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Professor Brian Cox praises new science & technology college centre in Staffordshire

Could the universe be made from entirely antimatter? Will the expansion of the universe slow down?

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Professor Brian Cox builds a lego duck as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College

These are some of the questions fired at him by an audience Professor Brian Cox described as ‘awake’ and ‘enthusiastic’.

It was an enlightening afternoon for the students of both Stafford College and Newcastle-under-Lyme College who heard the TV personality and physicist discuss everything from the whirlpool galaxy to Einstein’s theories. Children from local primary schools also attended.

Professor Cox visited students and pupils at Stafford College’s newly developed science laboratories and LEGO Education Innovation Studio, which is also used by primary schools.

He signed autographs and interacted with the college’s robot Pepper.

Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox builds a Lego duck as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College.
Professor Brian Cox Makes friends with a robot as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to staff as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to students as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College
Professor Brian Cox talks to children from Christchurch Academy as he tours the new Science and Technology Centre at Stafford College

Following its official opening on October 5 the development was highly praised by Professor Cox, who said: “The labs are really impressive. The thing is, when you have labs well equipped and that well designed then it makes learning easier.

“I get frustrated sometimes with the lack of investment. The more places we have like this, the more young people we will have being at the forefront of what people call the third industrial revolution, which we all know this country has to be leading in if it wants to maintain its position currently in the world never mind get better.

“We need more of these places, it’s full of people who are enthusiastic and awake and excited and what you would get in a place that wasn’t as well designed and as well staffed is you would get people who are tired and not excited - you know they’re in dark labs that are not very well equipped - the environment is very important.

“I genuinely believe in this country we need more STEM graduates, and apprentices and engineers. There’s a clear argument that places like this that are developing new engineering companies all the time, the future is in the technology of the 21st century and places like this are the places where that’s going to happen. For that you need the raw materials, and for that you need proper investment in places like this and you need the flow of great teachers in places like this, you need the great environment to learn.

“That’s all so clear and obvious to me that if I can do anything to support places like this then I will.”

The University of Manchester professor also addressed a room full of around 150 students with a talk on all things cosmology and answered many of their burning questions.

Of the turnout, he said: “What you saw in this room were a hundred or more enthusiastic 16, 17, 18-year-olds who want to learn, and that they will have an eye on their future careers but also they just want to know stuff and ultimately that’s what education is about.”