Gresham College Lectures: Recent Episodes
Gresham College
Gresham College has been providing free public lectures since 1597, making us London's oldest higher education institution. This podcast offers our recorded lectures that are free to access from the Gresham College website, or our YouTube channel.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 17th of June 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/goddess-morrigan
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This is the Annual Gray's Inn Reading 2026.
The lecture was delivered within three months of Sir Andrew McFarlane’s retirement after 21 years on the Family Bench. Whilst the phrase ‘un-plugged’ may not be appropriate, it is anticipated that the lecturer will no longer feel restrained by judicial caution when commenting upon the future development of Family Justice. In addition to a focus on the future of adoption law and the need for significant reform in relation to the financial rights of cohabitants, the lecturer will use a perspective gained from 8 years as the judicial Head of Family Justice to offer suggestions for reform of the system itself.
This lecture was recorded by The Rt Hon Sir Andrew McFarlane on the 15th of June 2026
Andrew McFarlane was called to the Bar in 1977 and practiced in chambers in Birmingham until 1993 when he moved to specialist family law chambers in London. He appeared at all levels of court including the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. He was appointed as a QC in 1998. In April 2005 he was appointed to the High Court, Family Division and was for 5 years the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Midland Circuit. He was the legal member of the Government ‘Family Justice Review’ Panel. In July 2011 he was appointed to be a Lord Justice of Appeal sitting full time in the Court of Appeal. On the 28th July 2018 Sir Andrew succeeded Sir James Munby as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice; he is due to retire as President at Easter 2026.
Together with the late David Hershman he is the co-author of a loose-leaf legal text book entitled “Children: Law and Practice”. In addition, he has contributed to other publications and lectured throughout the UK and abroad.
Sir Andrew has been a trustee of YoungMinds (the national young person’s mental health charity) and is Patron of HOPE Family Centre (Bromyard) and of a prisoner support charity ‘Not Beyond Redemption’. In addition to being Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter, Sir Andrew was Chairman of the Church of England Clergy Discipline Commission and President of Clergy Discipline Tribunals for 5 years until 2019. He has been a native of Herefordshire and Worcestershire for over 35 years and is a lay canon of Hereford Cathedral.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-26
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Professor Daniel Susskind on the 26th of May 2026
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is the Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College. He is also a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University, and a Research Professor at King’s College London. He is a member of the UK Government’s Expert Panel on AI and the Future of Work.
His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024. He is also the author of A World Without Work (2020), described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future” and a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2020, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions (2015). His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.
His next book, What Should My Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI, will be published in 2026. And his first novel, The Basilisk Stare, will be published in 2027.
Previously he worked in various roles in the British Government – in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/education-limits
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The polar regions are still some of the most inaccessible and least touched by humans, but they are deeply linked to the rest of Earth. We will cover the history of exploring them, the challenges of measuring this environment, and the current state of knowledge about the ice at both poles. We will also cover the likely future for the polar regions – the incentives driving different actions, what science suggests about the consequences, and coming events to look out for.
This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 21st of May 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.
Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/white-knight
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 11th of June 2026
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and was published in a paperback edition with modifications in 2025.
Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cicero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In this last lecture, I will work to wake us from the AI as Overlord spell. We will explore other possible futures, looking first look at the potential of AI fitting in with us: things we can chat to; humanoid robots; or even devices that draw on understandings of pets to make them more palatable and pleasing. Secondly, I’ll suggest a way to weave AI into everyday life: as a “simple” instrument to enable our souls to sing.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 2nd of June 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe).
His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices.
Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-futures
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Americans are very proud of their written constitution. During the first 3/8 of President Trump’s second term of office, the constitution has been severely tested. Where has the Constitution succeeded in providing legal safeguards, clarity and stability, and where has it failed? How will the remainder of this presidency look? And what is coming after Trump?
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 4th of June 2026
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 87 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 15. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.
Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time.
While continuing his litigation practice, Clive teaches part time at Bristol Law School as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/current-challenges-us-constitution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture was recorded by Dr Di Wang on the 8th of June 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Dr Di Wang is an art historian and curator. Her work focuses on art and culture of East Asia from the late-nineteenth century to the present.
Following her doctorate at the University of Oxford, she has taught as a departmental lecturer and research associate at the Department of History of Art at Oxford. Her first book project reveals the surprising entanglement of medicine, science, and revolutionary politics in the genesis of a socially engaged modern art and visual culture in China, offering the first inter-disciplinary history on how science and medicine shaped the contours of avant-garde thinking in China during the modern period.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/nude-china
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of June 2026
Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pluto-planet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 28th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/plato-polybius
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture will focus on independently produced Chinese documentary cinema as it has entered the Anglophone industry market. Using “Plastic China” by the award-winning director Wang Jiuliang as a case study, I will explore what the implications of cross-border collaborations are for documentary form and content, and how this may encourage a particular set of viewer responses. This will allow me to locate the documentary form in relation to broader liberal arguments over China’s place in the world system and assess the limitations of this approach to “going global” for independent Chinese documentary.
This lecture was recorded by Luke Robinson on the 27th of May 2026
Luke Robinson is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Film Studies in the Faculty of Media, Arts, and Humanitiies, University of Sussex.
He is the author of Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street, and the co-editor of two further collections on Chinese film culture: (with Chris Berry) Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation and (with Chris Berry, Lydia Wu and Sabrina Yu) Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and a Questionable Future.
His writing has appeared in books and journals including DV-made China, The New Chinese Documentary Movement, Vocal Projections, Screening China’s Soft Power, positions: Asia cultures critique, Film Studies, Screen, and Journal of Chinese Cinemas.
Between 2019 and 2025 he was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project, “Independent Cinema in China: State, Market, and Film Culture”. One of the outcomes of this grant was the establishment of the Chinese Independent Film Archive, located at Newcastle University.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/chinese-documentary
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 20th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/peoples-emotions
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture focuses on experiences of hiding and help during the Holocaust across Europe, including the German Reich itself, to highlight the significance of surrounding societies for the survival of Jews. In a broad comparative analysis, going beyond a focus on individual rescuers and getting away from generalisations about supposed ‘national characteristics’, Mary Fulbrook illuminates how local power structures and sense of community shaped non-Jewish responses to antisemitic policies, and affected the choices, experiences and chances of Jews attempting to evade persecution in different regions during the war.
This lecture was recorded by Mary Fulbrook on the 18th of May 2026
A graduate of Cambridge and Harvard universities, Mary Fulbrook is Professor of German History at University College London (UCL) and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her current research is on rescue and survival across Europe during the Holocaust.
She is the author or editor of some 29 books, including Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (2023); the Wolfson History Prize-winner Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice (2018); and the Fraenkel Prize-winning A Small Town near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust (2012), as well as, most recently, Ten Moments that shaped Berlin (2025) and, edited with Jürgen Matthäus, The Cambridge History of the Holocaust Vol. 2: Perpetrating the Holocaust: Policies, Participants, Places (2025).
One of her major research areas has been the GDR, on which she wrote Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949-89 (OUP, 1995) and The People’s State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (Yale UP, 2005). Dissonant Lives: Generations and Violence through the German Dictatorships (OUP, 2011; 2 vols. 2017) traces distinctive generational experiences across this traumatic century, from before World War One until after German unification in 1990. She has also written on German National Identity after the Holocaust (Polity Press, 1999) and Historical Theory (Routledge, 2002). More general books include A Concise History of Germany (CUP, 3rd edn. 2018) and A History of Germany 1918-2020: The Divided Nation (Blackwell, 5th edn 2021). She has directed a series of AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research projects, and is currently directing a collaborative project funded by the AHRC and the German Research Foundation (DFG) jointly with Prof. Christina Morina of Bielefeld University.
Service to UCL includes five years as Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences, and a dozen years as Head of the German Department. Among wider professional commitments, Mary Fulbrook serves on numerous academic advisory boards concerned with Holocaust history and representation, including the USHMM Academic Committee, the Academic Advisory Board of the Foundation for the former Nazi Concentration Camps at Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora, and the Editorial Advisory Board of Yad Vashem Studies. She has previously served as Chair of the Modern History Section of the British Academy, Chair of the German History Society, and she was Founding Joint Editor of German History.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/society-and-survival-during-holocaust
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Music and biology are profoundly entwined. The heart beats, footsteps fall into familiar tempi, and even the movement of our limbs follows a natural rhythmic hierarchy—as if we shape music in our image. The rise and fall of breath, the cadence of laughter, and the wail of a cry all carry musical gestures, woven into our being. Yet our bodies do not just dictate music—they respond to it, from calming stress to thrilling chills. Beyond this, the biological world itself pulses with music: DNA sequences become melody, disease growth swells into an orchestral crescendo, and a hidden music emerges from within us.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on the 13th May 2026 at LSO St Lukes
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
Milton is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-body
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Modern medicine's success in extending lifespans comes at an environmental cost. This lecture explores the pollution from single-use plastics, pharmaceuticals and medical waste, questioning whether we can sustain this model. It examines the impact of drugs and their metabolites on ecosystems, the carbon footprint of healthcare and the ethical dilemma of balancing individual health with planetary health. This talk explores potential solutions, including green pharmacy, innovative materials and responsible waste management, asking if a future with both healthy aging and a thriving planet is achievable.
This lecture was recorded by Ian Mudway on the 12th of May 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Dr Ian Mudway is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health. He is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at Imperial, a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health; MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma and the NIHR-PHE Health Protection Research Units in Environmental Exposures and Health and Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards.
He has over 25 years of experience researching the impacts of air pollution on human health and in the development of assays to quantify the toxicity of the chemical cocktails that pollute the air we breathe. Over this period Dr Mudway has published over 100 research papers, reports and book chapters on these topics, as well as providing advice to the local, national and international governments and NGOs. Dr Mudway is passionate about the communication of science to lay audiences and has worked extensively with artists and educationalist to promote the public understanding of the risks associated with environmental pollutants. Currently his work is focused on understanding early life impacts of pollutants on the development of the lung and cognitive function in children living within urban populations, as well as furthering our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that drive these adverse effects and modify an individual’s susceptibility to air pollution
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pill-planet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Colva Roney-Dougal on the 11th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Colva Mary Roney-Dougal OBE is a British mathematician specializing in group theory and computational algebra. She is Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, where she is first female Head of Pure Mathematics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hard-complexity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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With an academic background in social, cultural anthropology and photography, I have spent the last twenty-five years working on projects that have bridged photographic and archival research. I have witnessed the power of photography as a means to connect communities. I have experienced first-hand the benefits to participants of enabling an emotional connection and inspiring a sense of validation, of feeling seen and valued and heard. That their story matters. That they matter.
In this talk, we will explore the creative mechanisms involved in making memory visible through photography, stimulating engagement in the present.
This lecture was recorded by Julia Winckler on the 7th of May 2026
Julia Winckler is a photographer, writer, curator and Principal Lecturer at the University of Brighton's School of Art and Media, where she teaches on MA Photography and MA Fine Art and supervises PhD research. She has exhibited and published widely on memory and migration narratives, contested topographies, émigré photographers and photography as activism. With an academic background in cultural anthropology, social work and photography, she has spent the last 25 years developing projects that bridge photographic and archival research.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/making-memory
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 6th May 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.
He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
He is currently working on the third volume of his biography of Oliver Cromwell.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/god-dionysus
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Earth is a living planet. But how much life is there, and what is it doing? We will discuss the distribution of biomass on Earth, and compare the effects of microbes, wild animals, domesticated animals. The aim of this lecture is to provide concrete examples of how life is woven in with the rest of the planetary engine, expanding the importance of biodiversity from sentiment alone to a matter of survival for both whole ecosystems and our own civilisation.
This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 23th of March 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.
Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/living-planet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Mieko Kanno on the 5th May 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Mieko Kanno is a violinist and an academic, active in both capacities as Professor of Artistic Research in Music Performance at the Sibelius Academy, the University of the Arts Helsinki. Her main interest concerns artistic musical practice as a field and vocation in contemporary settings, with topics ranging from notation and technology to education. She first came to international attention in the 1980s when she won prizes in international competitions including the Carl Flesch and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. Later she developed an interest in performing contemporary music and won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the Darmstadt New Music Institute in 1994. Since her doctorate in 2001 she held fulltime positions at the University of Durham and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, alongside a freelance career as contemporary music specialist both in performance and scholarly work.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-death
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 30th of April 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/israel-palestine-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Tiling involves filling a plane or space with repeated elements, known as tiles. This simple concept is deeply embedded in the natural world and human design, appearing in structures as varied as the hexagonal wax cells of a beehive and decorative wallpapers. While regular hard tiles—geometric shapes with straight edges that fit together without gaps or overlaps—are common in human-made designs, nature often favours soft or irregular patterns, shaped by physical forces. In this lecture, I will explore how both regular and irregular tiling patterns, hard and soft, emerge in nature and the underlying mathematical principles that govern their formation.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 28th of April 2026
Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical methods, mechanics, sciences, and engineering. He is well known for his contributions to dynamical systems, mathematical biology, as well as fundamental and applied mechanics. He is particularly well known for the development of a mathematical theory of biological growth, culminating with his seminal monograph The Mathematics on Mechanics of Biological Growth (2017).
He received his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1994 where he became a lecturer. In 1996, he joined the University of Arizona where he established a research group within the renowned Program of Applied Mathematics. In 2010, he joined the University of Oxford as the inaugural Statutory Professor of Mathematical Modelling and fellow of St. Catherine’s College. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
In addition, Alain has enjoyed scientific outreach based on problems connected to his research, including tendril perversion in plants, twining plants, umbilical cord knotting, whip cracking, the shape of seashells, brain modelling, and he is the author of a Very Short Introduction to Applied Mathematics (2017). His work has been recognized by a Sloan Fellowship, a Royal Society Wolfson Research Award, the Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences and the Engineering Medal from the Society of Engineering Sciences. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shape-tiles
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 19th of February 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ground
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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New camera technology can help make stunning footage for natural history programmes but the key to success is down to a lot of hard work, planning and a bit of luck. In this lecture we take a ‘behind the scenes’ look at some of the highs and lows of making television natural history documentaries.
This lecture was recorded by George McGavin on the 3rd of October 2017
Professor McGavin is a British entomologist, explorer and author. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Department of Zoology. He is also a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Geographical Society.
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This episode of the Gresham College Podcast features an interview with Robin May, hosted by Jeoffrey Sarpong. Professor Robin May is a Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency.
We cover what's actually happening in your brain when you lose someone, why grief is hardwired from childhood, whether animals grieve, and what ancient burial sites tell us about human emotion 78,000 years ago. Then we shift to love — the physical symptoms of infatuation, why your amygdala shuts down around a new partner, why the honeymoon phase lasts 12–18 months, and why heartbreak can literally feel like withdrawal.
Plus: audience questions on anxiety and love, chatbot grief, abusive relationships, and whether oxytocin is really a "love drug."
Watch Robin's Gresham College lectures here:
https://youtu.be/5Yrf8IBn9gk
https://youtu.be/5uQWglAwlps
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 22nd of April 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-mind
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Watch the Q&A session: https://youtu.be/gj4d75_Clgg
In this lecture, we look at proposals to limit AI powers and impacts, so bad outcomes are outweighed by social benefits from the technology. I’ll explain design processes (such as Human-Centred AI and Responsible AI) and technological approaches for AI system qualities like trustworthiness, explainability and “human in the loop”. We will explore how we, as individuals, can use AI based systems in discerning ways; and look at what governments can do to help their citizens thrive in an AI-future.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 21st of April 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe).
His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices.
Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-taming
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the future, we may face ‘structural’ technological unemployment in the labour market – where there is no longer enough work to occupy the human workforce. This lecture explains how such a phenomenon is possible at all, particularly given that repeated bouts of automation anxiety in the past have turned out to be wrong. Understanding this challenge is critical given recent claims by the leaders of the large technology companies – that they hope to build an AI that can outperform human beings at every economically useful task, within a decade.
This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 20th of April 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.
His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024. He is also the author of A World Without Work (2020), described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future” and a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2020, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions (2015). His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. He is currently working on his next book, What Should Our Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI.
Previously he worked in various roles in the British Government – in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/world-without-work
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Londoners who helped create the world's largest English dictionary. She has unearthed a fascinating group of people across all social classes who represent some of the most interesting contributors to the Dictionary from all parts of this great city one hundred and fifty years ago. From a pornographer living in Bloomsbury who sent in sex words, to a servant in Eaton Square, a suffragist in St John's Wood, a plant expert at Kew Gardens, a coin specialist at the Royal Mint, and - yes! - a Gresham Professor of Geometry, this is a people's history of one of our most famous books.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Sarah Ogilvie on the 16th April 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Sarah Ogilvie is Professor of Language and Lexicography at the University of Oxford. A specialist in technology and linguistics, she has previously taught at Cambridge University and Stanford University, and worked at Lab 126, Amazon's innovation lab in Silicon Valley.
A former editor on the Oxford English Dictionary, her most recent book is The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the OED (Chatto and Windus). She is also author of Words of the World (Cambridge University Press), co-author of Gen Z, Explained (University of Chicago Press), editor of The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries, and co-editor of The Whole World in a Book (Oxford University Press).
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/living-planet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on the 15th of April 2026 at LSO, London
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-mind
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Moving the conversation on social mobility out of the boardroom and into the mainstream, the Lady Mayor Dame Susan Langley will set out her ambition to connect people with opportunity and “unsquare” the Square Mile: ensuring nobody has to fit in a certain box to thrive in the UK’s financial capital. Joined by an expert panel, she’ll ask how we can change people’s view of the City and break down barriers that might hold people back from fulfilling their potential.
This lecture was recorded by Lady Mayor Alderwoman Dame Susan Langley on the 13th of April 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Alderwoman Dame Susan Langley became Lady Mayor of London 7th November 2025. She is the 697th Lord Mayor, the third woman to hold the office, and the first to be styled “Lady Mayor”.
Dame Susan Langley is Chair of Gallagher UK, and the Senior Independent Director for UKAR (Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford and Bingley). Previously she was the Lead Non-Executive Director for the Home Office, a Trustee for Macmillan Cancer, CEO Financial & Professional Services at the Department for International Trade (DIT), Executive Director North America and Market Development for Lloyd's of London, Director of Lloyd’s Asia and Chairman of Lloyd’s Japan. Prior to this, Susan held various Insurance Board positions. She joined the Insurance Market from PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she was a Principal Consultant working with a range of FTSE 100 companies.
A founding member of the Government Women's Business Council, she is a past recipient of the Insurance Institute of London (IIL) President’s Award, the FS Women in the City Achievement Award, Women to Watch, Leading Women in Reinsurance and top 20 inspirational City Women. Born in the East End, she is passionate about social mobility and involved in a number of charitable and mentoring roles. In 2015 she received an OBE for services to women in business and in 2023, a DBE for public service to the financial services industry. Dame Susan graduated (BSc Hons) from Southampton University and married Gary in 2003. She is a Liveryman of the Insurers and Drapers and a Freeman of the Goldsmiths. Dame Susan is the Alderwoman for the City of London Aldgate Ward and served as Aldermanic Sheriff of the City of London 2023/2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lady-mayor-26
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 3rd of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical methods, mechanics, sciences, and engineering. He is well known for his contributions to dynamical systems, mathematical biology, as well as fundamental and applied mechanics. He is particularly well known for the development of a mathematical theory of biological growth, culminating with his seminal monograph The Mathematics on Mechanics of Biological Growth (2017).
He received his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1994 where he became a lecturer. In 1996, he joined the University of Arizona where he established a research group within the renowned Program of Applied Mathematics. In 2010, he joined the University of Oxford as the inaugural Statutory Professor of Mathematical Modelling and fellow of St. Catherine’s College. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
In addition, Alain has enjoyed scientific outreach based on problems connected to his research, including tendril perversion in plants, twining plants, umbilical cord knotting, whip cracking, the shape of seashells, brain modelling, and he is the author of a Very Short Introduction to Applied Mathematics (2017). His work has been recognized by a Sloan Fellowship, a Royal Society Wolfson Research Award, the Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences and the Engineering Medal from the Society of Engineering Sciences. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shape-gravity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 12th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/death-athenian-democracy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Stafford Smith on the 19th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League, a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 85 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 30. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/guantanamo-syria
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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100 years ago this year, Edwin Hubble published the first conclusive evidence that there were galaxies beyond the Milky Way. This lecture, using new results from our latest space telescopes and ground-based instruments, surveys the diversity of systems that we’ve found since, from giant and beautiful spirals to mysterious Little Red Dots.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 18th March 2026 at Conway Hall, London.
Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/universe-100
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 10th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.
He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/goddess-bridget
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Professor Melissa Lane on 5th March 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/oligarchs-discontents
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Hatred is one of the most destructive human emotions, responsible for some of the greatest atrocities that humans have committed against each other. But why did it evolve in the first place? What is the evolutionary advantage of hating someone? Why is hate the ‘evil twin’ of love? And will we ever be able to ‘treat’ hatred and open the door to a utopian world of peaceful coexistence?
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 4th of March 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.
As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-hate
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In this lecture, we glimpse our best selves and compare that to a world where we lose everything of ourselves to AI. We are glorious creations that revel in agency, freedom and creativity. What do innovations such as cars that don’t need us to drive and creative AIs that remove the effort of, say, writing or music making mean in this context? Further, with a future being forged by limited perspectives, how can human diversity inform better AI for all?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 17th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe).
His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices.
Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-humanity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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It used to be taken for granted that satire uses nasty means to good ends: it ridicules its targets in order to bring about reform. However, in recent years, the role of satire has been challenged and satirists themselves have quite literally come under attack. Some shocking incidents have prompted serious debate about the relations between free speech and hate speech. This lecture will consider the rights and wrongs of satire in a historical context and in the light of our present situation.
This lecture was recorded by Judith Hawley on the 26th of February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Judith Hawley is Professor Emerita of Eighteenth-Century Literature in the Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London.
As well as publishing essays on Laurence Sterne, encyclopaedias, Siamese twins, amateur performance and Grub Street, she has edited various eighteenth-century texts, including Jane Collier, The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting, and works by the Bluestocking, Elizabeth Carter.
Her Very Short Introduction to Satire (OUP) will be published in 2026. Currently she is writing a group biography of Pope, Swift and the Scriblerus Club. She has made numerous appearances on radio and TV and is a frequent contributor to In Our Time (BBC Radio 4). As Trustee of The London Luminaries, she has chaired an on-line lecture series since 2021. She has also lectured to the public at the Society for Antiquaries of which she is a Fellow.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ethics-satire
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Right now, the technological challenge we are most likely to face in the labour market is ‘frictional’ technological unemployment – where there is plenty of work available, but not enough people are able to do it. This lecture explores the phenomenon and its main causes – that people might lack the right skills for the work, not live in the place where the work is created, or have an identity that is at odds with the nature of the work.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Daniel Susskind on the 24th of February 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.
His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024. He is also the author of A World Without Work (2020), described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future” and a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2020, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions (2015). His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. He is currently working on his next book, What Should Our Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI.
Previously he worked in various roles in the British Government – in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/out-reach
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This episode of the Gresham College Podcast features an interview with Antony Penrose, hosted by Jeoffrey Sarpong. Antony Penrose is a film maker, photographer, author, artist, photo-curator, and co-founder of the Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection.
Following on from his Gresham College lecture, ‘Lee Miller’s Indelible Images’, we caught up with him to learn more about his mother Lee Miller’s work as a photographer during the Second World War, the atrocities she bore witness to, and how the trauma of her work impacted her and her family after she returned home.
Antony also reveals more about his efforts after Lee’s death to preserve and popularise her photographic legacy. Her work reveals an extraordinary career that spanned multiple worlds: not only her wartime photography, but also her earlier years as a model and photographer for Vogue, and her involvement in the Surrealist movement alongside many of the leading artists of the pre-war period.
Watch Antony's Gresham College lecture here:
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What is it that makes an image stick in our memory against our will? People find many of Lee Miller’s combat photographs have this indelible quality, and of these the most powerful are from her witness of the Holocaust. Her stark and harrowing evidence takes us back to one of the most terrible episodes of persecution in the whole grim history of man’s inhumanity to man.
In this lecture Miller’s son Antony Penrose talks about why his mother responded to the Holocaust in the way she did, and the work he has done to authenticate her evidence as a witness – evidence she deliberately left for us in the hope it would help prevent history repeating. When we learn the background, we begin to understand why so many of her images are so poignant, and why they have the ability to engrave themselves in our minds.
This lecture was recorded by Antony Penrose on the 10th of February 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Antony Penrose is a film maker, photographer, author, artist, photo-curator, and co-founder of the Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection.
Antony’s photographic career began at an early age when peering through the viewfinder of his mother Lee Miller‘s Rolleiflex camera. At the age of 14, a family visit to see Pablo Picasso produced some amateur images which later became widely published. On a trip to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1962, Lee was taken ill and handed him her Zeiss Contax to get the pictures she could not take.
Antony has dedicated a large part of his life to research into the lives of his parents Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, and their circle of artist friends. He established the Lee Miller Archives in the 1980s with his late wife Suzanna. Today, with his daughter Ami Bouhassane, Antony is the co-director of Farleys House & Gallery Ltd, which comprises the archives, the house museum and galleries and The Penrose Collection
You can watch the podcast with Antony Penrose in Conversation here: https://youtu.be/QY3xZLk5NS8
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lee-miller
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Since Pythagoras, we have imagined the universe as a vast, resonant instrument—a cosmic harmony waiting to be heard. From Holst’s orchestral visions of the planets to Tuvan throat singing echoing the murmur of rivers, composers have long sought to capture the music of nature and the heavens. Villa-Lobos shaped melodies from landscapes and architecture, just as scientists now transform earthquake tremors and celestial frequencies into sound. This lecture explores the deep connection between music and the cosmos, where all existence vibrates in frequencies—the very essence of pitch, resonance, and melody.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 25th February 2026 at LSO, London
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-earth-space
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Economic history has been written by men, for men and about men, giving the impression that – until recently – the economy was “just for men”. This lecture rescues from obscurity the many female producers, bankers, and economic revolutionaries who, over the course of human history, have transformed our economic fortunes. It reveals how as women’s economic opportunities have ebbed and flowed, so too have the fortunes of nations, providing a fresh perspective on the “rise and fall” of civilisations and illuminating our own prospects for the future.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Victoria Bateman on the 6th of November 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Dr Victoria Bateman is an economic historian and author of books including Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power (Headline Press, August 2025), Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty (Polity, 2023) and The Sex Factor: How Women made the West Rich (Polity, 2019). She has twenty years’ experience teaching economics and economic history at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.
Victoria was resident economic historian for BBC Radio 4’s “Understand: the economy” and has written for Bloomberg, Times Higher Education, The Guardian, CapX and The Telegraph, offering longer-form perspectives on history and the economy. In addition to her writing, Victoria works behind the scenes as a historical consultant for period dramas.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-economy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Why did coastal homeowners lose insurance while UK energy bills spiked after Russia’s invasion? Because risks started moving together. In this lecture, I show how climate extremes and geopolitics create synchronized shocks that overwhelm insurers and energy suppliers, pushing up premiums and bills. I discuss the basics of risk pooling, why it breaks under correlation, and what realistic fixes look like—from parametric policies and better building standards to smarter hedging and targeted support.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on the 18th of February 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/climate-insurance
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Our digital world's convenience masks a heavy environmental cost. This lecture explores the destructive rare earth mineral mining powering our devices, the vast energy consumption of data centres fuelling climate change, and the toxic e-waste contaminating our environment and harming human health. From resource extraction to digital consumption, we'll uncover the environmental trade-offs of our tech-dependent lives and discuss pathways towards a sustainable digital future that minimizes degradation, protects health, and mitigates climate change.
This lecture was recorded by Ian Mudway on the 17th of February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Dr Ian Mudway is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health. He is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at Imperial, a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health; MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma and the NIHR-PHE Health Protection Research Units in Environmental Exposures and Health and Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards.
He has over 25 years of experience researching the impacts of air pollution on human health and in the development of assays to quantify the toxicity of the chemical cocktails that pollute the air we breathe. Over this period Dr Mudway has published over 100 research papers, reports and book chapters on these topics, as well as providing advice to the local, national and international governments and NGOs. Dr Mudway is passionate about the communication of science to lay audiences and has worked extensively with artists and educationalist to promote the public understanding of the risks associated with environmental pollutants. Currently his work is focused on understanding early life impacts of pollutants on the development of the lung and cognitive function in children living within urban populations, as well as furthering our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that drive these adverse effects and modify an individual’s susceptibility to air pollution
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/price-pixels
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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How can the visual arts be used to promote peace? Professor Mitchell investigates how the visual arts can not only incite violence, but also bear witness, reveal dangerous memories, transform violence, contribute to healing trauma and imagine more hopeful futures. Examples are taken from both current conflicts (Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine) and past wars (Paul Nash and Otto Dix in the First World War, local artists in the Iran-Iraq War and the 1984 Rwandan genocide). Professor Mitchell analyses the ambivalent role of the visual arts in building peace.
This lecture was recorded by professor Jolyon Mitchell on 11th February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Jolyon Mitchell is Principal of St John’s College, Durham and a Professor at Durham University who specialises in Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding, with reference to the arts and media. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge, Durham and Edinburgh, Professor Mitchell worked as a Producer and Journalist with BBC World service and Radio 4 before moving to the University of Edinburgh where he served as Director of CTPI (the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh) and Academic Director for IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities). He is a former President of TRS-UK (2012-2018 - the national association for Theology and Religious Studies in the UK).
He is author or editor of over a dozen books, as well as many chapters and articles, including Promoting Peace and Inciting Violence: The Role of Religion and Media (Routledge, 2012); Martyrdom: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012); Religion and War: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2021), Religion and Peace (Wiley Blackwell, 2022), Picturing Peace: Photography, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding (Bloomsbury, 2025) and Media Violence and Christian Ethics (CUP, 2007). He is currently finishing a book on A Passion for Performance: The mysterious resurgence of religious drama (OUP, 2027). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and a life member of Clare Hall, at the University of Cambridge.
Professor Mitchell has also served on international film juries at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals. He directs several projects on Peacebuilding, including one which led to a widely used co-edited volume on Peacebuilding and the Arts (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020). He has also worked with Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, as well as Palestinian and Israeli journalists, on a peace building project in Jerusalem and beyond. A keen cricketer and former marathon runner, he has lectured all over the world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/peacebuilding-arts
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 13th February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical methods, mechanics, sciences, and engineering. He is well known for his contributions to dynamical systems, mathematical biology, as well as fundamental and applied mechanics. He is particularly well known for the development of a mathematical theory of biological growth, culminating with his seminal monograph The Mathematics on Mechanics of Biological Growth (2017).
He received his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1994 where he became a lecturer. In 1996, he joined the University of Arizona where he established a research group within the renowned Program of Applied Mathematics. In 2010, he joined the University of Oxford as the inaugural Statutory Professor of Mathematical Modelling and fellow of St. Catherine’s College. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/she-sells
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 9th of February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 85 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 30. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.
Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time.
While continuing his litigation practice, Clive teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pictures-afghanistan
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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When death occurs, the state has a duty to investigate. Every death must be registered locally with a cause of death. And now, more than any other country, all deaths are double-checked, with coroners having a significant role in over 30% of them, explaining the unexplained and reporting to prevent future deaths.
This lecture explains:
- Who are coroners and what they do
- When an inquest must take place
- How coroners arrive at a just conclusion and
- The benefit to the health and welfare of the nation in death investigation
This lecture was recorded by Sir Peter Thornton KC on the 5th of Feburary 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
His Honour Sir Peter Thornton KC was a practising barrister in criminal and human rights law, a QC (now KC), founder member and head of Doughty Street Chambers in London, a Senior Circuit Judge at the Old Bailey (the Central Criminal Court) and judge in the High Court and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).
Sir Peter was the first Chief Coroner of England and Wales.
He is now a Visiting Professor at King’s College London (where he teaches a course, Death investigation: coroners and inquests), a member of the Independent Expert Panel of the House of Commons, and an international trainer of coroners and judges with the Civil Service College, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Slynn Foundation.
His latest book is The Later Years: The simple guide to organising the rest of your life (Bedford Square Publishers, 2025). He also conducts workshops on Life and lifestyle in the later years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/death-coroners
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Sometime in 2026, we will discover our 10000th exoplanet, a world around a distant star. This population of worlds has proved remarkably diverse, but hasn’t produced any world like our own. We ask whether this is a coincidence, or whether it could be that our own world is special – and how we might investigate other worlds like our own when we do find them.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 4th February 2026 at Conway Hall, London.
Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/alien-earths
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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I have two pet dogs; they are happy, wagging their tails and reacting well when I come home from work. They are well fed; have good healthcare; get daily exercise; and have times of play; they do no work or chores. But their long-gone ancestors were wolves, howling at the moon, hunting, creating their packs, taking risks. In this lecture, we will consider a similar domestication of humans by AI, pondering benefits as well as being clear about the costs.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 3rd Feb 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe).
His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices.
Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-pet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The major environmental challenge of our time is framed in terms of what happens in our atmosphere, and specifically what are called “greenhouse gases”. But what is an atmosphere, and how does it behave? Does the atmosphere vary across the world, and what enters and leaves it normally? This lecture will explore how humanity has taken some things from the air and put other things into it, what the effects have been, and what this means for our future.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Helen Czerski on the 22nd January 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.
Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ocean-air
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The cult of Mithras was by far the most famous of the mystery religions of the Roman Empire: private societies of worshippers devoted to a particular deity. It was supposed to have come from Persia, but was actually developed by the Romans themselves and was especially popular in the northern parts of the empire, including Britain. This lecture considers its shrines, myths, membership and rituals, to see how far we can penetrate the secrecy in which it was shrouded.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 28th of January 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.
He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
He is currently working on the third volume of his biography of Oliver Cromwell.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/god-mithras
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Grieving is a uniquely human emotion – or is it? Is the apparent attachment of elephants or orcas to the bodies of dead relatives a sign of grief, or simply an instinctive behaviour without emotional implications? Why do some people seem able to handle grief so much better than others? And how close are we to finding a pharmaceutical ‘cure’ for grief…and if we find it, should we use it?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Robin May on the 21st of January 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.
As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-grieve
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Constable’s painting The Cornfield celebrates its bicentenary in 2026. How has it aged? This is a landscape that has acquired iconic status – a marker of national identity -- as a representation of typically English countryside. How has that Englishness been constituted in the painting? And how does The Cornfield (a view of a partly working landscape) speak to current ideas about relationships and tensions between the natural world and the human presence, especially in our age of environmental anxieties?
This lecture was recorded by Malcolm Andrews on 20th January 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Malcolm Andrews is Professor (Emeritus) of Victorian and Visual Studies, University of Kent. He was the Editor of The Dickensian, the journal of the Dickens Fellowship, and a past President of the Dickens Society of America.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/constable-200
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings." — Kandinsky
How do we ‘see’ music, or ‘hear’ images? From Newton’s colour scales assigning tones to the rainbow, artists and composers have long explored the deep connections between sound and vision.
Kandinsky’s Compositions and Improvisations; Klee’s polyphonic paintings, and Scriabin’s synaesthetic craft all reveal the scintillating interplay of visual and sonic art. This lecture traces their co-evolution and shared language, from spectral composers to technological translations of light into rhythm and melody, uncovering the hidden spectrum where music and colour intertwine.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on the 14th of January 2026 at LSO St Luke’s, London
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
Milton is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-light-colour
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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ChatGPT, the AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, was the fastest growing app in history. But this achievement, as sudden and remarkable as it might seem, was simply the most recent chapter in a fascinating story that has been unfolding for almost seven decades. This lecture explores the full history of the relationship between AI and work, and how economists have tried to make sense of it. It’s a journey that begins with a remarkable gathering of minds in a non-descript mathematics department at Dartmouth University in 1956 and ends with the technological convulsions that we see around us today.
This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 13th of January 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.
His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024. He is also the author of A World Without Work (2020), described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future” and a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2020, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions (2015). His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. He is currently working on his next book, What Should Our Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI.
Previously he worked in various roles in the British Government – in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/economics-ai
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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One of the first executive orders issued by President Trump in January was EO 14164 designed to “restore the death penalty”, though actually aimed at far more (including making the prison conditions of those commuted by Biden reflect the “monstrosity” of their crimes). We will explore what this means for the 2,400 people on America’s death row, at the same time as reviewing the rising levels of innocent people being executed – my own ‘Post Mortem Project’ indicating that as many as 13 percent of those killed since 1976 have strong innocence cases.
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford-Smith on the 4th of December 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 85 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 30. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.
Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/trump-death
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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During the fifty years since the launch of the Viking spacecraft to Mars, our view of the red planet has changed from hostile desert to a world which was once covered in water, and which may just possibly sustain life. Lavishly illustrated with the latest images from the fleet of spacecraft that have explored our neighbour, this lecture considers how Mars’ fate, like that of Earth, was set in the Solar System’s first billion years, and the chaotic environment the process of planet formation produced.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of December 2025 at Conway Hall, London
Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mars-love
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture looks at the 'surreal' art of the Early Netherlandish painter Jheronimus Bosch within its historical and cultural context. Although Bosch’s terrifying visions of sin, death, and the hereafter may appear surreal today, especially his highly imaginative depictions of devils, they were tied to the religious attitudes and moralising texts of the period, such as the Ars moriendi, the Dance of Death, and Everyman. It is in this context that one should examine Bosch’s Haywain Triptych, Garden of Earthly Delights, and other works.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Sophie Oosterwijk FSA on the 10th of December 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Sophie is Vice President of The Church Monuments Society and was for many years editor of its journal Church Monuments. Born in Gouda (Netherlands), she is a recognised specialist in Early Netherlandish and Dutch art. After studying English at Leiden and Medieval Studies at York, she obtained two doctorates in Art History (Leicester) and English Literature (Leiden). She previously taught art history at the Universities of Leicester, Manchester and St Andrews.
Since her return to the Netherlands, Sophie has been working as a freelance researcher and guest lecturer for the University of Cambridge, The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS), and other organisations. She has published widely, especially on death, the danse macabre and commemorative art. Her latest book, a co-edited volume entitled Writing, Dancing and Performing Death across Late Medieval Europe, is due to be published by Brill in 2025.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hieronymus
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Hecate started as the ruling goddess of the Asian region of Caria, and got taken over by the Greeks as the only one able to operate in every realm of the cosmos. This then gave her special responsibility for travellers, doorways and restless ghosts. That slowly darkened her image, so that she became associated with the night, the moon, and magicians. By the Roman period, she was the goddess of sorcery par excellence, invoked for all sorts of enchantments, good or bad. In the late ancient worlds this also turned her into a saviour figure, enabling humans directly to contact the divine. This lecture traces that colourful journey.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 26th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.
He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
He is currently working on the third volume of his biography of Oliver Cromwell.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/goddess-hecate
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In this lecture, Tsang examines the strategic goals and direction of travel China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, has set for the country and its people. He highlights what China’s new de facto state ideology Xi Jinping Thought is in order to explain systematically Xi’s domestic and global ambitions. In short, what Xi seeks to do is to forge one country, one people, one ideology, one party and one leader’ to make China great again or to accomplish the China Dream of national rejuvenation.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Steve Tsang on the 27th of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Steve Tsang is Professor of China Studies and Director of the China Institute, SOAS, London. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford.
He previously served as the Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and as Director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham. Before that he spent 29 years at Oxford University, where he earned his D.Phil. and worked as a Professorial Fellow, Dean, and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony’s College.
He has a broad area of research interest and has published extensively, including five single authored and fourteen collaborative books. His latest (with Olivia Cheung) is The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is currently completing a new book, ‘China’s Global Strategy under Xi Jinping’, which will be published by OUP in 2026.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/china-future
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How should we get organised for our later years? With just a little preparation while we are fit and healthy, we can express our wishes for more difficult times. There are simple and positive options to be followed. Not just a will and lasting power of attorney, but simple steps to being independent longer, staying at home longer and enjoying life longer. A little thought now, and hopefully with discussion with family members, will provide reassurance and peace of mind for all.
This lecture was recorded by Sir Peter Thornton KC on the 17th of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
His Honour Sir Peter Thornton KC was a practising barrister in criminal and human rights law, a QC (now KC), founder member and head of Doughty Street Chambers in London, a Senior Circuit Judge at the Old Bailey (the Central Criminal Court) and judge in the High Court and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).
Sir Peter was the first Chief Coroner of England and Wales.
He is now a Visiting Professor at King’s College London (where he teaches a course, Death investigation: coroners and inquests), a member of the Independent Expert Panel of the House of Commons, and an international trainer of coroners and judges with the Civil Service College, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Slynn Foundation.
His latest book is The Later Years: The simple guide to organising the rest of your life (Bedford Square Publishers, 2025). He also conducts workshops on Life and lifestyle in the later years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/later-years
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Laughter is an incredibly powerful and yet mysterious emotion. We laugh with delight, but also surprise. We laugh at jokes, but also at embarrassment. Why? What subconscious signal is laughter intended to display? Why do we laugh when someone tickles us and what should we make of the fact that rodents do it too? And why is it that people’s sense of humour differs wildly and yet some drugs can send us all into fits of the giggles, even if there is nothing to laugh at?
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 12th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.
As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-laugh
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Looking at the plant world, one discovers beautiful and fascinating structures in the shape and arrangement of leaves, stems and roots. Some are simple and symmetric, other features are arranged in elegant Fibonacci spirals, yet others exhibit fractal-like patterns. How are these structures created with such regularity and reproducibility? Such arrangements often follow simple rules that we can fully understand mathematically.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 11th November 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Alain Goriely FRS is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is also a mathematician known for dynamical systems, mathematical biology, and mechanics. He developed the mathematical theory of biological growth and is Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. His work spans plant tendrils, seashells, umbilical cords, brain modelling, and applied mathematics outreach.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shape-plants
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Wittgenstein wrote: “If a lion could talk, we would not understand it”. That is, as lions and humans are not of the same material, they could not say anything meaningful to each other. AI is not like us; the only way we can have a relationship with it is for us to become like it. We will look at how digital services are already making us machine-like; and, we explore how advanced AI-human fusions may undo our essential “humanness”.
This lecture was recorded by Matt Jones on the 25rd of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-assimilation
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Limitarianism holds that it is immoral to have personal wealth above a certain level. Is this idea compatible with capitalism? Defenders of capitalism have argued that it is not, whereas those who want to move beyond capitalism have urged defenders of limitarianism to clear up this issue. This lecture argues that limitarianism is compatible with some forms of capitalism, and that it would help the debate about the most desirable socio-economic system if we provide more clarity on how these concepts are used.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Ingrid Robeyns on the 5th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Ingrid Robeyns works on issues in contemporary political philosophy and applied ethics, and holds the Chair in Ethics of Institutions at the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University. She specialises in applied and "non-ideal" ethics, interdisciplinary research, and developing normative frameworks and methods. Additionally, she is affiliated as a visiting professor at the Center for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/limitarianism
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In this lecture, Mark Taubert, who chairs the national DNACPR policy for Wales, and is a palliative care clinician, reviews current practices. He will encourage you to consider your own end of life care advance care plan, and attempt to write down your prior wishes. He reviews recent concerns, scandals and media outputs and looks at current resuscitation policies, guidelines and resources. He also discusses, from a clinician’s point of view, how the prospect of a natural, anticipated and accepted death in the near future can be a trigger to better advance care planning. Furthermore, he looks at online conspiracy theories, and poor Covid-19 clinical practice, and outlines resources such as the Welsh TalkCPR videos, that can help improve communication in an area rife with misconceptions and misunderstanding.
This lecture was recorded by Mark Taubert on the 5th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London
Professor Mark Taubert is a UK hospital consultant and clinical director at Velindre University NHS Trust in Cardiff. He is Vice-President of the Brussels-based European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), a non-governmental organisation dedicated to worldwide improvement in palliative care.
His Cardiff University academic activities include advance care planning and new media in medical settings. He is the founder of TalkCPR.com and chairs the national Future Care Planning strategy group for NHS Wales. He has advised UK government on matters relating to palliative care, treatment escalation decisions, and the last years of life. Public engagement efforts include numerous BBC programmes and a Ted Talk on how we use and misuse language in healthcare settings. He also writes for international news outlets like the Washington Post, Newsweek, the Spectator and the Guardian.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/dnr-forms
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Pan started as a shepherds’ god in a wild and backward area of Greece, but became one of the best-known in the Greek and Roman world. This was partly because the leading city of Athens imported him as a saviour, and partly because he came to represent the freedom, peace and simplicity of the countryside to urban people. He was the most earthy of Greek deities, summing up wild nature in its beauty but also its danger. He was a god of both liberation and menace, and this lecture faces up to him as both.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Ronald Hutton on the 17th of September 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.
He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.
He is currently working on the third volume of his biography of Oliver Cromwell.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/god-pan
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The Royal Historical Society Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture.
In April 1945, British forces liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and arrested its commandant, Josef Kramer. What followed was the first post-war trial for war crimes - a landmark event that captured the world’s attention. Although later eclipsed by the Nuremberg Trials, the Belsen Trial marked a pivotal moment in confronting Nazi atrocities and establishing a framework for justice after the Holocaust.
For Lord Daniel Finkelstein, the story of Belsen is deeply personal. Among those imprisoned and starved in the camp were his mother and grandmother - his grandmother did not survive. In this lecture, Lord Finkelstein will recount the story of the Belsen Trial, exploring how it brought the horrors of the concentration camps to light and how it continues to shape his understanding of law, justice, and moral responsibility.
This lecture was recorded by Lord Daniel Finkelstein on the 4th of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Daniel William Finkelstein, Baron Finkelstein, OBE (born 30 August 1962) is a British journalist, author, political advisor and politician. He is a former executive editor of The Times, where he remains a weekly political columnist, and has been a regular columnist at The Jewish Chronicle since 2010. Finkelstein was formerly an advisor to Prime Minister John Major and leader of the Conservative Party William Hague. Since 2013 he has sat as a Conservative Peer of the House of Lords.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/minor-criminal
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China has important islands of technological excellence, even dominance, but these islands exist in a sea of macroeconomic imbalances and headwinds. Xi Jinping is adamant that by focusing on technology, and other aspects of national security, China can hold sway in the global system and determine global governance. Many western economists and even some in China are not so sure, choosing to wonder if the government has the political capacity to address deep-seated economic problems.
This lecture was recorded by George Magnus on the 3rd of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
George Magnus is a Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, a Member of the China Foresight Forum at LSE IDEAS, and an advisory board member of the China Observatory, a non-partisan initiative at the Council on Geostrategy.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/china-economics
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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We often talk about living on a blue planet, but when we think we’re talking about the ocean we’re generally only discussing what’s in it: fish, whales, pollution and ships. But that is to miss the biggest story on Earth, because it’s the water itself that sets the scene for everything else. This lecture will outline how the ocean engine works – its internal anatomy, how the components move, and how this engine has directly influenced our history and culture.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Helen Czerski on the 30th of October 2025 at Bernards Inn Hall, London
Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.
Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/liquid-engine
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Do animals make music? Are the languages of whales and birds truly songs? To answer this, we must first understand what we mean by music as human animals—and how it might emerge across the animal kingdom. From Messiaen’s transcriptions of bird calls to the rhythmic gaits of horses echoing in the blues, we’ll hear how animal behaviours form an unwitting orchestra and explore whether music is uniquely human or a shared language with our animal cousins.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on the 29th of October 2025 at LSO St Luke’s, London
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
Milton is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-animals
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Why has automation anxiety – the fear that new technologies cause mass unemployment – proven wrong over the centuries? This lecture explores how technology affects the labour market. While new technologies can substitute for workers, reducing demand for their efforts at certain activities, they can also complement them, increasing demand for them to do activities that haven’t been automated. Historically, people have focused on the former, harmful force and underestimated – or ignored – the latter helpful force. Today, headlines all too often make the same mistake.
This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 10th October 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/economics-work
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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How might we change the way we – and all our leaders think – so that we never go to war?
The war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the conflict in Gaza, have galvanised thinking about, and action by, the bodies administering, the laws of war.
National court processes - applying ‘universal jurisdiction’ for example – may bring international war criminals to justice. Informal processes can provide material capable of developing national laws and of providing evidence to assist the formal courts. But do these processes do anything to protect from future wars?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Geoffrey Nice on 21th October 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Sir Geoffrey Nice KC has practised as a barrister since 1971. He worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – the ICTY – between 1998 and 2006 and led the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević, former President of Serbia.
Much of his work since has been connected to cases before the permanent International Criminal Court – Sudan, Kenya, Libya – or pro bono for victims groups – Iran, Burma, North Korea – whose cases cannot get to any international court. He works for several related NGO’s and lectures and commentates in the media in various countries on international war crimes issues. He has been a part-time judge since 1984 sitting at the Old Bailey and has sat as judge in other jurisdictions, tribunals and inquiries. Between 2009 and 2012 he was Vice-Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the body that regulates barristers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/whither-war
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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When – and how – did Athenian democracy begin? There is no unambiguous answer to this question. This lecture explores one plausible origin: the popular uprising in 508 BCE overthrowing foreign invaders (who had previously expelled an Athenian-bred family of tyrants). In the aftermath of that revolution, the Athenians – led by Kleisthenes – reorganised their political system to foster new identities and interactions. As further political and social changes were made, Athenian democracy took shape in the imaginations of contemporaries and of later generations.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Melissa lane on the 16th of October 2025 at Barnards Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude)at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/tyranny-democracy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's m
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This lecture is about the meaning of China and being Chinese. It examines critically how the Chinese state, under the control of the Communist Party defines them. It highlights the historical reality that the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan adopted different political systems. The Communist Party installed a powerful Leninist party-state on the Mainland. Laisses-faire British colonial rule gloomed Hong Kong people to desire democratization. Taiwan has become a vibrant democracy. This lecture address how such realities should influence how we understand China and Chineseness.
This lecture was recorded by Steve Tsang on the 15th of October 2025 at Bernards Inn Hall, London
Steve Tsang is Professor of China Studies and Director of the China Institute, SOAS, London. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford.
He previously served as the Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and as Director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham. Before that he spent 29 years at Oxford University, where he earned his D.Phil. and worked as a Professorial Fellow, Dean, and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony’s College.
He has a broad area of research interest and has published extensively, including five single authored and fourteen collaborative books. His latest (with Olivia Cheung) is The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is currently completing a new book, ‘China’s Global Strategy under Xi Jinping’, which will be published by OUP in 2026.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/china-lessons
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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War's environmental legacies disproportionately burden the civilian populations left behind. While research focuses on combatant exposures, civilians face chronic contamination from heavy metals, chemical residues, unexploded ordnance, and asbestos, often exacerbated by disrupted infrastructure and psychological trauma. Framed through the exposome, this lecture highlights the need for greater research and policy focus on these long-term, low-level exposures and their impact on civilian health, advocating for remediation, care, and environmental justice.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Ian Mudway on 14th October 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Ian is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health.
He is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at Imperial, a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health; MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma and the NIHR-PHE Health Protection Research Units in Environmental Exposures and Health and Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/toxic-war
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How is mathematical knowledge recorded and preserved across generations? Contrary to the idea that mathematics itself is somehow ‘permanent’, in this talk we will explore heritage-making in mathematics, that is the people, institutions, and material objects that can give mathematical ideas longevity. We will explore the heritage-making found in two very different types of French nineteenth-century libraries: those of famous mathematicians and those of secondary schools. We will especially focus on how the recording – and forgetting – of mathematical ideas is influenced by their publishing, political, and intellectual contexts.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Caroline Ehrhardt on 8th October 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
Caroline Ehrhardt is Professor of History of Science and Deputy Director of IDHE.S at Université Paris 8 professor in history of science at the Université Paris 8 (France). Her research concerns the history of mathematics in France and Europe (1789–1914). She has published on Evariste Galois, on Galois theory and on mathematics education.
Caroline is currently coordinating a collective project funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche, entitled ‘Heritage and patrimonialisation of mathematics, 18th-20th centuries’. She also focuses on the practice of mathematics within French life insurance companies, on interactions between the mathematical and actuarial communities, and the production of mortality tables.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/heritage-maths
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The natural world faces unprecedented threats, challenging historical perceptions of nature as inexhaustible. Photographer Tim Flach draws on his acclaimed works, including Endangered, More Than Human, and Birds, to reveal how photography transcends traditional wildlife representation. By employing critical anthropomorphism and human portraiture techniques, Flach’s images foster empathy and kinship with animals. Collaborating with social scientists, he illustrates how visual storytelling evokes emotional responses and inspires conservation action, showcasing the profound intersection of art, science, and social awareness in the Anthropocene.
This lecture was recorded by Tim Flach on the 2nd of October 2025 at Barnards Inn Hall, London
Renowned photographer Tim Flach is known for his stylised animal portraits. He has dedicated his career to documenting biodiversity and conveying empathy for our planet’s endangered creatures. Driven by a desire to share stories of the natural world, he collaborates with scientists to research how imagery can better lead to pro-environmental outcomes.
He has seven main bodies of work which have been exhibited worldwide, including shows at the Museums of Natural History, from Paris to Beijing. He has six internationally award-winning books translated into multiple languages. His latest publication, Feline, is scheduled for release in Fall 2025.
Tim holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts London (Norwich) and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He is a Senior Research Fellow (Artist in Residence) at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, and currently serves as President of the Association of Photographers.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/animal-portraiture
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Fear is one of the earliest emotions to have evolved. Most vertebrates – and possibly some invertebrates – show fear when they are threatened. At its most core, fear keeps us alive, helping us flee from predators or avoid dangerous environments. But why does this process sometimes backfire, leaving us paralysed by otherwise harmless phobias? And why do so many people deliberately seek out fearful situations, from horror movies to parachute jumps, when instinct tells us to do the opposite? Can understanding the biology of fear help us conquer it, or simply make us more vulnerable to its impact?
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 1st of October 2025 at Bernards Inn Hall, London
Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.
Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.
As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-fear
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Since 1945 Hitler and the Nazis have been the Western world’s one fixed moral reference point: the way we know what evil is. But that consensus has always been more fragile than it felt, and now it is unravelling. This lecture will trace how we came to build our values around the memory of the Second World War, why that consensus isn’t enough to deal with our current predicaments – and why the resolution to all this might be more hopeful than you think.
This lecture was recorded by Alec Ryrie on the 30th of September 2025 at Bernard's Inn Hall, London
Alec Ryrie was Gresham Professor of Divinity. He is also Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University, Co-Editor of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History and President of the Church of England Record Society. From 2015-17 he was Visiting Professor in the History of Religion at Gresham College and gave two series of lectures on the history of Protestant Christianity. In 2019 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
He studied History as an undergraduate, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before completing a Master's in Reformation Studies at St. Andrews and a D.Phil. in Theology at St. Cross College, Oxford. From 1999-2006 he taught at the University of Birmingham, moving to Durham in 2007. He was Head of the Department of Theology and Religion from 2012-15 and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow from 2015-18. He is on the editorial boards of St Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Ashgate) and the Royal Historical Society's New Historical Perspectives. Since 1997 he has been a Reader in the Church of England, and he is licenced to the parish of Shotley St. John (diocese of Newcastle).
Professor Ryrie is a historian of the Reformation era and of Protestantism more widely, with a particular focus on England and Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is an expert on the emergence and development of Protestant and radical beliefs, identities and spiritualities, and on the history of Protestant missions and missionaries. He has written several prize-winning books and his 2017 book Protestants: The Radicals Who Made the Modern World gives an overview of the history of Protestantism from Luther to the present. Much of the book was prefigured in his lectures at Gresham College in 2015-17. His Gresham lectures from 2018-19 presented aspects of his 2019 book Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt; his Gresham lectures from 2020-1 presented aspects of his 2020 book The English Reformation.
His lectures on the early global spread of Protestantism form the basis of his forthcoming book The World’s Reformation, due to be published in 2026. Meanwhile, in 2025 he published The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It, and will be speaking about its themes at Gresham in September 2025.’
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hitler-jesus
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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How will it all end? Predicting the far future of our Universe depends on understanding its present. This lecture starts with what seems to be a paradox in modern cosmology: that we have a model that does a fantastic job of explaining what we see, but which says 95% of the Universe is in forms (dark matter and dark energy) that we don’t understand. From there, we get a quick tour of the next 100 billion years – and speculate how the Universe’s end may hold the secrets of its beginnings.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 24th of September 2025 at Conway Hall, London
Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.
Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-it-ends
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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“Scary”, “Worried”, “Dangerous” were some of the most frequent words to describe AI in a recent UK Government public survey. Do you fear, as many do, that AI will lead to us becoming second-class entities? In this first lecture, we will explore this ascendency, considering how notions of intelligence, sentience, perception, consciousness and reasoning are being framed and challenged in an AI-centred world; and surface the social, economic and ethical implications of these developments.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 23rd September 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-better
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Written in the era of the founding of Gresham College, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays the hypnotic dreaminess of a fairy world in which the real and the fantastic are blurred. This lecture explores how the innate musicality of Shakespeare’s original has provoked adaptations across the centuries, including Ashton and Balanchine’s ballets based on Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the play, Britten’s opera, Purcell’s masque The Fairy Queen, Henze’s Eighth Symphony and Elvis Costello’s Il Sogno. What is it about Shakespeare’s fairies that have inspired such diverse musical responses?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 22nd September 2025 at Conway Hall, London.
Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music. He is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is a graduate of King's College London. His scholarship focuses on the American musical on stage and screen, and he has published eight books including Loverly: The Life and Times of 'My Fair Lady' (OUP, 2012), The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (2022). He is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America. He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/musical-fairies
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture looks at the evolution of Guantánamo Bay, first as a focal point of Haitian immigration in 1991 (Gitmo 1.0), to the more famous detention of terror suspects in 2002 (Gitmo 2.0), and back to immigration in 2025. We will explore how Gitmo 3.0 is probably already over, and how we were able to head it off so quickly through legal challenges. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. is “actively searching” for countries to accept migrants deported from the U.S., with both El Salvador and Rwanda under consideration. We will discuss how lessons from legal action around Guantánamo Bay might translate to other settings.
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 18th September 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/guantanamo
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The reflection of my right hand in a mirror is a left hand that looks similar yet is very different from the right. Many natural structures such as proteins, climbing vines, and seashells exhibit the same property known as chirality. Some of these objects are clearly left-handed, some are right-handed, some are both. The ultimate origin of chirality is one of Nature's great mysteries. In this talk, I will discuss the general problem of determining the chirality of an object and how it impacts all branches of science.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 16th September 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Alain Goriely FRS is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is also a mathematician known for dynamical systems, mathematical biology, and mechanics. He developed the mathematical theory of biological growth and is Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. His work spans plant tendrils, seashells, umbilical cords, brain modelling, and applied mathematics outreach.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shape-hands
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Planet Earth is an intricate and interconnected system, with some fundamental rules that we usually ignore. But we are part of our planet, not separate to it or just perched on top of it. This lecture will consider the two primary rules of Earth: that energy continually flows through the system (in from the Sun and then out again to space) and that matter/atoms must be continually recycled and use these to build up an outsider’s view of our planet.
This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 11th of September 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/life-support
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Ever since modern economic growth began three centuries ago, people have suffered from periodic bursts of anxiety about the technologies of the time taking on the work that they do. This opening lecture explores the history of ‘automation anxiety’ – from the Luddites who smashed framing machines at the start of the Industrial Revolution in Britain to the protestors who set driverless cars on fire on the streets of San Francisco today. Time and again, their main worry – that there would not be enough work for people to do – turned out to be wrong. But they did have legitimate grievances as well.
This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 9th of September 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/automation-anxiety
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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ttps://x.com/GreshamCollege Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/tv554JY9TPU
In 1588, the young Galileo delivered some lectures that were impressive enough to secure him a mathematics professorship at the University of Pisa. His subject? The geometry of Dante’s Inferno. In this lecture we’ll look at some of Galileo’s deductions, and how the questions raised may have influenced his later mathematical research. Using this and other examples of creative work in mathematics that crosses our modern ideas of subject boundaries, I will argue that thinking across disciplines is not only intellectually exciting but academically vital.
