Brian May, Queen guitarist and Astrophysicist

Brian May’s life brings together two careers often treated as separate: Queen guitarist and astrophysicist. As a young researcher in Tenerife, he studied zodiacal, or interplanetary, dust and built his own spectroscope; he left his doctorate unfinished as Queen rose to fame, then completed it about 30 years later. The subject had meanwhile become newly important to astronomers investigating exoplanets, the origins of the solar system and the conditions for life. May says art and science are both necessary to understand life fully, and pursues that idea through Starmus, the festival he founded to unite music with science and other fields.

May sees competition and cooperation as complementary forces: rivalry can spur people to improve, while shared effort creates strength beyond what individuals can achieve. He draws this lesson from the space race and from Queen, whose members’ creative conflicts coexisted with close bonds and musical chemistry. He is sharply critical of billionaires’ space ambitions when Earth’s problems and human suffering remain urgent, arguing that exploration should prompt reflection on the damage done to the planet. A devoted eclipse-chaser, he says recording an eclipse can distract from its power as a lived experience. Nearing 80, he values family, time and doing good work over trends or sales, preferring to deepen his own style rather than reinvent himself.