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back to article Monty Python legend Eric Idle and rockstar boffin Cox write a song

Monty Python legend Eric Idle and fresh-faced rockstar physicist Brian Cox have teamed up to write a song. It's an update to Monty Python's "Galaxy song" about the meaning(lessness) of life, with a new focus on the biological reasons for our insignificance and will be featuring on the BBC show The Wonder of Life in January. Idle …

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  1. Steve Foster

    Original...

    ...can be found here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

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  2. A J Stiles
    Thumb Up

    Still makes me tear up a bit

    This version has the same affect as the original version.

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    1. MrT
      Reply Icon

      True...

      ... but I'm sure everyone is pleased to note that life is, despite the government's best efforts, no longer a piece of sh1t...

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        I'm not.

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      2. A J Stiles
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        FAIL

        Re: True...

        Wrong song.

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        1. MrT
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          Re: True...

          ... and more embarrassingly the entirely wrong movie, but I realised it after ObSolutions Inc had posted... I probably cross read it with the "look on the bright side" post further down about Richard Hammond... :-/

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  3. Anonymous Custard

    Class

    Not as good as the original version (especially it's lack of last-line wrap-up) but still fun.

    Just a shame that they have to get a theoretical physicist to present a show on biology and evolution, when there are other more directly qualified candidates around.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Class

      They should've gotten Sheldon to present it. Would be far more entertaining.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Class

      Oh look on the bright side - it's not Richard Hammond.

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      1. Anonymous Custard
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        Re: Class

        True, but neither is it Charlotte Uhlenbroek...

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        1. squigbobble
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          Unhappy

          Re: Class

          ...nor Dr. Alice Roberts

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    3. Daz555
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      Re: Class

      I think that is sort of the point - a look on Life from the perspective of a physicist.

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  4. bolccg
    WTF?

    Age versus size

    Um, can someone clear something up for me. I understood the universe to be about 14 billion years old. Assuming nothing can travel faster than light, presumably the universe can only be about 28 billion light years across, therefore?

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    1. User McUser
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      Re: Age versus size

      From what I understand, the universe can expand faster than the speed of light.

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      1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge
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        Re: Age versus size

        Yes, the universe isn't moving, it's stretching. Or space is stretching. Or something.

        By the way, this came up when there was that song about "Nine million bicycles in Beijing", and I don't think -that's- true any more either, they've all got cars now. The bicycles might be still there in attics, but probably not everyone in Beijing has an attic, either.

        This writer agrees: http://bedejournal.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/nine-million-bicycles.html

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    2. A J Stiles
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      Boffin

      Re: Age versus size

      Actually, you might want to make that 14 billion light years across. According to relativity, any two things moving away from the same point (i.e., the original site of the big bang) at the speed of light, are also only moving away from each other at the speed of light.

      But I'm getting giddy from all the big numbers. I likes me exponents negative, I tells you!

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    3. bolccg
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      Thumb Up

      Re: Age versus size

      Thanks to all for the responses.

      Wikipedia has this to say:

      "While special relativity constrains objects in the universe from moving faster than the speed of light with respect to each other, there is no such theoretical constraint when space itself is expanding. It is thus possible for two very distant objects to be expanding away from each other at a speed greater than the speed of light,"

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size.2C_age.2C_contents.2C_structure.2C_and_laws

      Which is interesting.

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  5. Gobhicks
    Happy

    14 Billion Years

    This probably doesn't answer bolccg's question, but it's pretty cool...

    http://scaleofuniverse.com/

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    1. NB
      Reply Icon

      Re: 14 Billion Years

      That's awesome but I fear the internet has jaded me. I was actually surprised when it didn't end with a drawing of a fat woman and the words "Your mum".

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    2. Anonymous Coward
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      Joke

      Re: 14 Billion Years

      I'll drink a toast to it after I've wiped the quantum foam off my lips...

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  6. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Unfortunately...

    ... the last two lines of the song have not been changed.

    Because there hasn't been any need to change them....

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The show's called "The Wonders of Life"

    note the plural, to match Prof Cox's previous globetrotting videolectures

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  8. Rick Brasche

    there's always the "Animaniacs" version

    "it's a great big universe, and we are all really puny...."

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