When we first decided to study physics
did you have any clue that it would take
you to where you are now? [Gavin] When I was at
school I knew I wanted to do physics and
what I did a physics degree I knew I
wanted to do a PhD as I was working on
my PhD I could just see other people who
were a bit quicker and a bit brighter
and they were the people who
were gonna go and make great discoveries
or do fantastic physics and I was always
gonna be trying to catch up that's kind
of how I saw it anyway so I started
thinking towards the end of my PhD what
else do I like doing what else could I
do that's related to science because I
still loved physics, what could I do that
used some of my skills and one of my
skills is watching television. I love
watching television I've watched it you
know ever since I was a kid and loved
watching it for hours and hours so I
started thinking about working in
television and I was lucky enough that
the BBC used to have some they probably
still have them traineeships so you just
get a six-month traineeship but that's
great once you can get in there once you
can get your foot in the door once you
can have an opportunity to prove that
you can tell a story that you can make
an interesting film then six months
becomes a year in a year becomes two
years and before you know it you've been
there for sort of six or seven years and
a fantastic time making TV programmes.
[Daniel] Okay so now I'd like to focus on some of
your work specifically The Simpsons and
their mathematical secrets like many
others I've watched a lot of The
Simpsons as a child and as a scientist
growing up I've never noticed any of the
references to science and mathematics.
Was there a specific moment that you
noticed the sheer volume of references
in the show? [Simon] Yeah I think the the
first thing I ever noticed was from an
episode called The Wizard of Evergreen
Terrace so The Wizard of Menlo Park was
Thomas Edison the great inventor and the
Wizard of Evergreen Terrace is an
episode where Homer wants to become an
inventor and he's in his basement coming
up with all sorts of clever not so
clever gadgets but he's also kind of
writing stuff furiously on a blackboard
and on the blackboard there is
first of all there's an equation that
describes the mass of the Higgs boson
which was kind of extraordinary and
secondly there was a line that refer to
Fermat's Last Theorem and that's not
that's obviously not something that
happens every day and when you love the
Simpsons and you love maths and you hear
that there's math in the Simpsons and
nobody else really knows about then it's
an irresistible topic to write about so
you know it was a complete joy to
discover this. [Daniel] You've written quite an
eclectic mix of books over the years but
is there any topic that you're yearning
to write about that's missing from the
repertoire? [Simon] I kind of wish I've written
something about climate change I wish I
knew more about it it's clearly the
biggest scientific issue of our age and
it's clearly something that a lot of
people still don't quite appreciate the
seriousness of it all the scientific
underpinning of our understanding
there's clearly lots we don't understand
but the fact that climate change is
happening the fact that it's largely
man-made the fact that it's gonna get
worse unless we do something about it
there are loads of people trying really
hard to to kind of get that message over
and I kind of wish I'd done my part I
suppose but but I was too busy writing
about the Simpsons not not good. [Beth] We were
wondering what your thoughts are on how
scientific communication has developed
in an age where people have access to
both information and misinformation? [Simon] You know I worked in the media I worked at
the BBC for years and years and I think
science journalists and so I count
myself as a science journalist I think
we care about science we want to be
critical about science if necessary and
we want to take science apart but we
want to do our best at reporting science
and I think the problem occurs when the
non scientists start getting hold of a
story people who don't understand
statistics people who basically want to
grab an audience people who want to be
sensationalist or scaremongering or
offer a miracle cure because that's
going to get people to phone in that's
going to get people to click on their
website so 
I think the media does not serve us well
when it comes to science. [Beth] Do you have any
advice for any aspiring scientific
writers? [Simon] Science writing I mean that the
great thing today which wasn't the case
when I was you know my 20s was you can
just write nothing stops anybody writing
you can blog you can do funny cartoons
you can make animations you can go and
make little YouTube videos and if you're
good and if there's an audience for what
you you're doing that will grow and
that's brilliant it just means you can
experiment and you can play I think
that's fantastic. [Beth] Thank you very much
thank you/ [Simon] My pleasure thanks a lot.
you