This Annual Provost's Lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on June 18th 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Sarah Hart was the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, and Acting Provost between March and October 2025. She is also Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London.
Professor Hart studied at Oxford and Manchester, gaining her PhD in 2000. Postdoctoral research and teaching followed, including a prestigious Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Fellowship, before she was appointed to a lectureship at Birkbeck in 2004. She became Professor of Mathematics there in 2013, and served in various management roles including as Head of Mathematics and Statistics, Assistant Dean, and Programme Director for the MSc Mathematics.
Her academic publications have been mainly in the area of pure mathematics known as group theory, which has many applications both inside and outside of mathematics, for example in coding theory and cryptography. She is actively involved in the British Society for the History of Mathematics, and has served a three-year term as President of the Society from 2021-2023.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/galileos-journey-underworld-case-interdisciplinary-thinking
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The lecture shares perspectives from global history, comparative politics, and international relations to revaluate whether the twentieth-century collapse of European colonialism was as definitive as often portrayed. It suggests that, while in some ways, ending European Empires remade our contemporary world, in others processes of decolonization are far from complete.
This lecture was recorded by Martin Thomas on the 9th of April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Martin is Professor of Imperial History and Director of the Centre for Histories of Violence and Conflict at the University of Exeter.
He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme prize for outstanding research in 2002 and has been both a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow and a fellow of the Independent Social Research Foundation. He has also held visiting fellowships at Sciences Po., Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Amsterdam.
He is the author of twelve books on various aspects of decolonization, French foreign and colonial policy, colonial security services, violence and colonialism. His most recent book is The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization (Princeton University Press, 2024).
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/world-decolonization
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Decolonisation movements sought to win sovereignty and control over national resources, especially oil. This lecture explores oil’s influence on national independence struggles, from the 1955 Bandung Conference to the rise of OPEC and the nationalisation of crude reserves. It examines how these shifts reshaped global power, exposing both the successes and limits of decolonisation, and their contemporary relevance to understanding the roots of today’s climate crisis.
This lecture was recorded by Adam Hanieh on the 15th of May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Adam Hanieh is Professor of Political Economy and Global Development at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (UK).
He is also a Research Fellow at the Transnational Institute and held a Political Economy Fellowship from the Independent Social Research Foundation in 2023, which traced the new geographical linkages between the oil-producing states of the Middle East and China/East Asia. Hanieh is the author of four books, including Money, Markets, and Monarchies (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2019 British International Studies Association International Political Economy Group Book Prize. His most recent book Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market came out with Verso Books in 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/oil-decolonisation
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Shanawdithit was a woman who bore witness to the death of her world in the early nineteenth century, creating the only first-hand account we have of the Beothuk people from the Island of Newfoundland. This lecture seeks to narrate the history of her fascinating and important life, alongside the history of her island, which was England’s first transatlantic colony. It will illuminate the profound connections between the hyper-extraction of the island’s resources, the hyper-exploitation of its settlers, and the violent and totalizing dispossession of Shanawdithit’s people.
This lecture was recorded by Julia Laite on the 30th of April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Julia Laite is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.
Her most recent book The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey (2021) won the Golden Dagger for Non-Fiction from the British Crime Writer’s Association. She has published widely on the history of sexual labour, migration, and crime history, and works as a historical consultant in British media. Her new book project, A Woman at the End of the World, will tell the life story of the Beothuk woman Shanawdithit, the dilletante ethnographer William Eppes Cormack, and her own Newfoundland ancestors.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shanawdithit
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Ever feel like the financial world works against you? This lecture discusses "behavioral finance" – how our brains get tricked by money matters. We will explore how to use these insights to your advantage, navigate conflicts of interest with financial "experts," and make smarter decisions for yourself and your investments.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on the 16th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/outsmart-system-how-psychology-hacks-your-money-decisions
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The lecture will examine the pros and cons of democracy in today's world, focusing on the importance of domestic and international rule of law to maintain democratic ideals, which are fragile in times of conflict. There will be examples given, highlighting the current War in Ukraine and the political situation in the United States, the influence of other players and the legacy of the Cold War.
Lastly, there will be an observation on the ways that the principal judicial organs operate, their challenges, and a prediction of their future. Sir Howard Morrison will provide some suggestions as to how things might be contained by means of persuasive soft power.
This lecture was recorded by Howard Morrison on the 9th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Sir Howard Morrison KC was called to the Bar by Grays Inn in 1977. He is now a Master of the Bench. He was commissioned as a TAVR infantry officer. He practised on the Midland and Oxford Circuit until 1986 when he went to Fiji as a Resident Magistrate , later promoted Chief Magistrate and Senior Magistrate of Tuvalu. Appointed OBE for services to the judiciary following military coups. He then served as Attorney General for Anguilla before returning to UK practice at 1 King's Bench Walk. He was appointed Recorder sitting in crime, civil and family and defended at the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague and the Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha in Tanzania before taking Silk in 2001 and was subsequently appointment to the Circuit Bench in 2004.
In 2005 he was seconded to advise the judges of the Iraqi Higher Tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, spending a year in Baghdad after which he was appointed CBE. In 2009 he was appointed as the UK Judge for the Special Tribunal for the Lebanon and then as the UK Judge for the Yugoslavia Tribunal where he was a trial judge in the seminal case of Radovan Karadzic. In 2011 he was elected as the UK Judge at the International Criminal Court until 2021 where he served two terms as President of the Appeals Chamber being appointed KCMG in 2016. He is a Senior Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre of Cambridge University and a visiting professor at the universities of Leicester ( appointed Hon LLD), Warwick and Northumbria. He has lectured in international criminal and humanitarian law at some 25 universities worldwide. He is currently an associate tenant at Doughty Strert chambers, the UK Independent Advisor to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, President of the Court of Appeal of the British Indian Ocean Territories and trains counter-terrorism judges and prosecutors in Iraq.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-25
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Health over the last 150 years in the UK and internationally has been transformed and this rapid rate of change will continue. Improvements in public health and the shifting demographic structure are altering the trajectory and frequency of disease. Advances in science including new drug classes, diagnostics and AI are changing what is possible in diagnosis and treatment. This lecture will consider the possible, and likely, direction of health over the next decades.
This Annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture was recorded by Sir Chris Whitty on 23rd June 2025 at Conway Hall, Holborn, London
Chris was Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College from 2018 to 2022, and Visiting Professor of Public Health 2015-2018 and again since 2022.
He is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England and the UK Government's Chief Medical Adviser.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-health-25
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How long is the coastline of Britain? What is a rhombicuboctahedron? Which US president proved Pythagoras’s theorem? These and many other intriguing questions will be addressed in this lecture on renowned mathematical equations and their history. The selected equations span various areas of mathematics and cover a timeline of 4000 years, from early geometry to fractal art.
This lecture was recorded by Robin Wilson on the 4th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Robin Wilson is Emeritus Gresham Professor of Geometry, Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He has also regularly taught as a guest Professor at The Colorado College, USA, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in mathematics in 2023.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sum-stories
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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We perceive the world through the processing of information given by our senses. Sometimes, this processing is faulty leading to illusions: shapes or sounds that we perceive differently from their physical reality. These illusions have delighted children and scientists alike for centuries. This lecture reveals how simple geometric illusions can be modelled mathematically, based on our understanding on how visual signals are coded and decoded by the brain, leading to a better understanding of how we process information.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 17th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/deceived-brain
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Our understanding of the human immune system today is vastly different from that of 50 years ago. This knowledge has led to immune-based therapies that would have seemed like science fiction to our grandparents: monoclonal antibodies, T-cell therapies, anti-cancer vaccines, precision immune suppression – the list is endless. In this lecture, we look to the future and ask, “What next for immunity?”
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 11th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-immunity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This is the fourth lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025
Professors Sarah Hart and Milton Mermikides reveal the deep connections between music and mathematics. Whether that’s the Euclidean rhythms that shape funky grooves, the set theory that maps every possible chord, or a live rendering of the geometric elegance of Gresham Professor Iannis Xenakis’s algorithmic compositions, this event will reveal how maths can help explain – and even inspire – the richness of musical experience.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Sarah Hart on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Sarah Hart was the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, and Acting Provost between March and October 2025. She is also Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-music-and-music-maths
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This is the first lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025
Musical instruments have been found in the archaeological record from at least 40,000 years ago and despite the diversity of human civilization, we are yet to find a culture which lacks music. Other species also make ‘music’ – from a grasshopper’s chirp to a nightingale’s song – but is human music simply an extension of that evolutionary heritage? What can modern studies of genetics and anthropology tell us about the evolution of human musicality? Can neuroscience explain why music evokes such strong emotions? And what happens when the ‘biology of music’ goes wrong?
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Robin May on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic. He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolution-music
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This is the second lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025
Why does a rhythm make us tap our feet—or even get up and dance? In conversation with Professor Milton Mermikides, neuroscientist Professor Morten Kringelbach reveals how the brain finds pleasure, meaning, and movement in music. Drawing on extensive brain imaging, analysis and real-world studies, the talk explores how music and dance engage our brain’s predictive systems—where just the right balance of familiarity and surprise creates joy. From funk to fugues, bossa to the Beatles – the talk will offer insights into why groove feels so good, and how rhythm links brain, body and culture.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Morten Kringelbach on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Kringelbach is the founding director of the "Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing" at Linacre College, University of Oxford which convenes and fosters an interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists. He is also Professor of Neuroscience and co-founder of "Center for Music in Brain", Aarhus University, Denmark. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/climbing-mount-groove-music-and-dance-brain
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This is the third lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025
This dialogue presents the what and why of Ancient Greek music, and its profound role in philosophy, society and the individual. Education without music was an impossibility in ancient Greece; virtue without music, equally so. One scholar (writing in the late twentieth century) compared the pervasive social presence and impact of the medium of mousikē in Ancient Greece to that of television. But with its participatory motor training and habituation, mousikē, was also a primary mode of acculturation: a way to shape the perceptual attunement and overall outlook of the members of a political community. Engagement with poetry and music pervaded all aspects of Ancient Greek life, and because musical education was the core of Greek education, it was also the core of Greek citizenship and of the virtues. Different musical modes were even thought to impart distinct virtues; for Plato, training in musicality could harmonise the soul, while changes in musical styles and genres could dislocate the entire polity.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Melissa Lane on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/virtues-music
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This is the fifth and final lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025
Professors Lintott and Mermikides present and discuss historical and contemporary musical representations of astronomical data including Pythagoras’s parallelism of tuning purity and celestial movement, Plato’s cosmic harmony in Timaeus, Kepler’s representations of orbital eccentricity as musical scales, Herschel’s blending of music and cosmology, and the tendency of stable planetary systems to ‘find’ harmonic ratios. The contemporary field of astro-sonification – using sound to represent, search and communicate to a diverse audience, astronomical patterns from black hole radiation to exoplanetary systems – is demonstrated with original examples.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Chris Lintott on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy. He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/remixing-music-spheres
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Accra’s James Fort is an iconic monument for Ghana and modern Africa. This lecture explores the fort's evolution -from its role as a trading post in the early European-African encounters, through its significance during the trans-Atlantic trade and enslavement, to its later use as a modern colonial prison in the post-independence era. It also explores its connection to Ghana's liberation movement, particularly its role in imprisoning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other political leaders during their resistance to British rule. Today, this monument represents the resilience, talent and creative potential of a sustainable future for Ghana and its youthful population.
This lecture was recorded by Elsie Owusu on the 27th of March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Elsie Owusu OBE is a Ghanaian-British architect and urban designer. She is principal of Elsie Owusu Architects, with projects in UK, Nigeria and Ghana.
With an extensive portfolio of international projects, from transport and infrastructure and master planning, Elsie is a specialist conservation architect. She is currently designing rural community-led zero-carbon schemes and conservation projects in Ghana and developing eco-homes in Sussex. When a partner at Feilden+Mawson, she was co-lead architect for the UK Supreme Court and London’s Green Park Station.
Born in Ghana, Elsie was the founding chair of the Society of Black Architects. She is a trustee of UK Supreme Court Arts Trust and former member of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Council. Previous roles include the Founding Vice-Chair of the London School of Architecture, the London Mayor’s Panel of Design Advocates and Board Member of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum. Elsie is a director of JustGhana Ltd which promotes education, architecture, arts and creative industries in Ghana and the UK.
In 2003, she was honoured by The Queen for services to architecture. She was the runner-up for the Presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2018.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/james-fort
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture considers ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from Carousel (1945). Perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most operatic song, it was originally written for Metropolitan Opera star Christine Johnson but has gone on to be recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley and Marcus Mumford and sung at both the Last Night of the Proms and Liverpool Football Club.
This lecture will include live performances by international soprano and Grammy Award winner Rebecca Evans CBE.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 2nd of May 2025 at Conway Hall, London.
Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music. He is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is a graduate of King's College London.
His scholarship focuses on the American musical on stage and screen, and he has published eight books including Loverly: The Life and Times of 'My Fair Lady' (OUP, 2012), The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (2022).
He is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America.
He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/operatic-showstopper
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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We have to stop fossil fuels from causing global warming – before the world stops using fossil fuels. There’s only one solution: safe and permanent disposal of one tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne still generated by burning fossil fuels. But how do we achieve this without overheating the planet or stoking political conflicts? This lecture presents a simple answer: make carbon dioxide disposal a licensing condition of the sale and use of fossil fuels.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 10th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbon-takeback-how-we-will-stop-fossil-fuels-causing-global-warming
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Whether you are human or computer, viruses can ruin your day, so taking steps to avoid them is important. This lecture will ask whether there are similarities between human immunity and computer immunity? Can we use discoveries in one system to help protect against infections in the other? Might we one day take our laptops for regular vaccinations, or run a ‘software update’ on our own immune systems to avoid an emerging pathogen?
This lecture was recorded by Robin May & Victoria Baines on 7th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/do-computers-get-sick-how-humans-and-computers-fight-viruses
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Now over 50 years old, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon remains the perfect example of a concept album. Blending cyclical forms, jazz and modal harmony, experimental electronics, multi-layered guitars, studio techniques and haunting lyrics, this lecture will examine why this album has retained its popularity, critical success, and enduring influence.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 12th June 2025 at Rich Mix, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/illuminating-dark-side-moon
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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How have lawgivers featured in modern revolutions? This lecture considers key moments in revolutions, including seventeenth-century Britain, eighteenth-century France and (what would become) the United States, and twentieth-century Iran. The appeal to lawgivers (including ancient ones from many cultures) in revolutionary visions and in consolidating new constitutions is a striking feature of modern politics.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 5th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lawgivers-modern-revolutions
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The U.S. Constitution had to be formed through debate before it could be ratified. Mirroring this, a British constitution must emerge through debates held by the next generation. This lecture indicates schools are a good environment to foster this. For students, there are many contentious issues that tap into discussions at the heart of writing a constitution. Students being punished for swearing raises questions of limits to free speech. Students wishing to intervene when an unpopular peer is bullied would be empowered by constitutional duty obliging them to do so. Schools tend to be authoritarian institutions, benevolent or otherwise, and can either provoke students to develop ideas on power structures and recognise the need for their own rights and duties, or condition them to accept of the status quo.
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 22nd May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/taking-constitution-classroom
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The JWST is the most expensive and powerful telescope astronomers have ever constructed. Its launch in 2021 started a new phase in our exploration of the cosmos, with the observatory's golden mirrors producing instantly iconic images of the Solar System's giant planets, nearby star-forming regions and galaxies, and our distant universe. The lecture includes the latest news from its studies of the early universe, a place lit up by what appears to have been a much more spectacular burst of activity than anyone expected.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 28th May 2025 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/new-sky
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Why do smart people make dumb financial choices? This lecture explores the surprising link between our psychology and money mistakes. We will see how fear, overconfidence, and even our desire to be liked can cloud our judgment, especially when dealing with financial "experts". Learn how these psychological blind spots worsen conflicts of interest, and how to make smarter financial decisions, free from emotional influence.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 2nd June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/blind-spots-bad-decisions-why-we-fall-financial-traps
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Throughout history, authorities have struggled to manage individuals’ urges to speak out against injustice and malpractice. IT has given us new means to obtain and publish data that others may wish to protect or even conceal. To some, those who hack and leak are heroes. To others, they are criminals. In an era of mass leaks and high-profile whistleblowing, who decides whether data thieves and hackers are to be protected or prosecuted? And are the old rules still fit for purpose in the digital age? This lecture will discuss these questions and will consider the moral case for stealing data.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 20th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/moral-case-stealing-data
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture delves into musical forms which rely on the most economical of materials and concepts. From Steve Reich’s adoption of rhythmic cycles and phasing in Ewe drumming to the expressive power of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music, we explore how profound effect can emerge from such apparent simplicity. This lecture unpacks the processes behind celebrated minimalist works and reveals the quiet and elegant mechanisms underpinning their musical power.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 1st May 2025 at Rich Mix, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/minimalist-process
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 14th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-pagan-witchcraft
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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For many modern thinkers, the lawgiver has been important as a founder or re-founder of civic identity and cultural values. From Machiavelli on Moses; to Rousseau on Solon, Lycurgus, and the need for a lawgiver to make a true social contract possible; to Nietzsche and his followers seeking a lawgiver who can be also poet and prophet, this lecture will explore the figure of the lawgiver and how it has been a center of debate in modern political philosophy.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 29th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/machiavelli-nietzsche-how-modern-thinkers-saw-ancient-lawgivers
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are devastating neurological conditions that typically occur at old age and lead to systematic dementia and debilitating symptoms. The underlying mechanisms of these diseases are poorly understood. Yet, a striking feature of these conditions is the characteristic pattern of invasion throughout the brain, leading to well-codified disease stages associated with various cognitive deficits and pathologies. This lecture shows how mathematical modelling can be used to predict dementia’s progression by unravelling some of its universal features.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 13th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/troubled-brain-ageing-and-dementia
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 6th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/divine-law-human-prophet-moses-hebrew-and-greek
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 29th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/does-net-zero-mean-end-livestock-agriculture
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 10th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/what-rights-and-duties-are-missing-us-constitution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture was recorded by Alderman Alastair King on 14th April 2025 at Guildhall, London.
Alastair King is the 696th Lord Mayor of the City of London
His civic responsibilities began when he was first elected as Common Councillor for Queenhithe Ward in 1999 – giving him over 24 years’ uninterrupted service; he was appointed Deputy for the Ward in 2006and elected Alderman in 2016 – serving as Aldermanic Sheriff 2022-23.
He sits on the Governing Bodies of the Bridewell Royal Hospital, the Samuel Wilson Loans Trust, Morden College and Emanuel Hospital. A Liveryman of 11 City Livery Companies, Alastair also serves as Chairman of The British Liver Trust and Chairman of Onside Youth Zone,Haringey Project.
Early in his career, Alastair was a lawyer and practiced as a solicitor at leading international law firm Baker & McKenzie in the City and in Asia.
Alastair later held senior positions at SPARK Ventures (formally NewMedia SPARK PLC) a pioneering technology venture capital company in London, and was Managing Director at Galahad Capital Plc.
He is the founder and Chairman of Naisbitt King Asset Management Limited (NKAML), an FCA-authorised asset management company, specialising in managing segregated portfolios of investment grade fixed income securities. NKAML constructs bespoke portfolios, often with special reference to Environmental, Social and Governance characteristics. It also has experience with sukuk/Shariah-compliant investments and publishes the Naisbitt King Bond Market Update every month.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/2025-annual-lord-mayors-event
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Our alert systems for identifying safety and security threats have evolved over time. As the threat from wild animals diminished, the perceived threat from other humans increased. To defend our territories and our livelihoods, we began to gather intelligence on our enemies, in the hope that being forewarned would give us an advantage. This lecture explores our use of technologies that have allowed us to keep a closer watch, and the ingenious methods that have been used to counter them.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 8th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-surveillance-works
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In the late nineteenth century, Joseph Chamberlain transformed Birmingham with municipal enterprise and urban improvement, but in the last few years, local authorities have been facing serious financial difficulties, and some of the largest, such as Birmingham, have faced the equivalent of bankruptcy. This lecture will ask why British cities have lost the confident civic pride of the Victorian era and are now struggling to provide basic services from a limited financial base. Most importantly: What can be done to regenerate British towns and cities?
This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 24th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Martin Daunton is Visiting Gresham Professor of Economic History.
He is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.
He has written two books on the history of taxation in Britain – Trusting Leviathan and Just Taxes, and co-edited with colleagues in Berlin a volume of essays on the political economy of public finance in leading OECD countries since the 1970s. His book The Economic Government of the World, 1933 to 2023 was published by Allen Lane in 2023.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cities-bankrupt
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The ancient Druids have long represented some of the most striking and controversial figures in ancient and medieval literature. In this lecture, we will look at the many different ways in which the modern imagination has been inspired by them, both as heroic ancestors and as demonic villains against whom civilisation can be defined. It traces the appearance of different kinds of Druidry as a part of Paganism, and suggests what the particular contribution of that Druidry to modern culture may be.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 2nd April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-druids
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Vaccination has changed the world, saving millions of lives and enabling us to eradicate a lethal disease for the first time in human history – not to mention their critical role in ending the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture explores how a vaccine actually works, why mRNA vaccines are truly groundbreaking and why we can’t simply vaccinate against everything.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 26th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-do-vaccines-work
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Asteroids were for years considered 'celestial vermin' - objects which got in the way of more interesting fodder for astronomers. Now, they are central to our Solar System's story, representing the building blocks from which planets are made, and capable of telling us the history of the last five billion years. This lecture considers two missions - Lucy, which flies past asteroid Donald Johnson in April 2025, and OSIRIS-ReX, which recently returned from threatening near-Earth asteroid Bennu bearing samples of this unusual world.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 23rd April 2025 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/asteroid-adventures
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Composed by Jerry Herman of Hello, Dolly! fame, ‘I Am What I Am’ first appeared in the Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles (1983). As well as gaining importance as a gay anthem during the AIDS crisis, the song has gone on to become a hit for several Black divas including Gloria Gaynor and Shirley Bassey.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 3rd of April 2025 at Conway Hall, London.
Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music. He is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is a graduate of King's College London.
His scholarship focuses on the American musical on stage and screen, and he has published eight books including Loverly: The Life and Times of 'My Fair Lady' (OUP, 2012), The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (2022).
He is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America.
He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lgbt-showstopper-i-am-what-i-am
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture looks at debates and dialogues that characterise realist photography in Apartheid South Africa (1948-1994) examining the tensions between advocacy, propaganda and the ‘struggle’ on the one hand and the poetics of everyday life on the other. Figures from Ernest Cole and David Goldblatt to Zanele Muholi and Lebohang Kganye will be examined.
This lecture was recorded by Tamar Garb on 25th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Tamar Garb is Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art. Her research interests have focused on questions of gender and sexuality in European art as well as on post-apartheid culture, contemporary art, and the history of lens-based practices in Africa.
Key publications include Sisters of the Brush: Women’s Artistic practices in Late Nineteenth Century Paris (1992), Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin de Siecle France (1996) and,The Painted Face: Portraits of Women in France, 18145-1914 (2007). Her Africa related curatorial projects include: Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography (V&A, 2011); Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive (Walther Collection, 2015); William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: A Conversation in Letters and Lines (Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016) and, Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt (Walther Collection 2023)
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/documentary-photography-apartheid-south-africa
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Despite being cited as one of the most creative and influential guitarists of all time, and his tragically short life, Jimi Hendrix’s playing and composing are yet to be fully analysed. This lecture will demystify his diverse influences and reveal the full range of his extraordinary invention in terms of sonic sculpting, rhythmic feel, fretboard navigation, harmony, and composition. We explore this dazzling creativity from his early playing as a sideman to the Isley Brothers, the Experience albums, the iconic Band of Gypsys project, to the tantalising promise of his ‘Electric Church’ musical vision.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 20th March 2025 at Rich Mix, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/just-ask-axis-jimi-hendrix-unpicked
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture puts forth the ethical and economic case for a basic income, enabling financial security and therefore a better quality of life for all. Financial insecurity affects one’s ability to make rational decisions – studies show it even lowers short-term IQ – making it even harder to improve one’s circumstances in the long run. Furthermore, unlike means-tested social assistance schemes like Universal Credit, a basic income does not involve a severe ‘poverty trap’ and thus, contrary to critics, increases the incentive to take low-paying jobs. This lecture includes findings from a series of BI pilots across the world which Dr Standing has been involved in.
This lecture was recorded by Guy Standing on 19th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Guy Standing is a Professorial Research Associate and former Professor of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. From August 2006 until January 2013, he was Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath in the UK. Between April 2006 and February 2009, he was also Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He has written and edited books on labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies, social protection policy, rentier capitalism and its predations, and the need to revive the commons. His most recent books are The Politics of Time: Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty (2023), The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea (2022), Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now (2020) and Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth (2019).
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/case-basic-income
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Despite its quiet appearance, the brain is the seat of complicated wave dynamics. Indeed, cognitive processes are carried out through communications between neurons, leading to synchronisation and oscillations at different frequencies that can be recorded. Together, these oscillations also create waves that propagate through different regions. Apart from this electrical activity, the brain is also the siege of slow chemical waves that can cause migraine and mechanical waves arising from trauma. In this lecture, we will study the influence of all these waves on brain function.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 18th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/turbulent-brain-rhythms-and-waves
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The right to free expression is severely threatened in many places in the world, yet it has also never been so passionately defended. This lecture focuses on the recent history of banned literature. It considers the changing nature of literary censorship, arguments in defence of free expression, why literary writers have so frequently pushed the boundaries of the acceptable, and the impact of technology on censorship and free speech.
This lecture was recorded by Rachel Potter on 12th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Rachel Potter is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of East Anglia. She writes on literature and censorship, free expression and writers organisations, modernist literature and early twentieth century culture.
Rachel completed her PhD at King's College, Cambridge, where she also studied for her undergraduate degree. Prior to her PhD she took the MA in 'Critical Theory' at the University of Sussex. Before joining UEA in September, 2007, she taught for seven years at Queen Mary, University of London.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/banned-books
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture examines agency problems in various relationships, including between investors and fund managers, and within financial intermediaries.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 3rd February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/trust-issues-when-financial-experts-have-other-plans
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Offsets, politely called carbon credit markets, are essential to many net-zero strategies, yet remain highly controversial. They seem an efficient solution for “unavoidable” emissions – but who decides what is unavoidable? This lecture will discuss several plans to achieve our climate goals, from emission compensation schemes to tackling fossil fuels by planting trees.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 4th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbon-offsetting-does-it-really-work
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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In this lecture we will discuss a hierarchy of rights. Is the American First Amendment the most important of all, given its five foundational rights – no establishment of religion; free exercise of religion; freedom of speech and the press; the right peaceably to assemble; the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. How might this apply to the UK?
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 27th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/first-amendment
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Mapping the stars is, perhaps, the oldest of astronomical pursuits, but it has been perfected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which is providing an exquisitely precise map showing the positions and movements of the nearest two billion stars. Starting with a history of mapping the cosmos, this lecture describes the new and dynamic history of our Milky Way galaxy that results, and will move to explaining the dynamic and growing nature of our galaxy.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 26th February 2025 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/biggest-cosmic-map
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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It has become something of a cliché to say that data is the new oil. That isn’t the full story. For centuries it has proved itself to be infinitely re-usable. It has enabled the creation and reinforcement of collective memory. It has been documented in innumerable formats, from maps to databases, taxonomies, and infographics. We make sense of the world through the technology we use to process and visualise data. This lecture is an exploration of our enduring love for it.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 25th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/data-love-story-ages
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Until the nineteenth century, the favourite ancient pagan gods in Western culture were those related to human qualities and activities. During that century, especially in Britain, attention switched to a horned divinity associated with the countryside and wild nature, usually personified as the Greek Pan. This lecture explores how and why this happened, and the impact on British culture, when the full subversive potential of this deity as a force for personal liberation became realised. It also shows how the image subsequently evolved from a classical god into an archetype.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 19th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/return-horned-god
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Most of us rarely think about plant immunity. But, like us, plants can distinguish between different pathogens, trigger a ‘bespoke’ immune response and retain a memory of past infections to boost future immunity. However, plant immune systems also exhibit enviable features like the ability to inherit immunological memory from a parent, or to warn distant individuals of an impending pathogen attack. This lecture investigates how they do all of this and more without a single white blood cell.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 29th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/green-immunity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Sophocles’ Antigone refers to “unwritten laws,” as does Thucydides’ Pericles. From the late fifth century BCE, the idea that laws are more effective when learned by memory and observation than when put into writing, forms a distinctive current in political reflections. Plutarch would even claim that the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus had prohibited the writing down of his laws. This lecture will present Greek authors’ reflections on the interplay between writing and orality remain relevant to debates about ethical formation today.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 20th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/unwritten-laws-legacies-antigone-and-lycurgus
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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As we navigate towns and cities, public spaces are all around us. These offer a respite from our often-busy routines. Public spaces are more than just the leftover areas between buildings; they depend on how interests are designed and negotiated, and its success is measured by the interactions that take place in it: the passage of the sun, the root of trees, and even the way they are used by children. However, these areas are constantly threatened by the way local and commercial funding invest in it.
Using recent projects, primarily in London and North America, this lecture will invite audiences to think about public space beyond the space between and around buildings; to view public spaces, their design and their constructions, under a new light.
This lecture was recorded by Liza Fior on 28th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Liza Fior is a founding Partner of muf architecture/art, and Professor of Architecture and Spatial Practice at the University of the Arts London. She was previously a visiting professor at Yale University.
muf architecture/art are internationally acclaimed for their hyper-local approach to design; exclusively working in the public realm - including on streetscapes, parks and open spaces, buildings masterplans, temporary commissions and furniture.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/public-space
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The UK's income inequality has remained stable since the 1990s, but household wealth has nearly doubled, mainly driven by soaring house prices. This has widened the wealth gap between generations, with younger people less likely to own homes. Furthermore, weak income growth since the mid-2000s has disproportionately affected younger cohorts. This lecture unpacks these economic trends to reveal how they have created tensions between generations by exacerbating disparities in their respective living standards.
This lecture was recorded by Mike Brewer on 18th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Mike is Interim Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Department of Social Policy at the LSE. Between 2011 and 2020, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Essex. He has also worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and HM Treasury.
Mike is interested in all aspects of inequality in income and wealth, including the role of the labour market and the tax and benefit system. He also has a long background in using microsimulation methods. He is the author of a book, What Do We Know And What Should We Do About Inequality?, published by SAGE in 2019.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/uks-generational-wealth-gap
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The discharge of raw sewage into rivers, and the financial problems of major water companies, have become serious political and social concerns for the public. British cities have faced similar challenges in the past, most notoriously with the ‘Great Stink’ in London in 1858 that led to the construction of Bazalgette’s sewer. Consequently, many cities took utilities into public ownership in the late nineteenth century in what is termed ‘gas and water socialism’. Why did this happen, and why were utilities returned to private ownership in the later twentieth century? The lecture will conclude by assessing the success or failure of the current system of regulated private ownership. Should there be a return to public ownership?
This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 11th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Martin Daunton is Visiting Gresham Professor of Economic History.
He is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.
He has written two books on the history of taxation in Britain – Trusting Leviathan and Just Taxes, and co-edited with colleagues in Berlin a volume of essays on the political economy of public finance in leading OECD countries since the 1970s. His book The Economic Government of the World, 1933 to 2023 was published by Allen Lane in 2023.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/water-sewage-crisis
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture explores how information asymmetry leads to adverse selection and moral hazard, with a focus on their presence in financial markets and institutions such as insurance and credit markets. It will examine how regulations intended to solve a particular set of issues might exacerbate problems, potentially resulting in financial crises or other disastrous events.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 20th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hidden-risks
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Finance involves a group of people attempting to make rational decisions on valuation, but people are complicated. People can be self-interested, they can make mistakes, or, in stark contrast, they can act altruistically. This lecture will introduce the concept of agency problems in the finance sector, focusing on the conflicts that arise between different groups of stakeholders. It will discuss examples of fraud, insider trading and other types of human behavior that can reduce the public's trust in the markets.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 21st October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hidden-conflicts-finance
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The brain is mostly organised in small modular regions connected to each other. Typically, each region performs different cognitive tasks, from image processing to language. This organisation leads us to model the brain as a network, the ‘brain connectome’. This fundamental view of the brain has become a central paradigm for neurosciences linking topological properties of networks to brain functions. This lecture presents ideas from graph theory to study this network and understand the way that the brain learns and operates.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 4th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/connected-brain
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Sound and music hold a strange and powerful role in film, TV and video games, aiding narrative and emotional impact. They can even exist in the world of ‘the film’ – heard by the characters – or in the world of the audience. Music can even break the fourth wall, travelling through and blurring these conventionally separate worlds. By examining films through history from Blazing Saddles, Elf, The Truman Show to Birdman, we explore this ‘fantastical gap’ and its transformative effect on the audience.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 16th January 2025 at Rich Mix, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sceen-music
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture traces the history of this famous series by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, starting from its conception in 1947. It describes the research and writing of the original forty-six volumes for England and the extension of the books to Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It then assesses their significance alongside a reflection on the 2024 achievement of the full updating of the English series.
This lecture was recorded by Charles O'Brien on 5th December 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Charles O’Brien FSA is Listing and Architectural Research Director at Historic England. Until 2022 he was the joint Series Editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides.
He graduated with a degree in History of Art from University College London before joining the series in 1997, where he worked fulltime on the research, writing and editing of the new editions. As author and co-author he has written the revised volumes to East London, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough,Hampshire and Surrey. He is a former Commissioner of Historic England and former chair of their London Advisory Committee and has served as an adviser to government on local heritage. He is also a liveryman of the Mercers Company and member of their Heritage and Arts Committee
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pevsner-buildings
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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When and why do written laws emerge in ancient societies? This lecture will consider these questions in light of evidence including the law code of Hammurabi; the earliest attestation of written laws in Greek (found in Dreros on Crete); and the full-blown commitment to written laws by the Athenian lawgiver Solon. Such cases will be used to explore how writing bears on the the functions of law more generally, in light of debates in contemporary legal philosophy.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 23rd January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/writing-laws
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Despite its familiarity, the Sun is a very different presence from the friendly yellow circle in children's paintings. Our star is a broiling mass of plasma, with its powerful magnetic fields, twisted by its rotation, capable of producing dramatic events of spectacular beauty and power. Using results from NASA's Parker Solar Probe - the fastest moving human-made object ever - and ESA's Solar Orbiter, this spectacular lecture takes a new look at the mysteries of the Sun, and its effects on the Earth.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 15th January 2024 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/touching-sun
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Over half the world’s largest companies have a net zero strategy. But what stops “Science-based Targets” from becoming box-ticking exercises too often immune to environmental scrutiny? Instead of decarbonizing companies and financial portfolios, this lecture will discuss the need to focus on decarbonizing products and services themselves so that companies must explain how they plan to stop what they sell from causing global warming.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 14th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/net-zero-private
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Recently, the UK has got into a muddle over how to approach Scottish independence and Brexit. What can we learn from the U.S. which took much of its system from the theory behind the U.K. structure: the King as the Executive; a Legislature made up of the House of Commons balanced by the House of Lords; and the judiciary? And what role should the judiciary play? Have the British got confused about the notion of ‘Parliamentary Supremacy’, deciding that this meant that Parliament was supreme not just to the King, but to the judiciary too?
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 1st January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/british-constitution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This looks at how and why a particular form of the non-Christian divine feminine came to take over the Western European imagination from the beginning of the nineteenth century. This was a great goddess representing the natural world, or the moon and stars, or both. It traces the development of belief in the importance of this being, and her impact not only on creative literature but upon the developing disciplines of ancient history and archaeology. It also confronts the problem of the different kinds of politics represented by this figure.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 8th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-goddess
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Artificial Intelligence is a very recent invention…or is it? Humans have been fascinated by intelligent machines for thousands of years. Some exist only in our collective imagination, in art and literature. Others have seen the light of day as mechanical marvels, although a few were later exposed as elaborate frauds. The robots of today might not be what our ancestors imagined. This lecture argues that the relationship between humans and machines has always been complex, and that we still can’t decide whether we really want them to be like us.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 7th January 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/afraid-robots
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture explores the emergence of the "femme au piano" genre in 19th-century French painting, depicted by artists like Renoir, Van Gogh, and Matisse. What suddenly made this topic so popular, and what does it tell us about the role of women in music-making at the time? Tracing the genre's roots from the Italian Renaissance clavichord depictions to Vermeer’s Dutch domestic scenes, and 18th-century harpsichord portraits. Discover how the piano became a middle-class status symbol and how modernists of the 1910s-20s reinterpreted it. Presented from the perspective of a music historian, this lecture will delve into the roots of the “Women at the Piano” genre and reveal how these paintings offer a window onto women’s music-making.
This lecture was recorded by Marina Frolova-Walker on 10th December 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Marina is Gresham Emerita Professor of Music.
Marina Frolova-Walker, a Russian-born British musicologist and music historian, was Visiting Gresham Professor of Russian Music in 2018-19 and Gresham Professor of Music 2019-23. She is Professor of Music History and Director of Studies in Music at Clare College, Cambridge.
She is a specialist in the Russian music of the 19th and 20th centuries. She has published extensively on Russian music and is a well-known lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. Among her many awards and appointments, she is a Fellow of the British Academy and was awarded the Edward Dent Medal in 2015 by the Royal Musical Association for her achievements in musicology.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-piano
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The US Constitution, both in its structural element and the Bill of Rights, reflect a catalogue of colonial complaints about the British system as well as centuries of evolution in the law. In general terms, contrary to the slightly complacent attitude of the British legal authorities. This lecture will demonstrate, most of the original complaints still hold true.
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 7th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/us-constitution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The human immune system rivals the brain in its complexity. Billions of cells coordinate their activity with amazing precision to protect us from infection. Immune cells can respond to millions of different pathogens within seconds and yet rarely respond to a false alarm. This lecture explores how cells achieve this, what happens when they go wrong and how you can keep your own immune system in top condition.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 27th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/immune-protection
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture will explore corporate governance mechanisms designed to address agency problems, including executive compensation, boards of directors, and shareholder activism. Additionally, it will examine how solutions addressing one agency problem might create another.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 5th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business
He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/corporate-rules
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This festive lecture explores the unusual roots of the song ‘White Christmas’ and its role in establishing the concept of the commercial Christmas song. It will explain how the song’s release during the summer months hints at how its potential as an enduring seasonal classic was not anticipated, and then examine how the music and lyrics helped it to resonate in a time of war. The lecture will also consider Berlin’s patriotism and his active role in the Second World War.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 12th December 2024 at Conway Hall, London.
Dominic is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music.
Dominic is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America. He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/unwrapping-irving-berlins-white-christmas
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This lecture analyses the ‘psychedelic era’ of the Beatles, from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band to Let it Be, a period of staggering musical invention and experimentalism. We explore the mechanics behind the magic, untangling the layers of harmony, melody, lyrics, structure and technology, and how these all combine in ways both accessible and ground-breaking. This ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ pulls back the curtain on these timeless tracks, illuminating the craft of their transporting effects.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 12th September 2024 at LSO St Luke's, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/magical-mystery-tour
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Shakespeare lived in a period of exciting mathematical innovations, from arithmetic to astronomy, and from probability to music. Remarkably, many of those innovations are mentioned, or at least hinted at, in his plays. Rob Eastaway will explore the surprising ways in which mathematical ideas connect with Shakespeare and reveals that the playwright could be as creative with numbers as he was with words. Along the way you will discover surprising new mathematical insights on the Elizabethan world.
This lecture was recorded by Rob Eastaway on 9th October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Rob Eastaway is best known as the author of several bestselling popular maths books, including Why Do Buses Come in Threes? and Maths On the Back of an Envelope. With Mike Askew, he wrote Maths for Mums & Dads, a book that helps parents to understand the new methods being used to teach maths. The American edition was published in 2010 entitled Old Dogs, New Math.
Rob has given hundreds of maths talks across the world to audiences of all ages, including several family lectures at the Royal Institution, and he is Director of Maths Inspiration, a programme of interactive lecture shows for teenagers, held in theatres across the UK. From 2019 to 2023 he was the puzzle adviser for New Scientist magazine.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/bshm-25
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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We communicate when we have information to share. The development of signals from signs visible over short distances to wireless transfer of billions of data-heavy messages worldwide is full of surprising characters, none more so than the Hollywood starlet who made Wi-Fi and GPS possible and received public recognition only in the final few years of her life. This lecture traces the development of technologies for messaging and signals, from wireless to wired and back again.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 29th October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/messaging-and-signals
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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As the leaders of the oil and gas industry flew into Houston for CERAWeek, 2024, oil was over $80 per barrel and demand higher than ever. There was little discussion of “transitioning away from fossil fuels” as agreed at COP28 in Dubai. In the run-up to COP29, this lecture will set out the critical need to change the narrative, so those with the ability and resources to solve the climate problem have less incentive to shuffle responsibility onto those (like you) who do not.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 26th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/fossil-fuel-industry
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Space itself is wobbly. We exist on a choppy sea, its surface roiled by disturbances caused by the movements of black holes hundreds of millions of light-years away. The detection of these 'gravitational waves' by observatories such as LIGO is a story of scientific persistence and precision engineering, resulting in a completely new way of looking at the cosmos. The lecture will highlight the latest results from LIGO's observing run, discuss the nature of black holes - the most mysterious of astronomical objects - and explain how the gold in your jewellery was made.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 4th December 2024 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/black-holes-0
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Traditional risk factors for mental illness include genetics, perinatal factors, substance use, negative life events, trauma and organic disorders. Yet, more recently, it has been found that higher rates of mental illness are also seen in minoritised and marginalised groups. This lecture outlines the different types of discrimination – personally mediated, structural/institutional and internalised – and the evidence linking these with an increased risk of mental illness.
This lecture was recorded by Lade Smith on 21st November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
SDr Shubulade (Lade) Smith CBE is the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.Having trained in General Psychiatry and worked in Forensic Psychiatry, she is now the Lead for the Acute Forensic Pathway of the South London Partnership and Clinical Director of the Forensic Services at SLaM.
In 2019, Lade was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Forensic Intensive Psychiatric care and was awarded Psychiatrist of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists She is also the former Clinical and Strategic Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, providing medical leadership for the team developing mental health policy and guidelines.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/inequality-mental-health
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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This Lecture unveils the hidden history of Americans who risked their lives to save others during WWII. These intrepid people travelled the globe to aid victims of Nazi Germany and its allies, often staying to rescue as many as possible when the victims’ peril turned lethal. Discover the stories of these individuals, particularly women who embraced the independence and transformative impact of their relief efforts. This lecture highlights how luck, timing, and spontaneous decisions shaped their fates, urging us to reframe the way we think about, analyse, and write about the past.
This lecture was recorded by Debórah Dwork on 20th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Debórah Dwork is the Director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center – City University of New York.
Recipient of the Annetje Fels-Kupferschmidt Award (2022) bestowed by the Dutch Auschwitz Committee, and the International Network of Genocide Scholars Lifetime Achievement Award (2020), Debórah Dwork has been, inter alia, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She sits on many advisory boards and serves as Scholar Advisor to The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, Department of Global Communications, United Nations. Above all, Professor Dwork is a teacher and mentor, committed to training the next generation of Holocaust scholars.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/saints-and-liars
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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With Brexit, the US presidential election and the Covid pandemic, conspiracy theories now seem to be everywhere. It’s commonly argued that the internet has fuelled their popularity, leading to a loss of faith in mainstream media, science, democracy and even truth itself. But what if the rise of conspiracy theories is a symptom rather than the cause of a collapse of trust in civic institutions?
This lecture was recorded by Peter Knight on 14th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Peter Knight is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Manchester, and has held visiting fellowships at New York University, Harvard, Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Amsterdam.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/conspiracy-theories
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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What links an ancient shipwreck to the textile mills of Northern England? Both contained forerunners of the computing we use today. Computer language and software also have a long history, featuring military research and the repurposing of early programs widely used in manufacturing. This lecture will delve far back into the archives of processing, prediction, difference, and analytical engines, to discover who really made them work.
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 24th September 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.
Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/history-computers
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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The human brain has a very distinct and complex appearance with valleys and ridges folding over themselves. The same convolutions are found in large mammals, but not in smaller ones. This observation suggests that size and geometry play a role. Yet, these beautiful shapes have defied a complete description or understanding.
This lecture will address questions stemming from this picture: How do these shapes emerge? How are they arranged? Simple mathematical models can help us understand the emergence of these beautiful patterns during development as well as their pathology.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 12th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/big-brain
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Reducing health inequalities is a matter of social justice. Strategies must address the social gradient in health, and efforts should extend beyond healthcare to address the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. This lecture argues economic circumstances, while important, are not the sole drivers of health inequalities, and closing the health gap will take evidence-based action across the whole of society.
This lecture was recorded by Michael Marmot on 6th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985, and is Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity. He served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and as President of the World Medical Association in 2015. He is President of the Asthma + Lung UK. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and of the Faculty of Public Health; an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy; and of the Royal Colleges of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Paediatrics and Child Health, and General Practitioners.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/health-gap
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Rediscovering remarkable historical figures such as the Birka Warrior Woman, Hildegard of Bingen, and King Jadwiga offers a fresh perspective to understand an era often dismissed as 'nasty, brutish, and short'. Rather than being exceptions, this lecture will reveal the considerable influence and power held by medieval women and shed light on the gradual erosion of female agency over subsequent centuries. Through their rediscovery, it will interrogate traditional historical narratives and construct more nuanced, inclusive accounts that reflect the richness, complexity, and diversity of the past.
This lecture was recorded by Janina Ramirez on 5th November 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Professor Janina Ramirez is a lecturer, researcher, author and broadcaster. She is Research Fellow in History of Art at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and Visiting Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Lincoln. Her most recent book, 'Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages Through the Women Written out of it', was an instant Sunday Times number 1 best-seller, Waterstones Book of the Month and Book of the Year.
Janina is a patron of many organisations, including NSEAD, the Stained Glass Society and Oxford Festival of the Arts, and an ambassador for the Centre for Peace Keeping and Democracy. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society for the Arts.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The deeper exploration of Paganism begins with its roots in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the question of how ancient paganism was regarded then. It considers the mainstream views of that paganism in that period, which veered between regarding it as a religion of ignorance, tyranny and bloodshed, and one of great artistic and literary achievements that prepared the way for Christianity. It goes on to show how new ideas about it developed amongst radicals, which preserved the admiration for the accomplishments of ancient paganism while throwing away the caveats.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 30th October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/origins-modern-paganism
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The management of water supplies, flooding and water pollution in the UK is currently the subject of great controversy, and public interest has never been higher. Following a short introduction by Professor Carolyn Roberts, this focused day will include three debates in which experts will discuss contrasting views on the nature of a specific problem, and how it might be solved. Audience involvement will be encouraged through questions. The First Panel Discussion will explore water supply in the context of climate change; The Second Panel Discussion will question the threat and response to threat of flooding in the UK; The Third Panel Discussion will discuss water pollution responsibility in the UK.
A Drier Future? Climate Change and the UK’s water supply
Summers are likely to become increasingly drier, as a result of Climate Change. This, in combination with a growing population, creates a greater risk of water shortages unless demand can be reduced significantly, more storage capacity constructed, or transfers around the country can be brokered. Despite this, no major reservoirs have been built in England since the 90s. The margins for avoiding catastrophe are decreasingly small, so what should be done to address this challenge?
Speakers:
• Professor David Butler, Director of the Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter.
• James Curtis, Head of Leakage, Asset Strategy and Capital Delivery, Affinity Water.
Is the UK doing enough to respond to the threat of flooding?
Water flooding in some parts of the UK has been increasing, with various causes being blamed. Many solutions are proposed, including dredging rivers, permanent or temporary barriers, or accepting the flooding and paying out through insurance. Is the UK doing enough?
Speakers:
• Professor Jim Hall, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks, University of Oxford.
• Sue Illman, Landscape Architect and Winner of CIRIA Lifetime Award for outstanding services to sustainable drainage systems.
• Professor Paul Bates, Professor of Hydrology, University of Bristol.
Britain’s water pollution, who is responsible?
Regulators and citizen science groups have suggested that pollution with sewage and agricultural effluent is widespread, and sufficiently serious to damage wildlife and human health. Rivers and beaches are visibly contaminated, and yet Water Companies claim not to be acting illegally, whilst attempts to reduce agricultural runoff seem largely unsuccessful. How might we protect this vital resource and maintain a healthy water environment in the UK?
Speakers:
• Peter Hammond, retired Professor of Computational Biology, UCL and member of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP).
• Mr Richard Bramley, Farmer and NFU Environment Forum Chair.
This discussion was recorded by Carolyn Roberts on Wednesday 1st May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Carolyn was the first Frank Jackson Professor of the Environment at Gresham College from 2014-2018
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/water-uk
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The 1968 Presidential Election remains the most divisive in modern U.S. history, with Democrat Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and independent George Wallace at the forefront, and outgoing President Lyndon Johnson working behind the scenes. This lecture explores the striking parallels between 1968 and the 2024 Election, drawing on previously unexplored archives and numerous interviews. It challenges conventional views, revealing how the 1968 campaign set a new standard and tone for electoral battles, offering a compelling preview of the current political landscape.
This lecture was recorded by Luke A. Nichter on 31st October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Luke is is a Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University.
He is also a New York Times bestselling author or editor of eight books, including, most recently, The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968 (Yale University Press), which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by the Wall Street Journal.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/election-1968-2024
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Behind the sublime precision and expressive power of Bach’s music lies a mischievous spirit. From puzzle canons (where the performer must solve a riddle to reach the score), melodies that run upside-down and backwards against themselves, hidden symbols, endless loops, to the embedding of numbers and names into the music, this lecture explores Bach’s ingenious trickery. Unravelling this thread, enhances an appreciation – and sense of humanity and playfulness – to his transcendent music.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 23rd October 2024 at LSO St Lukes, London.
Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/bachs-invention
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 22nd October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Martin is Visiting Professor of Economic History.
Martin was also Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014, and he is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture examines ‘Send in the Clowns’, probably the most commercially successful song written by the revered Stephen Sondheim. Yet it confounds the expectations of a showstopper by being written for an actress of limited singing ability, the late Glynis Johns. This lecture reflects on how it works in the context the musical A Little Night Music and explores how it came to be covered by major singers including Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins and Sarah Vaughan. How has a song of limited vocal range and abstract lyrics become such a favourite?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 17th October 2024 at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, London.
Dominic is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music.
Dominic is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America. He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sondheim-showstopper
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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With the ongoing war in Ukraine, long-term planning for security in Europe is essential. What will be the role of NATO, EU enlargement, and the support of the UK to ensure a Europe of peace and prosperity? Against the backdrop of Russian aggression, potential changes in US policy and rising populism, what elements will constitute a new European security architecture?
This lecture was recorded by Baroness Catherine Ashton on 7th October 2024 at Mercer's Hall, London.
Baroness Ashton is a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington DC. She is a Senior Policy Advisor to Chatham House and a senior advisor to the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. She advises on foreign and security policy.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/european-security
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Gresham College has been delivering public lectures since 1597 through times of great social, political and technological change. Its commitment to deliver lectures for free to the general public has led to intermittent financial challenges to its generous sponsors. The arrival of the internet, mobile devices and social media have offered both opportunity and further challenge.
In an era supposedly characterised by shorter attention spans, and greater competition for that attention, what space is left for the public lecture and what is its purpose? Why do people still want to deliver them? What makes a great lecture? What is the relative importance of an in-person v an online audience? Is audience size an indication of the value of lecture content? Can the public lecture survive? This lecture will address these and other questions from a personal, but hopefully informed, perspective.
This lecture was recorded by Martin Elliott on 16th October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Martin Elliott MD FRCS is Provost of Gresham College.
He is also Professor Emeritus of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UCL & Professor Emeritus of Physic at Gresham College. He is an Honorary Bencher at the Inner Temple, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/provost-24
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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We often think of immunity as being a human, or at least mammalian, phenomenon. But in fact almost all living organisms have some form of immune system. In this lecture we’ll lift the lid on the astonishingly diverse immune mechanisms used by bacteria, amoebae, nematodes and many other microbial forms of life in their constant battle against viruses and each other.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 2nd October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.
He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolution-future
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Support the show
Watch the Q&A session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKaTcobzidk
In a year of elections, climate change is emerging as a divisive political issue, and in many countries for the first time. This may be partly a consequence of past efforts to keep it apolitical through over-reliance on stealth policies and technocratic institutions. This lecture will discuss the need political debate about climate and the calls for an emphasis on “third way” climate solutions, designed to appeal to the broadest possible electoral coalition.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 1st October 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment.
Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/net-zero-conversation
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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While Lycurgus of Sparta and Solon of Athens are now the best-known lawgivers of Greek antiquity, there were many others, from king Minos in Crete to Zaleucus and Charondas in southern Italy. This lecture explores the specific roles attributed to Greek lawgivers in fact and legend, revealing how and why they captured later political imaginations – with mention of how some even set laws to music.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 26th September 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/singing-laws
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This first lecture looks at the power that is given to advocates in a country that has a constitutional structure like the US. I have brought The American Constitution powers an American lawyer in ways unavailable to the British. I will illustrate this difference from my own experience of bringing 88 cases against the President of the US. I have thus far lost just one.
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 19th September 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law
He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/human-rights-law-0
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What is modern Paganism, and how does it relate to witchcraft, Druidry and other phenomena? This lecture is designed to answer that question, and in doing so to provide an overview of the different traditions that make up Paganism today. It will show what they have in common, and what makes each one unique. It will suggest the ways in which Paganism differs from other religious traditions and what it has especially to offer the modern world. It will also address the question of its relationship with ancient paganism.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 18th September 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.
He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-paganism
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Watch the Q&A session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFCDvsq6N5g
For centuries scientists have tried to identify what is special about the human brain. How do we approach this problem from a mathematical standpoint? The first hypothesis is that bigger is better, in some sense.
In this introductory lecture, scaling laws and simple ideas from statistics will be used to study this problem, both in humans and animals, as well as uncover some basic principles that govern brain size and test hypotheses connecting intelligence to size in humans and animals..
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 17th September 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/big-brain
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The first lecture in the series considers the most famous telescope of all, the Hubble space telescope. A project more than forty years in the making, Hubble overcame an initial disaster with a misshapen mirror to drive a revolution in every part of astronomy, providing iconic views of everything from a comet crashing into Jupiter to a surprisingly vibrant, distant Universe. This lecture focuses in particular on what Hubble has revealed about the life - and death - of stars.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 11th September 2024 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mirror-sky
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Many decades ago, as a young graduate from drama school, I was presented with a stark choice – either to shape my story myself, through writing, or to feel aggrieved at the detrimental narratives circulating about people like me in Britain at that time. I chose the latter, and in this talk I will talk about how story-making is a conscious act of speaking ourselves into being - drawing on literature, theatre and the visual arts.
This lecture was recorded by Bernardine Evaristo on 25th June 2024 at LSO, St Luke's Church London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/thomas-gresham-24
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Gray's Inn Reading 2024
Does the UK’s constitution provide too much freedom for those that wish to abuse it?
Specific examples of this might include Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lawbreaking during COVID, the selection of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, the ability of the Government to force controversial policies (such as the Rwanda Bill) and the sacking of the Cabinet Secretaries and Permanent Secretaries.
Or does the UK constitution, perhaps in contrast to that of the United States and many other nation states, provide relative freedom to remove unsuitable political and civil service leaders without relative domestic political trauma?
This lecture was recorded by Charles Falconer PC, KC on 17th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-24
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In The Republic, Plato explores the predicament of the Cave: a passive citizen body, a conniving and self-interested set of sophistic opinion-formers and demagogic political leaders, a systematically misleading and damaging order of political structures and common beliefs and appetites.
Does this have lessons for tackling climate change? In clinging to our current way of life and its fossil-fuel infrastructure, are we trapping ourselves in a modern version of Plato’s Cave—and if so, how might we escape?
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 13th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/platos-cave
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture will explore the world of the second Bloomsbury generation, delving into the intricacies of being young and queer in the 1920s, and how their open way of living and loving is still relevant to our present day. Lesser known than their predecessors, they continued the celebration of freedom of expression and creativity.
The lecture will introduce artists and intellectuals such as Eddy Sackville-West, Stephen Tomlin and Julia Strachey, who led an unapologetic life by pushing gender boundaries and social conventions, as well as exploring gender fluidity and pansexuality.
This lecture was recorded by Nino Strachey on 11th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/queer-bloomsbury
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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One of the crucial ideas in finance is that markets are efficient – that they fully reflect all available information. If so, what about market bubbles?
Over the last year, people have been willing to pay exorbitant amounts for extremely odd assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens, meme stocks etc. Why do they do this?
This lecture will explore some investors’ systematic behavioural biases, and how these can be used to predict returns.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 10th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/market-efficiency
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture confronts the worldwide phenomenon of the persecution of suspected witches, now a serious, contemporary problem condemned by the UN in 2021.
It will show what has been unusual about Europe in this global pattern, and why the notorious early modern witch hunts there commenced and ended.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 5th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/witches-europe
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The idea of proof is fundamental to mathematics. We could argue that science consists of testable theories, and therefore that it is about what can be disproved, not what can be proved. In law, the test is “beyond reasonable doubt”.
Famous conjectures in mathematics have been tested by computers for trillions of numbers – but we still call them conjectures.
In this lecture we’ll talk about what mathematicians mean by proof, and I’ll show you some of my favourites.
This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 4th June 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mathematician-proof
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Socrates sought to test the expertise of everyone around him: the bombastic know-it-alls, the bashful youths, the confident generals, those (including the enslaved) with unsuspected mathematical competence, the workaday artisans. Aristotle later explored the ways in which expert claims can be made credible to popular judgement.
This lecture considers the role of experts in contributing to public debate in a democracy, bringing Aristotle's work on rhetoric to bear on norms for expert communication and public debate.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 30th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/experts-politics
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The final lecture in the series returns to the theme of how insight is derived from observations, considering the cosmic microwave background.
This oldest light in the Universe, emitted just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, contains the seeds of the structures we see around us, and tells us about conditions at the Universe's beginning.
It will also consider how measurements of the Universe's expansion, made using the CMB, are leading to unexpected results, creating tension in modern cosmology.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 29th May 2024 at Conway Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/first-light
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture traces the history of race and disability law in the English education system. It examines the impact of discriminatory policies on Black children, children of colour, and disabled children, and how narratives around race and disability have changed.
The lecture questions why inequality persists and explores possible solutions.
This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 23rd May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/education-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Logarithms were perhaps once thought of as just an old-fashioned way to do sums on slide rules. But they underpin much of modern life, from modelling the COVID pandemic to Claude Shannon’s mathematical theory of information (which makes mobile phones a reality) and making sense of Cristiano Ronaldo’s crazy Instagram follower numbers.
This lecture will explore the basics and history of logarithms, and then show how they are a natural way to represent many models and datasets.
This lecture was recorded by Oliver Johnson on 22nd May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/logarithms
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Eventually, net zero needs to include everyone: for emissions to continue in half the world while the other half mops them up is both unsustainable and unfair. But this does not mean every country should reach net zero at the same time.
Historical emitters like the UK should aim for net zero before the world as a whole, but a “staggered net zero” also carries risks for developing countries, lest they are left stranded in the race to a sustainable future.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 21st May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/inclusive-net-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In every financial transaction, one side has more information than the other. For example, when someone buys a used car, the seller will know better than the buyer whether the car is a plum or a lemon. Does more information leave you better off?
