Review: Uncaged Monkeys
Can science ever be cool? Or even funny?
If your initial answer is "never in a million years" I wouldn't blame you. The only time I ever enjoyed a science lesson in school is when we got to cut something open or set fire to things.
Well the Uncaged Monkeys tour is about to change your perceptions on science.
"What's that?" I hear you say, "Scientists don't go on tour. They sit in labs and wear white coats and avoid contact with other humans." Well that's just the kind of stereotype these guys set out to break: accompanied by science-loving comedians including Dara O'Briain, Chris Addison, Helen Arney and Cardiff's own Neuroscientist-turned-comedian Dean Burnett, this troupe of scientists are going around the country reminding people that science doesn't have to be boring.
Paying to see a bunch of scientists talking for two hours might not sound like a typical comedy gig, but their recent Cardiff show proved to be an equally hilarious and mind-blowing experience. From explaining the Big Bang Theory by electrocuting gherkins and playing Stairway To Heaven backwards, to explaining how time travel is actually possible, Uncaged Monkeys left me with a new-found reverence for the interesting side to science.
After an introduction by comic and host Robin Ince, the show kicked off with the brilliant Ben Goldacre: a doctor and Guardian journalist who runs the blog Bad Science and authored a book of the same name. Ben has made it his mission to expose "bad science": ridiculous claims which sound scientific but are in fact a load of rubbish. He showed the audience slides of sensationalist and scaremongering headlines (mostly from The Daily Mail) with claims like "MMR Vaccine Could Cause Autism" and then proceeded to explain, in a language that us non-scientists could understand, how there was absolutely no link whatsoever and the entire scare was based on next to nothing.
It was interesting and eye-opening, and both hilarious and terrifying when he explained just how easily false information can be accepted as truth with the general public — often encouraged by newspapers wanting a scary headline because it'll sell more papers. One of his favourite targets is Dr Gillian McKeith (PhD) "or — to give her full medical title — Gillian McKeith."
Ben Goldacre had the audience in stitches when he analysed some of Gillian McKeith's health advice: one particular gem, which can be read in full here, explained how a diet she recommended was not only entirely redundant, but that if her advice actually did work it would cause the human body to explode by igniting the methane in your bowels! To finish his set he showed us a copy of Gillian McKeith's PhD, followed by the website where you can buy them, and closed with an identical PhD that he had bought for his cat. The fact that his cat now has the same medical qualification as Gillian McKeith was just priceless.
Next up was Simon Singh, who used scientific formulae to prove that the Teletubbies are evil and discussed the Big Bang Theory by electrocuting a gherkin and reversing Led Zeppelin.
After the break and some science-themed comedy the stage was dominated by Professor Brian Cox, presenter of the recent BBC programme Wonders of the Universe. This was the ultimate mind-blowing experience. Similar to Ben Goldacre, he started by looking at sensationalist news reports about the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland (which Cox worked on) and explained that, no, the world wasn't going to get eaten by a giant black hole as a result of switching it on. Throughout the evening it was reiterated that science is not scary, which I think is an important lesson to remember in this age of media hysteria.
He then looked at government spending on scientific research compared with other areas of spending, and got another laugh/gasp of terror from the audience when he pointed out that the government spent more money bailing out the bankers in the aftermath of the recession than the total amount of money it has spent on scientific research since the days of Jesus.
I'm not sure whether it was because he used more long sciencey words, or whether it's just because he looks a bit dreamy, but I did find this talk a little hard to follow in places. But he was able to grip my attention at all the important bits, like when he explained how time travel is possible. Yes, you read that right. Don't quote me on the numbers, but he basically explained how you could spend 50 years travelling to a certain point in space, then another 50 years coming back to Earth, and when you got home 5,000 years would have passed!
Looking around at the 1,500 people in St David's Hall who had all come out to learn something about science was a tremendously inspiring thing, and I was particularly proud to see so many young people there (big shout out to thewelshboyo who I spotted there!). The Uncaged Monkeys are currently touring the UK (dates here) and I would heartily recommend going to see them if you fancy an entertaining night out of the ordinary.
I will now leave you with this image that I found on Tumblr in the hope that it inspires you all to become great scientists:
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Simon Singh photo credit: Richard Freeman
3 Comments – Post a comment
neilramsden
Commented 60 months ago - 15th May 2011 - 19:11pm
Gutted I didn't hear about this sooner! Sounds awesome.
josh_io
Commented 60 months ago - 16th May 2011 - 04:19am
I went to see this too! Basically what Brian Cox was explaining about time travel was:
When we travel through space we also travel through time, and if we traveled to our nearest galaxy, andromeda 150million lightyears away, at 99.99% the speed of light it would take 50 years to get there and 50 to get back (relevant to where you are in the galaxy, so not a year as we know it). As you had traveled at near light speed passing through space (and also time) when you return to earth 5000 years would have past.
Hope that wasn't too complicated =P
Dan (Sub-Editor)
Commented 60 months ago - 16th May 2011 - 13:25pm
Thanks for explaining that, Josh! :)