Luke Coppen

Thinking space

The Astronomer Royal on aliens, atheism, and prospects for the apocalypse

issue 17 December 2011

Martin Rees is sitting in the Master’s Lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge, with a laptop balanced on his knee. ‘I want to show you this,’ he says, tapping the keys with long, neat fingernails. Two red swirls appear on either side of the screen, gliding towards each other. When they meet it’s messy, like two ripe tomatoes smashing together in mid-air.

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