Back in July, the NASA Deep Impact probe smacked into a comet, which was scientifically interesting, data-intensive, and downright fun. At the time, I was interviewed by Dr. Brian Cox about the Hollywood connection to the probe as part of a StarDate episode aired on the BBC. Brian and I connected well; he is interesting and funny and charming and (dagnappit) good-looking, and like me does a lot of public outreach.
Brian’s not the only one in his family who’s pretty cool. His wife, Gia, turns out to be a wholly engaging person herself. She’s hosted a few TV shows in the UK (her online video reels are hilarious), is a good photographer, and, it turns out, is also writing a blog for an upcoming science fiction movie called “Sunshine” which is filming in the UK (Brian is the science advisor). She decided to interview me for the blog, and that interview is now online.
It’s a bit scattered, but then I never found a topic I couldn’t carom tangentially off of. But mostly it’s about astronomy and science fiction, and me not letting Gia get a word in at all. That was probably a mistake; she is fabulous, and if she ever lets me interview with her again I’ll definitely (try to) let her squeeze a few words in. In the meantime, I’m thinking about the idea I had at the end of the interview on how to get a probe to the Sun. I may have to write up that idea before someone steals it…