One of the fascinating ideas behind the concept of asymmetric information is that more information can lead to you being actually worse off.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 20th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/asymmetric-information
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.
It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 16th May 2024 at LSO St Luke's Church, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-infinite
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Starring in My Fair Lady (1956), The Sound of Music (1965) and Cinderella (1957) gave Dame Julie Andrews unparalleled profile.
These were among the most successful Broadway, Hollywood and TV musicals of their time. Yet following this golden decade, she made few films and appeared in no Broadway shows during her forties and fifties, typically an artist’s most productive period.
How did she then become one of the most revered female stars of the late twentieth century?
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 2nd May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/andrews
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Weather and climate-related events can cause significant mortality and disability.
Sudden cold, heat, storms and floods all present risks to health, especially to the most vulnerable. Even in countries with temperate climates like the UK, weather-related deaths can be in the thousands, for example cold snaps causing cardiovascular deaths. In countries with more extreme weather this can be much greater. Some can cause major social disruption.
This lecture considers how weather events cause harm to health, and our countermeasures.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Sir Chris Whitty on 14th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/storms-floods
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In this lecture I will show you some mathematical illusions: “proofs” that 1=0, that fractions don’t exist, and more. There are curious and important implications behind what’s going on.
These “proofs” reveal some very common logical slips that can go unnoticed when we are trying to prove more plausible statements. And the stakes are high. As I’ll show you, once you have “proved” one false claim, you can prove absolutely any statement at all.
This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 14th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-illusions
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Evolution has led from amoebae to blue whales and from algae to giant redwoods.
So what might it do in the future? What species might evolve in the next ten million years? How will evolutionary processes change as a result of human innovation and what are the risks of us getting it disastrously wrong? What might evolution look like if we ever set up home on another planet, or if inhabitants of other planets arrive here?
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 8th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolution-future
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Come take a ride in the Tech Time Machine and explore how IT may change our lives in the next fifty years. By employing techniques used by science fiction writers, we can imagine how Artificial Intelligence, extended reality, mobile connectivity, quantum computing, and others will develop.
How will they converge, enable and accelerate each other? We can anticipate the opportunities and challenges technology may bring. Why should we fear disruption? Should we instead embrace it?
This lecture was recorded by Dr Victoria Baines on 7th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-tech
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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What makes a piece of music challenging, bland, intriguing, beautiful or ugly?
This lecture explores the concept of ‘musical flavour’ formed by intervallic, rhythmic and timbral components and how they contribute to a sense of consonance and dissonance.
In particular we look at the interval vector, a system by which harmonic objects are analysed as a series of ‘handshakes’ between pitches, providing a measure of harmonic ‘bite’. The ‘Hendrix chord’ is used as a case study of such harmonic flavour.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 25th April 2024 at LSO St Luke's Church, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-consonance
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Boyajian's star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers' attention when it began to flicker alarmingly.
We will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe.
For this task, the involvement of large numbers of volunteers - citizen scientists - is essential, for example via the Zooniverse platform, which invites you to participate in classifying galaxies and discovering planets.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 29th April 2024 at Conway Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/alien-star
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture makes a survey of learned ceremonial magic in Europe throughout history and demonstrates that both of the customary claims made for it by practitioners since the Middle Ages are actually correct: that there is a continuous tradition of it and that it is ultimately derived from ancient Egypt.
In doing so, it also shows what is distinctive about Western magic.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 24th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/western-magic
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Queer urban life has changed dramatically in England over the last seventy years. Shifts in the economy, culture, attitudes, and technology have all played their part in this. London has often been used as the barometer for these shifts, suggesting they were experienced in similar ways across the nation.
In an exploration of the queer contours of Leeds, Manchester, Brighton and Plymouth, this lecture takes issue with this assumption and shows how and why LGBTQ scenes, communities and identities could feel very different from place to place.
This lecture was recorded by Matt Cook on 23rd April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/locating-queer-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How are refugees protected in English law?
This lecture traces the history of refugee protection, the limits of the Refugee Convention, and changes to the law in recent decades that have made refugees’ lives increasingly difficult. The Government’s latest tranche of policies: the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Rwanda offshoring scheme, are particularly brutal.
Is it time to reverse anti-refugee policies and create safe and legal routes for refugees to reach the UK, without a number cap?
This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 18th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/refugees-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Climate Change is predicted to spark increasing threats to food security and demands for climate reparations, fuelling geopolitical instability.
Probably the greatest risk of all, is tension over solar geo-engineering: the idea of reflecting away sunlight deliberately to modify global climate.
Recognizing solar geo-engineering as an inherently destabilising technology, because any such programme would inevitably be considered liable for bad weather everywhere, and ruling it out, would be very helpful.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 16th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/climate-geopolitics
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Most of the world’s 102 million forcibly displaced people – refugees – lack access to reliable, affordable, sustainable energy. Attempts to provide such energy in refugee camps have been marred by governance challenges, and a lack of technical expertise within humanitarian organisations.
But new research discussed in this lecture on the lived experience of refugees is helping cast a light on ways to address it. However, developing inclusive approaches and supporting refugee-led action on energy is no easy task.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen on 10th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/refugee-energy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the Great Depression, producers of food and raw materials complained that they received low prices and paid high prices for industrial imports. Latin America adopted ‘import substituting industrialisation’ to encourage production behind tariff barriers. This approach continued after the war as more countries gained independence.
Did this policy result in inefficient industries and state regulation without delivering improved welfare? By the 1980s, the policy was in retreat with a turn to market liberalisation and export-led growth.
This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 9th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/import-substitution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Evidence that childhood lead exposure caused stunted intelligence and behavioural problems motivated efforts to ban lead in petrol, with the world finally eradicating leaded fuel in 2021.
This is a public health success story, but it took a long time to force industry to take action. The lead released from historic emissions persists within the environment and there is emerging evidence of continuing health effects.
The legacy of lead remains and will be explored in this lecture.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Ian Mudway on 25th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lead-health
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Black Welsh singer started out recording cover versions of American songbook classics but rose to international fame after her performance of the title song of Goldfinger. Movie songs, successful albums and popular television specials followed, but so too did personal tragedy and a highly critical (and gendered) reputation of her professional behaviour in the media.
The word ‘diva’ has been applied both admiringly and misogynistically to her life and work, typifying her experience as a Black British woman.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 21st March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/bassey
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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We often think of evolution as ‘something that happened’ in the past. But of course, evolution is a constant, powerful process and one that is often unleashed by human behaviours.
Often this is deliberate, we’ll look at how artificial selection has shaped our crops, livestock and domestic pets, and we’ll find out how modern science is uncovering the genetic changes that lie beneath. But sometimes human behaviours unleash powerful and altogether less welcome evolutionary forces…join us as we uncover them together!
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 20th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/human-led-evolution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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We increasingly share with online services intimate details of our lives, such as mental health and reproductive data. Far from being a ‘tick box’ legal exercise, data protection is about fair and responsible use of our personal information.
It gives us rights which we are entitled to exercise against mega corporations, governments, and anyone who processes our data.
It’s time to get empowered. Because if we don’t use it, we might lose it.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Greg Constantine on 18th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/immigration-detention
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Governments increasingly use detention as a central component of immigration and asylum policy. The lecture addresses several important questions.
What does immigration detention look like? How is it a reflection of those societies that tolerate its use and the policies that support and endorse its expansion? What place does it have in the journeys of those migrating across borders today?
Using photography and testimony, this lecture visually translates several immigration detention systems and shares first-hand stories.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Greg Constantine on 18th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/immigration-detention
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Demokratia is the power (kratos) of the people (demos). But what kind of power, and who constitutes the people? Although ancient democracy is often stylized as “direct democracy” and so positioned as very different from modern “representative democracy,” in fact, issues of accountability are central to both.
Ancient Greek models of holding leaders to account are still relevant. Furthermore, the ancient Greek use of election for some offices and lottery selection for others also offers instructive possibilities for modern challenges.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 14th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/democracy-ancient
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In partnership with Novartis
Treatments and research in cancer are moving very fast, giving new hope to many.
This event will bring together speakers in the series to delve further into new treatments and research in cancer, including immunotherapy, genomics and AI imaging.
This lecture was recorded by Parker Moss, Dr Richard Sidebottom, Sanjay Popat and James Larkin on 12th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cancer-hope
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a combination of hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention which significantly impacts those living with the condition. The medical approach to the ADHD pattern of behaviour has been very successful in childhood but the results have been somewhat less impressive in adulthood. This has led to a reappraisal of both causes and treatment in both age groups.
Should the conventional, neurotypical world accommodate people with ADHD as different, rather than disabled?
This lecture was recorded by Peter Hill on 11th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/adhd
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen has posed the question, ‘equality of what?’ The value of equality depends on what standard is chosen. As ancient Greek thinkers recognized, equality can be deployed to exclude as well as to liberate, and its relationship to law and freedom needs to be interrogated.
If equal social freedom is a product of isonomia—the equal application of laws to all—those laws need to be free of systematic bias and command public respect.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 7th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/greek-equality
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture looks at the role played by nudity in European religion and magic from ancient times to the present, with some reference to a global context.
It reveals the unexpected pattern and explains why it has been marginal to religion, except in initiation ceremonies, but very important in magical practices.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 6th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ritual-nudity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The impacts of climate change that probably worry people the most are irreversible changes that affect the entire world, such as a collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet, shutdown of the global thermohaline circulation, loss of the Amazon biome, or a melting of Arctic permafrost.
Sudden, unpredictable and irreversible changes can happen in response to a gradual warming. What is known about these risks at 1.5°C, 2°C and higher levels of warming?
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 5th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/tipping-points
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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We regularly hear of amazing coincidences – people winning the lottery twice, or getting a phone call from a long-lost friend just when you were thinking about them. Is this telepathy? Is there a greater power at work when someone survives seven lightning strikes?
There can be terrible consequences from the misunderstanding of coincidence.
This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 5th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-coincidence
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Today, the UK is a deeply unequal society.
This lecture critically evaluates the relationship between English law and capitalism and explores how legal changes over the past 30 years, such as deregulating the housing market and weakening trade unions, have widened wealth inequality.
The lecture examines the role of lawyers in addressing these issues.
This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 29th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/wealth-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our understanding of autism has changed over the last forty years.
Historically, autism was diagnosed based on narrow criteria. Today, while still defined by social and communication difficulties, rigid interests and repetitive behaviours, the autism spectrum is far wider, and the historical under-diagnosis of women and girls is being addressed.
‘Autisms’ are more often discussed as neurodivergence rather than a single ‘disorder’ to be treated.
This lecture explores how our understanding of autism has changed, and directions for future research.
This lecture was recorded by Francesca Happé on 28th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/new-autism
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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We often change our minds after we decide to do something.
In finance and business though, if you think you might like to change your mind you will have to pay your counterparty so that your right to change your mind is agreed in advance.
But how much is the right to change your mind worth?
Option pricing is the art of determining the value of this right.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 26th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/option-pricing
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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A musical scale – a hierarchical collection of pitches spread over multiple octaves – is a fundamental building block in the creation of melodies and harmonies in a wide range of musical practices. But where do these scales come from? Are they invented or discovered?
This lecture looks at the history, theory and artistry of scale construction in a wide range of styles, and how each scale can, through ‘rotation’, form a colourfully expressive palette of modal colours.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 22nd February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/scales-modes
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Major geophysical events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes can occur with little or no warning and have catastrophic effects.
This lecture will consider the health impacts of these natural disasters and how best to minimise them.
Trauma often dominates the first days after the initial event but predicting the medium-term effects such as infectious diseases can head off predictable secondary health disasters over the medium and long term.
This lecture was recorded by Sir Chris Whitty on 20th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/earthquakes-volcanoes
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Immunotherapy has brought new hope for curing common cancers that have spread (metastatic) – once regarded as impossible.
Over the last 10 years, immune checkpoint inhibitors – drugs that allow the immune system to identify and destroy previously unrecognised cancer cells – have been successfully used to treat melanoma, kidney cancer and lung cancer, among others. Clinicians are looking at whether vaccines, oncolytic viruses and cellular therapies could cure cancer.
This lecture explores the scientific basis for this progress.
This lecture was recorded by James Larkin on 15th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/immunotherapy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Why have people believed in dragons, and what were they actually? Is there a difference between Western and Eastern dragons, in a global perspective, and if so, why?
Has the Western attitude to dragons changed in the modern era? Did Christianity give rise to a different idea of what a dragon should be? These are the questions that this lecture sets out to answer.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 14th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/dragons
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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There have been two major revolutions in how we look at the sky - the shift beyond the optical to other wavelengths, particularly the radio, and the increasing attention paid to how objects change over time.
We start with the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, explore how a microwave oven bamboozled astronomers, and discuss the latest research on Fast Radio Bursts, mysterious events detected in galaxies billions of light-years away.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 21st February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/radio-sky
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The relationship between intimacy and technology is dynamic and transformative. Adult entertainment providers were early adopters of the Internet and directly influenced its development. Meanwhile, digital communication has changed our consumption of pornography, how we date, and how we seek pleasure.
There is increasing concern that Internet-mediated sex is having a negative impact on humans. What’s the evidence for that? And what does the future hold?
This lecture was recorded by Dr Victoria Baines on 13th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/internet-sex
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Difficulties with reading and writing have wide-ranging effects beyond academic achievement, including on career opportunities and personal well-being. However, the concept of dyslexia continues to be debated: is the term useful? How does it relate to spoken language?
This lecture describes what is known of the causes and consequences of reading difficulties and how they relate to other common conditions that affect learning. It will look at the importance of early intervention and how best to support children with dyslexia.
This lecture was recorded by Maggie Snowling CBE on 8th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/dyslexia-language
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The species we recognise as our own - anatomically modern humans - has existed for only 300,000 years, a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. And yet during that time our species has been shaped by strong evolutionary forces, often unwittingly as an indirect result of human activities.
In this lecture, we’ll find out how disease outbreaks, the rise of civilisation and even the invention of agriculture have left their traces in our DNA.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 7th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/human-evolution
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Why have economies in east Asia been more successful in escaping from under-development and achieving high levels of growth?
Japan’s experience of avoiding colonisation and creating a modern economy offered a model to other countries, some of whom had themselves been colonised by Japan – above all, South Korea.
How did Japan and Korea create a successful model of export-led growth with a close connection between the state and business that was criticised by the IMF as ‘crony capitalism’?
This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 6th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/export-growth
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Humanitarian agencies are increasingly relying on satellite imagery and testimonies from social media to understand and communicate why people feel compelled to seek refuge.
This lecture will explore digital humanitarianism and the visual politics of refugeehood. It will discuss how such practices allow us to see the places where violence takes place but often also serve to simplify complex situations. It will focus on undocumented migration from Pakistan towards Europe.
This lecture was recorded by Nishat Awan on 5th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/visual-politics-refugees
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Historically lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have been persecuted under English law.
Homophobic and transphobic laws were exported from England to the Commonwealth Caribbean, and these colonial laws have had a long-term impact on Caribbean societies.
This lecture will make the case for the robust constitutional protection of LGBT rights.
This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 1st February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lgbt-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Many puzzles have a long history, such as water pouring puzzles, where you need to measure (for example) one pint of water equipped only with an eight-pint and a five-pint jug. The mathematics behind the solution has many useful applications.
Meanwhile, paradoxes such as: “some men shave themselves; those that do not shave themselves are shaved by the barber: who shaves the barber?” lead us to deep questions about set theory.
We will discuss several examples and the related mathematics.
This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 30th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-puzzles
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How do cartoons and visual satire operate?
This lecture will look at when humans first created art and at the dawn of satire.
Examining the work of Swift, Hogarth, Gillray, David Low and Ronald Searle, this lecture by celebrated cartoonist Martin Rowson will also examine the role cartoons play in giving offence. Covering the Danish Cartoons scandal and the Charlie Hebdo massacre, this talk will also look at Martin Rowson's own cartoon output over the past 40 years.
This lecture was recorded by Martin Rowson on 25th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/satirical-cartoons-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Knowing what the investors demand enables the firm to plan its financing. What type of instrument should it use? Should it issue debt or equity?
This lecture will introduce the concept of Capital Structure Theory which tells the manager how to reduce capital cost by a correctly chosen mixture of debt and equity.
The composition of the mixture depends on how much tax the firm pays and how it can use its financing to reduce those taxes.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 22nd January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/capital-structure
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In 2017, the Solar System was visited by an object named 'Oumuamua, which came from another star. The unusual properties of this first interstellar visitor led some to suggest it may be an alien spacecraft - but the truth is that its oddness is already teaching us lessons about how solar systems form.
This lecture also considers the prospects of discovering more unusual objects in the Solar System, and what we might do about asteroids that threaten the Earth.
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 24th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/oumuamua
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Using lung cancer as a case study, this lecture will explore the transformative impact of genomics on personalised cancer treatment.
What are the challenges of implementing tumour sequencing in routine care, its effect on drug development, and how can we maximise clinical benefit? How is the new technology of circulating tumour DNA analysis (liquid biopsy) used by healthcare systems? What is the potential future impact of using DNA analysis to screen for cancers early?
This lecture was recorded by Sanjay Popat on 23rd January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cancer-genomics
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture presents the rich history of musicians’ engagement with pitch.
From the tuning systems of Babylon, Pythagoras and Hindustani ragas, through the temperaments of the Baroque and Classical eras and arriving at contemporary electronic, blues, jazz and global practices, we explore how musicians have organised, sliced and manipulated the pitch continuum for expressive effect.
In so doing, we reveal the mechanics that determine the 12 notes of the piano keyboard and the beautiful spectrum of pitch colours between them.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 18th January 2024 at LSO, St Luke's Church, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/art-tuning
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the poetry of the Athenian lawgiver Solon, justice (dikē) was a boundary stone marking out terms that rich and poor alike could respect. Yet ancient Greek authors also recognised the danger that the powerful will simply exploit those less powerful, and that Greek societies enforced slavery.
This lecture explores ancient Greek aspirations to justice - and how they fell short - as a call for recurrent interrogation of the terms governing power and vulnerability.
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 11th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/greek-justice
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Climate change is already affecting us all, regardless of where we live, through changing risks of extreme weather events. This lecture will take a break from global climate policy to talk about the links between climate and weather, chaos theory and the practical tools available to quantify changing risks.
There is a lot we still don’t know – and a lot we could know, if only governments and the insurance industry were willing to pay for better climate risk information.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 17th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/weather-change
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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We are the only human species on the planet today. But for most of our history we have not been alone.
Fossil and genetic evidence has revealed a diverse and fascinating set of human-like species, from Neanderthals to Denisovans, to Homo Floresiensis (The Hobbit) and more.
We’ll meet many of them in this lecture, investigate why they died out and reveal why some of them are much closer relatives than you might think.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 10th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/one-human
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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AI will be one of the most disruptive technologies, enabling safer, faster and more accurate healthcare. It will unlock smarter cancer imaging and new insights from medical scans that were indiscernible to the human eye.
This lecture will demystify the AI technological revolution and explore “why now?” and how to ensure AI is deployed safely and meaningfully.
It will discuss how AI deployed in radiology can empower healthcare professionals to provide compassionate and precision care for patients with cancer.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Richard Sidebottom on 9th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-cancer
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Today, objects in smart cities, outer space, and medical implants in our bodies are connected to the internet.
When streetlamps can ‘talk’, when autonomous vehicles safely navigate, and energy and public services can be automatically routed when and where they are needed, we will reap the rewards of a Massive Internet of Things (MIoT).
How might we maximise the benefits while ensuring our data is protected and our networks are stable and secure?
This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 5th December 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/massive-internet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture investigates how and why the song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ has become so popular, transcending its roots in the MGM musical Meet Me in St Louis to become a presence in the canon of secular popular Christmas songs.
Live and recorded examples from artists including Judy Garland and Sam Smith will explain both how this remarkable song works and the process by which it became so popular. What gives this song its prayer-like quality?
Professor Broomfield-McHugh will be joined by singer and actor David Bedella.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh and David Badella on 6th December 2023 at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/merry-little
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The forever chemicals, or PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) represent a large family of highly persistent synthetic chemicals widely used in everything from carpets to non-stick cookware, to firefighting foams and furniture textiles.
They are highly persistent in nature and have been found in the blood and breast milk of people and wildlife globally.
They are linked to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. How can we reduce our exposure to them?
This lecture was recorded by Dr Ian Mudway on 4th December 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/forever-chemicals
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Nuclear, radiological and chemical incidents have the potential to cause major harm.
The risk of nuclear and radiological events causing health effects can usually be significantly reduced by relatively simple measures, which are based on the properties of the chemicals released, especially at a distance from the incident.
Chemicals that can cause harm, such as organophosphate and mustard chemicals, need to be understood to mitigate the risks and establish medical countermeasures.
This lecture was recorded by Sir Chris Whitty on 28 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/nuclear-chemical
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture delves into the history of abortion in English law, from common law to the Abortion Act 1967.
Professor Thomas KC critically examines the current state of abortion law in England, the Commonwealth Caribbean, and recent developments in the US. Is there a case for further liberalisation of abortion law?
This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 30 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/abortion-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Could artificial intelligence be used to tackle online harms to children? What are the specific “solutions” AI could offer – for example, age verification, preventing the sending of intimate images, and stopping the promotion of harmful content - and what would applying these look like in practice?
What ethical dilemmas and rights challenges does this raise? What do policymakers need to understand to develop good policy around AI? Are alternatives - like image hashing - potentially more effective?
This lecture was recorded by Professor Andy Phippen on 21 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-children
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The death of the Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, in September 2022 sparked the largest protests in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The protests threaten the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic as a political system.
Beyond Iran, the protests have highlighted that Iranians reject gender-based, race-based, and religion-based violence. In addition to addressing the complexity of these protests, the lecture will place them in historical and regional context.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Shabnam Holliday on 29 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/iran-woman
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Antisemitism has existed and continues to exist on many levels, from unthinking prejudice to highly developed theories. Common to all levels is an explicit, or more often, implicit belief that all Jews, usually defined in racial terms, are conspiring secretly to undermine civilisation, order, or social and cultural stability.
This lecture considers the evolution of this conspiracy theory since the Middle Ages, examines its nature and operation today, and considers its future development.
This lecture was recorded by Sir Richard Evans on 22 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/antisemitic-conspiracy
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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On the eve of COP28 in Dubai, is the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C still alive? What does this mean and is it even possible?
Given warming has reached 1.25°C, increasing at around ¼°C per decade, what happens if we miss our target? While every tenth of a degree matters, passing 1.5°C does not mean an inexorable slide into climate chaos, but every year’s delay increases the clean-up bill for future generations.
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 21 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/degrees
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Is Artificial Intelligence fundamentally different from previous technological advancements?
This lecture will examine the opportunities and threats of the impending AI revolution, asking if AI differs from past technology waves and exploring measures to ensure AI safety.
It will introduce 'Human-led AI', a paradigm which emphasises human control and supervision over AI, to mitigate potential hazards whilst also harnessing the power of this dynamic technology.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Marc Warner on 27 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/human-led-ai
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Millions of us regularly solve Sudoku puzzles.
In this lecture, we discuss the mathematics behind them, and the links to other kinds of number grids, like magic squares and so-called Latin squares, which have been studied for centuries. Latin squares have many applications in areas as diverse as experiment design, algebra and coding theory.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Sarah Hart on 21 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-sudoku
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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An annual talk delivered by the President of Gresham College, The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Cities are networked networks of connectivity and information sharing. They create, often indirectly, communication, transportation, commercial, and intellectual networks. For the City of London, expanding and changing networks develop its strengths. Over 40 learned societies, 70 universities, and 130 research institutes surround the City of London, creating a network of knowledge connections among science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, and finance.
In this annual lecture, Professor Michael Mainelli, President of Gresham College, Honorary Life Fellow, and Lord Mayor of the City of London, will draw upon his more than two decades of research into smart and financial centres worldwide.
He will explain how the 2023-2024 Mayoral theme: “Connect To Prosper”, with its emphasis on multi-disciplinary networks, hopes to link forces to advance, just a bit, a few solutions to global problems.
After the talk there will be a discussion with Professor Julia Black, Professor Mark Birkin and Professor Michael Batty.
This lecture was recorded by The Lord Mayor of the City of London Michael Mainelli, Professor Julia Black, Professor Mark Birkin and Professor Michael Batty on 20 November 2023 at The Old Library, Guildhall London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lord-mayor-24
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Natural selection acts to ensure the ‘survival of the fittest’. But random chance has also played a huge role in the history of life on Earth, from meteorite strikes to massive earthquakes. Randomness also lies at the core of evolutionary processes; the impact of a chance mutation, or the ‘lottery’ of sexual selection. In this lecture, we’ll look at some remarkable examples of evolutionary chance and reveal why they are sometimes less random than you might expect.
This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 15 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolution-chance
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Why did the Iranian Revolution catch so many in US and UK Governments by surprise in 1978-79? Why were so many enthusiastic about the fall of the Shah? Why did so many Western observers - including Michel Foucault, Fred Halliday, and Edward Said, misread Ayatollah Khomeini? This lecture examines readings and mis-readings of the Iranian Revolution in Europe and the United States from the perspective of today’s uprising in Iran. Are we repeating the analytical mistakes of the past?
This lecture was recorded by Dr Roham Alvandi on 14 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Firms hope to get money for their investment decisions from investors. The latest have
to decide how to maximize the returns they get while simultaneously minimizing their risk. This lecture will introduce two key concepts of financial management: Portfolio Theory and Capital Asset Pricing Model and will discuss how the CAPM gives us one of the inputs for NPV, the discount rate.
This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 13 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Music is a temporal art, unfolding like a ribbon and transforming our experience of time itself. This lecture demonstrates how music harnesses our unique and intricate listening faculties creating a complex interplay between sounding events and our internal predictions. This forms a predictive tapestry whereby the listener - usually unconsciously - ‘explains’ temporal events in reference to multi Music is a temporal art, unfolding like a ribbon and transforming our experience of time itself. This lecture demonstrates how music harnesses our unique and intricate listening faculties creating a complex interplay between sounding events and our internal predictions. This forms a predictive tapestry whereby the listener - usually unconsciously - ‘explains’ temporal events in reference to multi-layered streams of expectational waves. How musicians exploit such expressive opportunities is explored in a wide range of musical styles.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 9 November 2023 at LSO St Lukes, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-groove
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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During the late 19th century, individuals and organizations planned for years in advance to observe a total solar eclipse. These high-stakes astronomical expeditions involved many scientific practitioners whose collective eclipse experience helped to grow and sustain 19th-century mathematical communities.
Especially in the United States, connections forged beneath the sun’s shadow sustained networks of communication, facilitated periodical publication, and set precedent for government funding in support of mathematical activity in the 19th- century United States.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Deborah Kent on 18 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Extant manuscripts, early library catalogues, lists of loans and wills are key witnesses for better understanding the mathematical practices and innovations in different milieux at the end of the Middle Ages. A systematic exploration of those sources unravels intellectual exchanges, scientific practices and methods. They also allow to delineate ‘communities of learning’, composed of scholars versed in similar readings and practices. Those networks of medieval scholars, fostered by the university system and collegial institutions, catalysed the rapid development of new approaches or adaptations in the scientia stellarum, astronomy and astrology, an active branch of mathematics at that time. This lecture looks at how astronomical practices have been shaped by those communities at the end of the Middle Ages. More particularly, I will focus on a group of fourteenth-century Oxonian scholars sharing a same background and interest in astronomy and astrology. Modern historiography has mainly focused on the so-called calculatores, eclipsing the scientific activities of this circle of astronomers and astrologers. The practices of this group also allows us to better understand the earliest phase of reception of continental astronomical adaptations in England. This community also raises the question of the complementary practices between astronomy and astrology, and the growing specialisation of scholars in one or the other of these disciplines.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Laure Miolo on 18 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the late 19th-century, astronomical research could be practical, using telescopes and spectroscopes, or be based on mathematical reasoning. Astronomers could be professionals or amateurs, and explored the heavens in observatories, on field trips to exotic countries, in their own backyards, or aboard hot air balloons. Although this diversity of research practices enabled historically marginalised astronomers, such as women or those of a working-class background, to access astronomical research, this talk will show that existing social hierarchies were persistently maintained.
This lecture was recorded by Dr Eva Kaufholz-Soldat on 18 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Between us and the medieval men and women who went on pilgrimage there stand many impediments to understanding: the Reformation, the Enlightenment, secularisation.
This lecture will explore how tracing ancient routes on foot, and experiencing travel as people did in an age before trains and cars, can offer insights into the past. But is the sense of being accompanied by ghosts a delusion?
Tom Holland will draw on experiences of reading Chaucer and undertaking pilgrimages during and after the pandemic.
This lecture was recorded by Tom Holland on 7 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pilgrimages-holland
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This considers a set of superhuman female figures found in medieval and early modern European cultures- Mother Nature, the roving nocturnal lady often called Herodias, the British fairy queen, and the Gaelic Cailleach. None seem to be surviving ancient deities, and yet there is nothing Christian about any of them either. It is suggested that they force us to reconsider our own existing terminology when writing the religious history of Europe.
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 8 November 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pagan-goddesses
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Different models of economic modernity competed during the Cold War.
Washington feared that the transition from colonial peasant societies would provide an opening for Marxists, as in Vietnam. But by 1989, the Soviet economic model was in crisis and attempts to create a market economy led to Putin’s kleptocracy. In China, the disaster of Mao’s Great Leap Forward was followed by successful transformation.
Why did the Soviet Union fail where China succeeded?
This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 31 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pilgrimages-holland
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Uncompromising control of her career and pursuit of a bold vision have made Barbra Streisand a sometimes controversial figure since her debut in Funny Girl, despite her popularity and many awards. She has been stigmatised for being a powerful woman in the entertainment industry: her work as a producer and director have shattered the glass ceiling but not without personal cost. This lecture explores how her insistence on having complete control over her entire artistic output allowed her to recreate the idea of the diva in her own image.
This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 26 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/streisand
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our exploration of the Solar System has revealed a remarkable diversity of landscapes, from the frozen deserts of Mars, which billions of years ago ran with water, to the hellish surface of Venus and the strange hydrocarbon seas of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. In our voyages to these places we have discovered what may be the most common home for life in the Universe - the ice-covered oceans found in many of Jupiter and Saturn's moons.
A lecture by Chris Lintott recorded on 25 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/brain-computer
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our brains are computers. What if we could enhance their processing power? Medical technology now allows for brain signals to be read and translated to reverse paralysis. Deep brain stimulation is also used to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s. Neural interfaces are already improving lives. How do they work? What’s next for our physical connection to digital technology? And what are the implications of having new hardware in our heads?
A lecture by Victoria Baines recorded on 24 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/brain-computer
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Is politics merely a gaslighting of the oppressed, a cloak for the rulers to exploit the ruled?
Plato’s Republic confronted the challenges of political office (archē). By working through the ideas of this dialogue and comparing them to the present day, the lecture offers a new way of understanding the role of officeholders and the ethical demands placed on them. It argues that Plato took the risk of abuse of power far more seriously than has been generally recognised.
A lecture by Melissa Lane recorded on 19 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/plato-office
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Iran’s first revolution in 1906 provided the country with a constitution and parliament, laying the foundations for its political development over the next century. Although overshadowed by the later Islamic Revolution of 1979, it was the Constitutional Revolution - modelled on the British constitution and British political ideas - that gave birth to the modern state and shaped future political development.
This lecture will explore the ideas that shaped the revolution and its lasting legacy on Iranian politics.
A lecture by Ali Ansari recorded on 17 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/iran-1906
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The theory of evolution is often described as the biggest idea in the history of humanity. But evolutionary theory itself has evolved over time, often via landmark contributions from some very unusual characters.
This lecture investigates some of the biggest ideas about evolution, as well as some of the most ill-conceived.
We’ll meet aristocrats and criminals, clergymen and dictators and consider how evolution is as much a product of history as it is of biology.
A lecture by Robin May recorded on 16 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolutionary-thinking
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Literature has always played a key role in social and political life in Africa, even when it is not deliberately or obviously activist in its aims or form.
African writers like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe, Obi Wali and poets Christopher Okigbo and Stella Nyanzi have long been seen as key thinkers and engaged intellectuals.
Tracing this history, this lecture shows how creative work changes society and discusses the role of literary collectives such as Chimureng, Jalada, and Bakwa.
A lecture by Madhu Krishnan recorded on 12 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/literary-africa
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI are changing our lives and society as a whole from how we shop to how we access news and make decisions.
Are current and traditional legal frameworks and new governance strategies able to guard against the novel risks posed by new systems?
How can we mitigate AI bias, protect privacy, and make algorithmic systems more accountable?
How are data protection, non-discrimination, free speech, libel, and liability laws standing up to these changes?
A lecture by Sandra Wachter recorded on 11 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/technology-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Why are there chess Grandmasters, but not Grandmasters of noughts and crosses (otherwise known as tic-tac-toe)? It is because chess is “harder” – but what do we really mean by that?
Answering that question leads us to develop the idea of mathematical complexity, which is a measure of how ‘big’ a game is.
We’ll look at the complexity of popular games, and ask: what is the hardest game of all time?
A lecture by Sarah Hart recorded on 10 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-games
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the early twentieth century Black creatives were America’s artistic vanguard.
In the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans created new platforms to promote their work and learned to navigate white gatekeepers who controlled America’s publishing and cultural industries.
At the forefront of this movement, women were among its most radical thinkers: as playwrights, poets, novelists and artists such as Gwendolyn Bennett and Nella Larsen, they explored new ways of thinking about motherhood, sexuality, bodily autonomy and racial violence.
A lecture by Kate Dossett recorded on 5 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-harlem
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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They came, they saw, they felt conquered.
Turning to the later works of Samuel Selvon and George Lamming, and the writing of Andrew Salkey, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, and Linton Kwesi Johnson, this lecture will reflect on the aesthetics of Caribbean emigrant authors.
Considering how the form of their works reflected a changing Britain in the 1960s-80s, it will explore how their motifs, and themes of fragmentation and rupture, signal the emergence of a new Black British consciousness.
A lecture by Dr Malachi McIntosh recorded on 3 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/writers-windrush
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In finance, everything comes down to promises. When you invest money, questions arise: how profitable will it be down the line, and is it worth investing today? Determining the exact amount of those returns and whether investing is worthwhile can be challenging.
This lecture will introduce the concept of Net Present Value. It will discuss how NPV helps managers satisfy shareholders without direct interaction, and how it can evaluate uncertain future payoffs in order to meet investor expectations.
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau recorded on 2 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/net-present-value
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture explores the death penalty's roots, its abolition in England and Wales, and its continuation in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Analysing the Privy Council's role in perpetuating this practice, this punishment is examined closely.
Is it a colonial relic which reinforces societal injustices? Is it time for its complete abolition?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC recorded on 28 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/death-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere determines what global temperature is reached. So, just like a braking distance, future warming is determined by global emissions today, the year we start emission reductions, and the year we achieve net zero. The goal of climate policy is no longer up for debate: we have to reduce global emissions to net zero. We just need to decide when and how fast.
A lecture by Myles Allen recorded on 26 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/when-net-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Microplastics - tiny plastic particles less than 5mm long - were first identified in the ocean but are now known to be ubiquitous throughout the environment, within soil, air food and water. Recently, microplastics have been detected in human blood, placenta, and other tissues (liver, lung, colon) raising concerns about potential adverse health effects.
This lecture reviews the science on microplastics and whether we should be concerned about them, compared with other known environmental hazards.
A lecture by Dr Ian Mudway recorded on 25 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/microplastics-health
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture looks at a series of divine female figures in the ancient world from the Middle East to Western Europe: Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus.
What they have in common, is that to varying degrees they all combined the personae of deities of sexual love and of war. It brings out the special characteristics of each, traces the relationships between them, and shows how each in the sequence, influenced the development of the next.
A lecture by Professor Ronald Hutton recorded on 20 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ancient-goddesses
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Portrayals of hackers in the movies lead us to believe that cybercriminals are young white males who wear hoodies. The cybercriminal population is actually much more diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity and other aspects. Motivations range from the ideological, to profit, to mischief and back again.
We will meet the cybercriminals in all their variety and discover how a better understanding of their demographics and drivers can help citizens, businesses and governments protect themselves.
A lecture by Professor Victoria Baines recorded on 19 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cybercriminals
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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How is music able to convey and trigger such range and depth of emotion? Why does it elicit joy, sorrow, consolation and the chills?
Employing research and theoretical models from neuroscience, psychology and musicology, we examine the extraordinary ways that primal and conditioned listening combine to such complex emotive effect.
Examples from pop, jazz, rock, film, global, traditional and classical forms are presented under the light of nostalgia, visual imagery, emotional contagion, rhythmic entrainment, aesthetics, expectation and the extra-musical.
A lecture by Professor Milton Mermikides recorded on 14 September 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-moves
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The discovery that we live in an ordinary galaxy, one of several hundred billion in the observable Universe, instigated a profound change in thinking about our place in the Universe.
This first lecture covers the Great Debate of the early twentieth century as new telescopes and new ways of observing the cosmos put our Milky Way in its place; and looks at how subsequent observations helped us understand how galaxies like our own formed and evolved.
A lecture by Professor Chris Lintott recorded on 13 September 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/galaxies-beyond
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the Annual Gray's Inn Reading, Dame Siobhan Keegan will present a lecture on the legal topic of freedom of expression.
A lecture by The Right Hon Dame Siobhan Keegan recorded on 15 June 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-23
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Sir Christopher Wren’s success was underpinned by his consummate skill as a courtier, retaining the confidence of four monarchs through social and economic disasters and political revolution. Wren's life at court can be minutely reconstructed and shows a man who was first and foremost a courtier serving the architectural whims of the Stuart dynasty.
Taking Wren the courtier as its starting point this lecture uses new research to paint his talents and career in a new light.
A lecture by Simon Thurley recorded on 14 June 2023 at David Game College, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/wren-courtier
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Graph theory is the study of connections, as may be seen in the London Underground map with stations linked by rails, or a transportation network with cities linked by roads. Dating back to the 18th century, the subject increasingly took hold in the 20th century, developing rapidly from mainly recreational puzzles to a mainstream area of study with widespread applications and strong links to computer science.
This illustrated historical talk will survey this century of development.
A lecture by Robin Wilson recorded on 13 June 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/graph-theory
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Did paganism survive all through the Middle Ages, as scholars once thought, remaining the religion of the common people, while the elite had embraced Christianity? Or did it die out earlier?
This lecture will consider a broad range of evidence, including figures in seasonal folk rites, carvings in churches, the records of trials for witchcraft and a continuing veneration of natural places such as wells. It will also compare ancient paganism and medieval Christianity as successive religious systems.
A lecture by Ronald Hutton recorded on 7 June 2023 at Barbican Centre, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/medieval-pagan
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Twisted Teachers
What would you do if you weren't afraid? Jen and Kim are long-time friends who started...
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The Future Age
We explore creative solutions and re-imagine what life as we get older can look like.
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Alan Turing is well-known for his work on the Enigma code in World War II, and his theoretical work underpinning computer science. But he is less well-known for his pioneering work on one of the great challenges of biology – how do complex living organisms develop from tiny collections of cells?
This lecture will discuss Turing’s ground-breaking work in this area, showing how patterns like a leopard’s spots or a zebra’s stripes can occur in nature.
A lecture by Sarah Hart recorded on 6 June 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/turing-biology
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What are the risks of using technological innovations in business?
There are risks associated with the crypto world, including custodial risk and economic exploits. There are also regulatory risks with competition from central banks issuing their own digital currencies, and risks associated with extrapolation from patterns detected in big data by AI systems. Applying algorithms blindly can lead to miscarriages of justice, exploitation, and discrimination. So how should society mitigate these risks, and where do we go from here?
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau recorded on 5 June 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/tech-business
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Manufacturing Matters
The Manufacturing Matters podcast aims to get to the heart of automation technology and...
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NonTrivial
Nontrivial is a podcast that looks to uncover deep patterns in life, discussing them at...
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Sickle Cell Disease can only be understood in the context of racial politics.
Predominantly seen in populations of African heritage, the diagnosis and treatment of this disease from the 1920s onwards draws attention to the importance of culture in biogenetic understandings of disease. Medical practices associated with sickle cell disease also shed light on health care disparities and the cultural construction of pain.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke recorded on 1 June 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sickle-cell-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Universe is expanding, increasingly so. Will this persist or will it collapse back on itself? If it does expand forever, what happens to the galaxies? What is the long-term trajectory for the ultimate in collapsed matter, black holes?
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE recorded on 31 May 2023 at Barbican Centre, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/end-universe
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture 2023
The period from 1988 to 2003, was one of extraordinary optimism. Every year the number of democracies increased, human rights improved, violent conflict reduced, there were fewer refugees and there was less global poverty. It was an era of triumph for the western liberal Democratic model for the United States and the politics of the centre ground.
But the next 11 years was disrupted by series of humiliating shocks to the west – the fiasco of the Iraq war, the global financial crisis, and the emergence of social media all contributed to the loss of faith in the western economic model. This was the period when China having joined the World Trade Organisation grew rapidly larger than the French British German Japanese economies. A period when new democracies ceased to emerge. When the Arab Spring cruelly exposed the false hopes of a Facebook revolution. Public confidence in the future waned.
This was the prelude for the new age, beginning in 2014 – the age of populism. From the election of Narendra Modi in India, through Brexit, Trump and Bolsonaro - a new form of politics, emerged on four continents - pitching an imagined “people“ against an “elite“ exploiting the new potential of social media and growing resentment, to inflame polarisation. Politics became even more vicious and divisive. The pragmatic centre ground disappeared.
Across the world, the number of democracies began to shrink, violent conflict increased, refugees increased so did civilian deaths in conflict. And in 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought a new authoritarian inflection to the age of populism. China, whose economy in 2005 was still smaller than that of the United Kingdom now had an economy seven times larger. The rise of UAE and Saudi reinforced the prestige of authoritarian economic powers. Western failures to respond to the crisis in Syria and Crimea undermined their credibility. The United States and Europe struggling both to come to terms of their own colonial histories and divisions within their own country, lurched into isolation. International development aid reduced. Poverty in Africa continued to explode.
Many of the fundamental structures which drove the stagnation, polarisation and collapse remain today. Nevertheless, there is a maturity and reality to the centre ground which should still be a source of inspiration.
Reenergising the centre requires rediscovering the fundamental principles of Aristotle‘s theory of language. The combination of logos, pathos, and ethos. Hope, reality, and truth can, and should suggest a better future for the democratic politics and the global order.
A lecture by Rory Stewart OBE recorded on 8 June 2023 at The Old Library, Guildhall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/thomas-gresham-23
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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AIDS is an example of a highly stigmatising ailment.
This lecture explores Susan Sontag’s aphorism that “metaphors kill”. Focussing on the period before the invention of antiretroviral drugs, the lecture also addresses questions of civil liberties, gender and sexuality, race, religion, and cultures of both harm and care. By paying attention to how hierarchies of grief were created and contested, it addresses questions of loss as well as solidarity.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke recorded on 30 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/aids-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Since the death of George Floyd in May 2020, some have asked whether we need a police force.
This lecture will examine the role and purpose of the police in our society. What do the police do? What is their historical and social context? Does the current system of policing work? If so, for who? Are all citizens in our society policed fairly? Should we defund the police? If there were no police what might replace them? Are the alternatives realistic?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC recorded on 25 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/police
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In partnership with the London Mathematical Society.
The first female Fields Medalist Maryam Mirzakhani, left an astonishing mathematical legacy at her untimely death in 2017. This talk will explain the lasting contributions of her work to our understanding of the world, and give a glimpse into Professor Mirzakhani's imaginative and hands-on approach to mathematics.
This lecture will be delivered by Professor Holly Krieger who is the Corfield Lecturer in Mathematics and the Corfield Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.
A lecture by Holly Krieger recorded on 24 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lms-2023
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The climate had a bad year in 2009. Talks collapsed. Emails were hacked. And several papers found even 50-80% reductions weren’t enough: we had to get to net zero. Yet six years later, negotiators from 190 countries acknowledged the need for net zero in the Paris Agreement, even resolving to try to limit warming to 1.5 °C, which means net zero global emissions around 2050. Can it be done? It certainly can. Will it be done? That’s up to all of us.
A lecture by Myles Allen recorded on 23 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/world-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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AI is another major technological innovation. AI needs data, or more precisely, big organized data. Most data processing is about making it useful for automatic systems such as machine learning, deep learning, and other AI systems. But one big problem with AI systems is that they lack context. An AI system is a pattern recognition machine devoid of any understanding of how the world works.
This lecture discusses how AI systems are used in business and their limitations.
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau recorded on 22 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-business
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In the early 20th century, the system of tonal harmony started to break down. The vertical accumulations of notes became too complex for our powers of memory and recognition, and some have suggested that this led to a loss of meaning and even humanity in music.
In this lecture we will discuss expressive uses of atonality, and also the return of familiar chords to music, but outside the grammar that used to give them their logic.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 18 May 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/atonal-music
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Please note that this lecture will contain several mentions of early animal testing which some audience members may find upsetting
Christopher Wren was part of probably the first ‘research team’ assembled in Oxford in the 17th century, dedicated to better understanding the human body. With colleagues, Wren contributed to: the near-discovery of oxygen; the first human transfusion of blood; the first intravenous therapy and first intravenous anaesthetic; the description of the anatomy of the arteries supplying the brain (the ‘circle of Willis’); and remarkably, the first successful cardiac resuscitation.
The lecture will explain the continued relevance of these discoveries.
A lecture by Jaideep Pandit recorded on 17 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/wren-medical
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Florence Nightingale is the founder of modern nursing and a pioneer of data science and medical statistics. Her innovative use of statistical diagrams helped people see just how many deaths were being caused by poor hygiene in military hospitals.
This lecture will look at the importance and legacy of Nightingale’s work, which led to her becoming, in 1858, the first woman elected to the Royal Statistical Society.
A lecture by Sarah Hart recorded on 16 May 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-nightingale
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Microbes have existed on Earth for almost 4 billion years; 3x as long as multicellular organisms and 1000x longer than humans. So what does the future hold? Will recent advances in genetic engineering enable us to create bacterial ‘drug-delivery’ machines or self-replicating microbial vaccines? What will the first human-created lifeform mean for our understanding of biology? Will humanity end with a ‘microbial bang’, or might microbes perhaps be the solution we need to spread our wings beyond this planet?
A lecture by Robin May recorded on 10 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/microbial-future
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The normal heart is very robust. Some people are born with abnormalities of the heart structure. Others acquire damage to the heart valves which become too narrow or unable to close properly. The muscle and linings of the heart may be affected by infections, drugs or other inherited or acquired diseases. All of these can cause heart failure or death if not treated.
This lecture will consider the prevention and treatment of structural heart disease.
A lecture by Sir Chris Whitty recorded on 16 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/heart-diseases
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Faceless hackers in hoodies, intergalactic warriors, and technology out of human control: are these representations of cyber threats accurate? And what might be their impact on levels of personal safety and security for organisations?
This talk presents ideas for how we might empower people to protect themselves and help address human issues in the IT sector by thinking differently about how we portray security threats and operations.
A lecture by Victoria Baines recorded on 9 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cybersecurity-humans
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Dementia is often designated the “plague” of the twenty-first century. What does a cultural history of dementia reveal about commonly circulating ideas relating to the brain, personhood, embodiment, and normal/abnormal? What difference do “labels” make – “melancholy”, “lunacy”, “dotage”, and “senility”, for example?
The lecture uses the historical development of the science of geriatrics to reflect on the experience of ageing and claims about the modern self.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke recorded on 11 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/dementia-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The study of ‘Women and Islam’ has expanded exponentially in recent decades.
This lecture maps out emerging agendas, for example, the growing interest in women’s role in the transmission of Islamic knowledge and practice. It examines new avenues such as conceptions of women and gender in Muslim theology, using the theological debate on whether women could be prophets as a case study. How might this help us to rethink our own ideas about women in Islam?
A lecture by Dr Shuruq Naguib recorded on 9 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-islam
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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St Bartholomew’s is the oldest hospital in England still operating on its original site and will celebrate its 900th anniversary in 2023.
This lecture tells its history, from 1123 to today, via its people, buildings and the events that defined this iconic medical institution. Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton's work in vascular pharmacology, Sir James Paget's discovery of bone and breast disease, and Ethel Gordon Fenwick’s campaign for registered state nursing are all important elements of Barts’ history.
A lecture by Charles Knight OBE recorded on 4 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/barts-900
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This lecture will explore the technologies that make tall buildings possible. With the current climate crisis in mind, what is the carbon footprint of a building, and how can it be reduced?
Finally, the lecturer will present some recent projects by Foster + Partners, and set out his vision for the future of tall buildings, the new technologies that are improving them, and the benefits they offer to society.
A lecture by Roger Ridsdill Smith recorded on 27 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/tall-buildings
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Since the late 19th century, scholars have thought the poetry and stories of medieval Wales, gathered in manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest and the Book of Taliesin, represent stories about pagan gods and goddesses – but recently this has been challenged. These books deal with magic and enchantment and contain vivid characters such as Rhiannon, the proud and wilful Arianrhod, the beautiful and treacherous flower-maiden Blodeuwedd, the decent and vulnerable Lleu Llaw Gyffes, and the supreme bard Taliesin.
A lecture by Ronald Hutton recorded on 26 April 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/wales-gods
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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History Nerds United
Let's make history fun again! Come listen to interviews with today's best authors.
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Design excellence should be at the heart of all development. But what makes design good or bad? How can you build in beauty and longevity?
Professor Sadie Morgan’s lecture will showcase practical examples where early testing and thinking have elevated the impact of infrastructure projects.
Looking at both policy and projects, from the National Infrastructure Strategy policy document for the NIC, to the Birmingham Curzon Street Station for HS2, her lecture will examine the elements behind making good design happen.
A lecture by Sadie Morgan OBE recorded on 25 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/infrastructure-beauty
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Why do we crown Kings and Queens? And why has this ancient ritual survived in Britain, uniquely among European countries? What purpose can pomp and pageantry serve in a modern constitutional monarchy? This talk introduces the history of the British coronation, from its 10th -century origins to the present day, and explores how its meaning has changed over time. It will focus on moments when this religious ceremony came under intense scrutiny, such as during the Reformation, or when the first ever queen regnant, Mary I, was crowned.
A lecture by Dr Alice Hunt recorded on 2 May 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/british-coronations
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Since the 1970s feminist bible scholars have been reclaiming the stories of biblical women.
From Eve to Esther this lecture will draw on both biblical accounts and cultural representations to bring their stories to life. Whether wives, mothers, and sisters; sex workers and foreign agents; prophetesses and queens; wise women and witches; victims and heroes and so much more, their stories reveal to us not only who these women were, but how their stories continue to resonate in the modern world.
A lecture by Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris recorded on 25 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-hebrew-bible
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Counter/Argument: A Middle East Podcast
Perspectives that promise to debunk key misconceptions about the modern Middle East today.
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What is the role of criminal law in society, and do we need it? How did English criminal law develop? The traditional justifications for criminalisation are retribution, deterrence, containment and control: do they stand up to scrutiny? What are the alternatives to criminalisation, such as restorative and transformative justice? Should we abolish or reform criminal law? How should a just legal system respond to harm and conflict?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC recorded on 20 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/criminal-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The UK’s nuclear power reactors have provided a significant proportion of the UK’s low carbon electricity over their lifetimes. Most will retire in this decade. Advances in technology mean that modern systems can compete with other forms of low carbon energy.
The lecture will discuss the progress made in development of Small Modular Reactors which make these systems promising for future deployment and the additional functionality offered by next generation systems for hydrogen production and heat as well as electricity.
A lecture by Dame Sue Ion recorded on 19 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/nuclear-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Gene editing technology gives us the ability to change our DNA – removing, adding and replacing parts of our genetic code. These technologies have been emerging and improving for some decades, but since the development of CRISPR-based editing technologies, our capacity to edit our DNA has become both more accessible, more accurate and consequently, more powerful. Gene editing could be used to prevent genetic diseases but also alter traits like height and intelligence, presenting both legal and ethical issues.
A lecture by Imogen Goold recorded on 17 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/gene-editing-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Make People Better Podcast
Science fiction is becoming science fact. In 2018, the team behind this podcast...
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The Baby Tribe
A podcast dedicated to infant nutrition and health
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More than anything else, the end matters to the novel reader. Novelists, including Austen and Dickens, sometimes changed their minds about their endings, using these changes of mind to explore how an ending satisfies, or fails to satisfy, our expectations.
The lecture will explore the rise of the indeterminate ending, from Henry James on. And it will suggest how an ending can, for worse as well as for better, retrospectively change our experience of a novel.
A lecture by John Mullan recorded on 5 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/endings-novel
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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American Potential
American Potential shares how individuals are taking action in their community to break...
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Saint Paul’s letters show women playing leading roles in the earliest Christian communities. Yet, by the fourth century, women’s ministry was very limited. Why?
In the Roman Empire, women’s roles were limited by the expectation that their speech was domestic. If it was inappropriate for women to speak in public, they could not be priests or bishops. However, this lecture will reveal how some Christian women subverted these conventions to become preachers and teachers.
A lecture by Morwenna Ludlow recorded on 5 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/women-christianity
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In this lecture, we shall explore a colourful collection of chords that have all acquired their own special, non-technical names. We will consider the Neapolitan Chord, that mainstay of Spanish (!) music, the Tristan Chord, The Petrushka Chord, The Mystic Chord and several others, with names that are sometimes helpful, and sometimes misleading or downright silly, looking at how such a thing as a chord could acquire a kind of fame, and how each entered popular culture.
This lecture will feature the pianist Peter Donohoe.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohue recorded on 30 March 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/famous-chords
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In partnership with the Fulbright Commission.
In 1819, Thomas Telford and Robert Southey went on a six-week tour of the Scottish Highlands to inspect the region’s newly built roads, bridges and canals. What compelled this unlikely duo, the “Colossus of Roads” and Britain’s Poet Laureate, to undertake one of the greatest road trips of the Picturesque era?
Landscape historian and Fulbright scholar Paul Daniel Marriott explores the legacy of their extraordinary journey, meticulously chronicled by Southey, on travel, transport and design in the twenty-first century.
A lecture by Paul Daniel Marriott recorded on 14 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/telford-highland
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Who benefited from the British Empire? In the metropole, did it benefit wealthy landed aristocrats and financiers of the City of London, or did the Empire create employment and cheap goods for British workers? What was the impact on different parts of the empire, and different social groups, as they were drawn into a global economy?
A lecture by Martin Daunton recorded on 4 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/benefit-empire
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Astronomically speaking, there are a number of ways in which life on Earth could be wiped out. For example, a giant asteroid could hit Earth with such energy that the oceans are boiled off.
This lecture will assess which astronomical events are likely and which are not. [It will not consider anthropogenic means by which life on Earth might end].
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE recorded on 29 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/end-life
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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From 1600 – 1850, artists in England and, later, in North America depicted distinguished Native American tribal leaders, diplomats and warriors to commemorate their significance. Examples include Pocahontas (1617), and nineteenth century Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Red Cloud.
For many years, these portraits were not properly understood, reducing many of the sitters to simple exemplars of the ‘noble savage’ cliché. In fact, these works are far more interesting once the sitters’ historical situation and agency are restored to them.
A lecture by Stephanie Pratt recorded on 28 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/american-portraits
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Mason Finance Group Podcasts
4 Local Brokers talking everything finance! Give us a call to discuss how we can help!
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We interface with our environment via the air we breathe, the food and water we eat and drink, and through physical contact via our skin.
This lecture explores how these biological barriers act to protect us against toxins and toxicants, through an exploration of dose, detoxification and elimination mechanisms, antioxidant defences and innate immune mechanisms.
A lecture by Dr Ian Mudway recorded on 27 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/interfaces-world
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Every animal on the planet carries with it an astonishingly diverse microbial zoo – millions of invisible organisms that thrive on the skin and in the gut. They play an important role in health and disease and may also shape human emotions and behaviour. Viruses may stimulate aggression, parasites can trigger suicide and bacteria can block fear responses.
The evidence for our interaction with microbes may even make us want to re-evaluate the concept of free-will.
A lecture by Robin May recorded on 22 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/manipulate-life
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This talk will explore the potential for harnessing the public health framework for addressing online safety and security.
Throughout the COVID pandemic, citizens have washed their hands, covered their faces, and maintained a physical distance. If members of the public can protect themselves and others from offline viruses, why not digital ones?
A lecture by Victoria Baines recorded on 21 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/digital-pandemic
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Is History Watching? The Podcast!
This podcast will encompass "History for Everyone". It is history from the point of...
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Manufacturing Matters
The Manufacturing Matters podcast aims to get to the heart of automation technology and...
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In partnership with the Fulbright Commission.
In 1819, Thomas Telford and Robert Southey went on a six-week tour of the Scottish Highlands to inspect the region’s newly built roads, bridges and canals. What compelled this unlikely duo, the “Colossus of Roads” and Britain’s Poet Laureate, to undertake one of the greatest road trips of the Picturesque era?
Landscape historian and Fulbright scholar Paul Daniel Marriott explores the legacy of their extraordinary journey, meticulously chronicled by Southey, on travel, transport and design in the twenty-first century.
A lecture by Paul Daniel Marriott recorded on 14 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/telford-highland
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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In recent years, the links between sleep and mental health have been slowly unravelled. We are beginning to understand that not only does mental health impact sleep, but also that poor sleep has important consequences on our psychology.
This lecture explores this complex relationship, and highlights the importance of sleep as a major factor in our mental wellbeing. The lecture covers strategies to manage disturbed sleep, and touches on other disorders such as nightmares and night eating syndrome.
A lecture by Guy Leschziner recorded on 13 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sleep-health
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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During the medieval ‘agricultural revolution’, new forms of cereal farming fuelled the exceptionally rapid growth of towns, markets and populations across much of Europe. The use of the mouldboard plough and systematic crop rotation were key developments and led to open-field farming, one of the transformative changes of the Middle Ages.
Using new evidence from plant and animal remains from archaeological excavations in England, this lecture links these to wider developments in medieval society, notably growing social and wealth inequalities.
A lecture by Helena Hamerow recorded on 23 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/agricultural-rev
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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We used to think Roman Britain was a largely untamed natural landscape of woodland with occasional opulent villas representing the houses of an alien elite, set side by side with scattered peasant settlements. Archaeological work since the 1940s has radically altered this understanding through a combination of large-scale excavation and a revolution in remote sensing techniques, revealing a more varied picture of housing, farming, settlement and industry.
This lecture will explore our current knowledge of the nature of Roman imperialism and the history of Britain.
A lecture by Martin Millett recorded on 15 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/roman-landscapes
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What is the adversarial tradition in English criminal and civil procedure, and how does it compare with the inquisitorial systems found in some civil law jurisdictions? What are the strengths and weaknesses of adversarial and inquisitorial jurisdictions?
Does our adversarial system truly deliver equality of arms between the powerful and the powerless? Have modern fair trial standards, such as those required by the European Court of Human Rights, -and other developments - brought the two families of systems closer together?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC recorded on 9 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/adversarial-law
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What happens to carbon dioxide after we emit it? Half is absorbed within a year or two by plants and the oceans, the rest, in effect, stays in the atmosphere. So, does that mean we have to halve emissions to stop concentrations rising? Unfortunately, no.
Despite the vast reserves of carbon dissolved in the oceans, carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels does not get diluted away, but makes an indelible mark on climate for hundreds of thousands of years.
A lecture by Myles Allen recorded on 7 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbon-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Norse and Danish invaders - commonly called Vikings - who occupied Britain in the ninth and tenth centuries, brought with them their own pagan gods. Odin, Thor, Tyr, Loki and Freya left their trace on the British landscape, in the form of scenes from their mythology carved on stone slabs, and Viking paganism has a further considerable legacy of material evidence in richly furnished graves, especially on the Isle of Man.
