Brian Cox, scientist, TV presenter, 46

THE TV presenter who makes science sexy on dark energy, intelligent life and budget cuts that go back in time.

THE GUARDIAN Originally shot for The Guardian. British Scientists. David Attenborough, Professor Brian Cox, Professor Stephe...

YOUR TV shows explain science in such an engaging way. Who’s your inspiration?

Carl Sagan. I saw Cosmos when I was 12, and I loved Sagan’s polemical streak. For him, science was more than just finding out about how nature works — it could also inform you how to live. The question of whether we’re alone in the universe, for example: both possible answers, yes or no, have profound implications for us. Sagan was the first to pose questions like that on TV.

It’s rumoured there are out-takes of you swearing like a trooper. True? Yeah, I’m really sweary. Making these documentaries is like being in a band: you’re thrown together for months at a time, in difficult situations. You might be in Ethiopia, say, stressed and tired and covered in mosquito repellent, trying to film. Swearing is just the way it goes.

The tagline for your speaking tour is “Physicist. TV presenter. Author. Rock star.” Did you write that yourself? No! [Laughs]. I’d lose “rock star”, personally. The D:Ream stuff was such a long time ago — I haven’t been involved in music for almost 20 years, and I’ve kind of forgotten about it.

Your research career is in particle physics. Fascinating subject, but what’s the point of it? Is it just curiosity? Science at its best, at its most powerful, is always curiosity-led — and it’s not surprising that finding things out about the natural world actually turns out to be useful. Take the early discoveries about electricity and magnetism and the atomic nucleus: almost as a spin-off, they gave us the modern world.

You said recently, “We don’t know what 96 per cent of the universe is made of.” Is that embarrassing? No, it’s fascinating and humbling. Observations tell us there’s much more mass out there than we can see. It’s bizarre. But this data about dark energy and dark matter, and the theory of inflation, are beginning to come together now. I think we’re on the verge of a revolution.

The tabloids call you Cox the Fox, the sexy scientist. Does that make you squirm? I’ve always said science is way too important not to be part of popular culture. We don’t want science to be only in the broadsheets, as a kind of high culture. We want everyone to talk about it. So I can’t whinge.

Our PM has made deep cuts to federal science agencies. Your thoughts? In the long term it will do immense damage because you’ll run out of people with the knowledge to generate economic activity. The UK, like Australia, can’t compete with China and India in building cheap stuff, but we can compete in knowledge. That’s where we will win.

Where do you do your best thinking? I teach quantum mechanics and relativity to first-years at Manchester uni in the autumn term; I always get new insights by thinking about what I’m going to say in a lecture. I also think when I’m running, or just at home. I’m easily distracted by chores though — or by playing Lego with my little boy [George, five].

Time travel: feasible or not? Into the past, no: it’s ruled out by special relativity. Into the future? Yes, it happens. You can get indefinitely far into the future by travelling fast.

How about extraterrestrial life? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were life on Mars, now, or on Jupiter’s moons. Simple life is probably all over the place. Intelligent civilisations are another question: if there were even one on average per galaxy, I’d be surprised. But there are lots of galaxies out there, and possibly other universes too.

Brian Cox’s speaking tour, Making Sense of the Cosmos, opens in Adelaide on October 14. lateralevents.com