Robin Ince introduces the cat-in-a-bin principle of science reporting
For Robin Ince, a cat in a wheeli
Newton’s Third Law of Motion states: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This might work well for physicists, but it is way off when dealing with the things that people really care about, like a two-minute delay in the broadcasting of a favoured series on Radio 4, or any act of animal cruelty, such as a rapscallion firing a rubber band at a fruit bat.
I am neither condoning the bruising of bats, nor suggesting the BBC should alter the time-slot of Start the Week, but sometimes a little reserve is needed. This week, for example, every discarded newspaper I saw seemed to have another grainy image of that bank clerk dropping a cat into a wheelie bin.
Yes, it was an unfortunate and stupid incident, but there’s a positive side to feline persecution: it lets people like me bang on about quantum physics. Physics doesn’t get the front-page splashes it deserves, unless a sandwich is dropped into a particle accelerator, or someone invents a new bomb, so we interested parties will seize on anything we can that allows us to dwell on sub-atomic particles or dark matter.
According to this principle, the cat-in-a-bin incident was the perfect springboard to start a discussion about the most famous feline in science, Schrödinger’s cat.
Robin Ince is hosting a comedy night for the British Humanist Association and the Protest the Pope campaign on Monday 13 September. The ticket sales from Relief-o-Matic will support AIDS prevention and relief projects in Africa.
