Queen legend Brian May argues we've lost the ability to "discuss" and "respect" other people's point of view

This article originally appeared in Radio Times Magazine.

Brian May has an affinity with big numbers. When he stood on the roof of Buckingham Palace in 2002 and played the national anthem on his electric guitar to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, it was in front of a reported worldwide audience of 200 million.

Prior to that he walked out on stage at Live Aid with Queen, who stole the show in front of an estimated two billion viewers. And in a musical career spanning more than half a century, his band has sold more than 300 million records, including 1975’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which remains the most streamed song of the 20th century.

Yet all these figures are dwarfed by the numbers on May’s mind today, as he reels off the jaw-dropping statistics at the centre of his new book, Islands in Infinity: Galaxies in 3-D, the first publication to present galaxies in three-dimensional form, thanks to stereoscopy, a historic photographic method using pairs of images to simulate depth.

“This is the culmination of a series of projects linking stereoscopy with astronomy,” May tells Radio Times. “We previously did Mission Moon 3-D (about the Apollo landings), Bennu 3-D, about a rendezvous with an asteroid, and Cosmic Clouds. Where do you go from there, once you go outside our galaxy? The answer is: other galaxies. And there are billions of them – we’re only now realising how vast the universe is and how densely packed.

“Astronomy is marching forward, daily, at a vast speed, and it’s hard to keep up. But if you know what makes galaxies tick, you know what makes the universe tick. So we’ve tried to make an easy way for people to be completely up to date.”

May, who has a doctorate himself on the velocity of the zodiacal dust cloud, has co-authored the book with renowned experts in the field Derek Ward-Thompson and J-P Metsavainio, and describes his role as “the catalyst, the guy who puts it together, and the editor”.

He explains: “When it’s mapped out, I ask every question under the sun – why this, why that? If I don’t understand it, other people won’t. I’ve become an editor, which is a really interesting calling. The problem is, now I can’t read a book without trying to edit it.”

May’s love of astronomy is as lifelong as his enthusiasm for playing the guitar; he remembers begging his parents to let him stay up to watch The Sky at Night. “I was a kid hiding behind the sofa, taking all this stuff in, getting very excited,” he reminisces. “Patrick Moore was a huge influence. I used to listen to what he said and rush outside to see if I could see it in the sky. Very inspiring.”

Although May was a post-grad student at Imperial College London when he first met Moore, the pair became close friends, later collaborating on a project for the BBC. “We hit it off and he became my surrogate uncle,” May remembers. “We had so many wonderful times.”

With so many disparate interests – from the protection of badgers to the construction of his own distinctive Red Special guitar – how does May fit it all together? Don’t the music and science, for example, get in each other’s way?

“That’s an easy one,” he says. “Most of the most famous astronomers were musicians, from Isaac Newton onwards. It’s not unusual to have this connection in your brain. I’ve always thought that art and science were part of the same thing, although I was told as a kid, ‘You have to choose one.’ I’ve fought that all my life. I think appreciating the beauty of the universe is a big part of finding out how it works.”

Such intense regard for the further frontiers brings with it consternation when May looks closer to home. “I feel despondent about the world of humans,” he says. “It keeps me awake at night. The cruelty, the ignorance, the lies, the rewriting of history. I think an understanding and love of art and music make it impossible to be the kind of person who wants to go out and be cruel to others.

“There’s so much suffering in the world, why would we want to add to it? We’ve lost the ability to discuss things and respect other people’s point of view, we have a horrendous polarisation. If people spent more time looking at the stars and making music, none of this would be possible.”

Fortunately, he is quick to smile when I ask if he ever tries to explain his love of complex science to his wife of 25 years, actor Anita Dobson. “We are very different and very busy,” he muses. “We don’t really have time for what doesn’t interest us, I suppose. If I try to explain too much about stereoscopic imagery, she’ll say, ‘Yes, darling, if it makes you happy, fine.’”

The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday – subscribe here.

You can purchase Islands in Infinity: Galaxies in 3-D, our book of the month.

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