Dr Basil Singer
Basil is an extreme sports adrenalin junkie; a skater dude who also happens to be a doctor of quantum chaos. You might be able to track down Dr Basil working as a breakdance instructor, programming robots for use in genetic cancer research, drumming in a band or using lasers to manipulate matter in atoms.
He could be jumping out of a plane or doing a back-flip off a cliff; lecturing at the Royal Institute or welding the hull of a boat in his native Somerset; skateboarding in Trafalgar Square or snowboarding in the Alps. If you have a problem and if you can find him, maybe you should give Basil a call.
What was your first job?
While I was still at school, I used to work in Snappy Snaps during the Summer. I really liked the chemical aroma from the developing machines: smell the future. I also used to drive vans and fork-lift trucks for Miles Tea (a Somerset tea and coffee blending company). On my first day, while delivering to a local hotel, I drove a van underneath an awning and took the roof off.
I also drove a fork-lift truck into a small fortune worth of tea leaves which spilt all over the factory floor. While nobody was looking I swept it all up and shovelled it into the blender. That batch of tea had quite a distinctive taste. Nobody could quite put their finger on it. They didn't employ me the following summer.
What was your first car?
I've never owned a car. I'd really like a Scooby Doo van or a split-screen VW camper or a big GMC chromed-out surf wagon with stripes and a surf rack. Or a scratched-up, yellow Lotus Elise or Porche Boxter S. Totally impractical. Brilliant.
If you were (more of) a superhero, what powers would you have?
That's a very good question. I'd be called Keith the Magnificent. And I'd have magical teeth that could bend time and warp gravity. I'd probably go back in time to the 1970s and grow up amid the surf and skate revolutionaries. And I'd use my powers to get massive air. Rad. Everybody would say, 'Wow, look at Keith the Magnificent, he's got a black belt in applied mechanics, I love him.'
With what science argument did you last bore a friend?
It was probably less of an argument than and audience bored with Basil. I'd probably had a few beers and was explaining the peculiarities of quantum physics, talking about cats and telling people twice that a quantum computer, the brain of which need only be 240 atoms big (you can't even see that), has the potential to hold more bits of information than there are atoms in the visible universe. And that's a lot. For example, there are more atoms in one grain of sand than there are grains of sand on a whole beach. Nutty!
Of what achievement are you most proud?
I still can't really believe I wrote a book and completed my PhD. I´m also rather pleased about the backflips that I did snowboarding last year and my highest ever rock-jump – 24 metres! That's jumping from about five stories high off a huge cliff into water.
What did you do for your A-levels and degree?
A levels – physics, maths and chemistry (really don't know how I passed that one).
Degree – MSc in physics and laser cooling (four years)
PhD – quantum chaos. Built and played with lasers a lot. Wrote a thesis/book called The Manipulation of Matter: From Atoms to Bubbles.
If time and budget were unlimited, what MiW-style problem would you most like to solve?
At the top of my list, I'd like us to slow down the nuclear arms race, to stop terrorism and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.
Secondly, making a hover-skateboard like in Back to the Future would be mondo-cool.
What gives you the biggest buzz?
Kitesurfing, playing live music, snowboarding, skateboarding, longboarding, climbing, high-diving, Somerset cider (especially Cheddar Valley).
What is your biggest fear?
I'm quite scared of random noises in the night, especially if it sounds like footsteps. This happened the other night, and then the fire alarm went off. I got the hammer out of my tool box and stealthed through my flat and downstairs to find that it was just a fault with the alarm system. I know there's always a good explanation for everything but it still scares me. I don't know where the footsteps are coming from though.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
I'd like to be an otter. They smile a lot (excuse my anthropomorphising), they love water, and they play all the time. Or a swimming monkey like I saw on David Attenborough's Planet Earth. They seem to swim just for fun. And they have blue nads.
What labour-saving device would you like to create.
I already have a fantastic labour-saving device – my girlfriend!
My auntie Anna would like a thing on her printer that would let her know when there are only two or three sheets of paper left. She'd also like an automatic iron.
My uncle Jan would like us to make a glass egg with a screw top so that he can see his egg as it's boiling, he can put salt in before he boils it, and he doesn't have to crack it open when it's hot. It would also double up as an egg cup. He likes eggs.