A few weekends ago an old friend and I met up for the first time in fifteen years. He'd tracked me down via my website and was eager to catch up. For once I was too. People from the past do appear from time to time and often there's a good reason that that's where they're from, but Steve and I had been in a band together (don't ask) and his friendship had been one of the things that made school life bearable. When I asked how he'd found me he replied, "I just googled your name and 'writer'. I figured that's what you'd probably be doing for a living".

I was flattered that he'd seen something in me back then that took a while for me to figure out for myself. But as we talked more of the school (including the fact that it no longer exists) I realised that in a lot of ways I'd had little choice in the matter. English had been the only class that I felt remotely connected to. The only things I remember from other classes have little to do with the subjects and much more with the characters I found around me. The route to sixth form and university was an easy one. What else was I going to do?

Yesterday I read this piece on the BBC about the crisis in physics teaching here in the UK and gave it little more than a shrug. My only memory of physics in the classroom was watching an unpopular kid being dragged repeatedly face first over a gas tap by another kid until the physics teacher intervened. He threw the victim out of the classroom.

Then on Twitter I saw this mention of Chris Morris visiting Cern and my own disregard for science in one article was turned around in just a few sentences from another:

The experience is rapidly so impressive you start to salute each fact. The protons will make the 27km circuit 11,000 times every second. The accelerator tube will be the coldest place in the universe. We are making the coldest place in the universe. You have to salute that with both hands... Cern has built the world's fastest computer. Its data storage will consume one good laptop every twenty seconds.

That appeals to the geek in me almost as much as the new Bond trailer appealed to my inner spy. And yet for much of my life I've disregarded science as at best dull or at worst something that sprays death into the eyes of little cute bunny rabbits. Even my favourite science fiction has always involved the human element much more than the techno babble (odd considering I prefer a lot of tech to a lot of the people I meet).

And that's when it hit me (and this is the reason I'm writing about science on a website dedicated to anything but). Science needs the arts. It takes a satirical writer like Morris to reveal the absurdity and potential combined in something as jaw dropping as a God Particle emerging in a Compact Muon Solenoid. If this were not science it'd fit just as snugly on Brass Eye.

And thinking about it further still all my favorite scientists (and significantly the only ones I can name) have been entertainers in their own way. From that poster of Albert Einstein to Carl Sagan's inspirational Cosmos and Patrick Moore... well just being Patrick Moore really.

But for every scientist of note recognisable to the layman (Richard Dawkins, Robert Winston, etc) there are whole armies of white coated men and women too busy doing all the cool stuff to let the rest of us know about it. Which is why we get the likes of Morris and Mick Jagger visiting Cern from time to time (the need for aging rock stars to be bombarded with protons for ten years notwithstanding).

Often the people who are in the best position to raise awareness are really bad at it. So from time to time this void is instead filled with celebrities and while it's easy to mock singers wanting to change the world I think there's an argument that both Bob Geldof and Bono have done just that. We need people to shine a light on the great stuff we're doing already but also the things we've got to do next if we can just combine our tremendous capability with our will.

Charismatic and creative people to make the invisible visible and take us to that next big thing - whether it is something to be celebrated or just plain fixed. Real leadership qualities that go beyond conventional thinking about the arts and business and sciences as separate entities. We need to find ways to encourage development in the areas that they overlap.

This is where we can begin to build a better future.

Photo credit: Display at CERN that uses art to show cosmic rays by Robert Scoble (CC license)