A lecture by Ronald Hutton recorded on 8 March 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/viking-gods
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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History of Africa
Take a deep dive deep into African history with this in-depth podcast. From Casablanca...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Christopher Wren, who died 300 years ago this year, is famed as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. But he was also Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and one of the founders of a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning” which became the Royal Society.
This lecture explores some of Wren’s mathematical work on curves including spirals and ellipses and the mathematics behind his most impressive architectural achievement – the dome of St Paul’s.
A lecture by Sarah Hart recorded on 7 March 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-wren
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Until the 1970s, historical fiction was a scorned genre that belonged to Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy. Over recent decades, literary fiction has turned back to History, from Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy to Helen Dunmore, Francis Spufford and Eleanor Catton. In the nineteenth century the historical novel had been more respected, with examples (sometimes impressive, sometimes absurd) from Scott, Dickens, and George Eliot.
This lecture will examine the genre’s vicissitudes (while noticing Georgette Heyer’s novelistic virtues).
A lecture by John Mullan recorded on 1 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/historical-fiction
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Big data has really taken off over the past decade because of the presence of ubiquitous sensor technology everywhere. For example, we are all constantly monitored by our phones, smart doorbells, heating systems, televisions, watches and jewellery. These devices generate a constant flow of information about us. But this data is pretty much meaningless without context.
This lecture talks about how data needs to be processed to make it useful to business.
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau recorded on 27 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/data-business
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our bodies depend on our hearts maintaining a steady beat, and increasing it appropriately in response to exercise. If the heart goes too fast, or too slowly, we have effects ranging from tiredness to unexpectedly passing out to death.
This lecture will consider the normal heartbeat, the causes of the heart going too fast or slowly and how it is treated when it does.
A lecture by Sir Chris Whitty recorded on 21 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/rhythm-heart
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our contemporary ideas about Stonehenge and British antiquity were shaped in times of empire and war. They dominate popular histories and inform national identity.
Focusing on how Stonehenge was built, and drawing on a wealth of evidence which includes new archaeology and science, this lecture describes an alternative narrative of ancient communities, and presents a more positive and inclusive story – a Stonehenge re-imagined for modern Britain.
A lecture by Mike Pitts recorded on 23 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/stonehenge-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Sir Christopher Wren was one of the most remarkable Gresham Professors of Astronomy. Though best known today as the architectural mastermind behind the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, Wren’s appointment to the Gresham chair in 1657 stemmed from his enthusiasm for turning his gaze well above London’s skyline and focussing his attention on the heavens above.
This lecture will consider Wren’s contributions to astronomy and how Wren’s appreciation of and contributions to art and design, and science and engineering, were fully integrated in his life and made him a polymath on a par with Leonardo da Vinci.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE recorded on 22 February 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/wren-cosmos
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture will examine the images of power and empire projected by Queen Victoria over the course of her reign.
Beginning with her coronation, it surveys her depictions as a young queen. It looks at the transformation of her image after Albert’s death from devoted wife to grief-stricken widow. It examines portrayals of Victoria as grandmother of Europe and as Empress of India, and it concludes that the strongest image is that of the black-dressed Queen alone.
A lecture by Jane Ridley recorded on 15 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/victoria-portraits
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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In this lecture, we will delve into the history of opera because that is where the diminished seventh-chord gradually accumulated its expressive power as a chord for dramatic climaxes, demonic intrusions and generally for shock and horror of any kind. The augmented triad came to be used for the mysterious and supernatural. The symmetrical structure of these two chords allowed composers to veer off into unexpected keys or create new scales which have not shed their strangeness, even today.
With Pianist Peter Donohoe CBE
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 09 February 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/diminished-augmented
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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End-to-end encryption secures messages before they leave a device, preventing them from being read in transit. Increasingly the default protocol for messaging apps, neither governments nor the platforms on which it operates can access unscrambled communications and message content. Some governments have demanded ‘back doors’ for criminal investigations, while others have exploited workarounds to access the encrypted messages of political dissidents.
This talk considers the current public discourse on online surveillance and privacy, and where society might go from here.
A lecture by Victoria Baines recorded on 14 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/problem-encryption
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Numeracy skills, good financial education and financial inclusion are essential ingredients for a thriving, fair economy. The cost-of-living crisis exposes how we need to go further and faster to ensure people have the skills they need to manage their money and improve their prospects in life, and can access useful, affordable financial services. This event and panel discussion brings together speakers with wide-ranging experience across these areas. And the Lord Mayor of London, Nicholas Lyons, will speak about the role the Square Mile can play in supporting numeracy, financial literacy and inclusion.
A lecture by The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons with Andrew Haldane, Sacha Romanovitch OBE and Patrick Jenkins recorded on 13 February 2023 at The Old Library, Guildhall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lord-mayor-23
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Microbes hold astonishing speed records: the remarkable Thiovulum majus races along at 60 body lengths per second – the equivalent of Usain Bolt completing the 100m sprint in just over 0.8 seconds. Viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 replicate so rapidly that a single infection can produce 100 bn virus particles within a couple of days. And some bacteria lie dormant for millions of years.
This lecture looks at the biology behind these record-breakers, and what they can teach us about creating new materials.
A lecture by Robin May recorded on 8 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/record-breakers
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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During debates over the abolition of slavery, supporters of the system claimed that it was vital to the British economy and that abolition would be disastrous. The abolitionists argued that slavery was immoral and that the economy would prosper in its absence. Just how important was slavery to British economic success? This question continues to resonate in modern debates over the historic role of slavery’s profits in the building of country estates or the endowments of charities.
Please note, this lecture contains descriptions of violence which some viewers may find upsetting.
A lecture by Martin Daunton recorded on 7 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/slavery-british
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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There is a rising number of people of all ages with mental health illnesses globally, that has been accompanied by a greater willingness to talk about it in many places. What are the most common disorders and the best treatment options, including non-medical treatment and lifestyle modifications?
The lecture will conclude by looking at global mental health myths, for example in several cultures individuals with problems are considered to be holding a negative spirit inside them.
A lecture by Monica Lakhanpaul recorded on 6 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mental-health
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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What are the strengths and weaknesses of the distinction between solicitors and barristers? What is the purpose of the independent Bar in our legal system today? How does England and Wales compare with common law jurisdictions which have abandoned, or have never had, a split profession?
Is the Bar’s history as a bastion of privilege, its various historical monopolies and prerogatives, and its culture and organisation problematic? What are the benefits of an independent Bar?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC recorded on 2 February 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/barristers
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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When the Western Roman Empire crumbled, the Anglo-Saxon peoples who occupied Britain brought their own paganism with them. This was Germanic, with a pantheon of deities that included Woden, Thunor, Tiw and Frig. Its temples were wooden structures that leave scant traces in the landscape, but you can find evidence for their beliefs in cemeteries like Sutton Hoo.
This lecture looks at such evidence and at literature such as Beowulf and the history written by the Christian scholar Bede.
A lecture by Ronald Hutton recorded on 1 February 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/anglo-saxon-gods
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Composers of tonal music, from the 17th century through to the latest jazz tune or film score, think mainly in terms of how their chords succeed each other, rather than taking chords in isolation.
We will investigate the most important succession of chords in Western music, the cadence. Cadences are a kind of punctuation, dividing music into sentences or periods. They are also responsible for creating a sense of relief or suspense.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker recorded on 26 January 2023 at LSO St Luke's, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/musical-cadences
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Why is the deep ocean cold? And why does this matter for global warming?
Doing the maths with pipes and plumbing, not computers, we explore how processes that keep the deep oceans at frigid Arctic temperatures also determine how fast the world is warming in response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations – and also explain why it would be so difficult to say when the warming would stop even if we were to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at today’s levels forever.
A lecture by Myles Allen recorded on 31 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ocean-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The field of probability started when a French nobleman asked the mathematician Blaise Pascal to solve a dispute for him about a game consisting of throwing a pair of dice 24 times. Pascal discussed this and other problems with fellow mathematician Pierre de Fermat, in a series of letters in which they arrived at the basic principles of probability theory.
This lecture looks at dice, cards, lotteries, and other games of chance. Can mathematics help us win?
A lecture by Sarah Hart recorded on 31 January 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lottery-maths
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Louis XIV saw himself as a patron of the arts, as well as an absolute monarch and warlord. He talked to his favourite artists and writers, including Bernini, Racine, Andre Lenotre the gardener and Charles Lebrun the painter, almost as equals, and made Versailles an arts and entertainment centre rivalling Rome. Versailles’s influence, like the French language, spread across Europe. In his range and passion, Louis XIV was unsurpassed as a patron of the arts, both in his time and later.
A lecture by Dr Philip Mansel recorded on 25 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/versailles-arts
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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How is the decentralised finance world organised?
This lecture discusses how cryptographic technology is applied in business. It discusses blockchains and their uses. It explains how smart contracts, open code that automatically executes contracts once certain conditions are fulfilled, are used. It will also look at non-fungible tokens, a type of cryptographic asset on a blockchain with a unique identification code and metadata that distinguishes it from any other.
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau recorded on 23 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/crypto-nfts
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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How does everyday medical practice get interpreted in the courtroom?
In cases of child protection, do everyday decisions made in a resource-limited NHS stand up to cross-examination? Does the duty of care in hospital also extend to collecting evidence, and are the obligations of the doctor looking after a child different to the obligations of the expert commenting on them in retrospect? How does this affect the number of medical personnel willing to come forwards to give expert evidence?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty KC and Owen Arthurs recorded on 19 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/medical-family
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The evolution of our Sun from ordinary star into red giant is radically different from the evolution of much more massive stars towards their end-points: supernova explosions followed by black holes.
This lecture will contrast the relevant nuclear physics and thermodynamics that determine these very different outcomes.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE recorded on 18 January 2023 at David Game College, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/end-stars
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Vaccination against disease has saved countless lives, yet it remains a controversial topic because of concerns some hold about safety and potential harms. Should we be legally required to vaccinate ourselves and our children? How important is individual choice when balanced against saving lives? To what extent should vaccination of children be a matter for parents or the state?
This lecture considers the challenges we face in fighting disease while remaining a democratic, liberal society.
A lecture by Imogen Goold recorded on 16 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mandatory-vaccination
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Breast cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases for women, not only because it can be a serious medical condition resulting in painful therapies, but because it is regarded as an assault on a sufferer’s self-image and sexuality. Historically, women have responded to diagnoses of breast cancer in different ways.
This lecture explores some of the shifting ideas about breast cancer, including the appropriation of “blame” (that is, debates about “stress” and carcinogenic environments).
A lecture by Joanna Bourke recorded on 12 January 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/breast-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Microbial chemistry makes bread rise and cheese mature, and turns grapes into wine. Microbes help make engine fuel, life-saving antibiotics and nano-particle sunscreens. Without fungi and bacteria, the world would sink under its own waste within days, since only these microbes have the ability to degrade complex polymers such as the lignin in plants.
Might we be able to harness this amazing power of microbial degradation to help remove the human-made plastic mountain, or clean up toxic waste sites?
A lecture by Robin May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/master-chemists
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Coronary heart disease caused by narrowing and blockage of the heart arteries causes angina, heart attacks and heart failure. It remains one of the commonest causes of mortality in the UK and globally. Public health interventions and improvements in treatment have steadily reduced deaths from coronary heart disease.
This lecture will discuss the causes of coronary heart disease and advances in reducing its effects.
A lecture by Sir Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/coronary-heart
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What was religion like in Roman Britain? What pre-Roman deities persisted? Which new gods came with Romans?
This lecture looks at the evidence: inscriptions, statues and figurines, carvings and all the impediments of ritual, as well as the testimony of hundreds of burials. It shows how the Romans developed the cults of native deities such as Sulis and Belatucadros, and imported their own official divinities such as Jupiter and Mercury and mystery religions such as that of Mithras.
A lecture by Ronald Hutton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/paganism-roman
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Fake news, influence operations, disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy theories are different flavours of falsehoods that have one thing in common: they put citizens in the front line of countering threats to democracies, national security, and community safety.
This talk will explore governments’ and platforms’ efforts to counter falsehood, and what citizens can do to defend themselves, their loved ones, and ultimately their nations from influence operations.
A lecture by Dr Victoria Baines
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/fight-fake
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Drawing on examples from the Israel-Palestine conflict, this lecture explores contrasting approaches, theories and practices for interpreting the relationship between religion and violence. It argues that understanding that religion can both incite violence and promote peace - is vital for building peace in the Middle East. It will explore the Myth of Redemptive Violence theory; the Mimetic Violence and Scapegoat theory; and the Myth of Religious Violence theory.
A lecture by Jolyon Mitchell
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/israel-palestine
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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On the 5th of December 1952 London experienced a major pollution episode, the Great Smog, resulting in thousands of deaths throughout the city.
On the 70th anniversary of this event, the lecturer will review how air pollution has changed in the intervening period, the evidence that it is still having profound effects on our health and the effectiveness of measures to ensure clean air and better public health.
A lecture by Ian Mudway
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/londons-air
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What is the role of the judiciary in England and Wales, how did it develop, and how does it compare with other countries?
This lecture will examine how judges are appointed, whose interests they serve, and who they are accountable to. It will examine the relationship between an independent judiciary and the rule of law, and what ideological assumptions underpin the judicial function in modern liberal democracies. Do our judges have the training, understanding and skills to perform their roles?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas KC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/judges
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The name might sound forbiddingly technical, but the chord is immediately recognisable and it has played a hugely important role in tonal music. This is a chord of action and motion: it sounds unstable and incomplete, leading the listener to expect the particular triad that is its normal target. Without this chord, what we call Viennese classicism (Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven) would have been impossible.
We will also look at how composers play with the expectations generated by the chord.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/dominant-seventh
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Invisible microbes have created some of the largest structures on the planet. Mycorrhizal fungi form extraordinary subterranean networks that associate symbiotically with plant roots. Most land plants, including many human crops, need mycorrhizae for optimal growth, but recent research has shown they also play important roles in forest-wide communication and may even turn some trees into carnivores. More dramatically, microbial communities have created global landmarks ranging from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Great Barrier reef.
A lecture by Robin May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/microbial-megastructures
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture
This lecture highlights the experiences of Jewish refugees fleeing from antisemitic persecution and from World War II to Portugal. It describes how they were treated, how they attempted to escape Europe, and how they struggled in a “no-man’s land” between a painful past and an unknown future. Listening to their voices may help us to understand Jewish heartbreak and perseverance in the 1940s and encourage us to listen compassionately to refugees’ stories today.
A lecture by Marion Kaplan
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/refugees-portugal
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Before net zero, climate policy was all about contraction and convergence of emissions between rich and poor to achieve, in the words of the Rio Convention, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” at a safe level. But scientists struggled to establish what that “safe” level was, making little progress in over a quarter of a century. And it was not because we were incompetent: for fundamental reasons in physics and probability theory, we were asking the wrong question.
A lecture by Myles Allen
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/atmospheric-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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When we buy, sell, bargain, barter, bid at auctions, and compete for resources, we want to be sure that we are using the best strategies. Game theory can help us understand precisely these kinds of situations. That’s why in 1994, the Nobel Prize for Economics was won by a mathematician – John Nash.
Using games like the Prisoner’s dilemma, this lecture explains the work of game theorists such as Nash, David Blackwell and John von Neumann.
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/game-theory
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Britain before 1914 was convulsed by the Irish Question. Since the Act of Union of 1800, Ireland had been governed without the consent of the vast majority of Irish Catholics, who comprised around 3/4 of the population. Home Rule was the suggested solution. But there was a second question, the Ulster Question arising from the presence of a large Protestant minority in the north east of Ireland, who rejected rule from Dublin.
This lecture asks whether better answers are available today.
A lecture by Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/irish-ulster
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The crypto movement began as a reaction to the concentration of economic power in the traditional financial system (and associated financial crises). It involved the creation of a new type of financial recording system, that did not depend on any one individual keeping records, did not allow falsification, and prevented fraud and double spending.
Crypto is underpinned by public-private key encryption, hashing and mining and allows a completely decentralised system to write enforceable contracts that cannot be altered once written. But how does the technology actually work? How would the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet have played out had crypto been around in the sixteenth century?
A lecture by Raghavendra Rau
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/trust-crypto
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The levels of income in parts of China and India were similar to those in Europe in the middle ages, until the Mediterranean pulled ahead – followed by northern Europe, initially Holland and then Britain. This ‘great divergence’ was one of the fundamental shifts in history – and is only now being reversed.
Did the divergence arise from imperialism and a 'drain' of wealth from Asia, or did it arise from internal features of Asian and European Society?
A lecture by Martin Daunton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/diverge-asia
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Alexei Navalny is the leading opposition leader in Russia. He is also currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in a Russian correctional colony.
This lecture will look at the use of the processes of the law by the Russian state to silence and isolate Navalny and to neutralise other forms of internal dissent. It will consider more widely the state of the rule of law in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
A lecture by Thomas Grant KC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/navalny-trials
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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AI technology is already changing the face of the world as we know it.
This lecture looks at the reasons why AI is hailed as an unprecedented revolution using practical examples from healthcare and business.
Humans and machines will coexist and make joint decisions, but what does this mean for humanity? Learn what this gigantic shift, a 4th industrial revolution, entails and how you can harness the benefits and avoid the traps.
A lecture by Dr Loubna Bouarfa
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/machine-learning
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our nearest star, that is the engine sustaining life on Earth, will one day run out of fuel. When this happens, the Sun will start expanding dramatically, forming a red giant and engulfing much of the solar system including the inner planets, vaporizing oceans; formerly icy planets will become habitable.
A lecture by Professor Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/end-sun
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Polio has a major role in the cultural history of the West. The early symptoms – which were often mild flu-like symptoms – would end in paralysis. Vaccinations against the disease proved controversial, given their trials on incarcerated prisoners and the use of “poster children”.
Epidemics of the disease illustrate the uneven transmission of ideas about health and sickness. They show how the period's germ theories resulted not only in mass deaths, but also in the demonisation of immigrants and poor households.
A lecture by Professor Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/polio-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Our health and susceptibility to disease are not wholly written in our genes. They are influenced throughout our lives by the environments in which we live, through our exposures to chemical agents, the infections we experience, to the psychosocial stresses of daily life. This appreciation of the role our environment plays in shaping our health and wellbeing is encompassed in the concept of the exposome, bringing together advanced statistical methods, exposure science and modern multi-omic techniques to better understand disease development and exacerbation.
A lecture by Ian Mudway
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/exposome
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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Adultery became the subject of some of the greatest European novels of the nineteenth century, including Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. English novels of the period needed adultery for their plots, yet flinched from treating the subject openly.
Through the twentieth century to the present – from Ulysses and A Handful of Dust to recent fiction by Zadie Smith, Tessa Hadley and Sally Rooney – adultery has fascinated novelists. Why is this? And do male and female authors treat adultery differently?
A lecture by John Mullan
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/adultery-novel
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The 2022 Royal Historical Society Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture
The partition of British India in 1947 was the world’s largest migration outside war and famine. It may feel like a distant historical event, but 75 years on its impact continues to resonate in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and in Britain. Many of those who lived through that tumultuous time migrated to Britain.
In this lecture, which considers the importance and power of oral history, we will hear first-hand testimonies; understand why many partition survivors chose silence and are speaking now, and how its legacy persists down the generations.
A lecture by Kavita Puri
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/india-partition
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What exactly is the Metaverse? And is it really that new?
This talk will explore our emotional connections to cyberspace, our feelings of presence and immediacy in online environments, and what this means for the intensity of our experiences, good and bad. As technology promises ever more immersive, embodied experiences involving 360 degree vision, touch, and even taste, how might this merging of cyber and physical affect our lives?
A lecture by Professor Victoria Baines
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/metaverse
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The English courts have wrestled with challenges to the restrictions on euthanasia and assisted suicide for years, while the government has resisted calls to liberalise the law. Meanwhile, terminally ill people continue to travel overseas to clinics such as Dignitas, to end their lives. Assisted dying raises fundamental questions about respect for individual autonomy, protection of the vulnerable and the role the State should play.
This lecture will explain the law and explore arguments for and against liberalisation.
A lecture by Professor Imogen Goold
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/voluntary-dying
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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1960 was the year of Africa. Over seventeen countries rid themselves of colonial rule and a new sense of pride in being Black and African was expressed through myriad artforms, notably via the fashioning of the body.
Using objects in the V&As ‘Africa Fashion’ exhibition this lecture explores how fibre and fabric carried meaning in the moment of independence and carries meaning now in the cutting-edge work of Africa’s contemporary fashion creatives, Aphia Sakyi, Thebe Magugu and Artsi Ifrach.
A lecture by Dr Christine Checinska
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/africa-fashion
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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What is a “valid mathematical proof”? To inquire into such a hotly debated question we might want to look at how past mathematicians tackled this question.
This lecture will provide examples outside of what has been called a “colonial library”, using in particular Sanskrit sources, to argue that mathematical texts from all over the world contained not only proofs but also many other types of mathematical reasoning whose stories still need to be documented.
A lecture by Professor Agathe Keller
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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This talk considers mathematical proofs through an analogy to cooking recipes: that proofs give recipes for mathematical actions to be carried out by the reader. We will see linguistic evidence that written proofs often include explicit instructions in the imperative mood, just like recipes. This will lead to philosophical insights about mathematical diagrams, reading and writing proofs, and why maths is like the Great British Bake Off.
A lecture by Dr Fenner Tanswell
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-proof
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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In practice, mathematicians have been 'proving' their results in many ways, in many places, for thousands of years. In principle, however, what is a proof? Usually, we look to geometry, specifically the geometry of Euclid. But what are the fundamental building blocks of a Euclidean proof?
Until quite recently, the Renaissance, this question remained open—due to uncertainties about who Euclid was, the structure of his arguments, and even the layout of his pages.
This lecture looks at how the language and practices that we now associate with Euclid hardened into our dominant idea of proof in the 1570s.
A lecture by Dr Richard Oosterhoff
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-proof
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
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The 2022 Peter Nailor Memorial Lecture
For 40 years Britain's national strategy rested on two main pillars: close partnership with the United States, and a leading role in Europe. Both remain important, but the dramatic shifts in global geopolitics of recent years must make us re-appraise Britain's diplomatic priorities. How has Russia's aggression in Ukraine changed the focus of our foreign policy? How can the UK- outside the EU- best exercise influence to protect its interests and promote its values in a fast-changing world?
A lecture by Lord Peter Ricketts
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/britains-fp
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Toussaint Louverture (the “Black Spartacus”), was one of the main leaders of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which overthrew slavery and led to the proclamation of the world’s first independent post-colonial state.
The lecture discusses his extraordinary life and legacy, as well as the international impacts of the Haitian Revolution across the 19th and 20th centuries, and how its ideals of equality, justice, and solidarity are still relevant to our times.
A lecture by Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh FBA
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/toussaint-louverture
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The major triad is considered the foundation of tonal music, its privileged position owed to its presence in the harmonic series of acoustics. The minor triad lacks this acoustic foundation, which led to it being treated as less stable, and even pieces in a minor key usually ended on the major form of the same triad.
From the late 18th century onwards, major was paired with joy and minor with sorrow, and composers could play with these associations.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/triads
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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What will it take to stop global warming and how long have we got?
These are huge questions for humanity, nature, society and geopolitics. Understanding our changing weather and its impacts is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time. But understanding how to stop changing it turns out to be surprisingly simple. You don’t need to be a scientist or policy wonk to appreciate what it will take to stop global warming. Focusing on fundamentals has surprising implications.
A lecture by Myles Allen
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-net-zero
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The coast of Kenya has a series of impressive medieval ruins. Amongst the monuments are tombs, grand houses, mosques, and palaces. East African archaeologists date the high point of this heritage to the 13th century. The Kenyan museums contain impressive, reconstructed artefacts that animated the urban life of these lost cities.
In this lecture, Robin Walker will present this heritage and put it in its proper place as a powerful chapter in Africa's history.
A lecture by Robin Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/kenya-cities
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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People have used money – and made counterfeits - for thousands of years. Archimedes came up with a clever way of finding out if you’ve been cheated by a goldsmith. Making coins with the right proportions of the right metals presented a huge mathematical challenge for Fibonacci and other mathematicians in the middle ages.
This lecture will discuss mathematical elements of coin design, denominations, and why former Gresham Professor of Astronomy Sir Christopher Wren favoured decimal coinage.
A lecture by Professor Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-coins
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Tuberculosis (and especially drug resistant strains) is a major global health problem, with over nine million people developing the disease annually and 1.5 million dying from it. The history of TB reveals the complex and often contradictory meanings assigned to this disease. The terms used to talk about TB – phthisis, consumption, the “white plague”, and the “wasting disease”, for example – reveal a great deal about popular perceptions relating to contagion and individual social responsibility.
A lecture by Professor Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/tb-history
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Single-celled microbes underpin all life on Earth, and even complex organisms like humans retain a surprising amount of their microbial heritage. Life began when free molecules became encapsulated in a lipid membrane and transformed into a self-replicating entity. Subsequently, multiple cells came together, forming a remarkable symbiosis that ultimately led to all complex, eukaryotic, cells and laid the foundations for multicellular life.
Understanding this microbial legacy has some surprising implications, such as explaining why some antibiotics have unwanted side effects.
A lecture by Professor Robin May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/microbial-life
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Imaging is used every day in medical healthcare, and the likelihood is that if you go to hospital that you will receive an X-ray, ultrasound or CT scan. With increasing reliance on complex imaging and the NHS now at breaking point, this lecture asks whether we have become too reliant on imaging and if so, how that manifests in today’s healthcare.
This lecture assesses the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a system and what the potential solutions might be.
A lecture by Professor Owen Arthurs
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/medical-imaging
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Financial intermediaries, like banks, mutual funds and brokers, who connect investors to firms (who need finance), have existed for thousands of years. Because they control a scarce resource, information, these intermediaries are expensive. Platforms, like crowdfunding platforms (organised meeting places for investors to meet firms) offer an alternative. Today's technological revolution is all about the competition between centralized intermediaries and decentralized platforms.
This lecture discusses the technological innovations that are responsible for this competition: crypto, big data, and AI.
A lecture by Professor Raghavendra Rau
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/bypass-banks
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
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This lecture looks at the development of juries in the common law world, addressing key questions about the role of juries in England and Wales today.
Juries in modern English law are mainly used in criminal trials, civil trials, and coroners’ inquests, and the English jury system differs from other common law jurisdictions, some of which use juries more, less, or not at all. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the jury system, and do jury trials or bench trials deliver fairer outcomes?
A lecture by Professor Leslie Thomas KC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/juries
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Planet Venus is a hellish place and seemingly hostile to life, although recent measurements claimed the detection of biogenic signatures. Less than a billion years ago, Venus’s atmosphere underwent a dramatic runaway greenhouse effect rendering it likely to be uninhabitable.
This lecture will consider what can be learned about the possibility of catastrophic climate change on Planet Earth, in the light of thermodynamics and of what has happened to Earth’s twin, Venus.
A lecture by Professor Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/end-atmospheres
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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How can we understand the war in Ukraine in the light of European history over the past century? Is Putin a '20th-century Hitler' as some have called him? What are his aims, and how do they compare with those of the Nazis during the Second World War? Why are the Ukrainians resisting the Russian invasion so fiercely?
This lecture attempts to explain the nature of the current conflict by setting it in its historical and geopolitical context.
A lecture by Professor Sir Richard Evans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hitler-putin
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Britain has one of the richest of all pagan heritages in Europe, defined as the textual and material evidence for its pre-Christian religions. The island is possessed of monuments, burial sites and a range of other remains not only from several distinct ages of prehistory, but also from three different major historic cultures.
This lecture will look at what we know of prehistoric worship, focusing on Stonehenge and the bog body known as Lindow Man, to examine the difficulties of interpreting evidence for ritual behaviour for which no textual testimony survives.
A lecture by Professor Ronald Hutton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/prehistoric-gods
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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The emergence of the global Internet challenged the notion that states have sovereignty over what their citizens see and hear, and what they can say. Governments around the world shut or slow down internet access for political and security reasons, and prohibit the online publication of undesirable content. How are they able to do this, when so much of the world’s internet infrastructure is outside their control? And what are the prospects for future regulation of our online interactions?
A lecture by Dr Victoria Baines
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/owns-internet
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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No one has been left untouched by COVID-19. Many individuals have been left with the physical and mental health consequences of the virus- now known as long Covid.
This lecture looks at the medical issues, and the new therapies and treatments that are emerging. Those not physically infected by the virus continue to experience the broader impact of the virus; the increasing social inequalities and loss of employment, education and loved ones.
A lecture by Professor Monica Lakhanpaul
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/long-covid
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Most summers Tudor and Stuart monarchs took their court on an extended progress round the home counties staying at their own palaces and the houses of their courtiers. The cost and impact of hundreds of people, their horses and servants, was considerable; for the aristocratic hosts a royal visit was a momentous event.
This lecture draws on new research to reveal who they benefited, their impact on the economy, the landscape and on architectural ambition.
A lecture by Professor Simon Thurley CBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/royal-progresses
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Everyone agrees that good judges are essential for the maintenance of the Rule of Law in a democratic society. But what makes a judge a good judge and how should we recruit them? The talk will consider how the role of the judiciary has been regarded over the years, how the skills and qualities needed have changed and how they have stayed the same as well as looking at different approaches to judicial appointment in different jurisdictions.
A lecture by The Rt. Hon Lady Rose of Colmworth
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/good-judge
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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Inigo Jones is the architect best-known for the Banqueting House on Whitehall, one of the icons of British state architecture. He is less well known for the domestic buildings, the ‘architecture of necessity’ commissioned by the early Stuart monarchs and their consorts, most of which have been demolished and forgotten. New research into Jones's work for the early Stuarts throws new light on architecture and court life especially in the 1630s in the lead up to Civil War.
A lecture by Professor Simon Thurley.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/inigo-jones
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: https://gresham.ac.uk
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https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/inigo-jones
The “singularity theorems” of the 1960s demonstrated that large enough celestial bodies, or collections of such bodies, would, collapse gravitationally, to “singularities”, where the equations and assumptions of Einstein’s general relativity cannot be mathematically continued. Such singularities are expected to lie deep within what we now call black holes. Similar arguments (largely by Stephen Hawking) apply also to the “Big-Bang” picture of the origin of the universe, but whose singularity has a profound structural difference, resulting in the 2nd law of thermodynamics, whereby “randomness” in the universe increases with time. It is hard to see how any ordinary procedures of “quantization” of Einstein’s theory can resolve this contrasting singularity conundrum,
Yet, a deeper understanding of the special nature of the Big Bang is obtained from the perspective of conformal geometry, removing the distinction between “big” and “small, and whereby the Big-Bang singularity, unlike those in black holes, becomes non-singular, and can be regarded as the conformal continuation of a previous “cosmic aeon”, leading to the picture of conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC) according to which the entire universe consists of a succession of such cosmic aeons, each of whose big bang is the conformal continuation of the remote future of a previous aeon. Some recently observed effects provide some remarkable support for this CCC picture.
A lecture by Sir Roger Penrose.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/thomas-gresham-22
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How should companies raise money?
This lecture will look at both debt (bank loans and bonds) and equity (shares given to other founders, or sold on the stock market). It will analyse how a company should choose between debt and equity and explain how many factors that companies – and even highly-paid investment banks – focus on are actually irrelevant. It will explain how financial decisions, stock valuations, and risk change in the presence of debt.
A lecture by Professor Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/finance-company
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How can life form in the Universe, and what are the necessary ingredients for habitability so that planets can sustain life? Can we expect life elsewhere in the solar system, or on exo-planets?
This lecture offers a broader perspective from astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astrophysics on the habitability or otherwise of other planets beyond Planet Earth.
A lecture by Professor Katherine Blundell
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/life-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The conflict in Ukraine – and earlier events like Brexit - led prominent asset managers such as BlackRock to declare the “end of globalisation.” Where is globalisation headed?
This talk will take a supply chain perspective on globalisation: why we buy from or sell to far off places and build global supply chains to get the goods from raw material suppliers to manufacturers, and eventually to consumers. And it will look at why globalisation is under threat – besides geopolitics, the supply chain is complicated by factors including its carbon footprint and modern slavery. While it is hard to imagine the end of globalisation, what does the future hold?
A lecture by Professor ManMohan S. Sodhi
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/where-globalisation-headed-supply-chain-view
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Spinning things are strange. Why does a spinning top stand up? Why doesn't a rolling wheel fall over? How does a falling cat always manage to land on its feet? How can the Hubble Space Telescope turn around in space? How do ice-skaters spin so fast?
Taking a look at gyroscopes, this lecture explores the common threads that link all spinning things. The law of Conservation of Angular Momentum is far more subtle than we may think and there are many counter-intuitive observations.
A lecture by Professor Hugh Hunt
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/gyroscopes-boomerangs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Internet and enhanced tools of digitalisation and communication have given opportunities to investigative journalists undreamed of even 10 years ago, and globalisation has connected the newshounds and whistleblowers of every continent.
From Latin-America to Nigeria, from India to Poland, courageous men and women are exposing problems and holding the powerful to account and in some cases, collaborating across continents. Governments, corporations and defence establishments need to take it into account. Should we recognise it as a new global power?
A lecture by Professor Hugo de Burgh
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/investigative-journalism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What does Natural Prosperity look like?
In this lecture we envision a new, more equitable future where wellbeing and nature-based solutions take the place of growth at any cost. Growth has almost vanished in industrialised countries since the global financial crisis of 2008.
By breaking free from growth, a new economy based on natural prosperity can contribute to our survival and success in future.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/natural-prosperity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Early computers were either designed to do one thing or, if they were programmable, they would be loaded-up with the program, it would run, and then a new program would be run. But a modern computer gives the appearance of doing multiple things at once.
This lecture shows that in reality it is a supreme juggling act and, like a plate-spinning act, should be accompanied by The Sabre Dance amazement and applause.
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/operating-systems
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The beautiful sine wave turns out to have a huge number of practical applications, from the motion of springs, to waves in the sea, to sound waves, light waves and more. It is curious that the function which defines the sine wave, sin(x), comes from comparing the lengths of sides in right-angled triangles – just about the least curvy things you could imagine.
How does that concept result in the lovely curve of the sine wave?
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sine-wave
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the aftermath of the Soviet war victory, ideological control was tightened again, contrary to expectations. The six leading Soviet composers (including Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Myaskovsky and Khachaturian) were censured and humiliated by a Party Resolution against 'formalism'.
This is a story of necessary retreat and compromise, but also of resilience and survival, when even under great pressure, composers produced works of deep lyricism and humanity.
It will feature performances from: Laura van der Heijden (cellist) and Petr Limonov (pianist).
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/1948-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How do you value stocks? Finance textbooks argue that you should look at their dividends. But many stocks don’t pay dividends, and even if they do, it’s hard to forecast what they’ll be in the future. And newspapers talk about a stock’s 'price-to-earnings' ratio which seems nothing to do with dividends.
This lecture will explore the essentials of stock valuation, explain what causes stocks to rise and fall so wildly, and demystify the jargon used by finance practitioners.
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/value-stock
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture looks at the very optimistic picture of trends in health around the world. Childhood deaths and the diseases of young adults are falling rapidly. Scientific advances are transforming the major chronic diseases and cancer. In low, middle and high income countries, health is improving through to old age. There are some major exceptions, such as dementia, but the extraordinary advances in health over the last decades is set to continue.
A lecture by Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-health
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Abstinence from sex is a requirement for many people seeking a spiritual life. In the U.S., abstinence-only education has been officially endorsed since 1981, despite the fact that America has the highest level of teen-pregnancies in the industrialized world. In more recent years, self-proclaimed 'Asexuals' have insisted that they have a distinct sexual identity. They have become targets of hate speech.
What do these contrasting ways of thinking about abstinence tell us about modern sexual anxieties?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/abstinence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Pope Alexander VII did more for Rome than any other Pope when in 1655 he employed the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini to reshape the city. Already celebrated as the greatest artist of his age, with Alexander, Bernini became part of one of the greatest artistic double acts in history, festooning Rome's historic centre with the sculptures, fountains and buildings that make it one of the world's wonders to this day. At a time when the papacy's political power and influence was in decline, it helped make Rome the must-visit destination for Europe's elite.
A lecture by Loyd Grossman
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/bernini-rome
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Although life is probably widespread in the universe, our pale blue dot, Earth, is the only known place harbouring intelligent life. Even if we manage to stave off extinction by climate change, avoid a nuclear apocalypse and the dangers of runaway AI, biological life on our planet will eventually come to an end in about 5 billion years’ time. What are the astrophysical dangers to life on Earth, and the prospects for life’s survival into the distant future?
A lecture by Roberto Trotta
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With conspiracy theories and disinformation on the rise in both media and politics, is our democracy at risk? We may lose trust in society, in the institutions that inform us, and, ultimately, in the democratic process. Our sense of responsibility for the everyday information we share may diminish. Deceitful politicians may escape scrutiny by claiming that truths are false, falsehoods are true, and in any case nothing can be proved. How should we respond to these challenges?
A lecture by Andrew Chadwick
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/breaking-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Early Protestant empires in Asia – in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan and elsewhere – brought missionaries with them. Like their Catholic predecessors, they learned that winning converts was formidably difficult, especially in empires that were principally commercial.
As this lecture will show, some concluded that the effort was futile; others grew increasingly coercive; but others still began to explore ways of learning from and with indigenous peoples. The results, for good or ill, set patterns that still affect the region today.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/protestant-asia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
England’s earliest chair of mathematics was that of Gresham College, founded in 1597, but who came next?
The earliest University-based mathematics professorship was Oxford’s Savilian Chair of Geometry, founded in 1619.
This illustrated lecture outlines the 400-year history of this Chair, from its beginnings to the present day, and features such figures as Henry Briggs, John Wallis, Edmond Halley, James Joseph Sylvester and G. H. Hardy.
A lecture by Robin Wilson
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/savilian-professors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
It seems that fakes are everywhere – very few domains of social life are exempt from concerns about fakes and a general ‘crisis of authenticity’. While fakes are often considered worthless, this talk argues that fakes can signal blind spots in our understanding of health-related matters.
This lecture draws on examples from the art world and discussion of fakes in films and what these can tell us about fakes in domains of health and medicine.
A lecture by Dr Patricia Kingori
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/fakes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In this lecture we are going to look at how the supply chains in a wellbeing economy bring together local production of food and stewardship of nature. This approach, already followed by many indigenous peoples, has the potential to radically reshape supply chains across the world.
Using examples from all around the world, the lecture will explore how placing nature’s value at the centre of production creates greater equality as well as resilience in the global food system.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/supply-wellbeing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
As we build on the economic recovery from COVID-19, we need to put our people and our purpose at the heart of financial and professional services to rebuild a more sustainable and inclusive economy - investing in better.
Capitalising on client, customer and consumer demand for purpose driven businesses, the Lord Mayor’s Gresham Lecture 2022 will look at how we drive positive impact across the economy, driving sustainable finance and encourage more capital to contribute towards the UN’s SDGs through a vibrant impact investing market.
A lecture by The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Tony Burdon, Sir Ronald Cohen and Dame Elizabeth Corley
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/lord-mayor-22
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The tribulations of WWII (the “Great Patriotic War”) prompted a temporary liberalisation within Soviet culture. Images of horror and grief, formerly unacceptable, found their way into the wartime music of Soviet composers. The debate over Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony showed how the boundaries of Socialist Realism could be stretched, but also where the limits lay.
The lecture will also discuss some works on Jewish themes (by Shostakovich, Weinberg and Gnessin) and their complex connection to the War and to the Holocaust.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/soviet-war-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Conic sections – the curves made by slicing through cones at various angles – were studied by the ancient Greeks, but because of their useful properties, have many real-world uses. Planets have elliptical orbits, projectiles move in parabolas, and cooling towers have hyperbolic cross-sections. But did you know that one of the most important curves in economics is a hyperbola? Or that ellipses are used to cure kidney stones?
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/conic-sections
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
‘Hyper-globalisation’ and the power of finance culminated in the global financial crisis of 2008 that was potentially as severe as the Great Depression. The outcome was not public spending but austerity that hit the poor and Quantitative Easing that benefited the assets of the rich. The result was inequality and precarity, with barely any improvement in the standard of living for most by the time Covid hit. What signs are there of a much-needed transformation in attitudes to the economy?
A lecture by Martin Daunton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/financial-crisis
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Integral transforms are the most rarefied of analyses – only used by a subset of engineers and computer scientists; laboured over by many an undergraduate, usually with the accompanying moans; yet every computer, every electronic circuit is an incomprehensible jumble of wires without knowledge of integral transforms.
The most common, the Fourier transform, is estimated to be the algorithm that is most computed in the world but what of Laplace and z-transforms?
This lecture will explain without using daunting mathematics.
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/integral-transforms
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Organised disinformation about the Covid-19 crisis has degraded public understanding of the crisis and threatened the reputation of credible vaccines and health policy.
This talk looks at the broad structures and recent history of computational propaganda - the use of algorithms, automation and human curation to distribute misleading information over social media.
Dr Howard reviews the latest evidence about social media use during our current health crisis, and reports on the very latest themes in Russian information operations about its invasion of Ukraine. He discusses the opportunities for using social media to deepen democracy and 'build back better'.
A lecture by Philip Howard
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/covid-disinformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The scherzo (‘joke’) emerged in the vocal music of Monteverdi and became integrated into the string quartets and symphonies of Beethoven. Haydn and Mozart loved to fool around with their audiences and Scott Bradley’s scores for Tom & Jerry are integral parts of the comedic presentation. Clever composers have pranked our emotions for hundreds of years, from slapstick and belly laughs to gallows humour and cruel jibes.
This lecture deconstructs musical laughter of superiority, of recognition, and of the absurd.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-humour
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With the development of new vitrification techniques, egg freezing has become a viable option for women to protect and extend their fertility. Being able to control when to have children can help achieve life-goals. But there are downsides.
This lecture explains the science of fertility and egg freezing, the impact of child-bearing and rearing on women’s educational and employment prospects, and outlines the law on freezing eggs. It will cover the complex issues around the law's regulation of this practice.
A lecture by Imogen Goold
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fertility-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Many people are inspired by stories of individual litigants, often with few financial resources and little assistance, taking on large corporations in court and fighting for their rights.
This lecture will explore some of those stories, from Thomas Cook to the islanders in Barbuda, and from the perspective of a lawyer who has represented many Davids against many Goliaths.
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/david-goliath
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Are villains cardboard characters? If so, why do we enjoy them so much?
Drawing examples from film and TV drama, as well as from popular fiction, this lecture will try to explain the satisfaction of villainy for the audience. Using the novels of Wilkie Collins and Thomas Hardy, it will look at the development of the villain in nineteenth-century fiction; and at examples of contemporary literary novelists, like Hilary Mantel, who are willing to unleash the energies of villainy.
A lecture by John Mullan
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/novel-villains
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What is dementia? Is it inevitable as we live longer that more of us will suffer dementia, or could we live longer lives without getting it?
There are hundreds of different causes of dementia, and this lecture will look at how they are diagnosed and where we are with treatment and prevention. What can you do to reduce your risks of getting dementia, and – if you do get it- what’s the best treatment?
A lecture by Martin Rossor
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dementia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How can new worlds be discovered, and how many exo-planets might be out there? What does today’s technology in astronomical observatories now enable, and what is it that holds us back from finding what is actually out there? What hinders us from pushing forwards the frontiers of space science?
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/planetary-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Dr Nathan Robinson’s video of him removing a plastic drinking straw from a sea turtle’s nose went viral in 2015. He has since been developing new ways of using technology to gain insights into the secret lives of marine creatures, including capturing the first footage of a live giant squid in US waters and mounting cameras on shells of sea turtles.
This lecture will give a practical guide to building viral science stories to bring about environmental change.
A lecture by Dr Nathan Robinson
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/going-viral
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Science fiction’s most frequent alternative to human is 'alien', another rich imaginative resource with which to think about what makes us human.
This lecture will include reflections on various aliens, from H.G. Wells Selenites, to Octavia Butler’s Oankali, the genetic traders who link the novels of her Xenogenesis trilogy who are imagined as both saving and enslaving humanity. Whether aliens are imagined as conquerors or saviours, their superiority has often been used to explore human limitations.
A lecture by Jim Endersby
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scifi-aliens
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The law has been used to entrench and uphold racial prejudice, most infamously in South Africa during the apartheid years, but also in the United States in the period up to the mid-twentieth century. In South Africa and the southern states of America, judges showed themselves willing to use the law to uphold and promote white supremacy.
This lecture will discuss the uneasy interplay between the concept of the rule of law and the enforcement of segregation legislation.
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/segregation-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Monogamy is a hotly contested practice. In many cis-gender marriages, engaging in sexual intercourse with a non-spouse is regarded as a serious betrayal. But during some periods in history, it was not only accepted but expected. 'Philanderers' are now portrayed as suffering from 'sex addiction'. What do these shifts reveal about gender and sexual relations? Has the proliferation of sexualities and genders, together with rapidly changing sexual mores, dealt a death blow to monogamy? Or is it stronger than ever?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/monogamy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Some diseases are spread almost exclusively by touch or through the skin or mucus membranes. These include Ebola, several parasitic diseases such as hookworm, strongyloides and scabies and some bacterial and fungal infections. Other diseases like COVID-19 and influenza are mainly transmitted via other routes but use touch as a secondary method of spread. This has implications for controlling these diseases, including the role of isolation and sanitation.
A lecture by Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/touch-infections
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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A good night's sleep is anything but quiet: a myriad of processes occupy our brains, crucial for every aspect of our waking lives. Our increased understanding of the neuroscience of sleep – that sleep may not affect the brain in its entirety – provides a window into the human experiences of sleep deprivation, lucid dreaming, spiritual visitations and a range of clinical sleep disorders, such as insomnia, dream enactment and sleep paralysis.
A lecture by Guy Leschziner
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/neuroscience-sleep
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Philanthropy has long played a key role in our communities on local, national, and global scales. Yet if we have often assumed that giving is good, we must also step back and ask, “good for whom?” In recent years, more voices are raising questions and critically engaging philanthropy and the notions of the public good.
In short, how do we know when philanthropy does the public good?
In partnership with the Fulbright Commission
A lecture by David King
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/good-philanthropy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Psychosis is a mental state where people experience a 'different' world. If, as clinical psychiatry and neuroscience suggests, it is our 'default mental state' why isn't everyone psychotic? Psychosis does not arise de novo; external sensory input and cognition actively inhibit its expression. It is important to understand: how thin the boundary is between sanity and madness and what leads from one to the other; and to appreciate the frailty of rational thought.
A lecture by Peter Woodruff
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/psychosis-default
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The path traced out by a given point on the rim of a circle as you roll it along a straight line is a beautiful curve called a cycloid, whose appeal to mathematicians has had it dubbed “the Helen of Geometry”. This curve is known in geometry as a roulette, which is a curve you get by rolling one curve along another, and there are many more with an amazing range of applications, from clockwork toys to nuclear reactors.
This lecture will provide a guided tour of the beauty of geometrical curves.
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/geometrical-curves
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, was a landmark moment in British legal history, with quasi-constitutional protection for fundamental rights. Meanwhile, the national constitutions of the Commonwealth Caribbean contain fundamental rights provisions which are often inspired by, but diverge significantly from, the European Convention.
This lecture will examine the judicial protection of human rights in the UK and the Commonwealth Caribbean, and will confront its shortcomings and vulnerabilities.
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The entire Atlantic economy in the 17th and 18th centuries was based on the enslavement of (mostly) non-Christian Africans. As this lecture will show, slavery was at first a practice which many missionaries hoped to mitigate; then a vast reality with which they felt they had to work, and in which they were deeply implicated; until, finally, it became an intolerable obstacle. Spiritual and worldly matters could not, despite the missionaries’ best efforts, be kept apart: a lesson with enduring consequences.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-slavery
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The most commonly used computer in the world is surely the one in your hand. Mobile or cellular telephony is nowadays hardly about telephony at all, but about communication in its broadest sense. Companies and governments have fallen and risen due to the use of mobile phones and in many countries without a phone you cannot transact with society. The smartphone is therefore a, if not the, pivotal innovation of this century.
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cell-phones
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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If, as displeased reviewers and readers sometimes complain, coincidences mar good plots, why do so many novels turn on them? From Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot, to Sebastian Barry and David Nicholls, novelists have relied on coincidences.
While these can reveal the weaknesses of a novel’s design, they can also be put to creative use: as we will see, novelists, like Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark, choose to emphasise coincidences, making them entertaining and revealing.
A lecture by John Mullan
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/coincidences
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What will the characteristics of successful innovators and entrepreneurs be in a wellbeing economy?
In this lecture, we look at how the Wellbeing Economy is shaped by the co-creation of value through co-design and co-production processes, and how this promises to make success look very different from what we’ve been used to.
This lecture will challenge what success looks like and give examples from Kenya, Grenada, London and Lebanon.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/innovators-wellbeing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What was life like in 1649-1660, Britain's only decade as a republic?
This lecture explores the immense changes of the period through the personal experiences of prominent figures. It argues that, despite the failure of the republican project and the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the decade forged the British Isles and created the conditions for the commercial and colonial prosperity of the centuries that followed.
A lecture by Dr Anna Keay
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/revolutionary-decade
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Coral reefs are transforming under climate change. What is the nature of this change and the major influences upon it? The role of common management approaches is also changing. Seabird nutrient inputs through guano can benefit coral and fish growth, and have potential to help coral reefs recover from disturbances. Finally, fisheries are responding to coral reef degradation in unpredictable ways, with some finding that fish stocks are holding up well.
A lecture by Nick Graham
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/coral-reefs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Risk is one of the most powerful and dangerous concepts in finance – powerful because it allows individuals and companies to earn huge returns, but dangerous because it can cause their bankruptcy. How do you measure financial risk, what is the relationship between risk and return, and how can you – surprisingly – reduce your investment risk without sacrificing any returns?
This lecture will explain why even the simple idea of 'higher risk means higher return' is actually incorrect.
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/manage-risk
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Magnetic fields have mysterious effects that can be dramatically counterintuitive, and they are ubiquitous throughout the Universe and can have influence on large scales.
This lecture will explore how some of the exotic and energetic phenomena in the Universe can only be explained in terms of these magnetic fields that pervade space.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magnetic-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the late nineteenth century, highly contentious debates about prostitution were central to broader questions about women’s status within society, including their rights to property, entitlement to suffrage, and claims over their own bodies. Political scandals such as those over the 1860s Contagious Diseases Acts (which criminalized sex workers, not their customers) and the 1885 Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (which was the first exposé of child prostitution in the UK) not only reveal attitudes towards the commercialization of the body but have left a legacy that we live with today.
A lecture by Jim Endersby
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scifi-robots
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the late nineteenth century, highly contentious debates about prostitution were central to broader questions about women’s status within society, including their rights to property, entitlement to suffrage, and claims over their own bodies. Political scandals such as those over the 1860s Contagious Diseases Acts (which criminalized sex workers, not their customers) and the 1885 Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (which was the first exposé of child prostitution in the UK) not only reveal attitudes towards the commercialization of the body but have left a legacy that we live with today.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sex-work
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Eleanor Stride will discuss the history and development of cancer therapy from its origins in Ancient Egypt - when surgery was the only option to remove a tumour, to the more recent developments of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She will end by looking at present-day clinical trials that aim to harness the body’s own immune system to eliminate disease (immunotherapy).
A lecture by Eleanor Stride
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cancer-therapy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Deep Sea is Earth’s last great frontier. After almost 150 years of exploration and research we understand it is deep, dark and definitely different; but there remain large gaps in our knowledge that hinder progress in sustainable management of this vast system. New technology – from manned submersibles, to satellite measurements, acoustic systems, and artificial intelligence – is key to future research, and the next ten years promises to deliver a new age of deep-sea science.
A lecture by Kerry Howell
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/deep-sea
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will follow the tortuous path of Prokofiev’s transformation into a Soviet artist. Prokofiev had pursued his career abroad and returned to (Soviet) Russia as a major international celebrity. Even though he was willing, in principle, to write “music for the people”, he found it very difficult to meet the precise demands of the state. Prokofiev was one of the most highly honoured Soviet artists, but he was still hounded into near silence towards the end of his life.
During the lecture, the Bodman String Quartet performs Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2:
Polina Makhina (violin)
Mila Ferramosca (violin)
Charles Whittaker (viola)
Laura Armstrong (cello)
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/soviet-prokofiev
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 led to international disruption and a crisis in the post-war order. Domestically, weaker productivity growth, the squeeze on profits, and de-industrialisation led to conflict between capital and labour. Public finances came under strain and led to major changes associated with Thatcher and Reagan.
The result was an intellectual revolution: a shift to neo-liberalism with a stress on individualism and incentives rather than collectivism and equality, and greater power for finance. ‘Hyper-globalisation’ now prioritised international over domestic concerns.
A lecture by Martin Daunton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/oil-shock
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Tristan & Isolde, Romeo & Juliet, Pelléas & Mélisande are three pairs of lovers who have fired composers’ imaginations. Films like Love Story, Love Actually, and Shakespeare in Love are made all the more poignant by their musical scores. And where would The Beatles, 10cc, or Queen have been without All you need is love, I’m not in love, and Love of my life?
This lecture shows how there is no emotion more likely to inspire musical creativity than love.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-love
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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From the Ancient Greeks onwards, proportion and mathematics has been central to our ideas of form and beauty.
This lecture looks at the famous golden ratio, from Greek temples to spiral seashells, discussing where it appears in nature (and why), and how people have tried to pinpoint the 'perfect' proportions of the human body and face. It will also look at why A4 paper is the shape it is and what cookbooks have to do with the Rhind Papyrus.
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-proportion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Since the 1981 Brixton riots, many things have changed in British policing. However, Black people are still nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, and three times more likely to be arrested; Black people are far more likely to be searched, arrested and prosecuted for using drugs, and yet are no more likely to use drugs than white people.
This lecture explores the persistence of police racism and what we can do about it.
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brixton-riots
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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COVID-19, pandemic influenza and tuberculosis are examples of the remarkable ability of infections to use the respiratory route of transmission. Infections which use this route can often spread very quickly, especially in crowded indoor environments. Human behaviours and engineering should be seen as much a part of our defences against respiratory infections as drugs and vaccines.
A lecture by Professor Sir Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/respiratory-infections
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Protestant settlers in the Americas believed it was their duty to convert indigenous peoples to the true Gospel. Yet the task proved unexpectedly difficult. The effort revealed and challenged deep European assumptions about culture and the nature of Christianity itself. From Massachusetts to Chile, Protestant would-be missionaries took roads that were paved mostly, but not entirely, with good intentions. This lecture will show where they led.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-americas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When was the last time you opened a file and noticed a computer glitch? “Never” is the usual answer. Yet the underlying hardware makes continual errors: disks make errors, the internet loses packets of data, wifi signals get corrupted and so on.
This lecture is about the secrets of the mysterious invulnerability that is Error Control Coding: a way of storing or transmitting information such that it knows it has been corrupted and can correct itself.
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/error-control
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Measuring distances to astronomical objects outside our Galaxy is a surprisingly hard challenge: it wasn't until 1923 that Edwin Hubble obtained proof that Andromeda is indeed a galaxy in its own right. Today, astronomers extend distance measurements in the cosmos to the edge of the visible Universe, building up a 'cosmic distance ladder' made of several rungs.
This talk will explore a major conundrum of contemporary astronomy: as observations have become more precise, the distance ladder appears today to be broken.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cosmic-distance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What has Brexit come to mean?
This lecture will explain how the Brexit deal the UK and the EU ended up with came to be. It will then investigate the new relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, put in place by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement of December 2020.
Finally, the lecture will look to the future, to elucidate what Brexit will go on to mean for politics and public policy within the United Kingdom.
A lecture by Anand Menon
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brexit-learned
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Revolutionary tribunals in 1790s Paris; the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s; and the prosecution of conspirators in the assassination attempt on Hitler by the so-called “People’s Court”, are well-known examples of the way the law and its processes can be misused in totalitarian societies. These were trials designed to terrorize the population and solidify the power of the state.
This lecture will explore how the courts can be the vehicles of despotic power.
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/terror-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Christianity’s centre of gravity has shifted to the Global South. Prosperity churches, 'born again' politicians, prophets, healers and exorcists are now typical expressions of Christianity worldwide. What do these changes mean for our understanding of the world’s largest religion, in particular with regard to secularism, politics, and international development?
Drawing on examples from Africa, the lecture shows how these movements challenge established notions of Christian doctrine and institutional order, and how contemporary Christianity reflects the wider fragmentations and imbalances of the modern world.
A lecture by Dr Jörg Haustein
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/africa-christianity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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How did the cosmos transition into space characterised by galaxies in a plethora of different shapes of great beauty?
This lecture will consider what happens when groups of galaxies interact with one another and what happens when these galaxies collide and merge.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/structures-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Individuals and businesses make financial decisions all the time – whether to go to university, buy a house, build a factory, or train one’s workforce. All these decisions involve spending certain money now for uncertain benefits in the future.
This lecture will provide a simple framework for deciding whether or not to take an investment. It will also highlight the mistakes that people frequently make when taking financial decisions, and simple ways to avoid them.
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/financial-decisions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture focuses on one of the watershed moments of Soviet music history: the censure of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and the composer’s path through reform to rehabilitation.
The Shostakovich story was only the tip of the iceberg, and almost all Soviet composers had to adjust their aesthetic and style at this point, unless they were prepared to languish in obscurity and poverty.
Shostakovich's Songs on the Texts of English Poets is performed by Bass Ed Hawkins and the pianist Ceri Owen.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker with performances from Ed Hawkins (Bass) and Ceri Owen (Piano)
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-trial
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Do we own our own body parts? What can we do with them? Can we sell them and control what others do with them? People often say, "it’s my body", but the law is much more complex.
This lecture explains the law on body part ownership, tracing it from the early legal cases through the body-snatching years of the Victorian period, to the present day. Should we use the law of property to regulate human tissue?
A lecture by Imogen Goold
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/body-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Does nature have a universal value? Can we consider natural capital as equivalent to financial capital?
This lecture gives a brief history of value, exploring the similarities between historical arguments as to why the value of housework and nature are not reflected either in theory or in the system of national accounts and GDP. It will explore the difficulties with putting a value on nature, for example trying to make meaningful estimates of what contribution water makes to our lives.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nature-value
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Some diseases are specialised in using sexual behaviour for transmission. Major pandemics including HIV and syphilis have been transmitted via this route, along with the cancer-causing infections Hepatitis B and HPV. Along with these are highly transmissible diseases such as gonorrhoea and herpes. Another way people share bodily fluids is via needles, and several diseases can be transmitted this way, including HIV and Hepatitis. Changing sexual behaviour is hard, so other methods have to be found to control these diseases.
A lecture by Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sex-infections
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Pornography reflects as well as creates sexual norms and practices. The period from the 1960s to the mid-1980s has been called the 'Golden Age of Porn'. An unexpurgated Lady Chatterley’s Lover was openly published in the UK and Linda Lovelace’s pornographic film Deep Throat (1972) went mainstream. Vigorous debates about morality, consent, and feminism erupted.
The “porn wars” continue in popular culture and academic debates today. How has mainstream pornography changed? What is the role of technology and social media?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pornography
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture takes a trip down Christmas's unique and emotionally complex memory lane via the Christmas Carol.
