£9 million science revolution

Brian Cox in front of the digital chandelier inside the new Revolution Manchester gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry

Prof Cox still D:reaming of more money for education

UNIVERSITY professor and former Hulme Grammar School pupil Brian Cox helped to launch a £9 million science project yesterday while calling for more cash for science education.

The 42-year-old, a professor of particle physics and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, launched the Revolution Manchester gallery at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester.

The gallery, which opens on Saturday, showcases Manchester’s greatest innovations through displays, digital technology and interactive games. It also aims to inspire the next generation of young scientists and engineers.

Saddleworth-based Prof Cox, the former keyboard player in 1990s band D:ream, is a UK representative on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva — the world’s most powerful particle experiment. He has also popularised science through his BBC and Horizon programmes.

He said: “One hundred thousand children come through the museum every year. If one of those kids goes on to invent anything like the inventions featured here, we would have paid that back a million times over.”

Prof Cox said that science and engineering should be a vital part of both Oldham and Manchester’s future.

And he admitted getting frustrated at the lack of government investment in science.

He said: “Imagine they hadn’t given £9 million to build this.

“The best thing is they save £9million but the worst thing is you undermine the North-West’s future and you make it more difficult for adult taxpayers to support science.”

Tony Hill, MOSI director, said the gallery was a unique and innovative space showing what science, technology and maths can bring to the world as well as Manchester’s contribution to the world.

He said: “The British public think we don’t produce things any more but we do.

“It’s about utilising intellect and inventing world shaping inventions.”