Brian Cox: I'm damn sure that there's nothing going on in my head other than what is allowed by the laws of nature as we understand them.

Joe Rogan: So, eliminating "woo", you mean. The idea of the soul being some sort of a divine thing that's inside the housing of the body.

Brian Cox: Yeah. I would say we can rule that out, actually.

Joe Rogan: Rule it out? How do you rule it out?

Brian Cox: I have argued that we can rule it out in the following manner: here is my arm, right. It is made of electrons and protons and neutrons. And if I have a soul in there—something that we don't understand, but it's a different kind of energy or whatever it is we don't have in physics at the moment—it interacts with matter, because I am moving my hand around. So whatever it is, it is something that interacts very strongly with matter. But if you look at the history of particle physics in particular, which is the study of matter, we spent decades making high-precision measurements of how matter behaves and interacts. And we have looked, for example, for a fifth force of nature. So we know four forces: gravity, the two nuclear forces—called the weak and strong forces—and electromagnetism. And that is what we know exists. And we have looked for another one, with ultra-high precision, and we don't see any evidence for it. So I would claim that we know how matter interacts at these energies. It is room temperature now. At these energies, we know how matter interacts, very precisely. And so, if you want to suggest that there is something else that interacts with matter strongly, then I would say that it is ruled out. I would go as far as say that it is ruled out by experiment.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "

Brian Cox: I'm damn sure that there's nothing going on in my head other than what is allowed by the laws of nature as we understand them.

Joe Rogan: So, eliminating "woo", you mean. The idea of the soul being some sort of a divine thing that's inside the housing of the body.

Brian Cox: Yeah. I would say we can rule that out, actually.

Joe Rogan: Rule it out? How do you rule it out?

Brian Cox: I have argued that we can rule it out in the following manner: here is my arm, right. It is made of electrons and protons and neutrons. And if I have a soul in there—something that we don't understand, but it's a different kind of energy or whatever it is we don't have in physics at the moment—it interacts with matter, because I am moving my hand around. So whatever it is, it is something that interacts very strongly with matter. But if you look at the history of particle physics in particular, which is the study of matter, we spent decades making high-precision measurements of how matter behaves and interacts. And we have looked, for example, for a fifth force of nature. So we know four forces: gravity, the two nuclear forces—called the weak and strong forces—and electromagnetism. And that is what we know exists. And we have looked for another one, with ultra-high precision, and we don't see any evidence for it. So I would claim that we know how matter interacts at these energies. It is room temperature now. At these energies, we know how matter interacts, very precisely. And so, if you want to suggest that there is something else that interacts with matter strongly, then I would say that it is ruled out. I would go as far as say that it is ruled out by experiment.