Carols paint a colourful picture of the Christmas story itself, frequently by adapting pre-existing material. The crowded stable at Bethlehem appears simultaneously ancient and modern, as do the carols that commemorate the Nativity. Christmas is indelibly associated with our own childhood experiences at home, in church, or out in the cold.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/carols-nostalgia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Judges, who are typically drawn from privileged backgrounds, wield vast power over the lives of the most marginalised people in society. This lecture will explore the role of judicial racism in perpetuating injustice and inequality in the legal system. The Lammy Review found gross disparities sentencing for Black and white defendants - while also finding no systematic racial bias in juries' decisions to convict or acquit. What should we do about racism in the judiciary and the legal profession?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/judicial-racism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture explores the destruction of libraries, archives and other knowledge, from Babylonian times until now, and its implications for society today. What are the motivations for destroying knowledge, and how have libraries and archives responded to these threats? What must we do now that knowledge is digital, and controlled by a small number of very powerful companies?
A lecture by Richard Ovenden
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ashurbanipal-trump
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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European Protestant and evangelical Christians did not have to look far to find 'infidels' in the 16th and 17th centuries: as well as the 'pagans' of northern Scandinavia, Jews were scattered across the continent and Muslim powers were all too close.
This lecture will consider the repeated, and repeatedly failed, attempts to convert these peoples: some naively well-intentioned, some openly violent. Those bitter experiences would become a crucial lens through which Christians viewed global missionary projects, sometimes with unexpected consequences.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-missions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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For thousands of years, some men assumed that the original or ideal human type was male, with women being pictured as weaker or imperfect men. This ancient prejudice inspired fictions from E.T.A. Hoffman's The Sandman (1816) to Ira Levin's novel The Stepford Wives (1972).
This lecture looks at fantasies of artificial women (usually seen by their male creators as superior to biological women) to examine the complex connections between science and assumptions about the supposed naturalness of gender roles.
A lecture by Jim Endersby
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scifi-women
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Many major diseases are transmitted by food or drink. Cholera (water), brucellosis (milk), BSE/nvCJD, typhoid and many parasites are ingested as part of a normal diet. The more exotic the diet, the greater the range of possible infections. Water technology, sanitation, pasteurisation and animal husbandry can substantially reduce but not eliminate these diseases.
A lecture by Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/food-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When you tune into Netflix you might not be aware that the box in your living room starts a complex set of negotiations with servers on moving 563 Gbytes of information into your residence. That is equivalent to having 15,000 copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica dumped into your home! So, why is watching a Netflix film not the equivalent of the Amazon-delivery from hell? Compression, which this lecture will show is economically and entropically a hot topic.
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/compression
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The law has been used to impose religious and moral conformity and uniformity of thought at many times in history, perhaps most (in)famously in the trial of Socrates and the heresy trials of Giordano Bruno and Galileo. More recently the obscenity laws and equality legislation have challenged the limits of free speech.
This lecture will explore how law has been used to respond to and try to delimit the expression of unpopular or challenging ideas.
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/free-thinking-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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People have always found symmetry aesthetically pleasing and examples of it are seen in the earliest art. The Platonic solids have been known to humanity for millennia, some possibly even to Neolithic man, as can be seen in the carved stone balls found by archaeologists.
This lecture will look at how we can understand symmetry using mathematics, and explore how the rules of symmetry can deepen our appreciation of beautiful works of art and design.
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-beauty
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will investigate the genesis of the Socialist Realism doctrine, which was imposed in 1934.
The 'proletarian music' trend of the 1920s had offered some solutions to the task of creating 'music for the people', but because it had alienated the most accomplished professional musicians it was now abandoned. A new art music was called for, with potential mass appeal through the use of folk materials and the rejection of modernism.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/socialist-realist
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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For the second Annual Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture, Professor Jan Grabowski will discuss how scholars of the Holocaust find themselves confronted with the hostile reactions of various states pursuing the policies of Holocaust distortion.
This situation has acquired particular importance and urgency in Poland, where the authorities have introduced a series of measures intended to freeze academic debate, hinder independent research and intimidate scholars whose writings are perceived as opposed to the official, state-approved historical narrative.
A lecture by Jan Grabowski
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/holocaust-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How can nature be accounted for? How can we track how we are using nature and ensure we are not destroying the environment? Natural Capital is becoming a central theme in national accounting systems.
This lecture follows a series of entertaining exercises on how to assemble the evidence and undertake the accounting lying behind natural capital.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/natures-numbers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When Albert Einstein tweaked his newly invented equations of General Relativity in 1917, he had one goal in mind: to find a solution that described a closed, static, eternal universe. He therefore minted a new universal constant to make it work. After Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the universe in 1929, Einstein reportedly declared it his "greatest blunder". In 1998 observations of distant exploding stars brought Einstein's "blunder" back into consideration: Einstein might have been right the first time around.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/einsteins-blunder
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What is a perversion? This talk starts by exploring psychiatric and sexological debates about perverted sexual desires from the late nineteenth century textbooks to diagnostic manuals in the twenty-first century. It looks at the role of law, morality, and medicine. Who has the power to decide what sexual acts are 'normal' or 'abnormal'? By what mechanisms do sexual practices move from one category to the other? How have people labelled 'perverse' effectively challenged their status in society?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perversion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Although Mesopotamian civilisations had assembled texts, the ancient Greeks brought the idea of the universal book collection to its near-legendary consummation in the Library of Alexandria, which edited and housed thousands of papyrus rolls on every subject and attracted brilliant scholars from all over the ancient world. But there were many other libraries, serving also as scientific laboratories, public record offices, restaurants, mausoleums and even baths.
This illustrated lecture investigates their history and the continuing influence on our modern world.
A lecture by Edith Hall
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ancient-libraries
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Most of us would consider Islam to be a religion, while we would generally view secularism as requiring the limiting of religion to the private sphere. But many scholars (and ideologues) beg to differ. Social scientists are divided over the definitions of religion and secularism, while Islam's indigenous portrayal of itself as a 'dīn' is not easily translatable into English.
This lecture asks both whether Islam might be viewed as an ideology, and whether secularism could be considered a religion.
A lecture by Dr Usaama al-Azami
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/islam-secularism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Great Depression posed a serious threat to democratic capitalism as economic nationalism flourished and Communism and Fascism offered alternative models. In response, democratic capitalism was remade. Domestically, inequalities of wealth were reduced and social welfare extended to create a social contract between capital and labour. Internationally, new organisations created a rules-based international regime. Together, the result was 'embedded liberalism' that contained economic nationalism and allowed recovery of the international economy and rapid post-war growth alongside improvements in domestic welfare.
A lecture by Martin Daunton
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/great-depression
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Subsequent to the Hot Big Bang, as the Universe expanded and cooled, atoms formed and, later still, decoupled from radiation.
This lecture will cover the intellectual revolutions in relatively recent history that paved the way to our modern understanding of the formation, existence and interactions of atoms.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/atomic-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Immense curiosity exists about the lives of people who lived in the past. Portraits and biographies play a major role in bringing the dead to life, but they may mislead and distort as much as they illuminate. Using writings about nineteenth-century British figures alongside images of them, Professor Ludmilla Jordanova will explore the intertwined roles of biography and portraiture in public history, suggesting ways in which it is possible to be constructively critical of current practices.
A lecture by Ludmilla Jordanova
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/portraits-biographies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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After the ravages of the First World War there was a widespread desire for 'sustainable security'. Contemporaries were preoccupied with hungry children and their impoverished environment, and worked on a wave of institution building intended to promote 'positive security'. The 1920s search for human security and the 1930s road to war pointed to Europe's common challenges, and global problems. This history was transformed after 1945 when European ideas and practices were globalized, and implanted in new regional institutions.
A lecture by Patricia Clavin
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/europes-security
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Malian city of Timbuktu is one of the world's oldest seats of learning and has an intellectual legacy of hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, coming from three great West African desert empires: Ancient Ghana, medieval Mali, and the Songhai Empire. These manuscripts offer a unique window into their history. Many remain unread.
This lecture will look at how their study can be used to advance our knowledge of the intellectual history of the premodern world.
A lecture by Robin Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/timbuktu-manuscripts
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Elaborate plotting is the novelistic skill least often valued by critics, even if relished by readers.
This lecture will look at novelists who raise plot to a literary art. We begin with Henry Fielding, the first great novelist to delight in cunning narrative design. Then Dickens's complex plot making, including the half-finished and tantalizing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Finally, the lecture will celebrate the plotting artistry of modern writers like Ian McEwan and John le Carré.
A lecture by John Mullan
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/novel-plot
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will explore our financial system. Why do banks exist, and what do they do with the money that savers lend to them?
We'll explore what risks they face and how they can go bust - even if they make completely safe investments. How does the stock market work - what happens when you trade shares, and why do some companies raise money on the stock market and others don't? Can ordinary citizens influence how the money they save is used?
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/financial-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How does the law consider children in cases involving medical consent?
This lecture will look at how doctors (and parents) should talk their children about illness. It will also consider what should happen when parents and doctors disagree about what a child should be told. The overall law on consent has changed markedly in England and Wales since Montgomery (2015), and requires doctors to share and explain risks, but it is not clear how far this applies to children, particularly older children.
A lecture by Imogen Goold
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/children-medicine
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The skeleton of King Richard III was discovered beneath a Leicester car park in 2012. Modern forensic techniques were used to analyse the injuries to the skull, rib and pelvis.
The talk will discuss what computed and micro-computed tomography reveal about the injuries that were inflicted on him, and his probable cause of death; and how well the findings align with the historical record.
A lecture by Sarah Hainsworth
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/richard-III-bones
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This event will focus upon mathematics as expressed in different languages and cultures.
A lecture by Karine Chemla
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/numbers-cultures
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This event will focus upon mathematics as expressed in different languages and cultures.
A lecture by Karine Chelma
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/numbers-cultures
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This event will focus upon mathematics as expressed in different languages and cultures.
A lecture by Manuel Medrano
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/knot-just-numbers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Dr Anuj Misra will discuss Sanskrit Mathematics in the Language of Poetry (4pm).
A lecture by Dr Anuj Misra
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sanskrit-mathematics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How do Shakespeare's familiar plays Othello and Romeo and Juliet reflect the early modern preoccupation with race and emerging concepts of colour-based racism? How do these ideas play out in early modern as well as in contemporary performance?
A lecture by Farah Karim-Cooper
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeare-race
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Italian architect Filippo Brunelleschi, designer of the dome of Florence cathedral, is also known for developing the rules of linear perspective. In a famous experiment, viewers looked alternately from a vantage point at his perspective painting of the Florence Baptistery, and then the real building, to appreciate the realism made possible by the technique.
This lecture explores the maths of perspective, including modern examples like televised sports where sponsors paint their logos so they look right on camera.
A lecture by Sarah Hart
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-perspective
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What do we mean when we refer to the State of Israel as 'the Jewish State'? What does it mean for the politics of the state to be identified as 'Jewish'? And what does it mean for an academic and intellectual field to study Israel as a Jewish state?
The lecture will trace the contours of a wide-ranging debate on these issues, that shapes both Israeli and Middle Eastern politics.
A lecture by Yaacov Yadgar
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/jewish-state
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Many of the major diseases of humans are transmitted by insect vectors. Malaria, sleeping sickness, typhus, dengue, Zika and plague are examples where mosquitoes, flies, fleas or ticks transmit. The advantage to the infection is that you can be infected by someone you have never met, often over wide distances. The advantage to humans is that we can act on the insect vector and break the cycle of transmission.
A lecture by Chris Whitty
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/insect-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In 1977 or thereabouts a collection of scientists huddled around a secret radio receiver in the US desert. This was the start of GPS, Glonass, Gallileo and the whole navigation industry. A GPS chipset now costs, in bulk, a few dollars so your watch, your phone, your computer all have GPS receivers and everyone knows where they are all the time. But how does this technology work? And are there situations when it does not work?
A lecture by Richard Harvey
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gps
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Sex manuals can incite revolution. In the early 1970s a feminist collective released Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970) while 'free love' proponent Dr. Alex Comfort published The Joy of Sex (1972). Both manuals have been read and updated and republished many times.
What do changes in the advice given in these and other manuals tell us about the way sexual mores and practices have shifted between the 1970s and the present? What factors contribute to changes in ideas about sexual pleasure?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pleasure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Africans have been present in England for more than two thousand years, but we rarely see them or hear about them. And often their existence is dismissed as a figment of 'political correctness' or 'wokism.'
This lecture will critically assess the myth of England's story as a 'sacred white space' and examine the evidence for diversity in medieval and early modern history. Africans are integral to English history and forgetting this diminishes Englishness, by preventing us from understanding ourselves.
A lecture by Dr Onyeka Nubia
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/blacks-britannica
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How can we help human society flourish without destroying nature?
The Wellbeing Economy and Natural Capital are linked strategies that can help achieve this. The Wellbeing Economy provides design principles to ensure that our planet serves both humanity and the planet's ecosystems. Natural capital provides design parameters to track the quality and quantity of ecosystems and resources, including the invisible value of nature.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/planet-first
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Commonwealth citizens once enjoyed the right to live, work and settle in the UK without any restrictions. But a racist backlash against Black and Asian immigration led to legislators introducing immigration controls in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, which were broadened by the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 to deprive East African Asians of the right to settle in the UK.
Its shameful successor, the Immigration Act 1971 continues to form the basis of our xenophobic immigration laws today.
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/immigration-act
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will examine the evidence for and the significance of events that unfolded in the early Universe. "Early" here refers to within the first few seconds after the Hot Big Bang. These very early developments give rise to fundamental characteristics of the nature of the Universe.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/early-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Because apes seem most like humans, science fiction has used them as a mirror in which to view ourselves. The philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau saw in orangutans the original, natural man, uncorrupted by society. Meanwhile most of his contemporaries used apes to embody racially charged fantasies of bestial brutality. These conflicting views shaped the numerous versions of King Kong and the Planet of the Apes films, which the lecture will use to look at evolving images of humanity.
A lecture by Jim Endersby
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scifi-apes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The most outrageous Russian modernist composers of the 1920s were Dmitry Shostakovich in Leningrad, and Alexander Mosolov in Moscow. They were not merely following European avant-garde trends, and their work was genuinely pioneering. Russian culture was undergoing a vigorous renewal at the time, and these composers worked across several arts: Shostakovich's absurdist opera The Nose extends the theatrical innovations of the celebrated theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, while Mosolov's 'machine music' embodies many constructivist ideas of visual artists and filmmakers.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modernism-rampant
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
It's usually said that Protestant and evangelical Christians made very little missionary effort in the 16th-18th centuries. In fact, there was much more than we remember. But they used strategies that look very alien to modern eyes: whether trying to spread 'civilisation' as a prerequisite for conversion, or seeing these efforts as part of a global apocalyptic conflict.
This lecture will introduce this series about these early missionary projects; why they mostly failed; and why they still matter.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-failure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This lecture will explore the essentials of financial planning.
What are the different ways to save and invest, such as bank accounts, bonds, shares, and mutual funds, and how do they differ in returns and risk? What does owning bonds and shares give you, both in normal times and in bankruptcy?
We'll explore how both inflation and taxes erode investment returns - and how to invest in a tax-efficient manner.
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/save-invest
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Three new missions arrived at Mars in February 2021, to look at weather, water and life.
This lecture looks at new results from the UAE's Hope mission, China's Tianwen-1 and NASA's Perseverance. It will also look at the prospects for the ESA-Russia Rosalind Franklin rover to be launched next year arriving on 10 June 2023.
At this exciting time, will we soon be able to answer the greatest scientific question: are we alone in the Universe?
A lecture by Andrew Coates
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mars-2021
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The music we listened to when we were young makes us feel emotional and often nostalgic, transporting us to a particular time and place. Composers over the past 300 years have frequently offered musical tributes to bygone styles - Mozart to Bach, Stravinsky to Tchaikovsky, Sondheim to Ravel, and Barry Manilow to Chopin.
This lecture observes how music is a highly effective tool in the promotion of cultural and personal nostalgia.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-nostalgia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In 1623, Charles I (as heir to the throne) made a secret and hazardous trip to Madrid to win the hand of a Spanish princess. For eight months he was the guest of the Spanish king, Philip IV, living in the Alcazar of Madrid. The opportunities to study art, architecture and court ceremonial made a profound impact on the 23-year-old Charles, and it influenced his own taste when two years later he inherited the thrones of England and Scotland.
A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/spanish-culture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Common Law was conceived as a thing comprising beautiful and simple principles.
Has English law and procedure lost its way? Where are we to go in the 21st Century?
A lecture by The Rt Hon Lord Justice Haddon-Cave
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/law-complexity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Due to the Duke of Marlborough's military genius and the crush that Queen Anne had on his wife, the duchess, the Marlboroughs were presented with two of the greatest houses of the age.
Blenheim and Marlborough House encapsulate the architectural rivalries and ambitions of patrons and architects illuminating the febrile atmosphere of the last days of the Stuart dynasty.
A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/marlborough-mansions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Nicholas Kenyon looks back at the development of one of the most distinctive buildings of our time, shedding new light on its origins, looking at the changes across the years, and considers the thinking that will guide its renewal for the next 40 years.
A lecture by Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/thomas-gresham-21
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
England's Reformation was supposed to bind the nation into a single 'Church of England'. In fact the country was shattered into a kaleidoscope of religious variety. Amid the confusion, a few English people embraced radical possibilities: mystics turned religion into an allegory, separatists created democratic, self-governing communes, utopians explored ideas ranging from pacifism to full-blown revolution.
This lecture traces how this radical edge of the English Reformation helped shape some of the most apparently secular aspects of the modern world.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/radical-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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We often think that psychological biases worsen decision making - but they can also be harnessed for good.
This talk will discuss how "nudging" can help citizens make better decisions. For example, due to "status quo bias" (inertia), auto-enrolling employees into a pension makes them more likely to save. Due to "loss aversion", punishments for smoking can be more effective than rewards for not smoking. Due to "hyperbolic discounting" (impatience), immediate rewards can encourage good long-term habits such as exercise.
A lecture by Alex Edmans
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nudging-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Jewish communities of London have a rich musical-liturgical history, stretching back to the mid-17th century. This lecture will consider some of the main musical developments since then, beginning with the Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues which stood practically side-by-side in the City of London for 250 years.
We will examine the birth of the Anglo-Jewish choral tradition, the split with the Reform movement and its musical consequences, and the new music brought more recently by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Arab lands.
A lecture by Chazan Eliot Alderman
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/synagogue-music-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Magnetic Resonator Piano invented by Andrew McPherson sees electromagnets suspended above the strings of a regular grand piano, allowing for control of minute details of shimmering resonance, crescendo from silence, and sustained "bowed" sounds that the performer can shape directly from the keyboard scanner while retaining the use of the original mechanism. The instrument transforms into an unrecognisable and stunning electroacoustic cyborg.
The lecturer, a concert pianist and improviser, will introduce this instrument to the audience from a performance perspective.
A lecture by Xenia Pestova Bennett
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyborg-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The screening of witnesses for anonymity in the context of inquests and public inquiries is hugely contentious. Why does putting witnesses behind a screen cause such concern for human rights and civil liberties advocates? What are protective measures? Has there been an increase in such applications? Who makes them?
Why do state agents who have done nothing wrong want to hide? What are the benefits for families and the public of seeing important witnesses giving evidence?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/witness-anonymity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Were the Crusades an early example of European colonialism? What value did the crusading frontier hold for the knights who fought to defend it? What was the relationship between the Crusades and the knightly culture of chivalry? To answer these questions requires a new approach to the Crusades, one focused as much on cultural production as military encounter.
In this lecture, we explore the nexus between three powerful forces that shaped the medieval world: holy war, knighthood, and the expansion of Europe.
In partnership with the Fulbright Commission
A lecture by Nicholas Paul
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/crusades
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) was the first woman professional astronomer, and by the time of her death she had been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal and had discovered 8 comets. In this talk Dr Sheila Kanani combines the story of a pioneering woman astronomer, with an account of the science behind comets, asteroids and meteors.
This talk will end with a demonstration of how to make a comet model using kitchen ingredients.
A lecture by Sheila Kanani
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/caroline-herschel
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In 1615 Katharina Kepler, illiterate mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of being a witch.
At that time in Germany, there was a witch 'craze'. Over half of the c.50,000 executions in Europe for witchcraft between 1500 and 1700 took place in Germany. During the next 6 years Katharina fought her accusation.
The astronomer took over her legal defence in 1620. This lecture explores this astonishing story, and asks how the witch craze affected people's lives.
A lecture by Ulinka Rublack FBA
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/keplers-mother
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Mathematics has been used as a tool to understand and control infectious disease for over a century, but Covid-19 brought along a whole epidemic of new challenges.
In this joint lecture with the London Mathematical Society we will see some of the maths used in the fight against the pandemic, and also hear some insights into life as a mathematician assisting with policy advice during this unprecedented time.
In association with the London Mathematical Society
A lecture by Dr Julia Gog OBE, 27 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-covid
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Several different schools of philosophy emerged at the same time and shortly after the famous traditions of Platonism and Aristotelianism in ancient Greece. The most significant, which have had a lasting impact on philosophy since antiquity, were Cynicism, Stoicism and Epicureanism, each of which offered a moral programme advocating the best way to live and a more abstract physical, scientific model of the workings of the universe.
This lecture traces the main intellectual strands in each, focussing on the differences between them. The great thinkers whose works will be considered in detail are the fragments of Diogenes and of Zeno, the founders of Cynicism and Stoicism respectively, and Lucretius, the author of the great Epicurean poem of the 1st century BCE, On the Nature of Things.
A lecture by Edith Hall, 27 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cynics-stoics-epicureans
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Toy pianos were first made in the 19th century.
This lecture/recital tells the story of an instrument originally marketed at children, that subsequently made a surprising transition into the professional sphere and is currently enjoying unprecedented popularity as a concert instrument in its own right with a growing body of repertoire. This unusual miniature instrument provides a respite from the traditional implications of the grand piano and breaks the ice with audiences.
A lecture by Dr Xenia Pestova Bennett, 26 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/toy-pianos
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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It is now easier to breach the security of people's personal and business lives than perhaps at any time in recent human history. Technology has brought unimaginable speed, scale and reach to hackers.
This lecture looks at the consequences of technology on privacy and security, and considers what options there are for the future, including new technologies and regulations such as blockchain and the right to privacy.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, 25 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computer-security
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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At one point in his life, Shostakovich considered the career of a concert pianist. He was talented enough to become a Soviet competitor at the international Chopin Competition of 1927, but he was struck down with acute appendicitis, and he had to leave with only a diploma rather than a major prize. Whether his pain and disappointment soured his relations with the piano we cannot be sure, it is astonishing that his piano music studiously avoids the virtuosity he had assiduously cultivated as a young performer. Almost all his piano writing is in some way experimental, conceptual, challenging the pianist to make sense of piano writing that often seems ungrateful, not unlike Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which we heard in the first lecture of this series.
Even so, Shostakovich's monumental cycle of Preludes and Fugues stands at the very core of his output. Written "for the desk drawer" in his most difficult years, following a second round of official criticism, it often rejoices in the very "formalism" he was accused of. Following the example of J.S. Bach, Shostakovich offers us twenty-four strictly constructed fugues in all the keys, each preceded by a free-flowing prelude. The set takes us on a fascinating journey, beginning with near-pastiches of Bach, into a world where Russian folk song can meet Jewish cantillation, and where Baroque idioms meet modernism, with extremes of emotion that can rival any of Shostakovich's symphonies.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohue
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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What the NHS has provided and had to treat over its existence has changed much more radically than most people realise. Some of this change is rightly the domain of politics, but much is driven in response to changing health needs, improvements in medical science and priorities of society.
The next two decades of changes in health will be as striking as any seen previously: this lecture will address some of the predictable changes public health and the NHS will need to address.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, 19 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/health-trends
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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When black holes merge, the world shakes.
Such quakes in space-time are now detectable and indeed the detection of such gravitational waves from cosmic coalescences comprises an entirely new type of astronomy that is completely independent of light itself.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE, 19 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/space-quakes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The nature of investment is changing to better reflect the ecosystem of the planet we live on. The days of fossil fuel are numbered by the move to renewable energy. Resources and a healthy environment are finally being seen as core to our future.
In this lecture we explore the response of the finance industry and whether green bonds and/or green public procurement can make a difference in delivering better environmental outcomes.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, 18 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/invest-nature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Lord Richard Harries has selected 30 images to convey the essential truths of the Christian faith, some ancient and some modern. Drawn from both the West and the East, a few are well-known masterpieces and others will be unfamiliar.
He will discuss these with Professor Alec Ryrie, who will join in a discussion on the rich and sometimes fraught relationship between the Christian faith and the visual arts.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie and Lord Richard Harries, 17 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/seeing-god-in-art
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Serial murderer Myra Hindley is often portrayed as an "evil icon". Her crimes of sadistic murder against children continue to shock. There are few artistic sights so terrifying as the giant portrait of Hindley composed of the handprints of children. Sadistic women are uniquely evil: in the entire history of humanity, there are only a few and, even then, they generally offend alongside a man (in Hindley's case, Ian Brady).
What do we know about rape-murdering women? Is redemption possible?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke, 13 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/myra-hindley
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Knife violence is one of the biggest challenges facing our society. Simulation offers a way to involve young people in exploring the consequences of carrying a knife and responding when incidents occur. Realistic physical simulation invites participants to co-design scenarios that show the effects of a stab wound.
Building on over ten years of research, the lecture shows how healthcare and criminal justice professionals can work with young people to develop 'reciprocal illumination' for everyone who takes part.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, 12 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tackling-knife-violence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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CEOs make mistakes due to their own psychological biases - but they also profit from the biases of others. Some exploit investors by catering to sentiment - adding ".com" to their name during the Internet bubble or entering "hot" industries to inflate their valuations. Other exploit customers - selling cheap printers hoping they'll ignore the price of expensive toners, or offering mobile phone plans that profit from customers underestimating their usage.
The talk shows how we can guard against such behaviour.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, 11 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/profit-mistakes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Could AI replace stand-up comedians and scriptwriters? This may not be an impossible dream if you accept that nothing we do is forever beyond the scope of computer modelling.
This lecture explores attempts to create jokes from rules, and programs that create not-quite-relevant responses that hearers can make meaningful and comic. Will computers ever tell good jokes?
A lecture by Yorick Wilks, 11 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-humour
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Has the time come for some form of political appointment of Supreme Court judges? Should there be parliamentary scrutiny of judicial appointments?
This lecture contrasts the position of British and American Supreme Court judges. It looks at the dangers of governmental interference in the judiciary, looking at historic examples in the Soviet Union and South Africa, and recent cases in Poland and Hungary.
Might the politicisation of the judiciary challenge the international reputation of the English courts?
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC, 10 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/judicial-appointment-politics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Should there be a legal duty on the state to be more transparent in sudden and unexpected death cases?
The lecture discusses the duty of candour, namely the principle that public authorities must assist the court with full and accurate explanations of the facts relevant to the issues the court must decide, rather than the authority's objective being to win at all costs.
What would a new legal duty look like? Who would enforce it? What would the sanctions be?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC & Pete Weatherby QC, 6 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-candour
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will explore Napoleon's life through his interactions with the natural world and a series of gardens that were important to him during the rise and fall of his power.
The point of doing this is to approach his life from oblique angles, exploring material that is often overlooked. It is also a way of evoking the dramatic trajectory of his life.
A lecture by Dr Ruth Scurr, 6 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/napoleon-gardens
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Every time you look at the world you are building a model. With every new experience these representations of your environment are refined and reconfigured. Each piece of sensory information you perceive makes the model of reality in your head more detailed and complex. The building of mathematical models, designed to capture our complex reality, is the best way we have of making sense of the rules that govern the world around us. The key to exemplifying these rules is to demonstrate their effects on people's lives: from the extraordinary to the everyday.
This talk will relate true stories of life-changing events in which the use (or abuse) of mathematics has played a critical role. We will meet athletes banned by faulty tests and patients crippled by faulty genes; innocent victims of miscarriages of justice and the unwitting victims of mathematical bugs. We follow stories of investors who have lost fortunes and parents who have lost children, all because of mathematical misunderstanding. We wrestle with ethical issues from abortion to anti-vaccination and examine pertinent societal issues like medical screening, political referenda, disease prevention and criminal justice, on all of which mathematics has something profound or significant to say.
A lecture by Dr Kit Yates, 4 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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International negotiations concerning our environment such as on climate and biodiversity, often put the scientific case behind economic and political interests, with potentially disastrous consequences.
What does that mean for human prosperity and even survival?
Can the tension between science, policy and diplomacy be resolved? What would a new form of environmental justice that internalised nature within economic and social rights look like?
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, 27 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nature-rights
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Where do we get our mathematical symbols from? Why is the set of integers called ℤ ? When was the equals sign first used? How about zero? Good notation tends to catch on quickly, whereas bad notation can obscure beautiful theory.
The lecture explores how the introduction of new notation has paved the way for new leaps in understanding, and considers some mathematical quirks of language, such as what the number 4 in English has in common with the number 11 in Russian.
A lecture by Sarah Hart, 27 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-symbols
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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"In space, no one can hear you scream". The chillingly accurate tagline of Ridley Scott's 1979 space horror classic, Alien, is often belied in science fiction movies, forgetting that in space there is no air, and hence no sound. Space today is terrifyingly silent. But it wasn't always thus: the early universe was filled with hot plasma in which sound waves could travel. The cosmos was quivering with the aftershocks of the Big Bang. It is one of the greatest achievements of modern physics that we are able to pick up the cosmic harmony of the baby universe. These sounds were not meant to be heard by human ears: the base note has a wavelength of 450 million light years.
Nevertheless, this triumph of science (and music) rivals in beauty anything written by Bach.
This lecture will investigate the many, surprising ways in which sound waves of various kinds are found in the cosmos: from the relic radiation form the Big Bang, to the distribution of galaxies in the sky; from the trembling of stars to gravitational waves, the universe is filled with what the ancients called "The Music of the Spheres".
A lecture by Dr Roberto Trotta, 26 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/space-sounds
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The criminalisation of religious speech before the ordinary courts in England began in 1676. Although the law on blasphemy was finally abolished in 2008, many of the troubling aspects of the old law remain in the form of the offence of incitement to religious hatred.
This lecture will explore the current and future scope of the law of incitement to religious hatred in light of our long and troubled history of dealing with religious speech.
A lecture by Ivan Hare QC, 22 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/incitement-to-hatred
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This illustrated lecture marks 150 years since Dickens's death by reflecting on the nature of his creative genius and his legacy.
It examines the theatrical performance of Dickens's public readings in relation to his writing practices, and suggests how this gives us an insight into his creative processes as well as the close relationship he forged with his public - a relationship which, as he said, was 'personally affectionate and like no other man's'.
A lecture by Malcolm Andrews, 22 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dickens-public-readings
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The English Reformation gave rise to the global Christian communion called Anglicanism: but neither immediately nor directly. This highly distinctive form of Christianity - ritualistic but nondogmatic, self-consciously moderate but staunchly nationalistic - has long been closely tied to English national identity.
This lecture asks how it came to emerge over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tracing its roots in the Reformation and showing how political chance and the traumas of civil war led to its slow and improbable ascent to dominance.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, 21 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/anglican-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Networks were seen as a rather arcane and dull area in computer science. Then along came the internet, and everything changed for ever. The internet is actually an amalgam of a number of disparate technologies that evolved at just the right time, indeed several of the key technologies were far from optimal.
In this lecture we will look at a bit of internet history, show how it works now and look towards the future.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, 20 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/networks-beyond
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Lymphoma, leukaemia and myeloma arise from different parts of the white blood cell system. Unlike the solid tumours they can be widely distributed in the body, and this means they need a different approach. The outlook for people with these very different cancers varies, but in all cases it is improving, and in some types over 90% will be cured.
Different lymphomas and leukaemias occur at different peak ages, including some cancers in children and young adults.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, 19 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lymphoma-leukaemia-myeloma
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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On 17 August 1982, the first commercial CD was released. Digital recording and editing have changed the face of music by making recordings easy to originate and share. But has this affected musical quality, and what are the financial and artistic consequences?
Where does BBC Radio stand within this technological revolution? Has the BBC's ability to adapt effectively signed its own death warrant? And does public service broadcasting have a future in the internet age?
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly, 15 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/radio-digital
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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From Horace Walpole to Ann Radcliffe, renegade novelists of the eighteenth century wanted to claim back the supernatural for fiction and so invented the Gothic Novel.
This lecture pursues the gift of Gothic to later novelists, seeing how great Victorian novelists like Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens were entranced by the supernatural. Finally, it looks at how the possibility of supernatural explanation energises contemporary novelists like Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters.
A lecture by John Mullan, 14 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/supernatural-fiction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the last ten years of his life Charles Dickens related to his adoring public in a number of different ways; as novelist, as journalist, as public speaker, and in public readings of his own work.
This lecture explores the contrast between the public image and the private life, considering what his writings reveal to us about his deepest preoccupations, both as man and as artist, during this period.
A lecture by Michael Slater MBE, 14 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dickens-last-decade
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Climate change and the over-exploitation of resources now may mean that unless the current generation modifies its behaviour, generations ahead may either not be born or will inherit a world with severe problems. A village or even a nation state can develop rules to prevent depletion of resources so that it does not cut down forests or over-fish the oceans.
But how can that be done globally when the action of one country can have a harmful effect on another?
A lecture by Martin Daunton, 13 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/owe-unborn
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Emeritus Law Professor Jo Delahunty QC and guests will explore what the future holds for the next generation of barristers: will they better reflect the society they serve in terms of background, ethnicity and gender? Is privilege and income as much of a division at The Bar as it is in society?
What can institutions such as Universities, The Inns, The City, and Gresham do to reach out to students who may not have professionals in their family to open their eyes to their potential and the legal profession?
This lecture will sound the clarion call for action.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC with Mass Ndow-Njie, Derek Sweeting QC, Brie Stevens-Hoare QC and Toby Coupe
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/legal-profession-diversity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Food-related conditions - cancer, heart disease, and strokes - are the leading causes of preventable deaths in the UK. Common wisdom is that health reflects personal choices and will power. The reality is that law and policy determine individual access to healthy food and contribute to the racial disparities that exist in all these conditions.
Partnerships between the government and the food and agricultural industries prioritise profit over personal well-being and disproportionately harm marginalised communities.
This is food oppression.
In partnership with the Fulbright Commission
A lecture by Andrea Freeman, 31 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/food-oppression
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Cyberwar is not waged on physical battlefields following rules of engagement. Aggressors worry less about collateral damage, in part because they aren't forced to confront the sight of an enemy bleeding to death before their eyes. Instead, their victim might be someone with a pacemaker 3000 miles away.
We have no words yet for this kind of crime, but there is no doubt that the moment someone targets civilians, whether with a cyberweapon or surface to air missiles, they become a war criminal.
In partnership with the Fulbright Commission
A lecture by Tarah Wheeler 30 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberwar-crimes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The London stock market boomed and crashed in 1720. The financial bubble is known to posterity as the South Sea Bubble.
In the three hundred years since, the bubble has been much misunderstood - this lecture separates fact from myth and aims to move beyond simplistic ideas of "gambling mania".
A lecture by Dr Helen Paul 30 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/south-sea-bubble
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the wake of the decision in the parliamentary prorogation case Miller (No.2), the question of the politics of the judiciary has been thrust into the public eye. Was it "a constitutional coup" as some have claimed?
The Government has promised to "update the Human Rights Act" and review the "relationship between the government, parliament and the courts".
Will this limit the power of the judiciary to do justice? Do British judges have too much "power" and are they over-politicised?
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC, 29 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/political-judges
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Prokofiev followed in the footsteps of Rachmaninov and Scriabin as a joint graduate in piano and composition, but his final graduation performance made an even greater splash, since he dared to present his own new modernist Piano Concerto (No.1) before his examiners. This distinguished panel of judges had cultivated nationalist and late-romantic styles in their own music, and they were not well pleased by the work of a self-declared "anti-Romantic" who delighted in harsh, provocative dissonances that called for a new manner of playing that was metronomic rather than flexibly expressive, with a drier, more percussive approach. When Prokofiev moved abroad after the Revolution, his brilliant performances of his own works made a deep impression on a wide range of composers, from Rachmaninov to Stravinsky, and French composers from Ravel to Poulenc.
It seemed that Prokofiev had invented a way of making music that matched the new era: its dynamism was compared to sport ("football music"), and its grinding repeated patterns to industrial sounds ("machine music"). The prime exhibit in this lecture is Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, a masterwork in which his youthful provocations meet the perfectionism of the mature and experienced artist. The sonata also reveals the warm lyricism that is a crucial facet of Prokofiev's art, but which is often overlooked, since it seems at odds with his modernism.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohue CBE, 25 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prokofiev-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The rising prevalence of obesity is a major threat to current and future health of individuals, the public, and the NHS. It is sometimes seen as too difficult to tackle but there is now progress in this multi-system health problem.
In this lecture by Professor Chris Whitty, he lays out the health effects of the rising prevalence if we do not address it.
Obesity arises from a complex interaction of genetics and environment. Medical management of obesity is improving. We can reverse the rising trend in society, but only if we understand the reasons for obesity, what can be changed, and what cannot.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 24 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rising-obesity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Spying for Queen Elizabeth I was very different from modern-day intelligence services - or was it? This lecture brings together historian Stephen Alford and Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, and will discuss Tudor spies and the modern-day secret service.
This lecture celebrates 500 years since the birth of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, an intelligence-gatherer for Elizabeth I across Europe, who also brought his son, Sir Robert Cecil, into the world of secret Elizabethan intelligence.
The lecture also looks at the use of secret communications like codes and cipher.
A lecture by Stephen Alford and Sir Richard Dearlove KCMG OBE, 23 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/spying-for-queen-and-country
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Darwin's Descent of Man was dominated by the theory of sexual selection, which Darwin used to explain peacock's tails, but also to argue that white people were as superior to black ones as men were to women. For Darwin and his contemporaries, inequality between races and the sexes was one of the facts that science had to explain.
Ever since Darwin, biology has been used to support racial prejudice and gender inequality, but - happily - has also been used to challenge both in the 150 years since the Descent.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 22 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-legacy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Nurse Ratched is the evil nurse in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). She is the Evil Woman as autocratic, the absolute power in a psychiatric ward, which is the ultimate "total institution".
"Big Nurse" is determined to eliminate every trace of male independence and spontaneity, castrating them and rendering them passive. Her machine-like ("ratchet") lack of emotion is monstrous. She is as far from the caring feminine nurse-ideal as possible.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 18 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-nurses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, became one of the most influential and powerful men at the Restoration court. He married a Scottish heiress, Anne Scott, and together they became leaders of fashion and taste.
Recent researches have revealed that the Duke and Duchess were major patrons of architecture, leaving some important, but little known, buildings to posterity.
A lecture by Simon Thurley 17 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/monmouth-estates
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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We often think that leaders are particularly strong in decision making - that's why they've made it to the top. But evidence shows that even senior executives are prone to psychological biases, such as overconfidence, groupthink, and applying one-size-fits-all rules.
The talk will also discuss how boards, investors, policymakers, and executives themselves can address these biases to make better decisions - that affect not only companies but also wider society.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 16 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ceo-mistakes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Cinema's original canons were based on a small number of works most highly esteemed by archivists and historians. But access to the history of film has been dramatically expanded by digital media, as have debates between those arguing from different premises.
'Discoverability' is an important new criterion amid the vast range of works now readily available. Will this new democracy of taste mark the end of traditional canons, and what are the implications for preservation and education?
A lecture by Ian Christie 15 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/streaming-film
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When England's Reformation began, only a small band of idealists - or fanatics - truly wanted a Protestant England. Nevertheless, within a single lifetime, they achieved it.
The lecture considers how the upheavals of the Tudor era led to the emergence of a genuinely new religious consciousness in England, as reformers set about rebuilding the nation's spirit from the ground up. By their own impossibly high standards, these reformers failed; but their 'failure' was transformative and its consequences are enduring.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 10 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/protestant-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Even the most humdrum of electrical devices nowadays contains at least one computer; yet surprisingly few people are aware of their history, their form or function.
In this talk we will see that not only is the history of computers rich and diverse, their architecture likewise. Astonishingly, all the computers ever made can be modelled by one universal machine - the Turing machine.
A lecture by Richard Harvey 9 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computer-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Mathematical concepts have often been used to create new structural forms in fiction, as in the works of Raymond Queneau and Jorge Luis Borges.
The members of Queneau's Oulipo group (including Georges Perec and Italo Calvino) sought to create works using various constraints as an impetus to innovation.
Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries (2013) continues in this tradition. And mathematical concepts have even been used as plot devices, such as series of dastardly murders made possible by the mathematical idea of "non-transitivity".
A lecture by Sarah Hart 9 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-fiction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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We hear too often about sudden death in adults following prolonged and often unnecessary police restraint. What do people know about the dangers of restraint and how widespread is our understanding of such deaths?
This talk by Professor Leslie Thomas QC, with a panel of distinguished guests including Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST, and Dr Nat Cary, a forensic pathologist, explores the legal implications facing the state and what steps can be taken and implemented to save more lives and have safer policing.
Do these deaths disproportionately affect African Caribbean men given recent BAME stop and search statistics?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC, Deborah Coles and Dr Nat Cary 4 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/police-restraint
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Plato's most brilliant student and perhaps the most significant intellectual in world history, Aristotle of Stageira built on the doctrines he had studied at the Academy but also radically disagreed with them.
The founder of Athens' second great university, the Lyceum, did not believe there was any perfect, ideal world that transcended human ability to see, touch, smell and hear it, and proposed that all philosophy begin from with material reality of being a human animal in a complex natural world.
Aristotle contributed to many disciplines—scientific subjects as well as 'Humanities', but his core philosophical beliefs are laid down in his Nicomachean Ethics, Politics and Rhetoric, which are analysed in this lecture, as well as the major works of the next generation of practitioners of what became known as 'Peripatetic' philosophy.
A lecture by Edith Hall 4 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/aristotle
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Highly energetic particles from outer space travelling at the speed of light, known as cosmic rays, originate from the sites of extreme particle acceleration in the Universe.
This lecture considers just how energetic these rapid particles are, the origins of their extreme energies and the implications for Earth.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 3 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fast-furious
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There is a seismic shift underway in economics, hastened by the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Communities and countries around the world are beginning to adopt/consider adopting well-being and prosperity as major guiding principles. The aim is to deploy new forms of economic theory and policy to reflect the importance of nature in their future development.
This lecture explores the issue of prosperity, innovation, and natural capital for iconic locations around the world and asks what will it mean for the future.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 2 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/wellbeing-prosperity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Stravinsky's solo piano output may be modest in size, but it contains one of the absolute pinnacles of piano virtuosity, the Three Pieces from Petrushka. To call these pieces "arrangements" from the ballet score would be true, but misleading: they are brilliant recompositions from the ballet's material, stranger and more elusive, and with the added dimension of extreme virtuosity (he was never brave enough to give a public performance himself).
Unlike many composers, Stravinsky always wrote his music at the piano, and the feel of chords-under-fingers, pushing against each other, overlapping and colliding goes a long way towards explaining the unique harmonic imagination that still has an international influence that stretches far beyond the confines of modernist classical music. Where the Romantics had turned the piano from a complex machine into a living, breathing musical being, Stravinsky wanted to unpick the illusion, and bring the mechanical aspects to the fore. He often sought to bypass the pianist's predilection for "expression", and even turned to pianolas for a time, which dispense with the need for a performer altogether.
The clockwork character of his writing tends to dehumanise his source materials, whether these happen to be Russian folksongs, Baroque and Classical idioms or the latest jazz. Where does this leave a pianist who is prepared to meet this challenge?
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 26 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stravinsky-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Why did stories of criminals become irresistible for novelists? Starting with works like Moll Flanders in the eighteenth century, this lecture goes on to examine the role of criminals in Dickens, keen to let his readers and characters experience what Pip in Great Expectations calls 'the taint of crime'. To what ends?
How does the recent genre fiction of novelists like Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell return us to the transgressive pleasures of Defoe's criminal autobiographies?
A lecture by John Mullan 24 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/crime-fiction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Clinical practice depends on the acquisition and analysis of evidence - detailed information from each patient's clinical history, laboratory tests, imaging scans and biopsies. Yet data on its own is not enough, and must always be interpreted in the context of each unique person. Similarly in forensic science, analytical data must be interpreted to make sense of a crime.
This lecture discusses evidence and interpretation with a leading Professor of Crime and Forensic Sciences from UCL, Ruth Morgan.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone and Ruth Morgan 17 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/clinical-forensics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Transfer of resources between currently existing generations. There is a clear link with the previous time scale, for a collective solution will mean that the cost of those currently drawing benefits is paid by those currently in employment. But there are further ramifications. Should the assets of the older generation pass to the younger generation or not?
One tradition, going back to JS Mill and supported by Bill Gates snr is that the inheritor has done nothing to earn the wealth which might be morally dangerous for the individual, and harmful for society in stultifying enterprise. Gates pointed out that the US Olympics team is not selected from the children or grandchildren of those who won gold medals in Los Angeles - so why should the same apply to wealth and enterprise?
The alternative view is that inheritance taxes should be abolished as theft. Again, different societies have adopted different approaches, with England opting for primogeniture and testamentary discretion, where countries with the Napoleonic code have partible inheritance and no or limited discretion. Why are there such differences, and what impact do they have on social mobility and inequality?
A lecture by Martin Daunton 16 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/inherit
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Italo-Byzantine art will be considered as background to the early or 'proto' Renaissance at a time when Italy was a focus of stylistic cross-currents from different parts of Europe.
The heritage of Rome and the influence of earlier traditions on artists like Cimabue, Duccio, Simone Martini and Giotto will be examined in the context of the 'rebirth' of the arts in Renaissance Italy.
A lecture by Valerie Shrimplin 16 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/giotto-renaissance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Canons of taste and value in other media, such as literature, art and music, have been challenged in recent decades by proponents of sexual and ethnic equality. Film's 'ten bests' are open to similar charges, and their dominance may actively hinder efforts to raise awareness of and achievement by filmmakers outside Hollywood and predominantly European art cinema.
This lecture considers what newly assessed canons might look like.
A lecture by Ian Christie 15 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/new-classics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Mata Hari was an erotic dancer who, in 1917, was executed by the French army for treason. She has been portrayed as the ultimate femme fatale, extracting information from hapless men through exploiting her sensual charms.
She was white, beautiful, and heterosexual, yet had to be punished for transgressing the boundaries of femininity.
Similar to many Evil Women, she was believed to be deceitful, rapacious, immoral, and controlling. She was lustful and, like a black widow spider, a threat to men everywhere.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 11 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mata-hari
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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All of the UK adult population is to be offered a COVID-19 Vaccination by September 2021. Many other countries are aiming for similar roll-outs in one of the largest and fastest vaccination drives in history. In this lecture Professor Chris Whitty will explain how vaccines came to play such a central role in healthcare, and the role they serve today in tackling an increasing range of diseases, including new threats like Covid and old foes like cancer.
And with an eye to the future, he will look at four key questions around vaccination: When is a disease worth vaccinating against? How likely is vaccination to work? What about side effects? And how should they be deployed?
A lecture by Chris Whitty 11 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/vaccination
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Literary satire has long used mathematical concepts to reinforce its points. Gulliver's Travels (1724) played with ideas of dimension, size, and shape, and a century later, Edwin Abbot's novel Flatland (1884) explored the mathematics of higher dimensions, through the experiences of its two-dimensional protagonist, "A Square". Both novels have spawned a host of sequels, commentaries, and films.
This lecture explores how mathematical ideas have been interpreted in fiction, and discusses the unlikelihood, mathematically, of realms such as Brobdingnag and Lilliput, or the room-sized spiders of Hogwarts.
A lecture by Sarah Hart 9 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-worlds
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Despite the controversy, evolution was widely accepted by many naturalists within a few years of the Origin's appearance. An important reason for this rapid triumph was Darwin's botanical works. Seen through evolutionary eyes, plants proved to be mobile, carnivorous, sensitive - even crafty.
As Darwin "exalted" his favourite flowers, the orchids, he also narrowed the once-unimaginably wide gap between plants and animals, thus making it easier for his readers to imaginatively bridge the much smaller distance between humans and apes.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 8 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-greenhouse
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Is there is a level playing field between participants at inquests? What does 'equality of arms' mean? Is such a concept appropriate when looking at inquests? Are inquiries better?
How have they developed since the IRA Death on The Rock case? What are the problems faced by those representing families, is there a case for fundamental change? If so what model should we adopt to replace the present system?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC 4 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/inquest-equality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The English Reformation - unlike many of the other Reformations convulsing sixteenth-century Europe - was at heart more about politics and law than about religion. It created the English state as we now know it, and established relationships between the nations of Britain and Ireland which still endure.
This lecture asks how a religious dispute came to rewrite the English constitution and traces that upheaval's legacies - some plain, some hidden - for England and its neighbours down to the present.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 3 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tudor-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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When light is dispersed into its constituent colours, it can become possible to discern rich dynamical information about an evolving system in space, for example cosmic explosions, collisions or accelerations.
This lecture explores how such dispersion can be designed to reveal the dynamics of distant worlds.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 3 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unravelling-rainbows
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Niklaus Wirth said Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. But programs are more than that. They are ubiquitous in modern life, but only a tiny minority of the population know how to program. Programmers, coders or developers are therefore seen as the most rarefied of individuals - disconnected from society yet with enormous influence and power.
This lecture examines what programming is, who invented it, and how it is changing to better represent the needs of modern society.
A lecture by Richard Harvey 2 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/programs-intro
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Solving climate change is not something that can be achieved overnight; it is a long journey, one that is complicated by the economic problems we face after Covid-19.
Every industry has a role in not only helping the economy recover from the pandemic, but also ensuring that any recovery is green-led.
The City of London is a world leader in 'Green Finance' and has an important role in helping the country - and the world - to 'build back better'. Through supporting sustainable infrastructure and creating green financial products, the City - and the UK's - financial and professional services can fight climate change and, at the same time, support economic growth.
Join the Lord Mayor and a panel of experts to find out more about how the City can help us transition to a sustainable and resilient future for all.
A lecture by The Lord Mayor William Russell, Mark Carney, Liv Garfield and Rhian-Mari Thomas. Chaired by Loyd Grossman 1 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/2021-lord-mayor
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In 1930, the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli did something that "no theorist should ever do": he invented a new particle that he thought nobody could ever detect in order to save the principle of energy conservation in certain radioactive decays he was studying. Pauli's impossible particle turned out to be real: the neutrino, a particle that one of its discoverers called "the most tiny quantity of reality ever imagined by a human being".
This lecture will chart the fascinating history and science of neutrinos, from their discovery in 1956 to the role they played in understanding solar physics. We will see that neutrinos are today hunted for in the depths of the Antarctic ice cap, shot through the crust of the Earth and observed in huge water tanks under miles of rock. They are revealing the physics of distant supernovae, helping understand dark matter and might hold the key to the Big Bang itself.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta 1 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/neutrino
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The long-playing record and the BBC's Third Programme changed the face of classical music in Britain.
In popular music the 45 rpm record became the recorded medium of choice, and in 1970 the BBC's home networks grew to four in order to broadcast respectively (and respectably) pop, easy listening, classical music, and speech.
Radio 3's flagship programmes such as the weekday drivetime slot Homeward Bound and Saturday morning's Record Review taught listeners what to listen to and how to listen.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 28 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/radio-lp
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Scriabin was Rachmaninov's classmate at the Moscow Conservatoire, and he likewise received a Gold Medal for his combined studies in piano and composition. His commitment was also as unswerving as Rachmaninov's, and yet public knowledge of his music remains hazy, especially outside of Russia, and it still has an esoteric and forbidding aura. Scriabin's starting point was Chopin, but where others were content to pay reverent homage to that earlier master, Scriabin took him as inspiration for bold experiments in his preludes, études and above all in his great series of ten sonatas, which span his career.
Working within the loose artistic movement known as "Symbolism", his ambitions were fuelled by theosophy and his own syncretism of mystical ideas. For him, some of his later projects stretched far beyond the normal limits of art, and one partially written piece was designed to bring about the dissolution of the universe into nothingness. The Sonatas take us on a journey from his early post-Chopin soundworld through to refined sensations and rarefied sounds of his later Symbolism, and although his ideas descended through decadence to insanity, his musical judgement never left him.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohoe OBE 21 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scriabin-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Humans use computers to do gigantic calculations which would be impossible to do by hand - for example, weather prediction.
But could an AI go beyond that and come up with a proof of a theorem which has stumped humankind? Could computers suggest how to attack problems, searching knowledge bases for known results?
As automatic and interactive computer theorem provers become more powerful, should mathematical researchers begin to worry that they will soon be out of a job?
A lecture by Kevin Buzzard 20 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/smart-computers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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For nearly seventy years, what might be called 'the canon' of greatest films has been arbitrated by an international poll of critics delivering a 'ten best' list every decade, published in the BFI's Sight & Sound.
Before the next such poll, due in 2022, this lecture considers what factors have made certain films and their makers 'classic'; and why the fifty-year reign of Citizen Kane was ended in 2012 by Hitchcock's eerie melodrama Vertigo.
A lecture by Ian Christie 18 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/film-classics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Amelia Dyer was one of the most prolific murderers in Victorian Britain. She made a living as a "baby farmer", or someone paid to care for unwanted or abandoned infants - except she killed around 400 of them.
How could a mother and nurse murder so many defenceless babies? Was Dyer not only a baby-killer but also the real "Jack the Ripper" (as some sleuths have speculated)? Was she insane, or simply an "ogress" in feminine form?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 14 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/amelia-dyer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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One of the most powerful tools in public health is screening - whether for cancers like cervical or breast cancer, genetic abnormalities, or infectious diseases.
Screening can be transformational, detecting disease early and preventing it taking hold. It is, however, often useless and can be harmful, and its advantages are often exaggerated.
This talk will consider the situations where screening can help, where it does harm, and why these are usually predictable.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 13 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medical-screening
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The interconnectivity of living organisms and the planet is brought to light through the development of digital intelligence of the planet.
This lecture tells the story of how this started with early computing and chaos theory, and developed through models of how humans move around and inhabit different parts of the world, to open data systems.
Stories from the voyages of Darwin and the first global explorers, to the new space science illustrate the different ways in which new knowledge is received by society.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 12 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/connected-knowledge
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Is the jury system the bulwark of individual liberty?
This lecture will look at the role of the so-called "perverse jury" in acquitting defendants where the law, or the charge itself, is deemed unjust. Famous examples are Kempton Bunton (for the "theft" of Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington in the 1960s), Clive Ponting, and Randle and Pottle.
But the jury can also be a bastion of prejudice: white juries habitually acquitted white defendants in the US in race violence cases. Does the jury system need improvement? Should its right to deliver a perverse verdict be curtailed?
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC 11 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/political-jury
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Trauma surgery, combat flying and polar exploration require professionals to work in risky conditions where error can lead to catastrophe. One key skill is recognising when a situation is getting out of control and finding a 'place of safety'; another is to learn from mistakes without allowing self-confidence to be destroyed.
This lecture explores how high-risk professionals can share insights relevant to medicine, helping clinicians to develop essential skills.
With Phil Bayman (combat pilot) and Dougal Goodman (polar explorer).
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 6 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/surgeons-explorers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will look at change ringing, which is ringing a series of tuned bells (as you might find in the bell tower of a church) in a particular sequence, and this has exciting mathematical properties.
We will also ask: why are bells bell-shaped? What properties of this shape create the sound of a bell, and by what amount should we scale the size of a bell to produce changes in pitch?
A lecture by Sarah Hart 5 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-bellringing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Boris Ord composed one tiny Christmas carol - 'Adam lay ybounden'. But Ord's largest contribution to the carol genre was his work as choirmaster at King's College, Cambridge from 1929 to 1957.
This lecture shows how Ord built on Arthur Mann's pioneering work with King's Choir and created a singing style that transformed choral performance internationally.
The radio broadcasts of the King's Carol Service under Ord's directorship were legendary, and the 1954 television broadcast of the service was a game-changer.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 10 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ords-carols
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Is Santa really Dutch? Were Christmas Trees introduced by Prince Albert? Was Christmas once a time of faith, rather than riotous feasting?
In this lecture, social historian Judith Flanders considers Christmas myths and Christmas memory, and will explore how everything you think you know about Christmas is wrong. She looks at the long history of nostalgia for a different kind of Christmas, and whether Christmas ever really existed at all.
A lecture by Judith Flanders 9 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/christmas-legends
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Sound investment decisions are critical for our long-term financial future. But psychological biases can lead investors to make costly mistakes - overconfidence can cause them to trade too much, and the reluctance to take a loss can encourage them to throw good money after bad.
This talk will look at the common investment mistakes that citizens make, and the evidence for how these mistakes affect returns. It will give simple practical tips to overcome your biases and make better financial decisions.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 8 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/investor-mistakes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women. A substantial proportion of bowel cancer is preventable. The outlook depends strongly on how advanced it is at diagnosis; caught early the outlook is good, so screening is a major part of the public health response.
Other cancers of the gut are changing incidence; stomach cancer rates are falling, while oesophageal cancer is increasing in men.
This lecture will consider the prevention and treatment of these cancers.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 7 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bowel-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How do we investigate violent and unexpected deaths at the inquest? Who investigates?
When do deaths get referred to the Coroner? Are inquests non-adversarial and inquisitorial? When do you have a jury? What are findings, determinations and conclusions (aka verdicts)? Can you appeal? Is the process transparent to the public and user friendly? Fit for purpose or in need of reform?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC 3 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sudden-death
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Most English people initially saw the Reformation as an unexpected catastrophe, wrenching their religious lives out of shape, and stripping their communities of resources they had naively believed belonged to them.
This lecture looks at how this dramatic change was pushed through despite formidable opposition; how most English people eventually reconciled themselves to the new reality; and how England's persistent Catholic minority reinvented itself for a new age.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 2 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unwanted-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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China's media provide a window into the Chinese mind, as the country asserts itself in the world as a great power. What do Chinese people think is the purpose of life? What matters most to them? In what do they believe? How do officials and journalists explain their responsibilities?
This lecture will use examples - from a report on Coronavirus to a popular soap about rural life - to explore these questions and compare them with Western beliefs.
A lecture by Hugo de Burgh 1 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/china-media
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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When Darwin finally published the On the Origin of Species, he tried to avoid controversy by ignoring human origins. Yet evolution was soon being attacked as the godless 'monkey theory'.
However, while some condemned Darwin's book, others found a form of consolation in it, an alternative to an orthodox Christian faith some found hard to maintain.
As Darwin tried to make sense of the death of his favourite daughter, Annie, many of his readers found unexpected consolation for their own losses in Darwin's words.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 30 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-monkey
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There is no need to introduce Rachmaninov, considered by many to be the greatest composer-pianist in history and the creator of several famous items on the "classical hit parade". But his very popularity has always detracted from the value of his music in the eyes of scholars, who tend to view his music as merely middlebrow. This is a serious misunderstanding of his art, and has left the complexity and subtlety of his music underappreciated.
The secrets of his immersive and compelling music still have to be uncovered, even if their effects are well known to an adoring public. Taking a selection from Rachmaninov's Preludes, we will concentrate on three crucial aspects of his piano music: the "Russianness" of his materials (whether real or imagined), the complexity of his scoring (how much can a pair of hands manage, or the human ear digest?), and the art of dramatic timing (how does he construct a climax, and how does he descend from the peak?).
The exploration of these three elements helps to understand the extraordinary artistry and technique behind this music's irresistible appeal.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker and Peter Donohoe CBE 26 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rachmaninov-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Plato the Athenian was the philosopher who founded the Academy and whose brilliant writings are the foundation texts of the entire western philosophical tradition.
A student of Socrates, his dialogues use the Socratic method of question-and-answer to probe some of the most important questions humans have ever asked about our situation. What is true knowledge? How do we distinguish it from falsehood or mere opinion? Is the human soul immortal, and if so, what happens after death? How can we best organise a community and who should govern it? Should the arts be censored in the name of community wellbeing? What is the nature of true goodness, and how can a philosopher pursue the goal of achieving it?
