Prof. Cox was on Lorraine's ITV morning show talking about his
new world tour and some of the greatest unanswered questions like, "why are we here?" The pair also talked about the possibility of there being alien life out there somewhere in the universe. Cox said, "I'm sure there is."
The television host then asked him a few questions relating to Halloween. She asked the professor if there is any truth in the claim that a full moon can effect peoples' moods. Brian said, "all I can say is that loads of studies have been done and the answer seems to be no." Cox adds that it's simply a coincidence, "we're bad as human beings at understanding coincidences. So when you feel, 'something's happened to me, I feel different', and there's a full moon up there, you tend to attach more to that than there is."
Lorraine, who confesses to being skeptical herself, then asks Prof. Cox about ghosts. He says, "it's interesting, it's about our perception. We're taking so many measurements of the world and processing all of this stuff in our remarkable brains and sometimes things don't quite go according to plan and something strange happens, then we attach a great deal of weight to those things."
So, are there such thing as ghosts? Cox says, "I think as far as we can tell, and we understand science very well, no," but adds, "I don't want to ruin Halloween."
Prof. Cox starts his global, 'Universal: Adventures In Space And Time' tour next year with dates in Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.