Steve’s potted guide to the graviton

IN search of the graviton . . . Steve at CERN in Geneva

MARTYN MEETS... Steve Marsden, the Oldham CERN scientist who isn’t Brian Cox...
HOW does a 25-year-old lad from Chaddy know so much about so many things?

I mean, the tannic properties of tea, the Large Hadron Collider, why my mobile phone battery loses its charge so rapidly you can almost wtch the bars go down, and so on.

Now the former Hulme Grammar School pupil is researching — with other clever clogs around the world — gravitons.

Sounds like something from “Star Trek” or “Dr Who”, I ventured in a weak attempt at levity, and my companion across the table agreed.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Steve Marsden is a physicist with qualifications coming out of his ears and his interest in the weighty subject of particle physics really was sparked by watching Star Trek on the telly.

“I probably watched too many episodes,” he confided. “And when I was a kid I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up.”

Well, he’s grown up now, and big time. The “big time” in question is the particle accelerator at CERN, the European nuclear research centre. This is, as many will know housed in a 27km circular tunnel 100 metres below the ground in Geneva, and it is used to discover the mysteries of the first few split seconds of the universe, and more.

Steve has been there loads of times - in fact he wrote some of the software that powers the Atlas Detector, which collects data when the particles that whizz round this fantasmagorical kit at the speed of light bash into each other (which is deliberate, by the way).

Atlas is as big as a six-storey building and in layman’s terms is a camera. A very, very, very, very big one...

These collisions occur quite often. The scientists who run CERN create particles that speed up faster than you can possibly imagine; there are about 20 collisions each time the particles meet as they scream around the tunnel is opposite directions.

“We don’t capture all the collisions; if we did we would probably collect enough data to fill up the entire world wide web in a week. And that’s a lot of data. So we have to be selective - that’s what the software does. I wrote some of the code.”

There are four cameras around the CERN ring, Atlas being the largest.

I first met Steve, the only child of Mandy and Brian, when he spoke at TEDx Oldham a few weeks back. I had the privilege of hosting the event in Gallery Oldham and was charmed by Steve’s natural delivery and ability to communicate on all levels

OK, much of the audience was intellectually active. But Steve made me understand some of the stuff.

He won’t thank me for this, but what the hell: Steve has a touch of the Brian Cox about him — you know the other CERN scientist from Oldham who has become one of the most acclaimed and recognised people in the country.

Steve has the same qualities and he enjoys speaking in public. And he’s good.

Aside from his guest appearance at TEDx Oldham, he’s a regular at Scibar talks in and around Manchester, when he can spend 45 minutes talking about his favourite subject to like-minded souls.

I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if he too carves a career in the media.

I tentatively raised the subject: “If someone asked me to be the next Brian Cox I’m not sure I’d say no...” he suggested.

And with that, and another sip of tea, we moved on. Well, nearly, I don’t give up that easily.

Given that you’re both based at Manchester University, and that you both do stuff at CERN, do you know Brian, I ventured?

“Not really,’ was the unepected reply. “A few of us made an amateur zombie film about the CERN Tunnel and we had a cameo role for Brian in it, and he said he wanted to be in and he gave us his calendar for the next six months. He said that if we could find a two-hour gap he would do the film.”

Sadly they couldn’t. So he didn’t.

But the prospect of such a crammed life doesn’t intimidate Steve — though his current thoughts are far from such a life. Remember gravitons?

Steve is concentrating his efforts on finding the graviton — basically the particle, if it exists, that makes gravity work. Quite a big thing, then.

“Well, something makes it work. I’m not sure that we we will ever find the graviton; it might not exist, but there about six of us around the world doing the research and sharing our findings.”

He says these things in such a matter-of-fact way that this could be the most normal conversation he will have today. And given that he was cycling off to university after our chat, it probably was.

But in fact we do have something in common, this young genius and I. We both went to Werneth Prep School.

But there the similarity ends.

His early interest in science and physics was stoked in the “very small” science department at Hulme Grammar and he was bitten by the physics bug when he attended an open day at Manchester University and was “wowed” by a charismatic physics professor.

“I was sold. I knew that Manchester was the university for me,” he admitted.

His parents were less than convinced and would have preferred a business career for Steve but Brian — who is quite entrepreneurial — has been converted: “He actually said I was quite smart.”

Steve has spent most of his adult life at Manchester Uni, gaining just about every qualification going including a Masters to complement his degree in maths and physics.

He is now working on a doctorate and recognises that he will have to move away from Man U to broaden his horizons.

He could have moved to America but turned down a place at Yale; he didn’t fancy the project on offer.

So here is in Manchester, living at the moment with his girlfriend who, surprise surprise, is another clever clogs working on jet engines for Rolls Royce in Derby.

“Something makes gravity work, we just don’t know what that force is,” he said. I agreed. Well, he might think I knew what he was talking about.

With that I sought my leave, save for one last deep question: “Why do you drink camomile tea? Brain stimulation? Creative thought encouragement?

“No,” he said. “It’s nice.”

So not only is he very personable and damn clever, he’s also normal. And what else would you expect of an Oldham bloke?