This talk focuses on Plato's masterpiece, the Republic, but also considers the importance of the dialogues which are set during the very last days of Socrates.
A lecture by Edith Hall 26 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/thinkers-plato
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Ill health has always been concentrated in particular places; tackling these pockets of ill health is an essential role for public health. These may be driven by environmental factors, demography, deprivation and healthcare provision.
In the UK, the geography of ill health has shifted widely over time and continues to do so. Specific areas have particular health challenges, including coastal towns, rural districts and inner city areas.
This lecture will consider the shifting geography of ill health in the UK and globally, and its implications.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 25 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/health-geography
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Digital technology from the early 1990s onwards produced an exponential increase in astronomical data. Within our lifetime, the entirety of the visible universe will have been mapped out: we will have seen everything there is to see. The question will then be: what does it all mean?
Solving the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy (which together account for 95% of the universe) and finding life elsewhere in the universe won't be possible without statistical and data analysis methods that have yet to be invented. No human eye will ever inspect all the 50 billion galaxies in the visible universe, nor the 7,500 billion potentially habitable planetary systems: we need machines to do it for us.
This lecture will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) will meet the challenges posed by big data to help answer fundamental questions of the cosmos.
A lecture by Richard Harvey 24 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/data-future
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Digital technology from the early 1990s onwards produced an exponential increase in astronomical data. Within our lifetime, the entirety of the visible universe will have been mapped out: we will have seen everything there is to see. The question will then be: what does it all mean?
Solving the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy (which together account for 95% of the universe) and finding life elsewhere in the universe won't be possible without statistical and data analysis methods that have yet to be invented. No human eye will ever inspect all the 50 billion galaxies in the visible universe, nor the 7,500 billion potentially habitable planetary systems: we need machines to do it for us.
This lecture will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) will meet the challenges posed by big data to help answer fundamental questions of the cosmos.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta 23 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Brothers Grimm's tale of Snow White has been retold dozens of times in print and the cinema over the past two centuries. A central character is the Evil Queen, Snow White's malevolent stepmother, who tries to kill her with the help of the occult. Aging women have often been portrayed as Evil Women.
What do portrayals of the Evil Queen tell us about witchcraft, fears of the power of aging women, and the valorisation of youth, beauty, and domesticity?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-witches
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The 2020 Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series
2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most lethal of all Nazi camps.
This lecture looks back at its final months, from the time the camp reached its murderous peak, after the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary, to the arrival of Soviet soldiers in January 1945. But liberation did not put an end to Nazi murder - it continued elsewhere, until the final German defeat in spring 1945.
The lecture follows the fate of former Auschwitz prisoners forced to other camps and the crimes of former Auschwitz SS staff in camps like Bergen-Belsen.
This lecture is presented in partnership with the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Holocaust Research Institute (Royal Holloway), The University of Huddersfield, and the Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association.
A lecture by Nikolaus Wachsmann 18 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/auschwitz-ww2
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Accounts of occasional celestial spectacular events in past centuries have provided crucial information for modern-day astrophysicists. One such example is the so-called Great Eruption of Eta Carinae which was for a time in the mid 19th century the third brightest object in the night sky.
Interpretation of the spectacular structure of this so-called supernova imposter would be hard without information from eye-witnesses of days gone by.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE 18 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/witnessing-fireworks
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It has been known since antiquity that there are simple "harmonic" relationships between notes that sound appealing together.
This lecture introduces the mathematics of pitch, scales, and just temperament. The pitch of a sound is not its only important property. The same note, played on different instruments, can have a very different quality of sound. We will explore the mathematics governing the relationships between these qualities of sounds, and the shape and dimensions of the instruments used to produce them.
A lecture by Sarah Hart 17 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-sound
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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THE 2020 PETER NAILOR MEMORIAL LECTURE
Drones, or unmanned air systems, are changing the face of war in the 21st century, for combatants and civilians. We are used to a history of the RAF based on a narrative of the 'bravery of the few' with fighter pilot missions in the Battle of Britain seeing a mortality rate of 20% and a staggeringly higher rate for 'the many' of Bomber Command (over 50% of aircrew died on operations). But in the UK over the last fifteen years, an increasing number of air missions have been carried out remotely by drone.
The tasks these drones can carry out include targeted assassinations, bombings and intelligence-gathering, and the forces that deploy them claim to minimise the loss of life on both sides. These drones still have operators, who can be based thousands of miles away from the field of battle, but in future they may not need operators at all. What does operating drones mean for the mental health of the operators? What does it mean for the concept of bravery in battle? How does distance affect the chances of operations going wrong? What are the ethical challenges of unmanned warfare today? And how much harder will those challenges become in a future era of autonomous drones? Ultimately, how are the risks and realities of unmanned air power changing those that fight, those who command them, and those they target?
A lecture by Dr Sophy Antrobus MBE 11 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/drone-warfare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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How has Covid-19 re-shaped our ideas about what we owe society? The lockdown has had a terrible impact on the economic prospects of young people - and the elderly have suffered from high mortality in care homes. Choices have to be made between the generations. Should people save and pay for their own pensions, care in ill-health and old age as an individual responsibility? Or is it a societal duty that should be funded by compulsory payment of taxes?
The role of collective versus individual responsibility has shifted across time and between societies around the world according to different cultural understanding, political calculation, and pragmatic necessity. Might Covid-19 mark a further shift in the balance?
A lecture by Martin Daunton 10 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/owe-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What is meant by 'love' between human and nonhuman animals? Why is sex with animals such a taboo? It is only in very recent years that some people have begun to undermine the absolute prohibition on zoosexuality.
Are their arguments dangerous, perverted, or simply wrongheaded? What does it mean to love nonhuman animals? More pertinently: what does it mean to love?
This book launch will look at the history of debates about human sexual encounters with other species.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 9 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/loving-animals
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Father and son, William and Robert Cecil, not only dominated politics for much of Elizabeth I and James I reign but dominated architectural fashion. Building a series of spectacular houses, they, and not the monarchy, were the great palace builders of their age.
Burghley and Hatfield remain, but those that are lost were even more extraordinary in both their form and in how they were used.
A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE 4 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cecil-architecture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The story of the deep, biogeophysical planetary connections and how these are intensifying the effects of climate change and economic development, is told through personal research and expeditions to remote locations across the world (including some that were previously unexplored).
This will take us on a journey to uncover connections at all levels, including at a molecular clock level, in the biochemistry of plant toxins and medicines, and in the diurnal and migratory behaviours of plants and animals.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 3 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/connected-nature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie') is one of the most recognisable and romanticised figures of British history. Born in Rome as a Catholic prince on 31 December 1720, he led the Jacobite Rising of 1745, which came closer than anyone expected to changing Great Britain irrevocably.
Professor Pittock will ask what kind of man was Charles, what were his ideas and day to day life like, what might have happened if he had won in 1745, and what even in defeat his legacy changed for Britain and its Empire.
A lecture by Murray Pittock 2 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bonnie-prince-charlie
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Air pollution, the usefulness of trees, ideas for a green belt are not concerns we associate with the 1600s. But John Evelyn, writer, diarist and gardener, was unusual. His thinking in Fumifugium (1661) about air quality, and Sylva (1664) about trees, seems astonishingly close to our own today.
Evelyn's preoccupation with apparently contemporary environmental problems, and his suggested solutions, are a remarkable legacy and one to be celebrated in 2020.
A lecture by Gillian Darley OBE 29 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/john-evelyn
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How does fiction make itself seem like fact?
Professor John Mullan begins where novels begin: with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which showed every novel that followed how to make a 'strange surprising' story seem entirely 'probable' (the word that eighteenth-century pioneers of fiction liked to use). He will explore the tradition of factuality in the English novel, ending with the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro and examples of recent auto-fiction.
A lecture by John Mullan 28 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/convincing-fiction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Well-trained eyes can be remarkably useful for capturing light curves of evolving objects in the cosmos, even contributing to modern research programmes.
This lecture will consider how stargazing with imperfect, non-linear human eyes can accomplish such a feat, and the important contributions that this makes to elucidating the phenomena of nova detonations in our galaxy.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 28 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/attentive-eyes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Psychological studies show that humans overweight tangible factors and underweight intangible ones when making decisions.
This talk shows how these biases affect the stock market - it focuses excessively on short-term profit, but ignores environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. As a result, all investors - not just ESG investors - can profit by using intangible factors that are not fully valued by the market.
It also explains how investors can uncover tell-tale signals of CEOs' confidence in their firm and invest accordingly.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 27 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hidden-investment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Caribbean migrants not only came to work in the buses and hospitals. Many - such as the novelists George Lamming and Sam Selvon - came to Britain in search of opportunities to be paid to think and write. Others such as Stuart Hall, Vidia Naipaul and Walter Rodney came as students.
London also received a stream of de facto political refugees from the Caribbean and the United States, such C.L.R. James, the poet and publisher John LaRose, and Claudia Jones, the first theorist of 'intersectionality' and founder of the Notting Hill Carnival. Visual artists such as Horace Ove, Frank Bowling, and Donald Locke made painting, sculpture and film at the frontier of the avant-garde.
From London, they reassessed the past and imagined new futures for the Caribbean, Britain and the World. We are only now beginning to see as a whole this hidden current in Twentieth-century British intellectual life.
A lecture by Richard Drayton 26 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/windrush-thinkers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture examines the centuries long presence of the African diaspora as an integral part of Britain's history since Roman times. Unfortunately, this history is still too often ignored, its promotion limited only to October.
Attempts to restrict it only to the period following the arrival of the Windrush in 1948, lead to a distortion of the past which has serious consequences for all of us.
A lecture by Hakim Adi 22 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/african-britain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This event, jointly hosted with the British Society for the History of Mathematics, will focus upon the relationship between mathematics and money, from coinage through to cryptocurrencies.
A lecture by D'Maris Coffman 21 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reserve-currencies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This event, jointly hosted with the British Society for the History of Mathematics, will focus upon the relationship between mathematics and money, from coinage through to cryptocurrencies.
A lecture by Andrew Lewis-Pye 21 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cryptocurrencies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This event, jointly hosted with the British Society for the History of Mathematics, will focus upon the relationship between mathematics and money, from coinage through to cryptocurrencies.
A lecture by Norman Biggs 21 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Algorithms, loosely translated, are systems for doing things. Algorithms are thus the link from pre-history to the modern world - without algorithms we would have an inanimate universe without all the mess and complexity of real life. It turns out that the history of algorithms is messy.
There are also general theories of algorithms, and those ideas are not messy at all; they are very beautiful, powerful and should be required reading for the internet age.
A lecture by Richard Harvey 20 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/algorithms-intro
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Traditionally a lawyer's own views and political affiliation are irrelevant to the pursuit of the legal process.
This lecture will examine - and celebrate - the work of lawyers who have crossed the usual lines and worked for political change. It will look at the life of South African advocate Bram Fischer, who defended Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial, and was himself prosecuted for sabotage and sentenced to life in prison.
It will consider modern examples of lawyers paying a heavy price for political engagement, as well as the ethical issues which are engaged - how far can a lawyer go?
A lecture by Thomas Grant QC 19 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/political-lawyer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The relative role of the State and the individual is a recurring theme of political theory. It is also a practical question in public health - what are the respective responsibilities of government, individuals and healthcare professionals to protect health?
This lecture will explore the areas government is widely perceived to be responsible for, ones where government should have no role, and the areas where medical professionals provide a third dimension to a triangle of responsibility.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 16 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-health
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the face of enslavement, colonialism and cultural suppression, peoples of African descent have fought to maintain cherished cultural practices.
Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, the new Director of V&A East, tells the story of how that resistance came to inspire the creation of some of the most dynamic artistic practice of the modern age.
A lecture by Guy Casely-Hayford 15 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/african-resistance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Was Covid-19 the ultimate wake-up call about how we live on planet earth?
Looking at the effect on the environment of a near-stoppage of the world's economies, the first lecture explores emerging perspectives and some of the guiding principles about surviving and thriving when we have a greater understanding of nature. These experiences are used to throw light on how some of the traditions of indigenous peoples mirror our scientific understanding of how the natural world functions.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 13 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/connected-humans
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Pattern and structure are essential to music, from the permutations in a Bach fugue, to the structure of a round.
This lecture will explore the mathematics of musical symmetries, such as the "translational symmetry" of the transposition of keys, and the "rotational symmetry" of the duet "Der Spiegel", attributed to Mozart.
It will go on to explore the last century's experimentation with the use of mathematical forms to produce intriguing effects, including in the works of Arnold Schoenberg and Per Nørgård.
A lecture by Sarah Hart 13 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Eve was the original Evil Woman. She was tempted by Satan, introducing sin into the world. In turn, she seduced Adam, bringing the wrath of the Creator upon humanity for all eternity.
From the 2nd century, Eve has been blamed for evil. The innocence of the Virgin Mary simply magnifies Eve's weakness and this continues to resonate in western texts. The fig-leaf covering Eve's genitals is a reminder of the carnality of evil as well as its feminine origins.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 8 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-eve
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Clinical practice is often seen as the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge to diagnose and treat diseases. Yet every patient is different.
This lecture draws on a ten-year collaboration with a Savile Row tailor to explore 'bespoke' as a metaphor for clinical practice. Using this approach, the knowledge and skill of a practitioner must intersect with the needs of the patient to create a unique solution for each problem.
With Joshua Byrne (bespoke tailor)
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 7 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medicine-tailor
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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At longer wavelengths than the normal optical wavelengths to which human eyes are normally sensitive, is the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Radio astronomy can tell us about the distribution of magnetic fields in the Universe, and reveal striking structures which have no comparable counterpart at visible wavelengths.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE 7 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/watching-radio
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, his biographer Tristram Hunt looks at how both Engels and Karl Marx were deeply affected by their time in London in the second half of the 19th century.
London, then the heart of the British Empire, transformed the thinking of these two revolutionary philosophers on finance, on working people's lives, on cities, and on women voting.
Hunt will look at the remarkable personal and family lives of the 'The Old Londoners' as they became known, in their North London homes at Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm.
A lecture by Dr Tristram Hunt 6 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/engels-marx
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Following the Beagle voyage, Darwin settled down to a quiet married life, relying on correspondence to gather facts.
He wrote thousands of letters as he gathered facts to support his still-secret theory.
Long before anyone had heard of evolution, Darwin produced four enormous books on barnacles, which helped establish his credentials (even his most committed opponents acknowledged that he couldn't be ignored). And the books were also Darwin's attempts to answer some complex questions about sex that will recur throughout the lectures.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 5 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-barnacles
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A lecture by Joanna Bourke 8 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-eve
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will focus on human rights and the wrongs of unexpected and/or sudden deaths in which the state is implicated.
It will cover the importance of a proper death investigation, the impact on the family and state, how Magna Carta influences death investigations 800 years on, and current trends and statistics in state deaths.
How does the state show it cares when deaths occur? Does the state learn lessons? How can the bereaved move on?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC 1 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-killing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
We all need experts for things we can't do ourselves. And we are all on a path to becoming expert ourselves, whatever our areas of interest. But what does it mean to be expert?
In his new book Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery (Viking Penguin, 2020), Roger Kneebone explores these challenges. You can buy the book from Waterstones here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/expert/roger-kneebone/9780241392034
This lecture summarises Roger's insights from his own experience as a clinician, his decades-long collaborations with extraordinary experts, and his Gresham Lecture series Performing Medicine, Performing Surgery.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 30 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/expert
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and the Dayton Accords resolution of the first two (Croatia and Bosnia) of the three Balkan wars of the 1990s.
In examining the legacy of this conflict, Professor Nice will consider documents newly-released by the UK and US governments.
Did the UK and US know what was coming and fail to act? Was the massacre the result of cold blooded politics that was never acknowledged?
A lecture by Geoffrey Nice QC 29 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/srebrenica
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This illustrated lecture will cover Newton's life and his mathematical and scientific labours in the context of 17th-century England, and feature his childhood in Lincolnshire, his university career in Cambridge and his later life in London as Master of the Royal Mint and President of the Royal Society.
This lecture marks the launch of a Pitkin Guide on Isaac Newton.
A lecture by Robin Wilson and Raymond Flood 28 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/isaac-newtons-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In which years does February have five Sundays? How many right-angled triangles with whole-number sides have a side of length 29? How many shuffles are needed to restore the order of the cards in a pack with two Jokers? Are any of the numbers 11, 111, 1111, 11111, . . . perfect squares? Can one construct a regular polygon with 100 sides if measuring is forbidden? How do prime numbers help to keep our credit cards secure?
These are all questions in number theory, the branch of mathematics that's primarily concerned with our counting numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. Of particular importance are the prime numbers, the 'building blocks' of our number system.
The subject is an old one, dating back to the ancient Greeks, and for many years has been studied for its intrinsic beauty and elegance, not least because several of its challenges are so easy to state that everyone can understand them, and yet no-one has ever been able to resolve them.
This lecture situates the above problems and puzzles in their historical context, drawing on the work of many of the greatest mathematicians of the past, such as Euclid, Fermat, Euler and Gauss. Indeed, as Gauss, sometimes described as the 'Prince of Mathematics', has claimed: Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences, and Number Theory is the Queen of Mathematics.
A lecture by Robin Wilson 28 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/number-theory
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Musorgsky was a proficient, but not virtuosic pianist: in his youth, he entertained society ladies with popular marches and quadrilles, and in his last years, he toured as an accompanist in song recitals. On the basis of these modest exploits, no one could have predicted his Pictures at an Exhibition. This cycle of piano pieces is a kind of travelogue, following a Russian at home and abroad. We tour around the Russian Empire and beyond, and we are also invited to contemplate the drawings of Musorgsky's friend Victor Hartmann (the work stands as a touching memorial to his art).
Drawing inspiration from the Romanticism of Schumann and Liszt, Musorgsky filtered their ideas through his own Russian Realist aesthetic, and attempted to create accurate and convincing depictions of his subjects, with their distinctive voices, behaviour and locations. His piano writing is idiosyncratic, and sometimes even awkward, but it conveys his thoughts effectively in a riot of colour and contrasts. His instinctive, empirical approach to harmony was a formative influence for Debussy, the first of the great post-Romantic piano composers.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 22 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musorgsky-piano
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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England's Catholic Reformation is the reformation that sixteenth-century England nearly had: a reformed and renewed English Catholic Church, its new schools and revived parishes matched with a firm smack of discipline.
It almost happened; its leading prophets - Cardinals Thomas Wolsey and Reginald Pole - both came close to being elected pope.
Instead, as these possibilities evaporated, they left behind them a toxic residue which has poisoned England's relations with its neighbours down to the present.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 23 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/catholic-reformation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Mars has changed since it formed 4.6 billion years ago. When life started on Earth ~4 billion years ago, Mars was habitable too, with volcanism, a magnetic field, surface water and a thick atmosphere. Today, Mars is cold and dry, with a thin atmosphere and harsh surface.
In this lecture Professor Andrew Coates will discuss the search for life beyond Earth on our closest target, using the Rosalind Franklin rover.
A lecture by Andrew Coates 23 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mars
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Efficient Market Hypothesis argues that stock markets are rational - they take into account all relevant information, and incorporate it in an unbiased way.
This talk will present evidence that stock prices are instead driven by human psychology. The market overreacts to some types of information yet underreacts to others; it is driven by emotions rather than purely economic fundamentals.
The lecture gives profitable trading strategies that investors can use to exploit these biases.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 22 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/market-psychology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
From The Merchant of Venice to The Taming of the Shrew, it's easy to see how Shakespeare's plays can cause offence to contemporary audiences. Is it harder to teach Shakespeare today than in the past? Have ideas about what is offensive in Shakespeare changed over time?
In this lecture, a team of Shakespeare scholars will look at the challenges and opportunities of teaching, editing and staging Shakespeare in our current 'age of offence'.
A lecture by Adam Hansen and Monika Smialkowska 21 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offensive-shakespeare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In 1920, Nellie Melba's singing was transmitted to Europe and Newfoundland via the wireless. In 1922 the BBC began broadcasting, and from the outset sponsored new music and relayed outside broadcasts to the nation (and from 1932, to the world).
In 1927 the BBC took over The Proms, and in 1946 the Third (alongside the Home and the Light) Programme was instituted.
The BBC's mission: 'to be ahead of its public, but not so much as to lose their confidence'.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 17 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/radio-78
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A family best known for producing one of England's most famous queen consorts started out owning substantial estates in Norfolk before buying, and inheriting, a series of major houses close to London. These mansions became the stage for the tragedy of Ann's life and death.
New research allows us to understand the role of property owning at the heart of the story of the Boleyn family.
A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE 16 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/boleyn-houses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The story of the Mayflower is usually presented as a tale of persecuted Pilgrims crossing the Atlantic in circumstances of grave adversity to inhabit a desolate wilderness.
There is another perspective.
This lecture asks not where did they go to, but where did they come from? Who paid the piper? Who called the tune? Who hosted and protected them for years before the voyage, and who taught them the tolerant values that 17th century Puritans usually lacked?
A lecture by Graham Taylor 18 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mayflower
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How has lockdown affected the Family Court? Gresham Law Professor Jo Delahunty QC chairs a panel of senior lawyers and journalists discussing the issues faced by family courts and by families during lockdown.
How has COVID-19 affected child protection? How have lawyers maintained professional and family links under lockdown? Have vulnerable clients been locked out from Court and their lawyers? Have families lost face to face contact with babies and children in foster care under social isolation policies and the closure of contact centres? What of the pain of permanent loss: is it humane to have " farewell contact ' under COVID-19? Is that happening?
The discussion will explore how the family court is adapting and functioning and how legal professionals are working and coping inside and outside the court.
This will be a frank look at how lawyers are trying to deliver justice to the most vulnerable members of society, especially the child, whether they are succeeding, at what cost, and who cares.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Lucy Reed, Louise Tickle and Cyrus Larizadeh QC 25 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leadership-lessons-from-lockdown
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating. But one silver lining has been the tremendous responses from businesses and individual citizens, as we've realised how even small actions can have a substantial effect on society.
A second is that the crisis has caused us to step back, focus on what is truly important rather than merely urgent, and appreciate gifts we normally take for granted.
This lecture will draw leadership lessons from the crisis that we can apply to life post-pandemic.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 24 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leadership-lessons-from-lockdown
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Lord Carlile will discuss the effect of Covid-19 on counter terrorism policy, including suggestions that terrorist organisations have taken advantage of the pandemic to increase their influence.
He will discuss whether UK counter-extremism policies and programmes are adequate, and what changes are needed. He is likely to be critical of the design and effect of such programmes in prison.
He will make suggestions for the improvement and better performance of Prevent.
A lecture by Lord Carlile 18 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/grays-inn-reading-2020
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2020 ANNUAL PROVOST'S LECTURE
What is the history of populism? Has it ever been a force for good?
In this lecture, Sir Richard Evans, Provost of Gresham College, discusses the different varieties of populism, asks why it has become such a prominent feature of contemporary political life, and considers how far it is a threat to liberal democracy.
A lecture by Richard Evans 16 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/populism-threat-to-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Like James I, King William III was fundamentally unhappy with the stuffy formality of England's vast crumbling royal estate. But unlike James, who virtually abandoned Edinburgh, William maintained a second court, and a parallel suite of royal houses, in the Netherlands.
Mostly ignored by English historians, these houses are the key to understanding the style that we now know as William and Mary, and its impact on England.
A lecture by Simon Thurley 10 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/william-mary-court-divided
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It is commonplace for governments to complain that the cost of healthcare is rising. Various reasons are put forward: some claim that modern medicine is inevitably more expensive; some claim that the ageing population is the cause of the problem; others opine that the only option is rationing.
But what are the opportunities for using Information Technology to reduce the cost of healthcare? And what might our healthcare system look like in 10 years time if we make judicious investments in technology?
A lecture by Richard Harvey 4 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/digital-healthcare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This talk will explore the "growth mindset", the evidence-based view that talents are developed rather than genetic. It provides practical tips on how to develop new skills with limited time, and highlights the importance of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.
The talk will also discuss the "abundance mentality", that serving others grows the pie for all, rather than increasing others' slice at your expense. It examines how to serve effectively, in a disciplined way that does not lead to you accepting every request.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 3 June
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/growth-mindset
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The birth of rational medicine contributed to the scientific revolution which occurred amongst eastern Greek communities in the 7th-to-5th centuries BCE.
Medical professionals still take the oath of the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates of Kos, preserved along with his medical treatises. They are a consummation of many decades of medical practice and empirical observation, showing methods similar to the eastern Aegean natural scientists in seeking physical causes rather than supernatural explanations for natural phenomena, whether related to geology, weather, disease or injury.
A lecture by Edith Hall 28 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ancient-greek-medicine
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Money may well make world go round but cash is surely an encumbrance we can do without. What does a cashless society look like? What is the technology behind the digital economy and the new forms of currency and money?
Your bank doubtless provides an app for accessing your account but, in the future will it provide an API so you can write your own payment algorithms?
A lecture by Richard Harvey 26 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cashless-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Greeks famously identified many patterns and rhythms in the sky, deducing detailed information about eclipses and orbits that still have relevance today. The Chinese, on the other hand, made landmark discoveries of supernovae and comets - events that were unexpected (stochastic) in nature and not forming any part of any rhythm.
This talk will consider how expectation plays a role in discovery and in scientific advance, and considers the challenges involved in assessing changes taking place on our own planet.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 20 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perception-expectation-discovery
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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How can we deliver clean and affordable energy to even the poor, especially in rural settlements, as set out in UN Sustainable Development Goal 7?
Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will examine how renewable energy systems, ranging from large-scale hydroelectric dams, solar arrays and geothermal plants, to small-scale solar micro-grids can offer immense opportunities for climate mitigation and achieving a clean energy future. She will argue that without proper social safeguards these same systems disenfranchise the poorest and those living in rural areas.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 19 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/renewable-energy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The science of feet and footprints has a long, yet often forgotten, history.
In this lecture, I look at what people from the late eighteenth century to the present thought they knew about toes, arches, heels, and ankles. What makes a beautiful foot? How have ideas of foot-beauty changed over time? Size, shape, colour, smell, and even taste have been important markers in the literature, science, and sociology of feet.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-foot
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Medical care often frames patients as the passive 'recipients' of expert professional knowledge and skill.
This lecture explores what comes into view if we reframe clinical treatment as hospitality, and patients as guests. Drawing on collaborations with leading restaurants and their chefs, this lecture explores parallels between the worlds of fine dining and medical care. In a hospital, as in a restaurant, what happens out of sight (in the operating theatre or the kitchen) must be matched by sensitive care at the bedside, in the clinic or at the table.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 13 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hospitals-hospitality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Diaghilev would often look at past art and then do the opposite. He playfully abandoned plot, elaborate costumes, emotional expression, and even meaning, but reinstating them whenever he felt like it - this was his undogmatic approach to modernism.
In this final lecture, we will focus on one of the best-preserved Diaghilev productions, The Prodigal Son, a strikingly beautiful ballet by Prokofiev/Balanchine/Rouault. It could have been a new beginning, but it became Diaghilev's final word when he died in the summer of 1929.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 12 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diaghilev-prokofiev
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture addresses the potential links between AI and religious belief, which include the question of whether an artificial "superintelligence", were one to arise, would be well-disposed towards us. Religious traditions historically assume that creations are well disposed to those who made them.
The lecture also looks at the recent US cults claiming to be ready to worship such a "super-intelligence", if and when it emerges, as well as other futurist discourse on "Transhumanism" and its roots in 18th-century rationalism.
A lecture by Yorick Wilks 12 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, one of the most extraordinary diplomatic events of the late medieval period. Although commonly regarded as a 'peace festival', the meeting might more usefully be described as a two-week long war game.
The lecture will set the Field in context, examine the crucial role played by Cardinal Wolsey in organising it, and the spectacular temporary structures built to house the event. It will offer insights into the history of sixteenth-century Anglo-French relations, and of the European Renaissance monarchy more generally.
A lecture by Glenn Richardson 07 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/field-of-cloth-of-gold
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Some of the atrocities of the age of Europe's religious wars immediately became notorious. The execution of tens of thousands of women and men for witchcraft, by contrast, passed largely unremarked - until modern times, when this history was revived, rewritten and wildly exaggerated.
This final lecture will ask why it suits each age to select, reinvent and suppress different parts of the history of religious atrocity, and why some victims, such as Anabaptist radicals, remain neglected down to the present.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 06 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/age-of-atrocity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Robocop (1987) embodied a particular vision of an electronic crime fighter but what is the reality of electronic crime fighting? How are the police and security services using technology to trap villains?
In this lecture we will examine not only the murky world of electronic crime but also how information technology can be used to solve physical crimes.
A lecture by Richard Harvey 05 May
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-robocop-reality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
At the time of writing, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has killed many thousands worldwide, infected many more - and changed lives around the world in ways that were unimaginable just weeks ago. What is COVID-19, how has it been managed and what role will science play in combating it? Gresham Professor of Physic (and Chief Medical Officer for England) Chris Whitty, one of the key figures in the UK's fight against the disease, will explain what we know - and what we don't.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 30 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/covid-19
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Recent evidence about the extent of plastics and litter in our oceans has led to grassroots rejection of single-use plastics.
This lecture will draw on McGlade's own research (published in 2020) on plastics in our seas. She will show that banning single-use plastics is not enough to safeguard the health of our oceans, and that what is needed is a complete redesign of global production systems. She will outline ways that we can work to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development" in the face of unsustainable consumption and production and rapidly changing climate.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 28 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/future-of-oceans
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This final lecture will celebrate some of the great mathematical equations, and related algorithms, which have both changed the world as we know it and which are likely to change it in the future.
The lecture will focus on a number of equations and algorithms including Laplace's Equation, the Navier-Stokes Equations, Schrödinger's equation, the Kalman Filter, the FFT, the Page Rank Algorithm, the Simplex method and the Conjugate Gradient Method, all of which are making a profound difference to the way that we live. Truly, mathematical equations can change the world!
A lecture by Chris Budd 28 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/world-changing-equations
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Dark matter and dark energy together make up 95% of our Universe. Yet, very little is known about them.
This lecture will present the endeavours of cosmologists and particle physicists, as they attempt to explain the fundamental nature of these mysterious dark components. The existence of dark matter might open new vistas in particle physics, while dark energy might even hold the key to the multiverse.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta 27 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dark-cosmos
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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One of the most dangerous phrases is "evidence shows that …", because you can almost always find evidence to support any viewpoint. Experts are similarly distrusted, because they may have motives other than the truth. These problems are particularly severe in the digital age where we are bombarded with data and supposed expert opinions.
This talk will explain how to discern what and who to trust, how to know whether evidence is causation or just a correlation, and how to overcome the temptation to accept views that we agree with.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 22 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/critical-thinking
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Modernity kept seeping into ballet, a genre that had traditionally looked to a distant, mythical or magical past. First, the tutu gave way to an everyday tennis costume in Jeux by Debussy/Nijinsky, then ragtime rang out in Parade by Satie/Picasso, and in the 1920s Diaghilev decided staged a series of ballets drawn from contemporary life, and in particular, the French high society in which Diaghilev moved.
Milhaud and Poulenc provided the sparkling scores, while Coco Chanel added her sparkling costumes.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 7 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russes-turning-french
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Should a composer leave the listener wanting more, or must a musical ending be definitive? Is a 'fade out' actually a cop-out, and is a decisive ending preferable to an abrupt one? In short, is the object of a musical ending to bring an audience to its feet? And what about false endings? Do they excite or belittle the audience?
This lecture will certainly not be the last word on the subject of musical endings, but it might, ironically, be a start.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 2 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musical-endings
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Nowhere in Europe have the wars of religion lasted longer than in Ireland. At the heart of this are two rival sets of memories of atrocities: above all, Protestants recall the massacres of the 1641 rebellion, and Catholics recall the massacres perpetrated by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 1 April
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/choosing-religious-atrocities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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BOOK LAUNCH
Business has lost the public's trust. Concerns that capitalism only serves the elites has led to major unrest throughout the world and the election of populist leaders. Many people claim we need to overhaul capitalism - but that may throw the baby out with the bathwater and harm the many good businesses that exist.
This lecture, based on a brand new book, uses the highest-quality evidence to propose a new solution that works for both business and society, and a simple framework to put it into practice.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 30 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/purpose-and-profit
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Are humans fit to be gardeners of this planet? Today's biotechnology companies promote themselves in distinctly utopian ways, but increasing numbers of people find their claims difficult to reconcile with the daily evidence of the damage that technologies like intensive agriculture have done to this planet.
This lecture explores these notions through an examination of the film Silent Running (1972), which imagined gardens in space, in which the last remnants of Earth's vegetation are preserved aboard gigantic spaceships.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 23 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gardeners-planet-earth
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Vertical banded gastroplasty surgery (or stomach stapling) has drawn attention in recent decades to the hidden, but unruly, stomach. This organ has been the focus of weight-control regimes for centuries, however.
This lecture looks at nineteenth-century fads involving stomachs, including the medical prescription of tapeworms that were supposed to live in a person's stomach and "eat" food on their behalf. It also explores ideas about the relationship between a person's stomach and their personality. It traces these medical ideas through to the present.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-the-stomach
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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For a decade after the execution of Charles I the Stuart courts were based in the Low Countries and France. Always short of money, but determined to maintain splendour and dignity, Charles II rented a series of mansions and used them as the headquarters of the exiled monarchy.
These hitherto unknown royal 'palaces' became the nursery of courtly fashion and etiquette where the king and his courtiers developed tastes that were to fundamentally fashion the art and architecture of Restoration England.
A lecture by Simon Thurley 18 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/charles-court-in-exile
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture explores how digital landscape modelling can help unlock the secrets of Britain's ancient pathways. Focusing on "corpse roads", pathways taken by coffin bearers over the countryside before the Enclosures, it discusses the significance of such routes, and how a mapped understanding of factors such as slope, elevation and distance can shed light on the stories behind them.
It concludes by reflecting on what Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can offer landscape archaeology more generally.
A lecture by Stuart Dunn 12 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/corpse-roads
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In the age of exploration, Catholic missionaries fanned out across the world, meeting with extraordinary success but also extraordinary opposition: nowhere more so than in Japan, where the fast-growing Catholic community was brutally suppressed in the early seventeenth century.
This lecture will explore how this bloody crisis shaped myths of Japanese cruelty and cults of Catholic sanctity in Europe, while also precipitating the 250-year 'closing' of Japan and the intense piety of a small remnant of underground Japanese Christians.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 11 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/japanese-martyrs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Mathematics and art are more similar than is commonly thought. Each is concerned with the process of being highly creative with abstract objects and of producing everlasting work of great aesthetic beauty.
Early art inspired by geometry, symmetry, numbers and algebra will be considered, as will the role maths played in the art of the Renaissance. Mathematics' influence on other artistic forms will be explored, taking us up to the work of Escher and how this inspired the study of Fractals.
A lecture by Chris Budd 10 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/art-of-maths
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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This lecture provides an insider's brutally honest guide to what it's like to be a self-employed barrister - the highs and lows of the career, the work behind the scenes that makes a difference to outcomes in court, and the art of persuasion in it.
What are the ways of working that can make a difference to success and failure, for the client and to professional development for the barrister? What transferable skills does the advocate have looking at life Beyond the Bar?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty 5 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/barrister-insiders-guide
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the 3rd century BCE, the Sicilian polymath Archimedes significantly advanced human understanding of mathematics, geometry and astronomy.
By applying his discoveries to practical problems and physical phenomena, he became the founder of statics and hydrostatics, demonstrating how levers work and in turn creating unprecedented war machines such as "Archimedes' claw" and "heat-ray".
A lecture by Edith Hall 5 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/archimedes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Exercise, diet, rest, and sleep are sometimes seen as optional extras that are desirable if you have the time. They are also topics about which many myths and half-truths abound.
This talk will provide rigorous evidence on the importance of mental and physical wellness for not only quality of life but also career success and productivity at work. It will also provide practical tips, based on behavioural economics, on how busy professionals can find time to invest in them, and turn them into effortless habits rather than chores.
A lecture by Alex Edmans 4 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/business-wellness
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The laws of physics may be stated in simple and elegant ways that can be made easy to demonstrate and understand on their own. What is immensely hard to predict from first principles are the consequences of the combinations of these laws acting in concert together, and the richness of the exotic phenomena that we can observe to evolve in the night sky.
This talk will examine why laws are simple and how the combination of simple laws can lead to rich complexity.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 4 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/simple-laws
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Is gender equality a key factor in tackling climate change? Many think so, and in this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will explain why in relation to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 is to 'achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls'.
When women are empowered and educated the evidence shows that they have more control over their lives and dedicate more resources to health and education than men. But does gender also influence the way that environmental issues are solved?
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 3 March
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gender-climate-change
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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During the last thirty years of his life, Isaac Newton lived in London, where as head of the Royal Mint he moved in wealthy aristocratic circles, exerted substantial political influence, and profited financially from imperial trade and exploitation. To illustrate these themes, this lecture examines an oil painting by William Hogarth illustrating a children's performance of John Dryden's play The Indian Emperour, a dramatized version of the tussle for power between Hernando Cortez and Montezuma.
This lecture is held in conjunction with the Science Museum's Science City 1550-1800: The Linbury Gallery as part of its Science Museum Lates. N.B. 7pm start
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/lates
A lecture by Patricia Fara 26 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/newtons-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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'St Thomas has adorned…London by his rising and Canterbury by his setting'.
This lecture will explore how the influence of Thomas Becket permeated city life in medieval London until Henry VIII ordered the destruction of his shrine and the removal of his name from all liturgical books.
It will include consideration of the first stone bridge over the Thames made possible by offerings in the chapel dedicated to him; the hospital in Southwark; and the Becket family home in Cheapside (later the hall of the Mercers' Company).
A lecture by Caroline Barron 25 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/becket-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Two hundred years ago a group of conspirators assembled in a Cato Street stable in order to plan the massacre of the whole British cabinet at dinner and bring about revolution. Had they succeeded they would have achieved modern Britain's first terrorist atrocity. They were, however, moved by hunger and by democratic and secular principles, so are comparisons with today's terrorists appropriate?
The lecture discusses their identities, motives and impact, and the forgotten fact that their failure ended British revolutionary fantasies for a century.
A lecture by Vic Gatrell 20 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cato-street-conspiracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Scientific knowledge is advancing at dizzying speed and each day brings new breakthroughs in medical understanding. Unprecedented advances are opening possibilities that only a decade ago would have seemed like science fiction. Yet a deep anxiety pervades our society, raising questions about the wisdom and motives of experts and the implications of new technology.
This lecture uses examples from cutting-edge science and medicine to explore the ethical questions which advances in robotics, personalised medicine, transplantation and artificial intelligence pose for doctors, patients and society.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 19 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/trust-surgical-innovation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Diaghilev seemed to be the nemesis of traditional ballet, but he was ready to draw on the rigorous classical schooling of his dancers whenever it suited him. Once ugliness had been established as a legitimate option, he was happy to bring back beauty on many occasions alongside the new neoclassical music that he had begun to promote. Stravinsky and Balanchine's Apollo was one such ballet, which also managed to give Greek antiquity the new solemnity, stripped of the exoticism of earlier "Greek" ballets.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 18 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Is the clitoris simply a female version of the male penis? Many scientists and biologists in the past thought so. It is only in recent decades that the physiology of the clitoris has become understood.
What can debates about these two organs tell us about scientific knowledge and gender identities? How have ideas about the "ideal penis" changed since the eighteenth century? What effect have these shifts had on the way men and women know their bodies?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 13 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-penis-clitoris
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women, but kills the most people through a combination of being common and currently having much less effective treatment. Both treatment and prevention are currently improving, slowly.
Mesothelioma, a lung-associated cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, is now the commonest occupational cancer. While treatment for these cancers is still at an early stage, they are largely preventable through public health measures.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 12 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lung-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In 2013 Sir Michael Barber declared that "An Avalanche is Coming" and that universities would be swept away by new digital technologies. Six years later nothing seems to have happened, yet there has been change.
In this lecture we will review what is commonly called e-learning, including MOOCs, SPOOCs, flipping and DIYU, and see if there are any themes which emerge from the buzzword bingo that is digital learning. Some of it is fascinating, some of it has deep implications for privacy and some of it is downright weird and wacky!
A lecture by Richard Harvey 11 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/digital-university
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Mathematics is often thought of as being a dry and logical subject, and its conclusions free from the vagaries of fashion and misconception. However this is far from the truth. Mathematical misunderstandings, or perhaps a misunderstanding of mathematical ideas and conclusions, can permeate the public consciousness, and once there survive for a long time.
This lecture looks at the mythology that has gathered around the Golden Ratio, and also consider the fairness of cake-cutting, and changing choices in "the Monty Hall problem".
A lecture by Chris Budd 11 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/great-maths-myths
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture examines the work of Hugo de Vries, a Dutch botanist who was one of the first to claim that science would allow plants and animals to be designed to order.
It also looks at the early twentieth-century 'Station for Experimental Evolution' in New York, and at the utopian vision of Charlotte Gilman Perkins' Herland (1915), a novel describing a lost world populated by women that took the form of a perfect garden, whose wonderful plants and lack of men were both explained by de Vries' theory of mutation.
A lecture by Jim Endersby 10 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-new-plants
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Bach's Art of Fugue, Mozart's Requiem, Schubert's Symphony No. 8, Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and Elgar's 3rd Symphony are all pieces that are famously incomplete.
This lecture examines the fascination surrounding works that are left unfinished at their composers' deaths. It also looks at the urge that certain of us have to complete these uncompleted works, however unwisely and however unbidden. 'Don't let anyone tinker with it', said Elgar; but several have anyway, and with thought-provoking results.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 6 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unfinished-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Europe's Wars of Religion were fought against entire populations, and were punctuated by events remembered as atrocities: such as the siege of Leiden in 1573-4 or, most notoriously, the St Bartholomew's Day Massacres in France in 1572.
This lecture will ask how these events came to be so notorious, how and why they were remembered on each side, and how they shaped the history of civil conflict and ideas of coexistence and nationhood in the societies that endured them.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie 5 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/europes-wars-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Hubble Space Telescope is rapidly approaching its 30th birthday, and we will explore some of the amazing insights it has provided on the beauty of our universe and our place in it. But as it approaches retirement, its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope is under construction.
The speaker is a space scientist who has worked on the Webb's instruments; she will take the audience on a tour of both systems, showing how they can give us an understanding of the life cycle of our universe right back to the Big Bang.
A lecture by Maggie Aderin-Pocock 4 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/webb-vs-hubble
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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More council houses were built in Britain than any other country in the 20th century. By the 1970s, one in three households were council tenants. Yet after 1980 £100bn worth of council housing was sold off. How did this expansion come about, what changed - and what lasting effects did the rise and fall of council housing have on our politics, society and economy?
Is it now time to reconsider our attitude to public housing?
A lecture by Steve Schifferes 3 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/council-housing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Albert Einstein's mind-boggling ideas revolutionized our view of the universe. From relativity to curved spacetime, from the Big Bang to black holes and gravitational waves, nothing could be further from our everyday experience than such esoteric concepts, right? Wrong!
This lecture will offer a surprising exploration of the wide-ranging consequences of Einstein's ideas, and how they shape our everyday lives.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta 3 February
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/einstein
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Advances in medicine allow us to sustain life for longer, but at what cost and at whose choice? Why might the court intervene when a devout Jehovah Witness parent refuses a life-saving blood transfer to their child?
Where does religious devotion end and unsafe thought begin? What about cultural and spiritual beliefs that clash with UK 'norms'? Has the law has kept up with the changing society it regulates?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty 30 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/law-changes-in-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The shapes of the orbits of many planets and comets orbiting their mother-ship stars are well known to be circles or ellipses (an idea that was explained by Isaac Newton). But we now understand that, depending on the history and the energy of the orbiting system, other geometric shapes are possible and indeed frequently observed.
This talk will explore how simple changes to the circumstances can make dramatic differences to the shapes of the orbits, all of which belong to a special family of shapes known as the conic sections.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell 29 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shapes-of-freefall
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The extraordinary effort to ban drink must be understood as part of an American culture war, one framed between the country and the city, between the native-born (white Protestants) and foreign-born (Catholics and Jews), between religion and science, between homogeneity and cosmopolitanism, and, of course, between 'drys' and 'wets'.
The lecture will show how Prohibition animated combatants on both sides, generating two Americas that were barely comprehensible to each other, and how the truce declared during depression and war would not last.
A lecture by Gary Gerstle 28 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prohibition
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Stories about islands punctuate the careers of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, from Powell's breakthrough with Edge of the World (1936) to the Hebridean journey of I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), and the final act of their Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
What can we learn about the imagination of these very different figures by tracing this motif ? This lecture draws on archival sources to show that these films are as rich and complex as art in any medium.
A lecture by Ian Christie 27 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/island-stories
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture-recital will explore the life of Clara Schumann (1819-1896) through her music and surroundings, her achievements and influencers.
Deservedly revered by all who knew her, she was a pioneer of female composition, who overcame societal norms to rise to fame as one of the most sought after and celebrated pianists and composers of her generation.
A lecture by Fionnuala Moynihan 23 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/clara-schumann
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Surveys about people's fears commonly feature public speaking at the very top of the list. Many people believe that public speaking is either something you are born with or without.
This talk will provide practical tips that everyone can employ, regardless of their experience, to improve their public speaking. It will highlight what is unique about public speaking compared to other forms of communication, and explain how to tailor your approach to both the audience and the format (e.g. large auditorium, panel interview, webinar).
A lecture by Alex Edmans 22 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speak-without-fear
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Rite of Spring was the startling result of a collaboration between Stravinsky, Nijinsky (choreography) and Roerich (sets and costumes). In the immediate aftermath, it seemed to be a fiasco because of its riotous reception, but it proved to be the successful introduction of a new modernist aesthetic that cultivated ugliness and machine-like movements.
We will trace the musical, visual and choreographical consequences of this new trend through several later Diaghilev ballets: Parade (Satie/Picasso), Chout (Prokofiev/Larionov), Le Pas d'Acier (Prokofiev/Yakulov).
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker 21 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rite-of-spring
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The question "Will AI artefacts ever be conscious?" was raised by Turing seventy years ago, and will not go away even though no one quite knows what it means, nor how we would know they were conscious if they were.
This lecture explores what its role might be, and the ways in which AI scientists have explored and tried to simulate the possibility of consciousness in machines, while asking whether it would add anything useful if they had it.
A lecture by Yorick Wilks 21 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/will-ai-be-conscious
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
On the 200th anniversary of George IV's accession to the throne, this lecture considers whether or not he had any real impact on the fast-industrialising world around him, and the turbulent political times he lived through.
When George was young, opposition politicians worried about the 'secret influence' the monarch could wield. By the time he died the limited power of the monarch was confirmed. But did the shift have anything to do with him at all?
A lecture by Stella Tillyard 20 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/george-iv
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
There has been a great deal of research on breast cancer, surgery, and implants. This lecture looks at changing ideas about the healthy breast. It explores notions of beauty, sexual pleasure, and age. Early maturation of girls, coupled with a greater focus on the breasts of older women, have had major effects on cultural expectations and experiences.
The lecture also asks: what happens when we turn attention to the male breast?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke 16 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-the-breast
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The most common cancer in men in the UK is prostate cancer, around a quarter of all male cancer diagnoses. Testicular cancer, the other male-specific cancer, is rare, but occurs early in life. Neither are preventable.
There has been a steady improvement in treatment for prostate cancer, and we can now safely avoid treating many men with them at all. The outlook for testicular cancer if caught early is now very good.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 15 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prostate-testicular-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How can we end our intense consumer addiction and change our habits and values to be more sustainable?
In this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will look at patterns of consumption and the concepts of sufficiency in communities across the world, linking them not only to poverty and wealth but also to ecosystem health. She will look at how we can achieve UN sustainable development goal 12, to 'ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns'.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade 14 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unsustainable-consumption
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The 2020 Annual Lord Mayor's Gresham event will explore the value of culture for The City of London.
The City of London is not only a great place to do business but also has a rich and vibrant cultural offer making it a great place to live, learn, work and visit. It is home to a year round programme in the Square Mile led by the City of London Corporation's Cultural & Visitor Services. Culture Mile, which stretches from Farringdon to Moorgate, is led by the City Corporation in partnership with the Barbican, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London Symphony Orchestra and Museum of London, who together are leading the animation of the whole neighbourhood with imaginative collaborations and events.
Best wishes
This Gresham Lecture will highlight the significant social and economic impact of culture on the City, London and the UK, highlighting the connectivity between trade, innovation and culture.
This event will be introduced by a poem written and performed by Gabriel Akamo.
Speakers include William Russell, Lord Mayor of London, and the directors of some key cultural institutions: Kathryn McDowell CBE, DL, London Symphony Orchestra, Lynne Williams, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE, the Barbican Centre, and Sharon Ament, Museum of London.
A lecture by The Lord Mayor of London and guests 9 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/culture-creativity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Few patients like to think of their physicians or surgeons as improvisers. Yet clinical care is a human art where there will always be uncertainty. Though doctors spend years learning facts and gaining skills, each patient is unique and every situation holds surprises. Musicians also spend years in training - practising scales, learning harmony, mastering technique. Such musicians celebrate their ability to improvise, to respond to one another in the moment in front of an audience.
This lecture asks what clinicians can learn from the world of music - and vice versa.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone 8 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/improvising-medicine
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Saving the whales and curing cancer are two of the great challenges of the present day, and mathematics has a part to play in addressing them.
This talk will use these two examples to illustrate the process of mathematical modelling to gain insights into how the world works and how we can change it.
A lecture by Chris Budd 7 January
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-maths-save-whales
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
1928 witnessed the BBC's first broadcast of the Christmas Eve carol service from King's College, Cambridge. 1928 also saw the publication of The Oxford Book of Carols.
By paying tribute to conductors Arthur Mann and Boris Ord, and composers and arrangers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, Jeremy Summerly and the St Luke's Carollers make a case for 1928 as the year in which the Christmas carol went viral.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 12 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1928-christmas-carol
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The myth of Santa Claus has been translated into an extraordinary market on a global scale. We see Santa everywhere in adverts and products, and people also travel quite long distances to meet the 'real Santa' in his faraway home.
The first Concorde flight from Britain to Northern Finland was organised in 1984 with around 100 passengers wanting to experience the magic of Christmas in this authentic setting. But how did this marketing success materialise? How did Finland become the home of Christmas?
A lecture by Teea Palo 11 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/santa-claus
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A Christmas Carol (1843) is the most filmed and televised of Dickens' works. Many will warmly remember the 1951 Alastair Sim version, but how many are aware of A Carol for Another Christmas (1964), a propaganda film produced in support of the UN, or The Passions of Carol (1975), which attempted to highlight the evil of the pornography industry?
How do the different versions reflect the politics and culture of their own particular times? What makes a good Carol movie? Is it truth to the original or is it something else?
A lecture by Christine L. Corton 10 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-christmas-carol
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Many influential leaders stress the importance of pursuing a purpose rather than choosing a career based on salary. While inspiring, such talks can sometimes seem impractical because many people find it difficult to know what their purpose is, and unrealistic given rapidly rising living costs and the view that lucrative careers are not purposeful.
This talk will introduce a practical framework to help you find what your purpose is, as well as explain how to pursue a career which is rewarding both intrinsically and financially.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Business 4 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/finding-purpose
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Sydney's botanic garden, founded in the early nineteenth century, was expected to ship new plants 'home' to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from where they could be transplanted to other colonial gardens, to see if they could become valuable new crops to enrich the British Empire. Such plans had varying degrees of success, leaving botanists to question why specific plants would only grow in particular places.
This lecture looks at how Kew addressed such questions, and the tensions between its role in the advancement of science, and as a public park.
A lecture by Jim Endersby, Visiting Professor of the History of Science 2 December
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gardens-of-empire
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A Gresham lecture that Delahunty gave in November 2017 was one of the first public identifications of the exodus of experienced women from the self-employed Bar - and gave a call for action. That loss affects the number of women who take Silk and that, in turn, drains the pool from which judges are largely drawn.
In 2018 the Bar Council and Specialist Bar Associations acknowledged the issue and a "Retention of Women at the Bar' survey was launched. It's time to look at the results and test how the legal profession has responded to the challenge.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 28 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/100-years-women-in-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The study of the natural and physical world from a scientific viewpoint began in Greek cities on the western coast of Turkey around Miletus in about 600 BCE. The first scientists were known as physiologoi, or men who discoursed about nature (physis). Each tried to put his various observations together in a way that constituted a coherent, unified model.
This lecture discusses the pioneering physical theories of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras and Democritus.
A lecture by Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics 28 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/birth-of-physics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will consider the treatment and prevention of common cancers in women. The outlook for those with breast cancer and uterine cancer have substantially improved in the last three decades, and the great majority with the diagnosis will be alive and well a decade later. The outlook for ovarian cancer is less good although improving.
This lecture will consider the evolving treatments, including the importance of genetic markers and hormonal treatments and approaches to prevention and screening.
A lecture by Chris Whitty 27 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/breast-uterine-ovarian-cancers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Barely a day goes by without some lunatic assertion on social media. Thinking-people shake their heads, but what can be done about this?
It turns out that there are a variety of scientific and engineering approaches which might be adapted to tame the trolls of social media. In this lecture we will review the tricky alliance between social media, email and the government, and we will present options for the future in which, possibly, the benefits of social media might been to outweigh the negatives.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 26 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/taming-the-trolls
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Mary Ann Evans experienced difficult relationships with her family while growing up in Warwickshire, and with nineteenth-century London society more generally after she moved to the city and lived with a married man, George Henry Lewes.
Her seeking of independence in London as a writer (with her later emergence as 'George Eliot'), her experience of rejection, and the widening of her intellectual and cultural life, will be discussed, interwoven with analysis of the deep understanding of relationships in her novels characterised by authorial sympathy and humour.
A lecture by Rosemary Ashton, University College London 25 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eliot-relationships
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
From ancient times to popular self-help books today, eyes have been viewed as 'windows to the soul'. The interpretation of eye shape and colour have been used to distinguish between different degrees of 'civilization' (scientific racism), to identify personality traits, and to detect terrorists (recent research carried out by the CIA and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration). In some Asian societies, double eyelid surgery is popular.
This lecture explores the politics of scientific theories about eyes.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 21 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-the-eye
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Medieval England was proudly Catholic and ostentatiously loyal to Rome. But from the late sixteenth century until recent times - and even now - anti-Catholic prejudice has been a cornerstone of English and British identity.
This lecture will look at how this prejudice grew out of the persecution of Protestants in the 1550s, at the idealistic historian who crystallised it, and at the political crises, real and invented, which turned his text into a paranoiacs' charter.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 20 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-the-english-learned-to-hate-catholics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Black holes give rise to some of the most spectacular phenomena we see in the cosmos. They significantly distort space-time and they grow by stealing material from other stars.
This talk will separate science fiction from science fact and elucidate what we know about these mysterious objects, and how they have shaped, and continue to shape, our Universe.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 20 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/end-of-matter
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will explore Gresham's service to the crown during the turbulent politics of mid-Tudor England.
Gresham served three Tudor monarchs, and his career exemplifies the reliance of the Tudors on the intellectual gifts and financial capital of 'new men' in an age of religious transformations and expanding government and warfare. But his public career was dependent on the court itself, and the personal relationships he forged both with the preeminent statesmen of the age and with Queen Elizabeth herself
A lecture by Alexandra Gajda 14 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-tudor-court
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture examines how minimal access ('keyhole') surgery has revolutionised medicine in just a few decades. By re-assembling teams of long-retired surgical pioneers from the 1980s and inviting them to re-enact early procedures using realistic simulation it will document the ups and downs of an extraordinary decade.
Using video footage and interviews, Professor Kneebone will show how surgeons, radiologists, nurses and instrument manufacturers developed completely new ways of working. Their successes, their failures and their challenges continue to resonate today.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 13 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/keyhole-surgery-pioneers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Nature's benefits to human health are so well-attested, that the medical profession is now actively engaged in fighting for a clean, healthy environment as a human right and prescribing it as treatment across the world from Shetland to Japan.
So how does being close to nature improve your health and well-being and how can this help us achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 to 'ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages'?
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 12 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reconnecting-with-nature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
We live in a democracy in which we all have a chance to vote. But does voting mean that the views of the majority are truly represented when it can be shown (mathematically) that all voting systems have flaws?
In this talk we use mathematics to look at these flaws and answer associated questions (eg. voting trends and gerrymandering). For a bit of light relief we will see how the same principles work in the Eurovision Song Contest.
A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 12 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-and-voting
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
World War Two set British filmmakers a challenge: to be relevant and entertaining and to inspire without patronising. Powell and Pressburger brought wit and imagination to their task, questioning what Britain stood for, warts and all. Notoriously, Churchill hated The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. But many ordinary cinema-goers were grateful for The Archers' poetic patriotism, in this as well as in A Matter of Life and Death. Britishness redefined in the stress of war is the theme of this lecture.
A lecture by Ian Christie, Visiting Professor of Film and Media History 11 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/matter-of-britain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In this talk, coinciding with the UNESCO International Year of the Periodic Table, Dr Wilkins will discuss the astrophysical origins of the chemical elements, almost all of which have an origin ranging from the big bang, to exploding white dwarfs, the collapse of massive stars, and the merger of ultra-compact objects, neutron stars.
This final mechanism is responsible for many of the heaviest and rarest elements including gold, silver, and uranium, and was only recently confirmed through observations of a merger event first identified using gravitational waves.
A lecture by Stephen Wilkins, University of Sussex 7 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/periodic-table-150
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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During the Civil War Charles I's court, denied access to its usual country residences, was forced to set itself up in a series of makeshift locations. The most important of these was Oxford which Charles converted into a large and well-organised courtly campus.
Oxford, and a series of other temporary 'palaces', had to be both elegant court centres and efficient military headquarters; these very unusual royal houses cast new light on the key protagonists in England's Civil War.
A lecture by Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 6 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-court-at-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
BOOK LAUNCH
This lecture describes three ways in which technology developed for gardens changed the shape of England and its built environment. Gardening innovations in water engineering (17th and 18th century artificial lakes), central heating for greenhouses, and glass in construction went on to have a significant impact on our lives and environment.
Roderick Floud's An Economic History of the English Garden will be launched at this event.
A lecture by Roderick Floud, Former Provost of Gresham College 5 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/english-gardening
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This lecture will explore fully autonomous weapons, the products of AI technology, and the arguments for and against their use. It will then look at the more complex issues of the ethical role of the state in the protection of its population, and the ethical choices of individuals versus those of corporations, whose role in large-scale military-industrial complexes is crucial.
The lecture will also mention the emergence of a form of psychopathology in some weapons producers.
A lecture by Yorick Wilks, Visiting Professor of Artificial Intelligence 5 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-weapons
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The cosmic microwave background is the luminous echo of the primordial explosion, the Big Bang — literally the oldest light in the Universe. Exquisitely precise measurements of this light have allowed astronomers to achieve what might seem impossible: weighing the universe, and thereby establishing the geometry of space.
This lecture will explain the physics of the cosmic microwave background and the challenges in understanding where our universe came from.
A lecture by Roberto Trotta, Visiting Professor of Cosmology 4 November
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/weighing-the-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The 2014 scandal over Rachel Dolezal's lying about being of African-American heritage reignited debates about the politics of hair. It has been followed by numerous books with titles such as Don't Touch My Hair.
This lecture explores how hair has been seen as symbolic of empowerment, deviance, and identity. It looks at the role of big business in promoting grooming products (including scalp-damaging chemicals); the hair grooming regulations of the military; and the political significance of facial hair.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 31 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-hair
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Examples of cancers caused largely by infections include cervical cancer, some liver cancers, and gastric cancer. If the infection can be prevented, or treated, the cancer can also be prevented. When the immune system is damaged, including by infections like HIV, cancers increase. Understanding the importance of the immune system has led to new avenues for the treatment of cancer.
