Uncaged Monkeys – Night Of 200 Billion Stars

Uncaged Monkey was pure nourishment for mind and the soul. Marking the last night of this intellectual tour, there were stars of science, comedy and the cosmos in tonight’s show, as we were shown the secrets of NASA by Adam Rutherford in a beautiful visual love poem to the now sadly ended space programme.

Opening with Simon Singh’s captivating lecture on the enigma machine – with one actually in the room with us to demonstrate the complexity of the coding – and skipping on to the dulcet tones of scientific comic chanteuse Helen Arney, and then to the arresting remonstrations of Dr Ben Goldacre who soon had us railing against ‘broken medicine’, tonight encapsulated the absolute beauty and yearning for learning.

Then second half opened with a quick and engaging Q&A session with Dr Goldacre, Mr Rutherford and Professor Brian Cox, followed on with a particularly topical lecture from Professor Cox regarding the Higgs boson particle, a great deal of which went over my head but the gist of which was exciting.

The evening closed with a highly mischievous and fun set from atheist poster boy Tim Minchin, including the premier of a new festive tune and finishing with a rendition of ‘White Wine In The Sun’ with Professor Cox taking up position to accompany Minchin at the piano.

This was bursting to full with the joys and wonder of creative minds. A great big thank you to Robin Ince, who hosted the entire night and anchored a marvelous hot air balloon of science, entertainment and awe. Fabulous.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 15 December 2011

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Victoria Nangle