nothing”, exploring what empty space can reveal about fundamental physics.
For him, the episode illustrates one of science’s defining qualities: the willingness to question established ideas, investigate unexpected results and accept conclusions that initially seem implausible.
Why explaining science matters
Cox believes science communication should focus less on presenting facts and more on explaining how those facts are established.
Rather than simply telling audiences that the early universe was hot and dense, or that a distant galaxy is a particular distance away, he wants people to understand how scientists reached those conclusions.
He acknowledges that some subjects, including quantum computing, remain difficult to explain clearly. Yet even relativity, often regarded as inaccessible, can be introduced to primary-school children when the right approach is found.
For Cox, the ability to question evidence and understand uncertainty is essential to scientific literacy.
AI, climate change and the limits of knowledge
Cox argues that scientific progress has brought enormous benefits, from medical imaging and cancer treatments to new sources of energy. But the same knowledge can also produce nuclear weapons.
Artificial intelligence presents a similar dilemma. It could deliver major advances while also creating serious risks, making it essential for society to consider how powerful technologies are deployed.
He also rejects the idea that climate science is fundamentally controversial. Scientific predictions contain uncertainties, he explains, but researchers measure and quantify those uncertainties rather than ignoring them.
There can be legitimate political disagreements about the best response to climate change, including the choice of technologies, taxes and policies. But Cox says rejecting scientific evidence simply because its implications are inconvenient is not a meaningful challenge to the research.
The greatest threat to humanity
Asked what most concerns him about humanity’s future, Cox points to human behaviour rather than external disasters.
Asteroid impacts and future pandemics pose genuine risks, he says, and scientists are developing ways to reduce their potential impact. In the case of infectious diseases, the ambition is to shorten the time between identifying a new pathogen and producing a vaccine to around 100 days.
But technological advances can also introduce new dangers, some of which may be difficult to predict.
Cox’s greatest concern is that humanity may fail to cooperate sufficiently to prevent catastrophe, particularly when it comes to nuclear weapons.
“If human civilisation is gravely damaged 100 years from now, the most likely explanation is that we did it to ourselves,” he says.
From rock music to physics
Before becoming a familiar face on television, Cox toured Europe with Dare, joining the band at 18. The group progressed from small venues to supporting Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and playing arenas in cities including Gothenburg, Stockholm and Paris.
But Dare broke up halfway through a German tour when Cox was in his early twenties. After years of believing he was on the path to becoming a rock star, he returned to Oldham and applied to study physics at Manchester.
He later joined D while at university, and the band’s appearance on Top of the Pops became a memorable milestone. By then, however, he had accepted that music would not be his main career.
His passion for music has endured. His latest live show includes a song imagining what the Voyager spacecraft might say to humanity after almost five decades travelling through space.
For Cox, music and science have not been competing pursuits so much as different ways of exploring the world. Both continue to shape a career built around curiosity — and the belief that understanding more about the universe should help humanity make wiser choices.
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