This lecture will also consider one of the fastest moving areas of cancer treatment, stimulating the immune system to attack cancers.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 30 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infection-immunity-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Diaghilev found that the Oriental style that had been cultivated by Russian composers was a perfect match for the Parisians' love of exoticism, and he started to commission new ballets for this market niche. These were so successful that even Parisian women's fashions came under their influence. But Russian folk art and music had the same exotic appeal in Paris, and Diaghilev discovered that Stravinsky was the man to turn this new 'product' into great art that was also modernist and attention-grabbing.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Gresham Professor of Music 29 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ballets-russes-exotic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
Freedom has been central to the identity of the City of London for centuries. But from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth centuries, the African Slave Trade and Plantation Slavery in the Americas were key to London's banking, insurance, shipping, manufacturing, commodity trades with Europe, gold and silver supply in London, and later merchant banks like Barings, Schroeder and Kleinwort.
The City also benefited from the end of Slavery, as compensated emancipation liberated a flood of liquid capital and provided a £500,000 per annum income stream to its funders.
A lecture by Richard Drayton, King's College London 28 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/slavery-city-of-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
A choir of ex-slaves, raising funds to build their University, toured America from 1871, suffering discrimination and hardship. They came to England, were treated with respect and sang to Queen Victoria and Gladstone. Spiritual songs are folk music and belong to us all, but because they came out of such horrific suffering it's hard to know how to sing them.
This lecture tells the tale of the singers whose courage and enterprise brought them to the world. The songs they sang include Steal Away to Jesus, Go Down, Moses and Deep River.
A lecture by Professor Harvey Brough with Emily Dankworth, Christina Gill, Wills Morgan and Michael Henry, Vox Holloway Choir 24 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/freedom-song
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
The event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining how the use of mathematics has been instrumental to the success of historical voyages of exploration.
The main speaker, Professor Ana Simões, will discuss A Global History of the Eclipse of 29 May 1919 (6pm). This will be preceded by shorter presentations by Dr Stephen Johnson on Privateer and Mathematician: the Voyages of Edward Wright (4pm) and by Dr Rebekah Higgitt on Mathematical Practice and 18th-Century British Voyages of Scientific Exploration (4:45pm).
A lecture by Professor Ana Simões, University of Lisbon 23 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eclipse-29-may-1919
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
The event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining how the use of mathematics has been instrumental to the success of historical voyages of exploration.
The main speaker, Professor Ana Simões, will discuss A Global History of the Eclipse of 29 May 1919 (6pm). This will be preceded by shorter presentations by Dr Stephen Johnson on Privateer and Mathematician: the Voyages of Edward Wright (4pm) and by Dr Rebekah Higgitt on Mathematical Practice and 18th-Century British Voyages of Scientific Exploration (4:45pm).
A lecture by Dr Rebekah Higgitt, University of Kent 23 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/british-voyages-of-scientific-exploration
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
The event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining how the use of mathematics has been instrumental to the success of historical voyages of exploration.
The main speaker, Professor Ana Simões, will discuss A Global History of the Eclipse of 29 May 1919 (6pm). This will be preceded by shorter presentations by Dr Stephen Johnson on Privateer and Mathematician: the Voyages of Edward Wright (4pm) and by Dr Rebekah Higgitt on Mathematical Practice and 18th-Century British Voyages of Scientific Exploration (4:45pm).
A lecture by Dr Stephen Johnston, University of Oxford 23 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/privateer-and-mathematician
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Most information from outer space reaches us at the speed of light and this governs our understanding of time and evolution in the cosmos. When we observe the Universe, we are 'looking back in time': we see the Universe as it was, not how it is. This is actually very helpful as we seek to discern and understand cosmic history and how the Universe has changed since earlier times.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 23 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/frozen-in-time
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
If people cannot identity themselves digitally then the digital society does not work.
How do biometrics help reduce crime and is it possible to have a biometric system yet not broadcast even more personal information than we do now? There are hosts of biometric systems but which ones work and which are little more than guessing?
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 22 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/biometrics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
BOOK LAUNCH
Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is best known for his Alice books. But his day job was as a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church in Oxford. What mathematics was he interested in? - and how good a mathematician was he?
This illustrated lecture and book launch will attempt to answer these questions by outlining his mathematical life, labours and legacy in the context of Victorian Oxford.
A lecture by Professor Robin Wilson, Emeritus Gresham Professor of Geometry 21 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-lewis-carroll
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
Dr Kaufmann tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in Tudor England - Jacques Francis, a diver employed by Henry VIII to recover guns from the wreck of the Mary Rose; Mary Fillis, a Moroccan woman baptized in Elizabethan London; and Edward Swarthye, a porter who whipped a fellow servant at their master's Gloucestershire manor house.
Their stories illuminate key issues: - how did they come to England? What were their lives like? How were they treated by the church and the law? Most importantly: were they free?
A lecture by Dr Miranda Kaufmann, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies 17 October
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/black-tudors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In contrast to their stark socio-economic and environmental differences, the communities of Harbury, UK and Sekenani, Kenya are building 'collaborative ecosystems' that are helping people and their environment to flourish.
With similar ideas on issues as wide-ranging as energy generation to the creation of well-being, these two communities are actively engaged in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, 'to revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development' through a new community twinning approach.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/globalpartnerships/
A lecture by Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 15 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/building-sustainable-communities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
Using memory scholarship, this talk will examine how the history and memory of enslavement shaped questions of identity and citizenship in Europe.
In Africa, debates about the origins of exclusion in stratified post-slavery societies have been challenging the mechanisms of marginalisation of people of slave descent. In those contexts, the notion of collective memory is a useful tool to understand demands for reparatory justice, and how these can contradict regional or national policies based on the commodification of the colonial past ('dark tourism' in particular).
A lecture by Professor Olivette Otele, Professor of History at Bath Spa University 14 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/slavery-memory
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture reports on the findings of The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China (June 2019), which examined reports of state-sponsored murder for the harvesting and sale of organs.
The very need for a People's Tribunal to deal with an issue of this gravity reflects the timidity of governments when asked to deal with the criminal behaviour of another state. The tribunal's conclusions will be set within the ethical standards expected of medical practitioners around the world.
A lecture by Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and Professor Martin Elliott, Barrister and Surgeon 10 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-china
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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2019 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and will see the building of the first major addition to the system he created to prevent sewage entering the Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is now finally making its way 16 miles beneath the course of the river from Acton to the Thames Estuary, to intercept storm water which would otherwise enter the Thames.
The illustrated lecture will examine Bazalgette's achievement and the work involved in building this latest addition to it.
A lecture by Dr Stephen Halliday, Writer and Historian 9 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bazalgette
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When Thomas Sprat's The History of the Royal-Society of London appeared in 1667, it was less a history than a manifesto for the future, designed to convince Charles II that experimental research was a worthwhile investment.
Focusing on experiment and travel, this lecture describes the aims and activities of the early Royal Society almost two centuries before the word 'scientist' was invented. As Sprat made clear, science, imperialism and finance were inextricably linked.
A lecture by Dr Patricia Fara, Clare College Cambridge 8 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1667-royal-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This lecture examines the mathematics behind computing, starting with the history of the explosive growth of computer technology, from code breaking through to all aspects of modern communication and security, as well as the simulation of physical processes as varied as the evolution of the universe to predicting the weather. It looks at the types of problems computers can solve, as well as the future possibilities of quantum computing.
A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 8 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-future-computing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627) imagined a utopian island including an experimental garden, where plants could be made "greater much than their nature". These new plants were central to Bacon's dream of a better world, where hunger - and even death itself - might be conquered. Robert Sharrock's History of the improvement and propagation of vegetables (1660) attempted to apply Bacon's new learning and improve humanity's food supply.
This lecture will begin with Bacon's imagined garden, then consider the long-term promise of the experimental or scientific garden, which would eventually lead to today's biotechnologies.
A lecture by Jim Endersby, Visiting Professor of the History of Science 7 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/experimental-gardens
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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2019 marks 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 when a woman was recognised as a 'person' in law. This groundbreaking Act enabled women to be awarded university degrees and to enter professions such as law and medicine from which they had been barred.
But women were excluded from the foreign and diplomatic service until 1946, and while they were allowed to sit on juries, they were widely excluded from cases involving sexual assault until 1972. What did the Act achieve and what barriers to equality still remain?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 3 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/100-years
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Classic time management frameworks advise us to focus on the important rather than the urgent. But these frameworks seem not to be applicable to the 21st century, where technology means that we are constantly bombarded with deadlines.
This talk will explain how to focus on important long-term goals but at the same time meet urgent short-term deadlines; how to use email as an effective communication tool without being overwhelmed by it; and how to outsource and automate routine tasks.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 2 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/time-management
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The speed of light has fundamental significance.
This talk will explain how the speed of light was first measured, and how an obscure but brilliant patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland by the name of Albert Einstein deduced that the speed of light is the upper speed limit for everything in the Universe.
Interesting effects occur when particles are accelerated and achieve speeds close to that of light; these unusual phenomena take place not only in particle accelerators here on Earth but out in space that we can observe using our telescopes. It is even possible for things to be measured as travelling faster than the speed of light and the lecture will explain how that is permissible and understandable in an Einsteinian worldview.
A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 2 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/faster-than-light
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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THE 2019 ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLIN MATTHEW MEMORIAL LECTURE
PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIES
In the years after 1945 successive British governments set out to weaponise the nation's immigration policy. To maintain historic ties to the Old Commonwealth, and shore up Britain's position as a 'world power' they encouraged and even subsidised the emigration of over a million Britons while simultaneously recruiting thousands of East Europeans for new lives in Britain.
Yet in 1948, with the arrival of the Empire Windrush and the passing of the British Nationality Act, another, unplanned and unwanted migration was set in train.
A lecture by David Olusoga OBE, University of Manchester 1 October 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-traffic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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After the UN Climate Action Summit in September, our Environment Professor will be talking to three experts about whether we still have a meaningful chance of averting a climate catastrophe, and how we can get there. The Extinction Rebellion protests pushed climate up the news agenda early in 2019, but what has happened since then, and what is happening globally?
Professor Vicky Pope will discuss the challenges of climate modelling and reduction of emissions; Dr Damien Short will talk about why we need to legislate against Ecocide; and Professor Geoffrey Beattie will discuss the psychology that stops us from taking action.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Dr Damien Short, Vicky Pope and Professor Geoffrey Beattie 30 September
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/avert-climate-catastrophe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Spain became a byword for cruelty in much of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whether it was the brutality of American colonisation, the tyranny of the Spanish Inquisition or the horrors of the Eighty Years' War in the Netherlands.
This lecture will survey this 'black legend' and ask what made it so enduring - and why some parts of the story, such as the Inquisition's genocidal campaign against Spanish Jews, received so much less attention than others.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 25 September 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/spains-black-legend
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The great Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev didn't have the talents to become an artist or the money to become a patron. His gift was to inspire, facilitate and market artistic projects that were highly colourful and distinctive. In this lecture we follow his early years, when he published The World of Art, a provocative Russian journal, exhibited Russian visual art in Paris, and then brought Russian music there, culminating in his production of Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Gresham Professor of Music 24 September 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diaghilevs-beginnings
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When Alexander Korda teamed Michael Powell with Emeric Pressburger in 1939, a lasting partnership between this Englishman and refugee Hungarian must have seemed unlikely. Yet they soon discovered a remarkable bond, pushing each other far beyond what they could do separately, and creating a unique body of filmmaking.
This lecture explores how the partnership worked during the 1940s, drawing in collaborators from many backgrounds who also gave of their best, and benefiting from the unique conditions of wartime Britain.
A lecture by Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media 23 September 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/archers-assemble
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The hammerblow introduction to Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony and the iconic four-note opening motif of the 5th Symphony, the unresolved start of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, the sensuously meandering melody that begins Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and the identical fanfare that opens both Monteverdi's opera Orfeo and his 1610 Vespers.
This lecture looks at how composers of all periods have risen to the challenge of how to write a memorable musical opening sentence.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly, Visiting Professor of Music History 19 September 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musical-openings
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Before he became King of England in 1603 James I had never set foot in an English royal palace. What he found when he did was a mixed blessing: he may have liked the grandeur and riches, but he hated the stuffy formality. His answer was to create an entirely new sort of country residence devoted to hunting, reading and relaxation with his male favourites.
Architecturally incoherent these places may have been, but James's remarkable forgotten country houses tell us a huge amount about the man and the dawn of the Stuart age.
A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 18 September 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-court-at-play
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2019 GRAY'S INN READING
Lord Kerr intends to address the recent decision in Stocker v Stocker and the challenges which confront judges when required to take on the role of a jury in applying a common-sense approach to the meaning of words. He will try to consider and reflect on the essential role of the Courts in upholding individual rights and how best this role can be performed whilst also ensuring that decisions accord with society's broader expectations of justice.
A lecture by Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore PC QC, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdomw 20 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/grays-inn-reading-2019
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2019 PROVOST'S LECTURE
A century has passed since the establishment of the ill-fated Weimar Republic, founded in August 1919 and superseded 14 years later by the Nazi dictatorship.
Sir Richard Evans, one of the world's foremost authorities on modern German history, asks why the Republic failed in its attempt to make Germany democratic, and what lessons can be learned for the future of democracy in the 21st century.
A lecture by Sir Richard Evans, Historian and Provost of Gresham College 18 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/weimar-republic-germany-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2019 SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTURE
A special illustrated lecture will be presented by Dr John Guy to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the birth of the College's founder and benefactor Sir Thomas Gresham. Information will be provided about a new biography.
A lecture by Dr John Guy, Author of 'Gresham's Law: The Life and World of Queen Elizabeth I's Banker' 13 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/thomas-gresham-1519-2019
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Jonathan Bate will explore the life and work of the original celebrity poet - Lord Byron.
He will show how Byron was simultaneously a Romantic and an anti-Romantic, and how his influence spread to almost every corner of Europe, from the Russia of Pushkin to the Greek War of Independence.
A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 11 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/byron-age-of-sensation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Over the course of her Professorship, Professor Delahunty has striven to talk openly about the way in which the Family Court deals with emotive and challenging issues such as sexual abuse, child death in infancy, child neglect and child exploitation.
At what personal cost is that work undertaken? How can one delete the retinal images of abuse after the case has ended?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 6 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/family-lawyer-stress-distress
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are perhaps the most important decisions that a company ever faces, yet very many deals destroy substantial value.
This talk will discuss the correct and incorrect motives for M&A, using both examples and large-scale evidence. It will discuss the conflicts of interest that may lead investment banks to persuade clients to do value-destroying deals, and ways to motivate these conflicts. It will also critically analyse policy proposals to reform M&A, e.g. a national interest test.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 5 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mergers-acquisitions-value
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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A century has passed since the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. After WWI the treaty imposed peace terms which have remained the subject of controversy ever since. It also attempted to set up a new international order to ensure that there would never again be such a destructive war as that of 1914-18.
Professor MacMillan, a specialist in British imperial history and the international history of the 19th and 20th centuries, will consider if the treaty led to the outbreak of the Second World War and whether the attempt to create a new world order was a failure.
A lecture by Margaret MacMillan, Professor of History University of Toronto 4 June 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/treaty-of-versailles-100-years
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the 330s BCE, the great philosopher and scientist, Aristotle of Stagira in northern Greece, returned to Athens and founded his Lyceum. The first institution in world history to encompass teaching, research and the collection of a vast library, the Lyceum immediately began to revive even Plato's Academy in international reputation.
This lecture looks at the archaeological site of the Lyceum, discovered accidentally in 1996, and asks how the remains can illuminate Aristotle's life, work, and incomparable contribution across academic disciplines, from Political Theory and Aesthetics to Zoology, Physics and Astronomy.
A lecture by Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics 30 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/aristotle-lyceum
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2019 JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL LECTURE
This talk looks at mathematical modelling of real, complex fluids in flow situations - some with serious commercial applications, and some just for fun.
Focusing on the chocolate fountain, we experience one of the key day-to-day tools of an applied mathematician, scaling analysis, to answer the question: why doesn't the chocolate fall straight down?
A lecture by Helen Wilson, Professor of Applied Mathematics University College London 29 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-gets-messy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Computers are often parodied as machines that kill creativity. Yet modern works of creativity usually have a digital aspect, and many are wholly digital. We will look at technology that enables creativity (not always of a good kind) and the prospects for a machine to create works of art. We will examine computer- created artefacts and ask if we can tell if the creator was human or artificial.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology 28 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/creativity-computers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The very young and very elderly are particularly susceptible to many infections and for many infections, age will predict how likely someone is to die once infected. The immediate and long-term effects of an infection changes throughout our life course. Some infections which if caught as a child are usually relatively trivial are likely to be much more severe in young adults including mumps and chickenpox.
Other infections present in very different ways depending on the age of the sufferer; for example, severe malaria in young children is a completely different disease from severe malaria in adults although the parasite is the same. Otherwise trivial infections can have major effects in pregnant women or particularly on their unborn babies; examples include rubella and Zika. Several vaccines work differently in different age groups. This changing pattern of what makes disease severe as we progress from the first trimester of pregnancy by stages through to becoming very elderly has implications for treatment and prevention of disease.
A lecture by Chris Whitty CB, Gresham Professor of Physic 22 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-as-we-age
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There is much in the universe we will never know, and it is equally certain that we will never know all that we do not know. This dilemma has not stopped cosmologists, philosophers and even theologians from exploring and going beyond the limits of space and time.
A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 22 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/limits-of-knowledge
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In recent years, multiple space missions have been launched. Many have set out across our galaxy to explore other systems and planets, capturing people's imaginations and helping us to understand more about the origins of the universe. But there are also a myriad of space missions and platform that are sending data back to earth that are telling us about how earth is changing. Today the earth is opening up its secrets as never before.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 21 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/exploring-earth-from-space
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace (1953) was an adaptation of Tolstoy's novel begun during WWII. He saw it as a personal interpretation of the novel, but as soon as it went forward for production, the Soviet authorities realised that this was the perfect opportunity for creating a rousing epic wartime drama. A succession of cultural officials left their imprint on the work, requiring Prokofiev to make hundreds of changes and write new scenes. The composer did not live to see a complete performance on stage.
A lecture by Marina Frolova Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 21 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prokofiev-war-peace
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The origin of life is one of the biggest questions in science, but until recently it was, experimentally, a question in chemistry. Now, gene sequences and a better understanding of cell growth under extreme conditions are giving insights from biology. These point to hydro-thermal vent environments as 'incubators' that could drive growth in a similar way to cells at the origin of life.
Professor Lane will discuss how these ideas are being tested in the lab.
A lecture by Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry University College London 20 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/energy-matter-origin-of-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Touch is central to the performance of medicine. Traditionally, doctors depended on touch to diagnose illness. Revolutions in imaging technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence seem to reduce the need for physical examination. Yet touch is not only about gathering information but is how we express compassion and care.
This lecture considers how 'gnostic' touch (identifying disease) and 'pathic' touch (conveying care) are becoming separated by technological developments, and asks what we can do to ensure that touch remains central in connecting doctors and patients.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 28 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/staying-in-touch-patients
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The word Romanticism makes us think of mountain tops and stormy seas, but the younger generation of English Romantics (above all, John Keats) were Londoners through and through. They were even mocked as 'the Cockney School of Poetry'.
Jonathan Bate will track Keats to Hampstead and tell of the extraordinary circle of writers - opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, essayist Charles Lamb, master-critic William Hazlitt - who wrote for The London Magazine, until its gifted editor was killed in a duel with a rival critic.
A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate FBA, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 14 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cockney-romantics-john-keats
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Wilks will discuss the argument that 'superintelligent' AI may turn against us, as Hawking and Bostrom have warned. It will be argued that these worries misrepresent the achievements and potential of AI, and that the ethical dilemmas of AI will be deeper and more challenging than just managing idleness due to automation, or how to blame an automated car in a crash. They will include how to treat the artificial Companions created to curate our own lifetimes of information.
A lecture by Professor Yorick Wilks, Visiting Professor of AI 14 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/danger-ai-ethics-work-leisure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It's a tough time to be a listener. Our present-day cultures of listening are radically fragmented, as our time and attention are fractalised into bits of information. What's the future of listening? What will happen to the ways we give attention to music in the future? Our conclusion might be that an expanded definition of listening - an active, participative, engaged listening! - can save our digital and musical futures from the fates they seem to be facing.
A lecture by Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 13 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/digital-listening-fragmentation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This series has argued that the origins of modern secularism lie in the age of the Renaissance. This last lecture will track that legacy down to the present. From Tom Paine through Bakunin to modern humanism and anti-Nazism, religion has not collapsed intellectually. Instead, religious impulses - defiance of unwelcome moral authority, the quest for ever-deeper truths, a readiness to judge churches by their own standards - have given our age a profoundly secular ethic with deeply religious roots.
A lecture by Professor Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 9 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/jesus-hitler-abolition-of-god
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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'Go to the Exchange, crave gold as you intend.'' (William Haughton, Englishmen for My Money, 1598). Sir Thomas Gresham's first great contribution to the life of London was the Royal Exchange, the purpose-built merchants' bourse which opened in 1567.
Why did Gresham finance and build it? What did Londoners (and others) do there? And what does the Exchange tell us about Gresham's ambitions both for himself and for London?
A lecture by Professor Stephen Alford, University of Leeds 8 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/greshams-exchange
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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There is far more to piano accompaniment than meets the ear or eye. Vocal celebrities are reliant on an accompanist's skills in indisputably great music composed for an equal partnership of voice and piano, and yet the hard-working pianist's public profile seldom matches that of the singer. Skills developed over many years are often accorded faint praise and small fees.
Graham Johnson examines a problematic profession that continues to attract many gifted young pianists to its ranks and asks why.
A lecture by Graham Johnson OBE, British classical pianist and Lieder accompanist 7 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unacclaimed-accompanist
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What happens when doctors and parents cannot agree on whether a child should be given experimental medical treatment? Why is there any question mark over a parent's right to decide if medical treatment for their child continues?
From the parents of Ashya King who successfully secured proton beam therapy for their son to the despair surrounding baby Charlie Gard and his life-limiting genetic disorder: how does the court make decisions that can potentially prolong life or bring about the death of a child?
In this lecture, Professor Jo Delahunty is joined by Dr Imogen Goold.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC and Dr Imogen Goold, Gresham Professor of Law and Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford 2 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/child-medical-treatment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The newly discovered Salvator by Leonardo, the world's most costly picture, is one of his most notable creations, in which he used his 'science of art' to transform a stock subject into a profound expression of the ineffability of the divine.
We will look at the remarkable story of its discovery, its conservation and scientific examination, the research into how it works as an image and its provenance. We will also look at the scandalous events of its ownership and how it came to be where it is now.
A lecture by Martin Kemp, University of Oxford 1 May 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leonardo-salvator-mundi
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Pollution is a much more complex problem than many realise and cannot be resolved solely through global and regional agreements. Pollution is closely connected with behavioural and technology choices, production and consumption practices, industrial processes and pricing policies, financial and business sector orientation and a culture of consumerism and irresponsibility to the environment and impacts on people's health. Only by changing behaviours can we tackle pollution.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 30 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pollution-inequality-health
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Much has happened in the 500 years since the birth of Thomas Gresham, and mathematics is no exception. Most mathematicians were then in awe of the Greeks and felt little had been done since. But the start of modern mathematics soon followed, marked by the solution of the cubic equation. Mathematics has grown explosively since then and we are now in an age of great discovery.
The last 500 years of progress in maths will be reviewed, to see where it is going next and ask whether we are truly living in a mathematical Golden Age.
A lecture by Chris Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry 30 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/500-years-mathematics-golden-age
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Recent advances in medical science have brought complex ethical dilemmas, particularly around the beginning of human lives (abortion, embryo research, IVF, gene therapy, stem cells) and its ending (switching off ventilators, persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 'dying with dignity' or assisted suicide).
Although none of these topics occurs directly in the New Testament, references to 'life' abound, and healing was the centre of Jesus' earthly ministry. Can our approach enable the Biblical material to assist contemporary medical debates?
A lecture by Richard Burridge, Visiting Professor of Ethics and Theology 25 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/meaning-value-sanctity-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Since the financial crisis, there has been a strong view that the financial sector has little benefit for society. The stock market is not a net supplier of capital - as much money is spent on share buybacks as is raised from new issuance. Moreover, most stock market trading is speculative side-bets between investors, with no new money being raised by firms.
This talk will show that stock market trading may contribute to society even if does not lead to firms raising new capital.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 24 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-finance-benefit-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Volcanoes provide many natural resources from which society can benefit. Diamonds and most of the world's copper are mined from eroded extinct volcanoes while many active volcanoes offer the possibility of extracting huge amounts of geothermal energy. The volcanic processes that transport diamonds to the Earth's surface and enrich copper beneath volcanoes, show how volcanoes can be a major energy and resource.
A lecture by Richard Herrington, Head of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum 17 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mining-volcanoes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Text is everywhere. From tweets to the gigantic records of governments, machine processing of text is now subtle and pervasive. We can automatically identify authors of works, look for disease within tweets and even construct chatbots which can convince some people that these machines are human.
In this lecture, we provide a brief history of text processing and look towards the future when the computer sonnet or love poem might become a reality.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology 16 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/text-mining
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Tudor London is variously reported as a squalid seething mass of humanity choking on its own filth and fumes, and as a delightful garden where babbling brooks and sweet flowers delighted the senses of people such as Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Erasmus.
Drawing on evidence from contemporary maps, paintings and writings, and modern environmental science, the lecture will offer a 'virtual' walk around the City with Sir Thomas Gresham, evaluating these different perspectives on the City's air, water, soil and wildlife.
A lecture by Carolyn Roberts, Emerita Professor of the Environment 10 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/natural-environment-tudor-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will consider the current reality of AI in education and its transformative potential.
Professor Luckin will introduce what we mean by the term AI and how the development of increasingly smart technologies in the workplace and home requires us to change how and what we teach and learn. It will be explained how AI is already supporting the teaching and learning process, with speculation about the possible futures that AI might provide in order to help us tackle our greatest educational challenges.
A lecture by Rose Luckin, University College London 9 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-education-reality-potential
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the 50 years since the hospice movement started, lessons from research have revolutionised care of the dying in the UK and in many places around the world. Yet the cruel myth that opioids shorten the lives of those with severe pain from cancer and other diseases leaves many denied the treatment they deserve. Those watching the person they love die carry the memory for the rest of their lives.
The concept of a 'good death', and how it can be achieved will be discussed, including the importance of open conversations with children being bereaved. Discussion will also tackle some of the issues around physician- assisted suicide and euthanasia.
A lecture by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Independent Crossbench member of the House of Lords 9 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dying-today
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Location shooting was a feature of 'new wave' film around the world in the 1960s. In Britain, it meant that British filmmakers broke out of the studio to find new subjects among the young, fashionable and disadvantaged, seen in their natural habitats - not only in the North and Midlands, but in unfamiliar parts of London.
A lecture by Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media 8 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/new-wave-british-cinema-1960s
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Protestant Reformation set out to purge Christianity of error. But once you have started, how do you know when to stop? Some radicals tore up layer upon layer of tradition in the tireless search for deeper truths, proving their faith by their refusal to believe.
This lecture will track these radical quests and show how they could lead to positions like those of Baruch Spinoza or Thomas Hobbes: God may still exist but is almost wholly out of reach.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 4 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/spiritual-quest-against-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The fourth lecture in this series considers Britain's unique cultural development and how the changing balance of power and wealth between the aristocracy and the monarchy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century has fundamentally influenced today's national cultural landscape of art and architecture.
A lecture by Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 3 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/crown-country-cultural-supremacy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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FULBRIGHT LECTURE
Government officials in the UK and the USA have struggled to find effective ways to regulate political spending on the internet. The question of appropriate regulation is challenging - both in practice and principle.
Professor Ringhand discusses how officials in the United Kingdom and the United States have approached the problem, and how they have faced surprisingly similar challenges despite the different underlying approaches to political campaign financing taken by each nation.
A lecture by Lori Ringhand, University of Georgia and University of Aberdeen 2 April 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/political-spending-internet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Our gut is permanently full of large numbers of bacteria and other organisms but serious infections relatively rarely occur due to its extraordinary immune system. Infections of these organs can, however, occur in specific situations. Specialised bacteria and parasites can damage the gut or its functions including direct invasion or toxins. The liver can be damaged by hepatitis viruses, parasites and other infections.
Common gut bacteria (Gram negative bacteria) which in their normal place inside the gut cause no serious problems occasionally bypass the body's defences and can set up serious infections including septicaemia. Public health including the sanitation movement reduced but has not eliminated transmission of these potentially dangerous infections. This lecture will consider infections that normally live inside our gut, how the body keeps them there and what happens when this fails.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 27 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-abdominal-organs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1932) was more a personal than a political drama. All was well for the first two years after the opera's première in 1934, but shortly after Stalin went to a performance, it was vigorously condemned in the state press. The pretext was the opera's music, but it is more likely that the plot and especially the staging offended against the conservative turn in the social morality now promoted by the state. When a revival became possible, Shostakovich chose to rework the opera, renaming it Katerina Izmailova.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 26 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shostakovich-lady-macbeth-mtsensk
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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As music gets quiet, so too must listening. But what do the contexts and ideologies of quiet music and quieter listening mean? From different eras, and radically opposed musical traditions, Richard Wagner's innovations in his theatre at Bayreuth (forcing his audience to sit in near-total darkness and silence) have striking similarities to theories and practices of listening developed by modernist and post-modernist composers, from Karlheinz Stockhausen to Pauline Oliveros and her Deep Listening Band. What's happening to our listening bodies in these deep listening contexts?
A lecture by Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 25 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/deep-listening-quiet-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Understanding changing relationships between human and non-human animals is central to our world today.
This lecture starts by looking at early-modern understandings of the nature of 'animal' and 'human' life, before turning to the rise of 'rights of animals'. It concludes by investigating late twentieth and early twenty-first century thought about evolution, the Great Apes, and liberationist and ecology movements.
A lecture by Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History 21 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cruelty-to-animals
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The English Aristocracy is often seen as a rural elite concentrating its patronage of art and architecture in the countryside.
This lecture questions this view and shows how, from the sixteenth century, aristocratic families deployed their collections and commissioned their buildings in both town and country in order to further their political and dynastic ambitions.
A lecture by Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 20 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/art-power-english-aristocratic-house
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Machine Learning has had several excitements over the years with machines that are modelled on the human brain. The invention of the perceptron and artificial neural networks were followed by intense scientific activity and excitement, then by disappointment at a number of unappreciated deficiencies. The latest craze are deep neural networks.
In this lecture, we will explore how deep learning works, what it can do and if neural networks are a modern miracle or yet another false dawn.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 19 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/deep-learning
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Early 'atheism' did not always mean angry rejection of religion. The most earnest believers were often ones who wrestled most seriously with doubts.
This lecture will look at how and why Christians in the seventeenth century first began seriously to wrestle with unbelief, whether troubled by feelings that God was absent, worries about religious variety or fear of damnation. What made these doubts so powerful was that their roots were not philosophical, but emotional.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 14 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/puritan-atheist
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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At the time of writing, it appears that Britain will leave the European Union on 29th March at 11 pm British time, 12 midnight Continental time. How will Britain fare outside the European Union? And how will Brexit affect British politics? Will the Britain of 2020 become like the Britain of 1972, the year before we joined the European Community, precursor of the European Union - or has our 46 year membership of European institutions led to irreversible changes in our constitution and system of government?
A lecture by Vernon Bogdanor, Emeritus Professor of Law 13 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brexit-future-of-britain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Mathematics education is changing rapidly and a big driver for this is the use of new technology. In particular the widespread use of computers has transformed the way that we do mathematics, with computers not only able to mark exam papers, but also to do the algebra required to answer the questions.
In this talk, we will look at the modern developments of computer based teaching and learning. At the same time we examine those parts of teaching maths which require the human touch and look forward to a future of maths education where computers and human teachers work well together.
A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 12 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/learn-maths-future
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The valuable bequest of Sir Thomas Gresham to the development of scientific interest in seventeenth-century England can be traced through the testimony of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn - not only great diarists but also 'particular friends'.
A lecture by Margaret Willes, Independent Writer and Scholar 11 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-pepys-and-evelyn
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Cuts to legal aid, the concept of online justice, diversity within the legal profession and the judiciary, the independence of the Judiciary from the State, the impact the press can have on perceptions of fairness of justice: this lecture explores the controversial issue of how the politics of the day or decade can affect the way in which the Justice system functions in private and is perceived by the public.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 7 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/politics-and-legal-profession
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In 431 BCE the Athenian statesman Pericles delivered one of the most influential speeches of all time, his Epitaphios or Funeral Oration. The occasion was at the funeral of the first Athenian soldiers to lose their lives in the Peloponnesian War. This lecture examines the history of this beautiful site, the momentous occasion on which Pericles spoke, and the ways in which his speech, recorded by the historian Thucydides who was present at its delivery, has informed subsequent epoch-making orations from Lincoln at Gettysburg to Kennedy and Obama.
A lecture by Edith Hall, Gresham Professor of Business 6 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pericles-funeral-oration-cemetery
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Poor stewardship by investors has been argued to be a cause of poor corporate governance. Moreover, when investors do engage with companies, they do so to increase short-term profit at the expense of long-run value.
This talk will critically analyse the evidence on whether shareholder activism is beneficial for long-term value and suggest policies to promote the 'good' type of shareholder engagement. It will stress that reform must extend far beyond asset managers to the entire investment industry.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 6 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stewardship-role-investors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Thomas Gresham lived from 1519 to 1579. The first telescope was designed in 1608 in the Netherlands, and first pointed at the heavens by Galileo a year later. The greatest discoveries since the pre-telescope era have been that of the existence of many other planets around distant stars, and the vastness of the universe.
So much has happened since Gresham's era, yet many of the questions about our cosmic origins still remain.
A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 6 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/astronomy-gresham-21st-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Worldwide, over 80 plant species are known to cause poisoning from nitrate accumulation. But droughts are exacerbating this for many staple crops. Even after a drought, the growth in water-stressed crops can result in the build-up of other toxins. Global warming is also helping to spread mycotoxins, with 25 per cent of cereals worldwide estimated to be contaminated and 4.5 billion people exposed to uncontrolled levels. We will need an aggressive strategy to ensure the safety of agricultural yields and food in the future especially in drought- prone and even temperate zones.
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 5 March 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/food-security-plant-adaptation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Is 'morality' principally about sex, or 'naughty vicars'? Despite Henry VIII, the Church has found divorce difficult, especially for clergy and bishops, let alone 'equal marriage' for same-sex couples, the role of women in ordained ministry or transgender issues.
This lecture examines the relevant references in the New Testament (which are surprisingly fewer than references to money or violence) particularly in the context of ancient Jewish and Roman assumptions. Can a 'biblical' view of sexuality and gender assist today's ethical debates?
A lecture by Richard Burridge, Visiting Professor of Ethics and Theology 28 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gender-marriage-divorce-sexuality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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People often think that surgery is about the skill of a single surgeon. In fact operations depend on teamwork, with nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists and technicians all playing vital roles as they work together. Experts outside medicine need similar skills and have much to teach clinicians.
This lecture introduces Rachel Warr, a leading puppeteer and dramaturg. After Rachel demonstrates how she and her colleagues bring puppets to life, we will discuss how her expertise in dexterity, team-working and preparation for performance can shed light on the world of surgery.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 27 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lone-heroic-surgeon
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Parasites can dramatically change the behaviour of their hosts. A parasitic worm turns a tropical ant berry-red and causes it to climb high, attractive prey for birds, the worm's next host. A mouse infected by toxoplasma gondii no longer fears cats - making it easier for the parasite to be eaten by its next host, a cat. A jewel wasp precisely injects neurotoxins into its cockroach prey's brain. These parasite manipulations can tell us how brains, including our own, work normally.
A lecture by Dr Tristram Wyatt, Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford 26 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/parasites-controlling-behaviour-brain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Britain's pioneer filmmaker, born 150 years ago in North London, vividly portrayed the variety of life in 'the imperial metropolis' at the end of the 19th century, conscious of its historic appeal but also emphasising the modernity of which he was a part.
A lecture by Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media 25 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/robert-paul-native-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There are an estimated 800 million people living close enough to active volcanoes to be affected when they erupt. As well as casualties from volcanic eruptions there can be major economic losses and societal disruption, especially when communities have to be evacuated. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April-May 2010 did not kill anyone but disrupted the travel of millions of people and cost the airline industry billions of dollars. This highlighted the increasing vulnerability of modern globalised societies.
New approaches to volcanic hazard assessment and risk management are emerging as more information is required to respond to volcanic emergencies - illustrated by approaches to some recent eruptions, such as the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat.
A lecture by Sir Stephen Sparks, Visiting Professor of Geology 20 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/volcanoes-society
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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One of the most mysterious experiences that we come across in psychiatry is 'Psychosis', which refers to a loss of contact with reality. It has many causes and manifestations and it poses major challenges to our understanding.
Professor Fletcher proposes that it can be understood in terms of the normal functioning of the mind, which seeks to construct a working model of reality even though it has very little direct contact with that reality.
A lecture by Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at University of Cambridge 19 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/inhabiting-different-reality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The lung has a large surface area, is open to the outside world and is the site for some of the most common serious infections, in particular pneumonia. Several bacteria, viruses and some less common lung infections including tuberculosis and fungal disease can damage the lung, and some occupations and pastimes increase this risk.
The heart is less susceptible to infection but infections of the heart valves or structures around the heart, and heart muscle inflammation can be severe. Some lung infections are becoming less common due to vaccination, whilst others are likely to increase globally. Infections via the respiratory route are often the most difficult to combat via public health measures.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 13 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-lung-heart
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Human vision seems so effortless: from a young age we see the world in high- definition colour. We can tell the difference between a cat and a hat, and 'The man who mistook his wife for a hat' is an anomaly. But despite recent progress, machines still confuse wives for hats.
In this lecture, we will examine the phenomenon of computer vision, show how to build a computer vision system and discuss the expectations for the future.
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 12 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computer-vision
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The world's population is rapidly expanding and the majority of this population will live in large city conurbations. What will out future cities look like? How will transport system work, how will people move around, and how will we supply them with energy and remove their waste? What sort of houses will people live in in the future and what will our communities look like? The lecture will show how mathematical models can help us understand how cities work and how they might evolve in the future.
A lecture by Chris Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry 12 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-future-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Musicians make sounds - that much, you'd have thought, is obvious! Yet more than the sounds they make, it's the choices that musicians are making about how and when to play that really matter - choices that are made through listening.
John Cage is a composer who revolutionised 20th century music through the choices he has made. This lecture will explore Cage's music, focusing on his most famous piece 4'33". This will be then followed by an interview with pianist and composer Rolf Hind.
A lecture by Professor Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 11 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/communities-listeners-string-quartet-jazz-band-orchestra
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Although financial bubbles are in some sense banal and a feature of financial capitalism, the seeds of the next bubble are often sown by regulatory responses to previous ones. This has been the case since the South Sea Bubble and Mississippi Scheme, and has recurred at regular intervals in the intervening 300 years.
This lecture explores how regulators try to prevent what will hopefully be the 'last' bubble and suggests that the most effective regulatory frameworks were developed during the normal operation of markets, not in response to crises.
A lecture by Professor D'Maris Coffman, Professor of Economics and Finance of the Built Environment, UCL 7 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bubbles-market-failures-regulatory-responses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Forgiveness is often discussed as if it were a single, straightforward, phenomenon. The reality, however, is not so simple. For instance, we can identify three different types of forgiveness: inter-personal forgiveness, God's forgiveness, and self- forgiveness. Moreover there is variety within each of these main types, and connections between them.
In this lecture the varieties of forgiveness will be presented and the integrity, value and limits of each type explored.
A lecture by The Revd Dr Stephen Cherry, Dean at King's College Cambridge 7 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/forgiveness
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Global trade and traffic, many of Gresham's contemporaries would say, had altered sixteenth-century England beyond recognition, from its food, fashion, and language, to the look and feel of its cities and neighbourhoods. How did its subjects respond to this transformation?
Using contemporary print and theatre, this lecture will discuss how England and Englishness was defined, even as the boundaries between the home and the world became increasingly diffuse.
A lecture by Nandini Das, Professor of English Literature, University of Liverpool 6 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-global-traffic-trade-england
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Ruskin's Bicentenary on 8 February 2019 will be marked by an assessment of his achievement as an art critic. Then, with a close focus on four or five particular paintings, the lecture will explore Ruskin's distinctive genius in evocative word- painting as he celebrates and critiques Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites.
A lecture by Malcolm Andrews, Professor Emeritus of Victorian and Visual Studies, University of Kent 4 February 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ruskin-200
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Children Act 1989 embodied a change in philosophy by making the child's welfare the courts 'paramount' concern, moving away from the concept of parental rights towards the right of the child. It embraced the idea of shared parental rights and responsibilities and that children are best cared for within their families but not at the expense of suffering avoidable significant harm.
Has the Act done right by children since 1989? Has it adapted to the challenges of childhood and society?
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 31 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/30-anniversary-children-act-1989
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Stuart age saw a much more systematic approach to the elite patronage of art and architecture. Collectors and connoisseurs were more aware of the effect of their activities and the audiences for them. An integral part of the tumultuous political events of the century was the cultural ambition of the principal players who form the subject of this lecture.
A lecture by Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 30 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/architecture-images-stuarts
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Moon is undoubtedly the next frontier for humanity. The international space agencies are lining up to pursue lunar projects and even develop lunar bases. The potential of the Moon is attracting interest for industrial applications, including mining and tourism. It is essential to avoid many of the mistakes we have made on Earth as we plan the future of lunar exploration.
Professor Silk will describe the history of lunar exploration since 1969 and future plans for the Moon.
A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 30 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/50-years-lunar-exploration
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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In celebrating 500 years since the birth of Sir Thomas Gresham, Professor Jones will examine how changes since the sixteenth century have affected the evolution of human beings and that of the animals and plants around us.
Professor Jones will deal with the accelerating shifts in plants, animals and humans as they cope with human activities, from gold-mining to global warming, and will speculate about where life might be on Gresham's six- hundredth anniversary.
A lecture by Steve Jones, Visiting Professor of Genetics 29 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evolution-gresham-five-centuries
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Villainous atheists were, like witches, stock figures of the European imagination in the Renaissance. But when Shakespeare and his contemporaries put them on the stage, 'atheists' could be uncomfortably compelling.
This lecture will explore how the sixteenth century found ways of distancing itself from religion - like Christopher Marlowe, who raged against its moral constraints, or Michel de Montaigne, a devout Catholic who cloistered his faith in one honoured corner of his life where it would not be disturbed.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 24 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespearean-atheist
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The UK is considered a world leader in corporate governance, but governance failures are blamed for the loss of trust in business.
This talk will discuss rigorous evidence on what optimal governance should look like - including issues such as boardroom diversity, independence of directors, employee representation, and whether directors' fiduciary duty should be to shareholders or all of society. It will conclude that reform is indeed necessary, but on different issues to what is typically argued.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 23 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reforming-corporate-governance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Musorgsky's opera Boris Godunov (1872) is set in the 'Time of Troubles', using Pushkin's incisive verse tragedy on the chaotic period preceding the establishment of the Romanovs. Such a work was bound to draw the attention of the censors, and Musorgsky's two versions of the opera also led to various 'improved' versions that conflated scenes from each. Despite all the interference it has suffered, in any of its forms it remains a formidable exploration of power, as well as a highly moving personal drama.
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 22 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/musorgsky-boris-godunov
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Certain infections have a particular impact on the peripheral nerves as part of their normal disease process. Some infectious effects are predominately on the motor nerves such as polio (currently heading for eradication); these can cause weakness or paralysis. Other infections affect or invade the sensory nerves including leprosy and the common viral infection herpes zoster which initially presents as chickenpox. Some bacteria produce toxins which have powerful effects on the nerves including tetanus, diphtheria and botulinum.
This lecture will cover how infections can interfere with peripheral nerves and recent progress made against these debilitating diseases.
A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 16 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-nerves
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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We sometimes hear that 'we know more about Mars than the deep ocean', but is that true? Exploring the deep ocean is a recent enterprise, made possible by new technology in the past two centuries, but what we now know about the dark depths is as remarkable as the unknowns that remain.
This lecture examines the deep-sea discoveries that have transformed our understanding of our planet, and the history of exploring the deep ocean that covers most of it.
A lecture by Dr Jon Copley, University of Southampton 15 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dark-deep-ocean-planet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Berners-Lee's World Wide Web (WWW) was not his original aim, which was closer to what we now call the Semantic or Data Web (SW): documents and images where the system itself 'understands' its content as the WWW certainly does not, any more than a television knows what it is showing.
Professor Wilks will describe the Semantic Web and its origin in annotation methods from the humanities and will argue the need for this form of AI to manage a lifetime's information on the web.
A lecture by Yorick Wilks, Visiting Professor of AI 15 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/semantic-web-a-lifetime-of-information
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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What happens when we listen to music that incarnates a divine presence? From our early ancestors, whose listening in the caves of Europe 40 millennia ago opened up gateways to other worlds, sacred places have developed special acoustics for spiritual encounters across religious traditions from Buddhism to Christianity. That means special modes of listening, and unique musical repertoires: simultaneously directed outwards, towards the heavens, and inwards, sounding out the spaces that are sometimes called souls.
A lecture by Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 14 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sacred-listening-music-of-gods
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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London was crucially dependent on continental Europe for its economic resilience in the mid-sixteenth century, and Sir Thomas Gresham's fortune piggy-backed off the special relationship with Antwerp. But the Reformation put the relationship under real strain. This wasn't a sixteenth-century Brexit (the division was within Christendom), but it posed similar challenges. How did England cope?
A lecture by Dr Ian Archer, Keble College Oxford 9 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-london-europe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The 2019 Annual Lord Mayor's Event
The 2019 Annual Lord Mayor's Gresham Lecture will explore the so called 'digital skills crisis' and question whether this may present an opportunity? As the digital era unfolds and the future demands for talent become evident, what are the implications for our system of education?
Could the future provide for a more balanced approach to skills-based learning and the chance to at last draw on all of our talent? In short, we've seen new initiatives, but are more needed for the UK to position itself as a digitally creative and competitive nation, home to digitally enabled citizens?
A lecture by The Rt Hon Peter Estlin, The 691st Lord Mayor of the City of London 8 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/digital-skills-crisis-opportunity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
One of the biggest advances in modern technology has been the development of GPS systems which allow us to find our position to very high precision. GPS is just the latest advance in the science of navigation, which has had a profound effect on human civilisation.
This talk will show how mathematics has played a vital role in making navigation as accurate as it is today and the impact that this has had on us all. Indeed it is one of the few areas where Einstein's general theory of relativity directly impacts on our lives.
A lecture by Chris Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry 8 January 2019
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-where-we-are
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
At 3.00 pm on Christmas Eve, millions of listeners around the world will tune in to the live radio relay of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.
In this lecture, Jeremy Summerly reverently and enthusiastically celebrates the centenary of the world's most famous carol service and, with the help of live musical examples from the St Luke's Carollers, he traces the early history of this Christmas spectacular.
A lecture by Jeremy Summerly, Royal Academy of Music 13 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/carols-kings-centenary
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Executive pay is a controversial topic that is arguably the primary cause behind mistrust in business. Various remedies have been proposed but, just like in medicine, diagnosis precedes treatment. Many of the concerns are based on hand-picked examples and myths rather than rigorous data.
Evidence will be presented on which aspects of pay are working well and which are indeed dysfunctional, and on how pay should be reformed.
A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 12 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/executive-pay-fixed
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
When Daniel Defoe rode through the Lake District in the early 18th century, he described the area as 'the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over in England.' But for Victorians such as Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin, the Lakes offered a landscape of supreme beauty. How did this change come about?
Jonathan Bate will follow in the footsteps of the 18th-century inventors of the 'picturesque' and show how Wordsworth shaped the vision of his native region, leading to the foundation of the National Trust and the idea of a National Park.
A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 11 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/romantic-leakes-wordsworth-beatrix-potter
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Most of us have witnessed or had personal dealings with violent people. Why do they act as they do? How have British and American commentators during the past two centuries understood violent behaviour? The media incites anxieties about personal vulnerability; widespread innumeracy leads many people to misread crime-statistics; and an expectation of greater civility makes its breach so much more frightening. What can we do to reduce levels of violence in our society?
A lecture by Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History 6 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/understanding-violent-people
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The consultation is the focal point of medicine. A clinician and a patient, held together in a relationship of care, collaborate in identifying that patient's needs and finding a solution. Scientific knowledge and clinical skill only make sense in the context of that interaction. Each consultation is unique, a close-up live performance with a very small audience.
After describing key elements of the consultation, an expert in a different kind of close-up live performance will be introduced - Will Houstoun, a leading magician. After watching Will perform, similarities and differences will be explored through conversation.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 5 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dissecting-consultation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Half of all child deaths are associated with under-nutrition, with devastating impacts and far-reaching health consequences. Left unchecked, under-nutrition will potentially create an inter-generational, self-reinforcing pathogenic cycle of violence and behavioural disruption, that can spread around the world through human migration. Eradicating malnutrition requires that more nutritious food is accessible to the poor and vulnerable. Beyond this, there is a deeper question.
Is it possible to restore the cognitive loss resulting from malnutrition, using new artificial intelligence and cognitive models?
A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 4 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/childhood-malnutrition
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Over the past 150 years medical science has developed beyond all recognition yet there is a huge gap between these scientific developments on the one hand, and our understanding of the psychological demands of medical work on the other.
This lack of psychological mindedness permeates the profession from selection into medical school onwards and results in worrying levels of mental distress amongst doctors, and ultimately poorer outcomes for patients.
A lecture by Dr Caroline Elton, Occupational Psychologist 3 December 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/missing-from-medical-training
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
2018 saw a seismic change in the willingness of women to speak out about sexual abuse they had suffered at work and the willingness of others to hear and act on it. This year (2018) saw the creation of a #metoo movement called 'Behind the Gown' created by a group of barristers committed to tackling sexual harassment at the Bar.
This lecture frankly confronts the anecdotal evidence and suggests ways in which we can learn from it.
A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 29 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sexual-harrassment-bar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Medea, Antigone, Oedipus and Lysistrata - these are just some of the characters from ancient Greek drama who still walk our contemporary stages and haunt our imagination. One of the classical Athenians' most important inventions was the medium of theatre.
From the mid-sixth century BCE they gathered to watch tragedies, and later comedies in their sanctuary of the wine-god Dionysus on the south slope of the Acropolis. This lecture outlines the origins of Greek drama in this historic setting, its architectural development and some of the greatest masterpieces.
A lecture by Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics 29 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-dionysus
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Where did we come from? This question has always intrigued human thought.
Professor Silk will describe the modern scientist's view of the origin of the cosmos. Here is the sequence: from an uncertain beginning, due to limitations in our knowledge that arise from our ongoing search for a theory that unites quantum theory with gravity, to a primordial ball of fire. Glowing embers condensed from the expanding and cooling fireball to form the billions of galaxies and stars that glitter in the night sky.
A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 28 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/in-the-beginning
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Alexa, Siri and Cortana are among a number of voice-enabled digital assistants that can not only speak to us but understand us. Sci-fi films had talking computers many years ago.
Why has it taken so long to crack the speech processing puzzle? Why do we find speech processing so effortless and machines find it so daunting? And what progress can we expect in the next few years?
A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 27 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speech-processing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With over 80% of organic carbon being present in the form of cellulose, lignin and starch, it is unsurprising many groups have attempted to use these as feedstock chemicals and materials. Extensive hydrogen bonding makes the plasticisation of starch and the dissolution of cellulose difficult.
This talk shows that the incorporation of a simple salt can lead to a flexible plastic with mechanical properties similar to oil derived plastics. Most importantly these plastics are recyclable and ultimately compostable.
A lecture by Andrew Abbott, University of Leicester 26 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/plastics-potatoes-rubber-rice
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The brain is well protected against most infections, but once they get into or around the brain they can cause fatal or serious long-term consequences. Some bacterial, viral and parasitic infections are particularly well adapted to the brain, ranging from meningococcal meningitis and encephalitis to cerebral malaria and sleeping sickness.
Transmission is by several routes including airborne and via mosquitoes and ticks. Control measures including vaccination have reduced the risk of some, but not all, of these very serious infections. This lecture will cover how infections get into the brain, what their effect is and what we can do to prevent and treat them.
A lecture by Chris Whitty CB, Gresham Professor of Physic 21 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-brain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Romantics invented the modern idea of childhood.
In the third of his lectures on the rhetoric of Romanticism, Jonathan Bate will explore how they did so, with particular emphasis on the role of children in the poetry of Blake and Wordsworth. He will also show how Wordsworth's memory of his own childhood allowed him to invent something else as well: the art of poetic autobiography.
A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 20 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/romantic-child
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The rousing finale of Mikhail Glinka's patriotic A Life for the Tsar (1836) guaranteed it a place as the traditional season opener in Russian opera houses. A Life was a powerful and attractive presentation of the Romanov dynasty's foundation myth, but it is also considered the first true Russian opera, since its predecessors relied heavily on foreign models. A century later, with a modified libretto and a new title, it was given a new lease on life as an equally patriotic Soviet opera, Ivan Susanin (1939).
A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker, Visiting Professor of Russian Music 20 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/glinka-life-for-the-tsar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Shh! You're in a classical concert - quiet! What has become, in the 20th and 21st centuries, a musical tradition of as-quiet-as-possible, cough-free contemplation and passive disengagement in concert halls was not always that way. In fact, it wasn't ever that way: the way that audiences listen is inscribed in the fabric of music of the last millennium in Western classical music, a spectrum that encompasses everything from silent meditation to explosive applause.
In this lecture, we will introduce the idea of musical works as tools for listening, from Mozart to Mahler, from medieval repertoires to minimalism.
A lecture by Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 19 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/classical-music-noisy-listening
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Many claims have been made, both positive and negative, for the transformative nature of internet news in the age of social media. An historical perspective is brought to that debate, by looking at the effects that earlier changes to news production have had for politics, society and commerce.
It focuses on two major revolutions - the creation of the mass media in the 19th century, and the broadcasting revolution of the 20th century. What can we learn from history about how deeply the internet could transform news in the 21st century? And how does it relate to broader social and economic trends?
A lecture by Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow at City University London 15 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/internet-news-250-years-technology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Huge volcanic eruptions are the only natural hazard apart from the impact of an asteroid that can cause a global catastrophe. In the short history of civilisation, there have been few volcanic events with global effects. Much larger magnitude eruptions happened regularly in the millions of years previous. Such extreme eruptions perturb global climate for years and can have severe environmental consequences.
The modern world is vulnerable to large volcanic events, making the study of their return periods, possible environmental effects and consequences a key goal of volcanology.
A lecture by Sir Stephen Sparks CBE, Visiting Professor of Geology 14 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/volcanic-eruptions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With over 80% of organic carbon being present in the form of cellulose, lignin and starch, it is unsurprising many groups have attempted to use these as feedstock chemicals and materials. Extensive hydrogen bonding makes the plasticisation of starch and the dissolution of cellulose difficult.
This talk shows that the incorporation of a simple salt can lead to a flexible plastic with mechanical properties similar to oil derived plastics. Most importantly these plastics are recyclable and ultimately compostable.
A lecture by Andrew Abbott, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Leicester 26 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/plastics-potatoes-rubber-rice
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Climate change is important, controversial, and the subject of huge debate. Much of our understanding of the future climate comes from the use of complex climate models based on mathematical and physical ideas.
In this talk, Professor Budd will describe how these models work and the assumptions that go into them. He will discuss how reliable our predictions of climate change are, and show how mathematicians can give us insights into both past and future.
A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Professor of Geometry 13 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-climate-change
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Jesus talked more about money than about anything else. Can the teachings of a penniless ancient ascetic be applied to debates about Brexit, protests about global capitalism, and wider investment not only in defence, alcohol or tobacco but also positively in the environment, sustainability and good governance?
Professor Burridge considers ethical material across the New Treatment, drawing upon experience as the Deputy Chair of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group.
A lecture by The Revd Canon Richard Burridge, Visiting Professor of Ethics and Theology 8 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/money-evil-or-salvation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will re-examine how the First World War ended, anticipating the centenary commemorations in 2018. It will discuss both why Germany requested a ceasefire, and why the Allies and America granted one. It will argue that the German army was near collapse, and that Germany was not defeated by a 'stab in the back' at home. None the less, the Allies had good reasons not to press on to Berlin.
A lecture by David Stevenson, Professor of International History at LSE 7 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ending-wwi-11-november
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Leading actor and Shakespeare scholar Michael Pennington discusses the direct effect on the dramatist's writing of the theatres he wrote for, so different from ours. From cinematic intimacy to heroic spaciousness, his plays reflect his actors' technique and the social range of his audience, allowing him the means to look further and deeper into the human condition, its public and inner life, than any dramatist has achieved before or since.
A lecture by Michael Pennington, Actor and Founder of the English Shakespeare Company 6 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-stages
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Wilks will discuss the notion of an artificial Companion, a long-term software agent that could be present in any device: a screen, handbag or even a furry toy - and which understands the person it 'lives' with and whose memories and knowledge it comes to acquire and manage through conversation. One can think of a core function of Companion as living with an elderly person, lonely and wanting to revisit their memories and memorabilia, but needing assistance with information and agency.
A lecture by Yorick Wilks, Visiting Professor of AI 6 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/information-personal-companions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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The Protestant Reformation confronted Europeans with a clamour of religious alternatives. Catholics and Protestants taught their people to doubt the other side's religion (while still believing their own) and taught them to be incredulous while maintaining that faith is a virtue.
This lecture will trace how, as Europe's religious landscape fractured, some people fell between the cracks. In long religious wars of attrition, it was all too easy to conclude that all religions were equally true, or equally false.
A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 1 November 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reformation-trained-us-to-be-sceptics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Medicine demands factual knowledge, physical skill and the ability to work with patients and colleagues. Most of the time clinicians learn from other clinicians, studying hard within a frame that discourages exploration outside medicine.
Focusing on the performance of medicine challenges this frame by connecting with actors, musicians, craftsmen, dancers and other experts. This lecture explores the idea of frames, using illustrations to ask what benefits may result from thinking widely and challenging longstanding assumptions.
A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 31 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/performing-medicine-surgery
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Crime thrives in a social environment which is conductive to its commission, and it harms the society which spawns it most of all. That is as true of bribery and corruption as it is true of knife-armed postcode gangs. If the common ethical code that prevents the vast majority from offending in a particular way begins to break down, there is a serious problem.
A lecture by Nicholas Cooke QC 30 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bribery-corruption-the-city
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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THE 2018 PETER NAILOR MEMORIAL LECTURE ON DEFENCE
Today's cry in democratic states, and not just from representatives of populist parties, is government with the people rather than government for the people. This presents a problem for issues of war and strategy. Presidents and Prime Ministers, in presenting their decisions to their electorates, use rhetoric borrowed from the Second World War, although they are not committing their states to wars on that scale. The declared ends do not match the means. The result is public confusion and strategic failure.
Hosted by the Mercers' Company.
A lecture by Sir Hew Strachan FBA FRSE 29 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/strategy-and-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In his new book, Haunted by Christ, Richard Harries explores the role of faith in the lives of twenty novelists and poets. Non-believers like Samuel Beckett and Philip Pullman as well as believers like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden all struggled with faith.
At a time when religions language is meaningless or feels stale for many, we can rediscover its freshness and force in the works of novelists and poets.
Lord Harries will be in conversation with Alec Ryrie, the new Gresham Professor of Divinity.
