Brian Cox: CERN’s supercollider filmed March 2008

Rock-star physicist” Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive project.

Actually, the more one thinks of this, the more it can be seen as public sector gifting subsidies and investment to the private sector – like most major research investments of the 20th century, the end result, if it is possible to sell for a profit, is almost certainly privatised. Think the integrated rail network, the gas supply network, the telephone network, the road network, the NHS etc etc. All these were originally state run, all the years of initial investment was from the taxpayer. In fact it could be argued that we are now paying for these services again – our forbears paid their taxes, some of which was invested in north sea gas extraction, storage and distribution but we’re having to pay again to heat our homes.

All our lives we pay for the National Health Service and soon, we’ll be paying separately again as piece by piece it is slowly privatised.