The Brians Trust

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Tlooks like 2024 is the year that the long sought-after dream of Perpetual Motion becomes a reality. We asked four people called Brian (or Bryan) what the invention of a perpetual motion machine means to them, and how it will change their lives.

Brian Cox, Physicist

I HAVE always believed that perpetual motion was impossible to achieve. We can come somewhere close to it in quantum systems by setting electrons in motion on a circular path around super conductors cooled to absolute zero. But in mechanical systems, energy will always be lost at some point in the process, either as heat, light, movement, or sound. That is what we as scientists have always believed. But science does not give us the truth – it simply gives us the best explanation we have at the time to account for the things we observe and experience. If, as it seems, Professor Ponds has achieved something that we previously said was impossible, then we scientists will have to reassess our thinking. And more fool us for being so arrogant as to claim that something was impossible.

Bryan Adams, Singer

MY HIT song (Everything I Do) I Do It For You was perpetually at number 1 in the UK pop charts back in 1991, so I know quite a bit about perpetual motion. Every week on Top of the Pops, the presenters would announce that I was still there, and it looked for all the world like I would sit at the top of the chart forever. But of course, I didn’t, and after 16 weeks I was replaced by U2 with The Fly. So I would caution Professor Ponds not to become too excited by his early experimental results. But if his perpetual motion device does actually work and succeeds where (Everything I Do) I Do It For You failed, then it will be great for the planet and also for the music industry. Pop stars could take one of his machines on tour and hook them up to their guitars and amps to provide free, green energy at gigs. This is assuming it doesn’t make so much noise that you can’t hear the songs.

Bryan Robson, former footballer

I TAKE exception to the phrase ‘perpetual motion machine’, as in order for it to be labelled as such, it would have to keep going forever,

and somebody would have to watch it to make sure it never stopped. You could watch it moving for a million billion years, and then it might stop five minutes after you’ve gone home. To deem a machine in perpetual motion, it would have to be watched until the end of time, which is not possible, since time has no end. I know I’m drifting away from science and wandering into the realms of philosophy, but that’s what I think, and if managing top flight football teams has taught me anything, it’s taught me to speak my mind.

Brian Cranston, Actor

I FAMOUSLY played drug manufacturing chemist Walter White on the hit show Breaking Bad, and I also have a science degree in real life; and as a result, my mind thinks very much along scientific lines. So in my opinion a perpetual motion machine – which breaks the physical laws of thermodynamics and conservation of momentum – is not possible. But having said that, scientists once thought that cold nuclear fusion wasn’t possible, or that we would never discover life on other planets. Admittedly, those are bad examples because neither of those things have been achieved, but there must be some examples where scientific achievements once though impossible have come to pass, and it’s not out of the question that perpetual motion could be the next one. Also, could someone check whether my name’s spelt with an ‘i’ or a ‘y’, as I can’t remember.