A lecture by The Rt Revd Lord Harries and Professor Alec Ryrie 25 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modern-writers-struggle-for-faith
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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THE 2018 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
As a commemoration of the end of the First World War, the event will focus on the theme of mathematics in war and peacetime.
The main speaker, Professor David Aubin will speak on Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I (6 pm), preceded by shorter presentations by Professor June Barrow-Green on Euler's Work on Ballistics (4 pm) and by Professor Tony Royle on The Nature of Life for the Flying Mathematicians of the Royal Aircraft Factory During World War I (4.45 pm).
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
A lecture by Professor David Aubin, Professor in the History of Science at Paris-Sorbonne University 24 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-in-war-and-peace-ww1-stories
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2018 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
As a commemoration of the end of the First World War, the event will focus on the theme of mathematics in war and peacetime.
The main speaker, Professor David Aubin will speak on Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I (6 pm), preceded by shorter presentations by Professor June Barrow-Green on Euler's Work on Ballistics (4 pm) and by Professor Tony Royle on The Nature of Life for the Flying Mathematicians of the Royal Aircraft Factory During World War I (4.45 pm).
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
A lecture by Professor Tony Royle, Associate Lecturer at Open University 24 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-in-war-and-peace-flying-mathematicians
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE 2018 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
As a commemoration of the end of the First World War, the event will focus on the theme of mathematics in war and peacetime.
The main speaker, Professor David Aubin will speak on Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I (6 pm), preceded by shorter presentations by Professor June Barrow-Green on Euler's Work on Ballistics (4 pm) and by Professor Tony Royle on The Nature of Life for the Flying Mathematicians of the Royal Aircraft Factory During World War I (4.45 pm).
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
A lecture by Dr June Barrow-Green, Professor of Mathematics, Open University 24 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-war-peace
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The dark side of the universe is pervasive. Most of the matter in the universe is dark, most of the energy in the universe is dark. Many searches are underway, on mountain peaks, in deep underground mines, and in space, to discover more about dark matters. Many new telescopes are being constructed on high mountain tops and in space to search for tracers of dark energy.
A lecture by Professor Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 24 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dark-matters
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Physicist John Wheeler asked the famous 'It from bit?' question: what if at its heart the universe is not a collection of particles, forces and fields but rather a collection of bits? If this is true, it leads us to new insights in compression, machine learning, artificial intelligence and maybe even the universe and life itself.
A lecture by Professor Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of IT 23 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/it-from-bit-science-of-information
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Adam Feinstein will examine the strengths of many people on the autism spectrum which make them an untapped human resource in the workplace. Using case studies, he will analyse potential employment openings across the autism spectrum and demonstrate why employing autistic people makes sound economic sense. He will examine misleading stereotypes and assess the alternative option of self-employment.
A lecture by Adam Feinstein, Author and Autism Researcher, 22 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/autism-advantage-workplace
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Torture was officially outlawed in France in the 1780s and in Europe during the nineteenth century. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it has returned as an instrument of state policy.
The defence of torture is no longer viewed with abhorrence. How have languages of patriotism, law and order, justice, the 'civilizing mission', and human rights been used to foster attitudes towards and practices of torture in Western societies? What should our responses be?
A lecture by Professor Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History 18 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-torture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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THE 2018 ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLIN MATTHEW MEMORIAL LECTURE
We often think of the British countryside as 'natural' but it is anything but. Not only its fields and hedges, but also its woods, heaths, moors, and fens are largely the product of human activities - of complex systems of management, changing over the centuries. Historians thus have a vital role in nature conservation.
We need to understand the specific processes that created habitats in order to ensure their survival into the future. But we also need to interrogate ideas about 'the natural' more generally - for many current problems in conservation are a direct consequence of a failure to appreciate the essentially human character of the environment.
A lecture by Professor Tom Williamson, University of East Anglia 17 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/historical-wildlife-environment-england
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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'The sense of a new style and a new spirit in poetry came over me', wrote William Hazlitt, recalling the day in 1798 when he heard William Wordsworth reading aloud from Lyrical Ballads, 'It partakes of, and is carried along with, the revolutionary movement of our age'.
Jonathan Bate will explain what Hazlitt meant and why Lyrical Ballads, the product of Wordsworth's intimate friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is one of the greatest and most influential volumes of poetry ever written.
A lecture by Professor Sir Jonathan Bate CBE FBA, Professor of Rhetoric 16 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/wordsworth-coleridge-poetic-revolution
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Some infections come in repeated epidemic waves, others are new to human populations. A known human threat such as influenza may mutate or a new infection jumps the species barrier from animals to humans: recent examples include HIV and Ebola, and the historical example of plague. What happens depends on the route of transmission.
Methods for tackling an airborne disease like influenza are different from those for touch (Ebola), insect vector (Zika), water (cholera) or sexual transmission (HIV).
A lecture by Professor Chris Whitty, Professor of Physic 10 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/epidemics-pandemics-control
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Was Brexit (the 2016 referendum) argued on the basis of accurate information fairly presented? Slogans were, and may always be, better at gathering votes. With the reality of Brexit a few months away, a sober look at what we actually gain or lose is needed in two areas: What is sovereignty of an island like our own?
Could we draw a line round the coast line (and the Irish border) and contain and control all that is inside? And what of rights within that line? Can they all be home grown and nationally defined? Are we indeed an island?
A lecture by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Emeritus Professor of Law 9 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brexit-sovereignty-or-loss-rights
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Since Newton, we are used to science making confident predictions about the future. For example, the motion of the planets and the times of the tides. However, some things seem very hard to predict, such as the stock market, or the weather in six months' time.
Is this a fault in the way we model these systems, or is there a genuine limit to how far we can predict the future? One explanation comes from the theory of chaos, which illustrates why small changes now can lead to large uncertainty in the future.
A lecture by Professor Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 9 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-chaos-theory-change
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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What does it mean to listen to music? How might the concepts and practices of 'listening' and 'music-making' have first emerged in the story of human development?
We journey back in time, to the origins of human society - in the company of research like Steven Mithin's book The Singing Neanderthals - and to the origins of our hearing, to the mechanisms of how our bodies and auditory systems are designed to receive and interpret sound waves. Our music and our listening have been in a symbiotic round-dance ever since.
A lecture by Professor Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 8 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/listening-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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If you are a barrister you will be asked 'how can you act for someone who is guilty?'. This is just one of the ethical questions the Bar has to confront. Barristers have a Code of Ethics that governs the working relationship with the client, the court and colleagues but ethical dilemmas in practice are rarely straightforward.
Do we make value judgements about our client's culpability? Does that affect how hard we fight their case? Why the answer to those questions should emphatically be 'no'.
A lecture by Professor Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 4 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ethics-court-room
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Do businesses exist to make profits, or to serve a purpose?
This talk will present rigorous evidence showing there need be no trade-off between purpose and profit, contrary to conventional wisdom. It will then turn to the practical 'so what?'. How can we embed purpose in the heart of business so that it extends far beyond a mission statement.
The talk will highlight how change cannot be piecemeal but involves holistic reform across many dimensions of a company.
A lecture by Professor Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 3 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/purposeful-business
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The most compact objects that shine in the universe are neutron stars. Black holes are even more compact objects that we view indirectly as matter accretes and heats up around them.
Professor Silk will describe the state of our knowledge of neutron stars and black holes, and how new observations of gravity waves are poised to revolutionise this field.
A lecture by Professor Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 3 October 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/astronomy-gravitational-waves
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There was no intellectually sophisticated or articulate 'atheism' in the Middle Ages, but there was plenty of raw scepticism and incredulity. Church courts regularly heard blasphemy cases which went as far as outright denial of God.
This lecture will take a tour of medieval unbelief, showing how and why some medieval people defied the powerful orthodoxies of their day: fired not by intellectual or philosophical doubts but by suspicion that 'God' was being used to swindle and manipulate them.
A lecture by Professor Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 27 September 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/atheist-medieval-europe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Antibiotic resistance has emerged as an issue that threatens public health around the world. Even simple operations may no longer be possible due to the risk of lethal infection. What is less well-known is the role of environmental components in amplifying resistance. Heads of State have pledged to tackle the problem but current policies are proving inadequate. A shift in thinking is needed with citizen scientists getting involved and prevention the best cure.
A lecture by Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 25 September 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/antibiotic-resistance-citizens-help
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The earliest London-made films showed the Victorian city doing everyday business, before its fictional screen image became increasingly shadowy and sinister. Gothic or 'gaslight' visions of London have remained popular with cinema audiences, providing a fictional and often eerie counterpoint to the growth of the modern city.
A lecture by Professor Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media 24 September 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gothic-london-ancient-city-on-screen
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Tudor England was a dangerous place for the wealthy and powerful. The cultural ambitions of the elite open a window into contemporary attitudes.
A lecture by Professor Simon Thurley CBE, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 19 September 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/painting-patronage-politics-tudors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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"What is 'Romanticism'?
Jonathan Bate goes in search of what Isaiah Berlin described as 'the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West'.
A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate CBE FBA, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 18 September 2018
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/origins-of-romanticism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It has become the conventional wisdom that the rule of law is a necessary ingredient of economic progress.
Along with an independent judiciary, individual rights, a free media, free association, strong political parties and a rich civil society, government policy asserts that the rule of law is found in all successful countries and sustainable economies, and consequently should be promoted abroad.
After examining this assumption, the lecture will explore how the rule of law contributed to Britain's economic development from the early nineteenth century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-grays-inn-reading-the-rule-of-law-good-for-the-economy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE PROVOST'S LECTURE
Terrorism has become one of the most destructive and worrying aspects of life in 21st-century European cities. Seemingly random and unpredictable attacks have placed us all at risk of injury or death. How new is this phenomenon? Is terrorism more widespread and more dangerous than it has been in the past?
This lecture takes the long view and examines the nature and impact of terrorism in Europe since the nineteenth century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/terrorism-in-historical-perspective
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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THE SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTURE 2018
The scientific evidence for climate change will be examined, describing how simulations of the Earth's weather and climate are constructed and how these can be used to make assessments of what our climate and weather might be like in the coming decades.
Based on this scientific evidence it will be argued that climate change may well be one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century, and that how we respond will determine our future prosperity, health and well-being and the sustainability of Earth's natural environment.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/climate-change-a-defining-challenge-for-the-21st-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" was the voice of a disillusioned generation and reflected a world in disarray. Then in 1928 Eliot announced to a startled world, and the disapproval of his contemporaries, that his general point of view could be described as 'classicist in literature, royalist in politics and anglo-catholic in religion.' The previous year he had been baptised behind closed doors in Finstock Church, near Oxford.
This lecture will consider that conversion with three interlinked questions in mind: From what was he converted? Why did he convert? What was the immediate effect of that conversion? The recently published 6 volumes of Eliot's letters covering the period help shed light on the answers.
The lecture will also explore how this new direction in his life is reflected in the poems he wrote at the time.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-conversion-of-t-s-eliot
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The invention of the computer in 1948 has changed our world radically but we are only in the early years of this industrial revolution.
What disruptions will quantum computing bring? What else can we foresee and what can we learn from the first seven decades of our cyber enabled world that will help us to design the best future for ourselves and our children?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computers-and-the-future
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Bishop Richard Chartres will present a survey in five acts of the history of London's faith communities, with a word about their prospects in the 21st century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/remembering-london-the-story-of-the-faith-communities-of-london-and-their-prospects
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The challenges faced by the UK are very large. And they have not been convincingly challenged for a generation or more. We may have suffered from short-termism and an inability to develop a balanced economy.
In this final lecture we will consider whether we can plot a more successful future than our recent history might suggest and what that implies for our economic and political institutions.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-british-economy-can-we-build-a-successful-future
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the legacy of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), first president of democratic South Africa, will be considered - both within his country and in the wider world. Mandela's was famously a world life, that is, he was a determinedly national leader whose vision and influence also had global dimensions.
His biography Long Walk to Freedom (1994) traces one of the most resonant political stories of the past century. But in what ways did this passionately nationalist leader, who identified himself completely with his country and his people, also appeal to the world? And what is his legacy for the globalised 21st century?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nelson-mandela-in-the-21st-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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In the last ten years, the UK has been devastated by floods that have caused enormous physical and economic damage, seriously affecting the mental health of local residents. Media coverage has included allegations about the incompetence of scientists, weather forecasters, planners, builders and water companies.
Conspiracy theories, fake news and alternative facts proliferate, and wellington-booted politicians often appear insincere. Can the scientific evidence about causes of recent floods dispel some of the myths about our ability to control the rising waters?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/whos-to-blame-for-britains-floods
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Russia's emergence from Soviet Communism, 'a revolution without shots', did not result in civil war and bloodshed, as in 1917. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 still came as a shock and the subsequent chaos (with hyperinflation, political turmoil and a messy war in Chechnya) revealed that the post-Communist transition was by no means cost free. The Putin era brought increased stability and prosperity, but also loss of political freedom, increased power of the state, weakening of the rule of law, increased nationalism and a rift between Russia and the West. What is Russia's place in the world now? And what does the turbulence of the last 25 years tell us about where it is heading?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/russia-after-communism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Stuxnet, the attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, and autonomous armed guards are only the beginning. Computers are changing warfare profoundly because military strategy has always been geographically based but there are no borders in cyberspace. We shall investigate the implications for the future of international conflict and of national defence. If preparations for the next war have already started, can we tell who is winning?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computers-and-warfare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Ancient Sparta has been handed down in a tradition radically conflicted and confused by rival political and social ideologies. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, one might say. This Spartan tradition is still alive and lively today.
This lecture seeks to shed light rather than heat, by assessing just how odd (different, exceptional, peculiar) Sparta really might have been.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-riddle-of-ancient-sparta-unwrapping-an-enigma
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Who does the story belong to: the family or society? Where and how are the lines drawn? Until relatively recently the Family Court door was closed to all save the parties and professionals involved in the case. A 2014 initiative aimed to secure 'an immediate and significant change in practice' to usher in greater understanding of the way in which the courts operate. The aim was to improve public awareness of the court process and to increase confidence in its actions. 'Transparency' was the watch word of the day. Has it worked?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/transparency-in-the-family-court-what-goes-on-behind-closed-doors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The media and medicine have different perspectives. At least in part, this is due to a preference for individual human stories over detailed analysis of results.
This lecture will use examples of how the public may be misled and consider the implications of such misunderstanding.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/media-reporting-of-medical-advances-helpful-or-misleading
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Wilson will examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Thirty Years' War, Europe's most destructive conflict prior to the two 20th-century world wars. The talk takes place on the 400th anniversary of the defenestration of three Habsburg officials by Bohemian malcontents in Prague. This violent act triggered a crisis which expanded into general war despite the best efforts of most of those involved to contain it.
Why it took so long to make peace, and what extent the conflict can be considered a 'religious war' will also be discussed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-30-years-war-1618-48-and-the-second-defenestration-of-prague
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY/ GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
'Toy' here has a special sense: an object of daily life which you can find or make in minutes, yet which, if played with imaginatively, reveal behaviours that keep seasoned mathematicians and physicists puzzled for a while.
The lecture will consist of tabletop demos of such toys, together with simple, robust modelling of what is going on. The theme that emerges is singularity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematical-research-from-toy-models
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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At first, Samuel Pepys could see no virtue in the guitar at all and regarded it as a toy or 'bauble'. Yet he soon changed his mind as he became more interested in Italian music. He arranged for an English merchant in Italy to send him an instrument, and during some of the most troubled periods of his life began to learn it. As a result, we possess from the hands of his house musician, Cesare Morelli, the largest collection of guitar-accompanied song to survive from 17th-century Europe.
The series will close with ensemble performances in which the audience is invited to imagine eavesdropping on Samuel Pepys.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/samuel-pepys-the-guitarist
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Between 1951 and 1959, over 95% of voters supported the two major parties. Since 1983, fewer than 80% have voted Conservative or Labour. How is the decline of the two party system to be explained?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-two-party-to-multi-party-politics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 gave Chinese artists a government that had explicit policies for the arts, seeing them as an essential part of the creation of 'new China'. Resources were put into the support of art and artists, opening up new possibilities at the same time as other possibilities that were uncongenial to Communist Party policy were closed down.
The consequences of fierce artistic debates could be expulsion from the visible art world and the silencing of some points of view. An increase in party control of the arts, linked with adulation of the Great Leader, led to very widely-reproduced images that played a part in the unprecedented stress and upheaval.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/china-art-power-and-revolutions-1950-1976
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The image of the speechwriter in televised programmes (such as The Thick of It, The West Wing or Yes Minister) is something of a puppeteer, a sinister figure operating in the shadows, malevolently manipulating our political masters. Simon Lancaster believes that the successful speechwriter is less of a puppeteer and more of an impressionist.
In his talk, he will share a number of stories and anecdotes from his time as speechwriter, setting out how he captures someone else's authentic voice and what happens when it goes wrong.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speechwriting-creating-authenticity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Ever since classical antiquity, poets and playwrights have written about famous heroes and anti-heroes, lovers and politicians. But they have also yearned for posthumous fame themselves. How do they achieve it?
This final lecture will show how Shakespeare helped to immortalize the famous figures of ancient Greece and Rome, and how he in turn became famous after his death - as the classics were to Shakespeare, so Shakespeare became a classic. He is our classic.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-fame
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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In our post-truth age, facts often don't seem to meet the deepest human longings. So do we need to go against facts, or beyond them? What does the relatively new discipline of the cognitive science of religion, which suggests that human beings are naturally religious, have to say about our human future? And where does this instinct come from?
Recent psychological research has looked at the importance of meaning to human beings, and how this works out in core questions about the relation of science and faith.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/facts-matter-but-they-arent-enough-science-faith-and-meaning-in-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (5 May 1818) and 150 years since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the lecture will explore the possible affinity between Marx's work in human history and Darwin's in natural history. Enthusiasm for Darwin was shared by successive generations of Communists but Marx's conception of a 'natural human being' was different.
In the new political and intellectual climate, Marx viewed competition as a product, not of 'the struggle for existence', but of private property and commercial society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/karl-marx-200-years-on
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The rulers of the medieval English kingdom discouraged resistance to authority by the widespread use of execution, outlawry, and exile. Yet medieval English society also applauded such resistance. Encapsulated in the tales of Robin Hood, the good outlaw is loyal, courageous, and clever; while the authorities he outwits are disloyal, cowardly, and stupid, using the cover of the law to behave corruptly.
Examination of the outlaw in medieval literature tells us much about the mentality of the medieval English mind.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/in-search-of-the-medieval-outlaw-the-tales-of-robin-hood
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The reception of moving pictures in 1894-96 has been much mythologised. Were spectators really frightened of an approaching train? Did they imagine seeing their departed relatives reanimated on screen? How much attention was actually paid to this new phenomenon among so many contemporary novelties and wonders? Moving pictures may not have been the innovation once claimed, but within a decade few could doubt that they had become a major force in changing the Edwardian world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-at-the-first-moving-picture-shows
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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What role do children play in the family trial? The case concerns their future: how is their voice heard? What happens if they hold the key to the issues before the court? Should they give evidence, hear evidence? Should they meet the judge deciding their futures? How does the court reduce the risk that the trial experience itself harms the child it is seeking to protect?
In this lecture I will explore whether the family court system is fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with the children at the heart of its deliberations.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-child-in-the-family-court-room-whose-child-is-it-anyway
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Lung disease, heart disease, stroke, dementia and learning difficulties have been associated with different forms of air pollution including gasses and particulate matter. It is a difficult policy area because there is an economic and social cost to tackling it, so there is a trade-off.
This lecture will consider the evidence for different forms of air pollution causing diseases, and outline some of the potential solutions.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/air-pollution-its-impact-on-health-and-possible-solutions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the past, these were of two types (1) Breakaway parties such as the Liberal Unionists before the First World War and the SDP in the 1980s or (2) Extremist parties such as the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and the Communist Party. Most of them have been unsuccessful. The United Kingdom Independence Party is an exception.
In 2015, UKIP showed itself the most successful minor party in British history, winning one-eighth of the vote. Since then, it has been in decline. What is the explanation of the failure of the minor parties?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/minor-political-parties
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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We all find ourselves in crowds every so often. Whilst human behaviour in general can be very hard to predict, it is possible, to a certain extent, to predict the behaviour of large numbers of people in a crowd. In this lecture I will explain the mathematics behind herding and flocking and will use this to shed some insight into how crowds of people behave. I will then show how this is helpful for the designers of sports stadia, the police, the home office and even retail stores.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-you-do-mathematics-in-a-crowd
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There are large disparities in economic performance at the regional level in the UK. We need to consider what kinds of policies might raise regional performance and the extent which directed industrial policies and infrastructure spending might be employed to iron out differences in regional performance. The evidence will be considered.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/regional-industrial-and-infrastructure-policies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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London is home to two of the oldest working theatres in the world both founded by Charles II's patents. They shaped a whole quarter of London, and continue to do so today. In a second lecture on 'Buildings in the West End of London',
Professor Thurley looks at the significance and impact of these great institutions on the development of London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-birth-of-modern-theatreland-covent-garden-and-the-two-theatres-royal
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Against the backdrop of King John's ignominy and the political challenge posed by Magna Carta, which encouraged demands for greater representation in parliament, King Henry III used art, architecture and apparel to exalt his authority and to communicate his divinely-ordained status on a scale never previously seen in England.
This lecture considers how Henry used art to justify monarchy at the dawn of what is commonly termed the 'parliamentary state'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-henry-iii-and-the-communication-of-power
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Time's mysteries seem to resist comprehension and what remain can stretch even the most profound philosopher.
Professor Tallis seeks to rescue time from the jaws of physics, examining the claims that time is merely the fourth dimension of space-time, that there is a 'passage' of time or that time has a direction or arrow. He restores tenses and our sense of 'now' that are often denied or ignored by physicists and connects these with our unique human freedom. For most of us, time is composed of mornings, afternoons and evenings and expressed in hurry, hope, longing, waiting, enduring, planning, joyful expectation and grief. Thinking about time is to meditate on our own mortality.
Yet, physics has little or nothing to say about this time, the time as it is lived. Our temporal lives deserve a richer attention than is afforded by the equations of mathematical physics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-philosophy-of-time-does-physics-have-the-last-word
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Human beings often make frequent hand movements whilst they are talking. There has been considerable psychological debate about their function, but it is now clear that they often convey core parts of the underlying message. Since we have little conscious awareness of these movements, they can be particularly revealing.
We control what we say, but find it difficult, or impossible, to control the content and form of these movements. Their form and 'meaning' may not match the accompanying speech and these gesture-speech mismatches can indicate various underlying psychological states, including deception. I will argue for the essential unity of speech and gesture in the transmission of thought, and suggest that we have underestimated the considerable communicative significance of these movements.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-spontaneous-gestures-connect-to-thinking
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There are strong reasons to believe that the survival of life on the Earth is under threat. Human activity is one example that we are able to control, at least in principle. We might irreversibly pollute, or destroy the planet with thermonuclear devices. Epidemics might become uncontrollable.
Asteroid impact could devastate the Earth, although preventive measures might detect and monitor orbits of potential killer asteroids. Longer term, the sun will evolve into a red giant and expand to a hundred times the orbit of the earth. The earth will burn to a crisp, losing its atmosphere and oceans. By then, humanity, or whatever remains, should have found safer havens than the inner solar system.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/existential-risks-in-the-solar-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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After Stalin's death in 1953, successive leaders tried to find ways to revitalise the Soviet regime and rethink its promises to the Soviet people. Life within a system no longer based on terror and intense industrial transformation (yet still striving to reach communism) offered citizens strange alternatives.
The commemoration of Bolshevism hampered attempts to enthuse the population about the Soviet future. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev tried to re-infuse the spirit of revolution as well as to stave off disillusionment with Soviet ideology, demonstrating the complex legacy of the Russian Revolution.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-ussr-in-the-cold-war-years
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Where do the ghosts in Shakespeare come from? And what about the magic? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will summon up the ghosts of Old Hamlet, the victims of Richard III and Julius Caesar, revealing their origins in the bloody plays of Seneca. He will then show how such figures from classical mythology as Theseus and Medea provide a key to the association between supernatural powers and Shakespearean art.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-ghosts-and-spirits
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There have been dramatic changes in our scientific understanding of the universe in the last hundred years. It used to be thought that the universe was eternal; now it is thought that it came into being in the 'Big Bang'. So what does this say about the trustworthiness of science? What are the implications of the Big Bang for our understanding of ourselves? Is the universe meaningless? or is there some way of developing a 'big picture' of reality that helps us decide our place and purpose in the universe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-we-lost-in-the-cosmos
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Posters in shops and on trucks shout 'carbon neutral business', and more organisations are boasting of reducing their environmental impact by using environmentally-friendly, responsibly sourced materials. And yet we also have diesel car emission frauds, the hoax of 'degradable' plastic, and a fashion industry that claims to be sustainable whilst suggesting that we buy new clothes each season.
There are green marketing scams, and dubious data being deployed to benefit shareholders. Are global businesses now leading politicians in moving towards more sustainable practice or is this an example of a 'post-truth' society?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-green-business-a-contradiction-in-terms
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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When the most famous diarist in English, Samuel Pepys, accompanied Charles II back to London for the Restoration of the monarchy he was given the task of carrying the king's guitar. From this moment on, the instrument had a the royal seal of approval and some of the best guitar playing in Europe was heard at Whitehall. Court ladies had themselves portrayed with a guitar on their lap like a musical pet; actors and actresses played them in comedies and guitar-masters made a living teaching the daughters of London barmaids.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-at-the-restoration-court
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Many televisions, baby monitors, central heating and even light-bulbs are already connected to the internet but this is only the start. Over the next few years, many billions of devices will be connected and machine-to-machine data will become the main internet traffic.
Why is this happening? How will all this data be processed? And what are the benefits and the risks?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-internet-of-things
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the traditional model of finance, households saved and firms borrowed through financial intermediaries. Those financial intermediaries might be banks or pension funds but the experience of intermediation in the UK does not encourage the thought that long term finance can easily be located. Do we need a Development Bank?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-structure-of-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Everyone is different, and treatment options increasingly reflect that. As we understand more about our genetic makeup, our varying response to conventional therapies means that we can design drugs and build devices tailored for individuals ('bespoke' rather than 'ready made').
This lecture considers the challenges that the NHS and its suppliers face in employing personalised medicine.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/personalised-medicine-made-for-you
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Descriptions and reconstructions of houses can illuminate other histories and provide a sense of the relationships between people and places. Edwardian architecture in particular provides a fascinating commentary on broader historical themes - not only in its use of style and its remodelling of old buildings but also in the range of new activities it provided for, from 'servantless' country and seaside cottages to motor houses, gardens and hobbies rooms.
Looking at the furnishing and operation of these houses enables lost spaces to be re-established in the mind, and offers insights into the tools and methodologies of historians.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/architecture-and-the-edwardian-era
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Quantum science has been one of the most successful and useful theories ever invented. Indeed quantum technology was added as the ninth of the original eight great technologies. However, quantum mechanics is also, at the same time, one of the most mysterious, and in many ways most bizarre of all scientific theories.
Some of the maths of quantum science will be explained, demonstrating its vital role in modern technology. We will also look at its applications to quantum computing and ask questions about how this may change the way that we do computations in the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-quantum-mathematician
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In recent years, the reputation of the financial services and related professional services industries has been corroded by a series of scandals. In 2017, the largest ever decline in trust across the institutions of government, business, media and NGOs was reported.
In the light of the 2016 Brexit vote, it is clear that trust amongst society and commerce is more important than ever. The City has a responsibility to regain the trust of the society it is here to serve.
This talk and panel discussion will explore the fundamentals of trust, why companies lower standards at their peril, and what, other than pious words, can be done to restore confidence that society has appropriate levels of commercial trust.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/trust-busting-or-trust-building-how-can-the-city-earn-trust
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In 1887 the influential arts-and-crafts book illustrator Walter Crane published The Baby's Own Aesop, bringing the homespun wisdom of ancient Greek peasants to a new generation of children. This lecture uses these fables to tackle the least attractive feature of ancient Greece - institutionalised slavery. Beneath the semi-legendary figure of Aesop himself, a barbarian sold to a Greek slave-owner in the 6th century BCE, lie tens of thousands of his real-life equivalents.
The lecture asks how the ancient fables address power relations in a slave society. Were they primarily stories for and by slaves, or did they serve ruling-class interests?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/slave-stories-aesop-and-walter-crane
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Based on new research into the origins of St. James's, Simon Thurley looks into the ingredients that went into making a court quarter there and the way it formed a blueprint for the new West End of London.
This is the first of two lectures by Professor Thurley on 'Buildings in the West End of London.'
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/palace-park-and-square-st-jamess-and-the-birth-of-the-west-end
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Between 1886 and 1914, British politics was dominated by the Irish Question, and the Irish nationalist party exerted considerable pressure on British governments. Since 1974, the rise of the SNP has brought the Scottish Question into the forefront of British politics, and in 1998, legislation provided for devolution to the non-English parts of the United Kingdom.
There remain, nevertheless, strong pressures for Scottish independence, and in Wales there is a lively nationalist party, Plaid Cymru. How is the rise of nationalist parties to be explained?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nationalist-parties
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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FULBRIGHT LECTURE
What's in a shadow? Danger and death? Or the vital life-force of whatever object casts it? Are shadows seductive nothings or truth-telling images of repressed sexuality and violence?
Starting with literary examples from Dickens, this lecture will untangle the complexity of shadow-meaning by exploring how artists have used shadows since ancient times. Works by Van Eyck, Masaccio, Leonardo, Munch, Picasso, Sargent, Hopper, and many others will be discussed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/grasping-shadows-the-dark-side-in-painting
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Sexual abuse is always an abuse of power. It can be opportunistic or premeditated; furtive intra-familial abuse or acts shared online. It can be multigenerational and inter-sex: grandmother to grandson; father to daughter; sibling to sibling. The victim may become an abuser. What can break the cycle? What effect do these cases have on the professionals involved? How does the family justice system confront these emotive and complex cases?
This lecture contains details that some may find distressing.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dealing-with-sex-abuse-how-does-the-family-court-assess-risk
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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How have the British and American armed forces been taught to fight and kill in conflicts from 1914 to the present? What role have psychology and technology played in military training? How do combatants contribute to, and endure, harsh military drills? Social and cultural life in the barracks will be explored, including 'rites of passage' in preparing soldiers for battle.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/training-in-violence-an-essay-in-military-hazing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Matter consists of a mêlée of elementary particles. There are protons and neutrons, made up of quarks, and many other short-lived massive particles. All atoms consist of protons, neutrons and an accompanying cloud of electrons - then there are electrons, muons and neutrinos, as well as the massless particles - photons.
The very early universe is a unique laboratory for studying the rarest of particles. We see the faded brilliance of the fiery past, and can assemble clues that enable us to trace out the particle content of the beginning of the universe. One hope is to discover particles of dark matter, but this has so far eluded our best efforts.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/elementary-particles-and-their-interactions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It is well known that Shakespeare lived in an age of monarchy and wrote powerfully in his English history plays about the duties of the sovereign.
In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will tell another, forgotten story: of how Shakespeare was also fascinated by Roman political models, especially the theory of civic duties expounded by Cicero, who appears as a character in Julius Caesar. He will also show how Shakespeare looked to Horace for a model of the public role of the writer.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-politics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Stereoscopic photography rapidly became a worldwide craze after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheap viewers and mass-produced stereographs brought startlingly vivid images within reach of a mass audience, making this the form in which most people first encountered photography - a fact largely ignored in conventional photographic history.
Like the commercial suppliers of Magic Lantern slides, stereograph publishers offered systematic coverage of many subjects, even claiming that to 'visit' remote countries by stereo was better than risking the journey.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-craze-for-stereoscopic-photography
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Asthma, an intermittent disease, is the commonest lung disease in the UK. The second is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), now the 4th leading cause of death globally. In both a combination of environmental and genetic factors are important, although for COPD smoking is the biggest risk factor.
This lecture will consider trends and advances in these two diseases, and the chronic genetic lung disease cystic fibrosis.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/asthma-and-chronic-airways-disease
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In 2017, the Government paved the way for the civil and family courts of England and Wales to provide 'innovative methods of resolving disputes.' New legislation will underpin a £1bn investment in digitising the courts, that may see defendants convicted by computer and disputes settled by software. Tribunals dealing with benefits claims will also be reformed. But how effective are online courts? Are they just a way of saving money?
Joshua Rozenberg reports on what's been achieved so far and asks whether online justice is just as good.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/justice-online-getting-better
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Human beings often have generous views of themselves - not always easy to defend. Massive scientific advances are sometimes used for destructive purposes.
This lecture looks at our changing understanding of ourselves, focussing on Charles Darwin's theory of human origins and the religious, scientific and ethical questions raised. Does a tendency to violence reflect our evolutionary past? If so, what can be done about it? Does it help us understand what is going on? Or to work out what we can do about it?
Modern humanists have yet to come to terms with Darwin and the idea that humans are like other animals.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/if-humans-are-so-great-why-is-the-world-such-a-mess
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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After the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, many artists and intellectuals in China saw the overthrow of 'tradition' as the means to rescue the nation from poverty and backwardness. Rejecting what thev saw as irrelevant avant-garde artistic trends, they looked to the art of the Soviet Union and anti-fascism in Western Europe, as well as to a more 'authentic' tradition of folk art. Following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, artists engaged with the politics of national salvation, and the era between the defeat of Japan (1945) and the Communist Victory in 1949 saw the creation of some key works of modern Chinese culture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/china-art-war-and-salvation-1933-1949
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Euler's pioneering equation, the 'most beautiful equation in mathematics', links the five most important constants in the subject: 1, 0, π, e and i. Central to both mathematics and physics, it has also featured in a criminal court case, on a postage stamp, and appeared twice in The Simpsons. So what is this equation - and why is it pioneering?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eulers-equation-the-most-beautiful-theorem-in-mathematics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There is an apparent conflict between the increase in technology in medicine and the importance of a relationship between patient and doctor. This Valentine's Day lecture considers the importance of that relationship.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-a-good-bedside-manner-matter
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Online voting in local and national elections could be more convenient, greatly increase voter turnout and deliver results within a few minutes of the polls closing. Some countries have adopted online voting and some have regarded it as extremely dangerous for democracy. What are the facts?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-we-vote-online
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Robotics is another of HM Government's 'eight great technologies'. Is it possible that in a few years we might have machines with artificial intelligence?
In this lecture I will describe the mathematics of machine learning and explain its applications to robotics. In particular I will show how the modern ideas of deep learning allow a robot to make sense of the world it exists in, including the ideas behind speech and face recognition. I will also address the important (at least to mathematicians!) question of whether a robot will ever replace a mathematician.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-a-mathematician-a-robot
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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National Parks were designated to protect some of the world's most loved landscapes from being eaten away by industrial and housing development. But Britain's National Parks are exploited by intensive agriculture and sucked dry of their water for neighbouring cities. They sustain non-native invasive species and unlike National Parks elsewhere in the world, they are not 'natural parks'. A movement is emerging with the aim of developing Greater London as the world's first National Park City. But is there any significant environmental advantage to this and would London benefit from becoming one?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/national-parks-and-national-park-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In 1643 an English landowner, Sir Ralph Verney, fled to France in the depths of the Civil War. He settled in Blois and, while there, amassed a vast archive that is still unpublished. The letters Verney kept, and his financial accounts, show that almost every member of his family learned the guitar. These records provide a wealth of information about the music they played, the guitars they bought and their reasons for cultivating a light and fashionable instruments far from home.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/an-englishman-with-a-guitar-abroad
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Despite the explosion of genetic information in recent years, we have surprisingly little insight into the peculiar history of life on our planet. Most genetic variation - natural experiments in evolution - is found in simple bacteria, yet they have barely changed over four billion years. No complex animals or plants are composed of bacterial cells. Why not? Why did complex cells only arise once in the history of life? And why are we complex beings so alike, with humans and mushrooms and trees all plotting for sex?
Nick Lane will explore the importance of energy flow in shaping life from its very origins to the flamboyant complexity around us, and ask whether energy flow would direct evolution down a similar path on other planets.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-energy-flow-shapes-the-evolution-of-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Computer bugs, reported in heart pacemaker software and many other devices, are but one example of the risks that IT systems can create for patients. The extent of the problem of software bugs in the medical arena, and elsewhere, suggest an increasing number of avoidable deaths and injuries in UK hospitals.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computer-bugs-in-hospitals-a-new-killer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The campaign to achieve the parliamentary vote for women (6 February 1918) took 52 years, from 1866 to 1918. During that time women and their male supporters employed both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary tactics, ranging from the presentation of petitions to the detonation of bombs.
The campaign will be examined, concentrating on the work of the constitutional suffragists as well as on the more notorious suffragettes. Although the latter group steals the headlines, it was the efforts of the former that slowly eroded the deep-seated prejudice that had characterised women, as Keats put it, as 'milk-white lambs, bleating for man's protection' - a phrase deeply scorned by the suffragists. The lecture will discuss which of the groups was more successful in achieving 'Votes for Women'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/votes-for-women-a-centenary-celebration
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Do the courts respect diversity or punish it when it comes to parenthood? What disabilities does it encounter? How can the learning disabled parent ensure their voice is heard in court? What to do when the wish to parent might not be matched by an ability to parent? What does the justice system do to protect the rights of the disabled person to be a parent, and of the child to be adequately parented? Does a disability prevent someone from being a good parent?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/vulnerbale-clients-and-the-family-justice-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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When Lenin died in 1924, he had effected a temporary stabilisation of the Soviet order. But many political, economic, social and international trends grew more worrisome to Bolsheviks who still wished to preserve 'the gains of October'. The solution that the Politburo adopted at Stalin's suggestion was a comprehensive revolutionary offensive. It increased the powers of the state over society, but this was never wholly acceptable in the communist central leadership, and tensions contributed to Stalin's Great Terror.
The USSR became a great European power and helped defeat Nazi Germany but had 'October' been saved or its foundations been destroyed?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-fate-of-the-october-revolution-under-stalin
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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View the sky through an x-ray telescope and the conception of the universe changes dramatically. Black holes are best seen in x-rays, because impinging gas collides with the black hole at near light speed, resulting in intense x-ray and gamma ray emission.
Optical light also plays a role in discovering black holes since the most luminous objects in the universe emit bursts of gamma radiation which only lasts minutes, but leaves an optical afterglow.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-high-energy-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Labour Party was formed in 1900 as a coalition between trade unions and socialist intellectuals with the aim of securing representation for the working class in parliament. During the First World War, Labour was transformed from a pressure group to a party of government, and in 1945 it formed its first majority government, which carried out an extensive programme of social reform.
Today, however, like other social democratic parties in Western Europe, the party finds itself in retreat. What is the explanation for the rise and decline of social democracy?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-labour-party
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Housing represents the main asset class held by UK households and we shall try to understand why it is held as such a large share of assets. We shall then outline whether this choice has other knock on effects in the economy such as labour and social mobility. And what the case is for changes the tax treatment of housing.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-housing-market
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Steve Jones will consider sunshine and its effects on health, on sleep, on memory and more: and why today's twilight world of tablets and smart-phones is taking us back to the middle ages.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/here-comes-the-sun-sunshine-and-its-effects-on-health-sleep-and-memory
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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William Shakespeare made his name as a poet before he became famous as a playwright. His erotic poem Venus and Adonis was the most popular work of literature of the Elizabethan Age, while its dark companion piece The Rape of Lucrece set the mould for Shakespeare's exploration of the tragic consequences of sexual desire turning to violence.
Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeare developed these themes from his reading of the great Roman poet Ovid.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-lovers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Isaac Newton saw his demonstration of the regularity of the universe as having great religious significance. Newton's ideas were initially seen as very supportive of religion; yet within 50 years, they were being seen in a very different light.
So what are the religious, aesthetic, and scientific implications of Newton's approach? The latest scholarship will be considered in order to unpack some of the deep questions that are raised by the scientific approach to nature.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-clockwork-god-isaac-newton-and-the-mechanical-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A sustainable solution to the UK's housing crisis, or a flimsy excuse for high-profile, profitable construction activity in the green belt? Architects may love them, but most ecologists are sceptical. Eco-town proposals have attracted controversy, with local residents alleging that their environment will be irrevocably damaged with the arrival of sprawling new estates, thousands of cars and the loss of important wildlife habitats.
Drawing upon live audience opinion, the lecture will weigh up the evidence for and against 'ecotowns'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ecotowns-or-egotowns
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The heroine of Charles Gounod's French opera Sapho (1851) sings her last aria O My Immortal Lyre on a Greek cliff before plunging to her death. Sappho, the most famous poet of the 'Lyric Age' of Greece, in the 7th to 6th centuries BC, addressed passionate love poems to women.
This lecture uncovers what we know about the 'real Sappho', an aristocrat who lived between 630 and 570 BCE on the island of Lesbos and socialised in the lavish courts of upstart tyrants. This historical context in no way diminishes her songs' astonishing immediacy and erotic power.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-age-of-tyrants-sappho-via-gounods-opera
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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During the Middle Ages London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heavily in fine architecture both for business and pleasure.
Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment unearths the lost mercantile buildings of medieval London and shows how influential they were.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-merchants-and-their-residences
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The courts of James I and his son Charles I were more cosmopolitan than their Elizabethan forebears. Many courtiers had now visited the Continent in early adulthood with a tutor, mostly after a period of residence at a university.
The guitar at the English court entered a new and very lively phase, as sketched in a scenery design by Inigo Jones and played in a masque by a leading court musician. On the verge of the Civil War, the guitar rapidly became the fashionable instrument of elite London from Covent Garden to Westminster.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-in-the-age-of-charles-i
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Deanfield is currently Professor of Cardiology at The Heart Hospital, as well as at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at University College London. His main clinical interests are paediatric cardiology / adult congenital heart disease (covering the whole age range of patients born with congenital heart disease), and cardiovascular disease prevention.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/your-own-care-pathway
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The block chain is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that underlies the successful Bitcoin cybercurrency.
What is it, how does it work, and why does a Government report say that DLTs have the potential to be radically disruptive to financial services, healthcare, real estate, public services and much more?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/will-bitcoin-and-the-block-chain-change-the-way-we-live-and-work
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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We live in an information age, with vast amounts of data constantly sent around the world. This lecture will introduce you to the mathematics of information. I will explain how data is transmitted and received over vast distances by using carefully designed codes, and how work by a young French mathematician in the 19th century plays a vital role in this. I will then show how a huge amount of information is encoded in your genes and how maths can make sense of it.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-is-coded-in-your-genes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This talk delves into one of the most powerful and omnipresent cultural storylines: Find your one true love and live happily ever after. How does this narrative function in popular culture and especially in the massive global market of women-oriented romantic fiction?
Catherine Roach uncovers what we learn from the romance story about today's changing norms for gender and sexuality and about the nature of happiness and love.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/happily-ever-after-the-romance-story
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The Liberal Party was formed in the 1850s and was the dominant force in British politics for the next 30 years. But, after the First World War, it fell into decline, and it was almost extinguished in the 1950s. Since then, however, the Liberals and their successor party, the Liberal Democrats, have enjoyed a revival, and they re-entered government in 2010 for the first time since 1945.
What is the explanation for the decline and subsequent revival of the party?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-liberal-party-and-the-liberal-democrats
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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During the Middle Ages, London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heavily in fine architecture both for business and pleasure.
In the first of two lectures with the theme 'Merchants, Money and Megalomania', Simon Thurley will unearth the lost mercantile buildings of medieval London and show how influential they were.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/house-shop-and-wardrobe-in-londons-merchant-community
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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If the fundamental constants of nature differed from their measured values, life as we know it would not have emerged. Stars are witness to the forces of electromagnetism and gravity - displace this equilibrium and the existence of nuclear-burning stars is at risk. In such a universe, stars would never have formed, or might have collapsed to black holes.
Theories of the multiverse suggest that life-containing universes are incredibly rare. We live in one of these, whether by cosmological natural selection or by the consequences of a theory yet to be formulated.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-special-is-our-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Some of the world's most influential carol tunes were published in 1582. These Pious Songs' were collected by a student of Danish parentage, who was born in Finland, grew up in the Russian Federation, studied in Germany, worked in Sweden, and died in Poland. Without one of Queen Victoria's ambassadors who rescued the collection from obscurity, the English-speaking world would never have known 'Good King Wenceslas' or 'Gaudete'.
Jeremy Summerly unwraps this Nordic Christmas gift, accompanied by the St Luke's Carollers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/now-thats-what-i-call-carols-1582
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What do judges do in the Family Court? Follow me through a virtual week as a Roving Judge. Learn what goes on behind the scenes: how the family court room works and who is needed to make it work.
A judge's approach to a case can fundamentally affect the way the parties perceive the trial as fair. What makes for a good judge? What training do they have? Do they properly reflect society's makeup? Is diversity left at the red baize door and kept outside the corridors of power?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-do-judges-do-in-the-family-court
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant. This talk will celebrate that achievement and consider what we have learned over those 50 years and what is to happen in the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/half-a-century-of-heart-transplantation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What do we mean by a hero and where does our understanding of the 'heroic' idiom come from?
In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeare's idea of the hero was shaped by the classical tradition, going back to the ancient tale of Troy and Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. But in Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida we meet a Shakespeare who was profoundly sceptical about the heroic ideal.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-heroes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Homer's Iliad, the earliest Greek poem, narrates the archetypal war between 'Europeans' and 'Asiatics' divided by the Hellespont. Looking at Wolfgang Peterson's blockbuster Troy (2004), the lecture describes the genesis of the Iliad between the Mycenaean Late Bronze Age and the 8th century, when it was first written down with the aid of the new, phonetic script adapted from the Phoenician civilisation of the Levant. It explores the poem's plot, tragic perspective on the human condition, and the despair caused by untimely death on an immense scale.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/homers-iliad-via-the-movie-troy-2004
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In England and Wales today, 11 people are raped every hour. 85,000 women and 12,000 men are affected annually. Another half a million adults are sexually assaulted - not including large numbers of women, men, and children who never report being attacked to the police.
The lecture will explore what we know (and don't know) about sexual violence from a global perspective. How have people in different periods of history and in a variety of countries understood and responded to assaults? What can be done to reduce, if not eradicate, such violence?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-global-history-of-sexual-violence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What did the sky-watchers of the ancient world think about the night sky, and its implications for human existence? Moving on to the great discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, we will consider the basic science and ask about the deeper significance of these discoveries - for God, and the meaning of life.
Looking at important recent scholarly interpretations, we will discuss the religious issues at stake. What does this tell us about human beings? Or about the authority of science?
This lecture is part of the Being Human Festival 2017 which runs from 17th - 25th November.
More information on the festival can be found here: Being Human Festival 2017
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/watching-the-heavens-astronomy-and-the-meaning-of-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
As the imperial system collapsed in China, the 'New Culture Movement' focused debate on new categories of 'modernity' and 'tradition'. For artists, it posed the questions of what it meant to be both modern and Chinese - challenging them to show how ancient techniques could remain relevant. Artists began to travel abroad (to France, Japan, Germany, Britain and the USA) and become part of an increasingly international 'art world'. The 1920s in China saw both the political chaos of warlordism, but also a flowering of creativity which drew on the keen awareness by many of China's potential as part of a global modernism.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/china-new-nation-new-art-1911-32
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Diabetes is an increasingly common disease causing raised blood sugar with serious long-term consequences. Type 1 diabetes was almost always fatal until the discovery of insulin, and causes serious medical consequences. Type 2 diabetes, where the body does not fully respond to insulin is often associated with obesity.
This lecture will consider the treatment, prevention and recent advances in the science of diabetes.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diabetes-a-rising-tide
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What kind of people owned a guitar in the London of Elizabeth I and where did they go shopping for one? It is possible to assemble a remarkably full picture of the instrument's place in the social life and trade and trade of Tudor England.
Guitars were an imported luxury from abroad that came with looking glasses, perfumed gloves and many other luxuries on a scale probably unknown, in many cases, to the purchaser's grandparents.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/buying-selling-and-owning-guitars-in-elizabethan-england
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Space science is one of HM Government's 'eight great technologies'. In this lecture I will explain the mathematics behind satellites, showing how they are controlled, how they are sent to distant planets and how they transmit and receive data over vast distances.
I will also explain how GPS systems work and show how General Relativity plays a vital role in making GPS systems so accurate. I will finish by showing a link between space science and Origami.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-goes-into-space
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Organic food production is environmentally benign, better for animal welfare, has human health benefits and tastes better - or so say its proponents. Conversely, detractors allege that the rising global population cannot be fed without using artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, that the environmental impact is slight and manageable, and that 'organic' consumers are being duped by farmers.
With a global market approaching £70 billion, there's a lot at stake. Including some 'blind taste tests', the environmental science evidence behind organic farming will be reviewed, exploring facts and debunking a few myths.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/organic-food-rooted-in-lies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
We will carefully outline the categories of savings held by households and link that to the operation of financial intermediaries in providing loanable funds.
We shall ask whether the allocation of savings and the availability of funds provides the right mix of short and long term loans for households and firms.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mobilising-savings-for-investment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Why did Lenin's Bolsheviks take power in October 1917? The earlier (February) revolution and the hopes it raised, the complex realities of power, and the political and social history of Russia leading up to the coup will be explored, asking why liberal or parliamentary government already appeared unrealistic.
Why was Lenin's role so crucial? Who were his supporters, and what did they make of his plans? How, as a Marxist, did he justify the seizure of power and would the October Revolution have been possible without him? How in this centenary year, are these events being commemorated in Putin's Russia?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lenin-and-the-russian-revolution
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Samuel Palmer, in his Shoreham period in the 1820s and 30s, seized on the long tradition of classical pastoral landscapes, and wrested it into an English idiom. He effectively 'naturalised' a foreign import, bringing an idyll to life in a Kentish valley, with sheep, shepherds and cornfields under a harvest moon, and the village church nestling in the fold of the hills.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/english-landscape-samuel-palmer-and-the-pastoral
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
One year ago, Donald Trump won the American presidency - the first president in modern times to be elected without any previous political experience. Few predicted his election. Indeed, he entered the Republican primaries as a rank outsider. How is his electoral success to be explained?
The US has a long history of populism, but no populist has won the nomination of a major party since William Jennings Bryan in 1896. In the past, populist insurgencies have heralded party realignment. Will the election of Trump do the same?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-2016-us-president-election-one-year-on
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
When Luther was close to death he reportedly exclaimed: 'Living I was your plague O Pope, Dead I will be your Death.'
This lecture marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his famous 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. It will focus on the passions that drove Luther throughout his life, including the use of images by the artist Lucas Cranach to create a distinctive visual style to convey his message.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/martin-luther-and-his-crusade-against-the-pope
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Constable's Stour landscapes of the Regency period, during and just after the War with France, and his publication English Landscape Scenery, champion local and low-key rural England.
John Clare's vernacular poetry in the same period celebrates the kind of rural scenery that escapes the notice of those for whom the paintings of Claude or Poussin are the ideal of landscape. Both Constable's and Clare's localism springs from a very powerful emotional connection with the idea of 'home'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/english-landscape-constable-and-clare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Todd will be discussing patriotism in Austen's time and her particular attitude to it; her sense of what Englishness is, materially and politically, and how it manifests itself in daily life; what aspects should be a source of both pride and prejudice; her possibly ironic treatment of the characters embodying her apparent attitudes; and how her views change over her lifetime as war gives way to peace.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/jane-austen-patriotism-and-prejudice
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The 2017 Peter Nailor Memorial Defence Lecture, to be presented by General Sir Nick Parker and followed by a response from Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield.
Sir Nick will consider the evolving challenges facing defence and security in a fast-moving and ever more unstable world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/defence-and-security-in-an-unstable-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
GRESHAM COLLEGE WITH THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
This year's event will focus on the beauty of Mathematical Relationships. The main speaker, Professor Robin Wilson will discuss Pi and e, and the most beautiful theorem in mathematics, preceded by shorter presentations by Professor John Barrow on Zero is a Hero and by Professor Raymond Flood on Just Imagine: The Tale of i.
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum Cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
GRESHAM COLLEGE WITH THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
This year's event will focus on the beauty of Mathematical Relationships. The main speaker, Professor Robin Wilson will discuss Pi and e, and the most beautiful theorem in mathematics, preceded by shorter presentations by Professor John Barrow on Zero is a Hero and by Professor Raymond Flood on Just Imagine: The Tale of i.
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum Cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/just-imagine-the-tale-of-i
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
GRESHAM COLLEGE WITH THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
This year's event will focus on the beauty of Mathematical Relationships. The main speaker, Professor Robin Wilson will discuss Pi and e, and the most beautiful theorem in mathematics, preceded by shorter presentations by Professor John Barrow on Zero is a Hero and by Professor Raymond Flood on Just Imagine: The Tale of i.
There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum Cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/zero-is-a-hero
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth- century vogue for the Picturesque and for forging an English landscaping tradition (with frameable landscape scenery and managed wildness) will be the starting point for discussion.
Proponents of the Picturesque, preferring to explore British scenery rather than go on the European Grand Tour, explicitly cultivated notions of Englishness and stress the native elements in landscape scenery, such as castle or abbey ruins (real or folly) in grand gardens, not classical temples.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/english-landscape-the-picturesque
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Driverless cars will affect us all profoundly. They will save many lives, destroy many livelihoods and change our behaviour in unexpected ways.
What are the barriers to achieving the benefits of this new technology and how can they be overcome? What new risks will be created? When will the technology be mature and will society be ready?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-society-ready-for-driverless-cars#ACPt5U06MTVE0MQe.99
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
During his tenure as Gresham Professor of Law (2012-2016), Geoffrey Nice tackled subjects as diverse as genocide, the law's role in sexual conduct, and whether lawyers really are scoundrels.
To mark the publication of these lectures, Sir Geoffrey will be revisiting some of his key themes in the light of some changes that have taken place across the world since - and to offer his personal view.
His book - Justice for All, and How to Achieve it - will be available for the first time at the event.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/justice-for-all
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Value is the importance, worth or usefulness of something. In healthcare, it has been argued that the only value that matters is that to the patient.
This lecture considers this hypothesis and the relationship between clinical outcome and cost of treatment.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-is-value-in-healthcare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The question of whether we are alone in the Milky Way (or in the universe) is one of the most intriguing questions in science and astronomy. Our solar system formed half way through the history of the universe, and many sun-like stars that host planetary systems are billions of years older than our Sun.
The odds of finding evidence for life are unknown, but the search continues as astronomers observe the nearby universe for earth-like planets and seek signs of life on exoplanets that resemble the earth in terms of atmosphere, composition and climate.
The answer to 'are we alone?' affects our claim for being special in the cosmos, and we shall never know unless we search.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-we-alone-in-the-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
William Shakespeare spent his schooldays learning Latin. When he arrived in London and became an actor and playwright, he discovered a city and a culture that modelled itself on ancient Rome.
Jonathan Bate tells the story of how and why Shakespeare was steeped in the classics, from his earliest plays such as Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors to his dramatisations of the stories of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-london-and-ancient-rome
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Many of us have been in a medical scanner and benefited from its use in medical diagnostics. But how many of us have considered how it works? The maths behind modern medical imaging (showing how CAT, MRI and Ultrasound scanners work) will be explained, showing how mathematics done in 1915 is now saving countless numbers of lives.
Recent advances in mathematics are leading to much better images for doctors to use for their diagnoses; and similar methods and ideas are used in diverse applications such as remote sensing, oil prospecting, crime detection, studying bees and saving the whales.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-maths-can-save-your-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Pain is often seen as universal and timeless, but how have people's understandings of pain changed over time? Did the invention of more effective analgesics and anaesthetics really revolutionise medical practices and human relationships to suffering?
Pain forces sufferers to 'pay attention' to their bodies. The way people-in-pain communicate their suffering has a profound effect on the type and quality of care they receive.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-pain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Few people now remember that the guitar was popular in England during the age of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, and yet it was played everywhere from the royal court to the common tavern.
In 1559 Queen Elizabeth herself received a case of three guitars as a New-Year's day present.
This opening lecture of the series, with musical illustrations, will use documents, poetry and images to bring the instrument to life, with a particular focus on the autobiography of the beguiling Tudor musician Thomas Whythorne.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-in-tudor-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Excavations have recently uncovered much evidence of Roman London, including fragments of 405 waxed stylus writing-tablets that can be dated to AD 50-90.
Roger Tomlin explains how her deciphered the tablets and what can be learned from them. They include the City's first financial document, dated 8 January 57; a contract for the transport of provisions from Verulamium (St Albans); business letters; complaints; and loans. 92 of London's earliest residents are named, including businessmen, merchants, brewers and soldiers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/roman-londons-first-voices
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The times they are a-changing - or are they? Do female lawyers need to be Superwoman to survive? Is motherhood welcomed, tolerated or rejected at the Bar? What makes for a successful advocate? Is gender relevant? What about career progression? Are women fairly represented on the Bench and in its most senior courts? Is there practice or appointment discrimination and if so what is being done about it?
This lecture will explore the reality of life at the Bar and why vocation matters.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/womens-lawyers-equals-at-the-bar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Science and religious faith are two of the most important elements of western culture. Yet the authority of both is under threat in our pragmatic culture, which emphasises relevance over truth.
So what is their relationship? Are they permanently locked in warfare? Or are there ways of encouraging a positive and enriching dialogue?
Drawing on the latest scholarship in the field, Professor McGrath moves us on from many of the outdated stereotypes to open up some new possibilities.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-science-and-faith-at-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Thames is often hailed as an international success story. Engineering works solved 19th century sewage problems, improving Londoners' health. Salmon, otters and birdlife are now reported to be flourishing along the Thames and the waterfront has been reinvigorated with new buildings. On the other hand, Thames Water PLC has been heavily fined for environmental offences that compromised human health, contaminated land and affected ecosystems. Levels of chemicals in river water are high.
Will the Thames Tideway tunnel solve flooding and pollution?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cleaning-up-the-thames-success-or-failure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Roman London was founded on the banks of the Thames to take advantage of the tidal river for traffic trade and communications. But precisely where were the bridge and the harbour, and what did they look like?
The remains of Roman vessels had been found at County Hall, in Southwark and at Blackfriars, but no sign of the port itself. Then, from 1973 onwards, in a long series of major archaeological excavations within the City, the ancient harbour was gradually revealed, often where it was least expected.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/discovering-the-port-of-roman-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Conservative Party is the oldest and one of the most successful political parties in the democratic world. It has been, for many years, the natural party of government.
During the 20th century it was in government, alone or in coalition, for 67 years. What is the secret of the party's extraordinary longevity and electoral success?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-conservative-party
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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We know a great deal about media gadgetry in retrospect, but much less about how it was perceived and experienced by early users. Historians at the end of the 19th century have traditionally paid little attention to 'new media' experiences, even though media historians would claim that this was the moment when the new media of communication and entertainment were already exercising their fascination.
Suppose we try to imagine a 'day in the life' of some Londoners in 1900, what would we find?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/multimedia-1900-experience-and-entertainment-in-everyday-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Productivity growth in the UK economy has lagged behind that of our major trading partners. With little or no growth in labour or total factor productivity, there can be no solution to our economic problems and a return to what we have come to consider as normal times.
We will examine a number of possible explanations ranging from the role of finance to the employment of physical and human capital.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-productivity-puzzle
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Milky Way galaxy was once ablaze with bright young stars. Today, star formation has calmed down, but we glimpse intense pockets of gas that are forming massive stars, testifying to the brilliant past. Stars form in clouds of interstellar gas that orbit their host galaxy. The clouds acquire more mass as gas accumulates, and the gaseous nebulae are soon massive enough to become unstable, due to the pull of their own gravity. As the clouds collapse, their central regions fragment into dense clumps of cold gas that eventually form stars.
Dust particles are the key ingredients that eventually coalesce to form a disk-like structure with rocky cores that orbit the forming sun and agglomerate into planets. The entire solar system was formed out of interstellar grit.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-were-the-stars-formed
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Thames is the reason that London is where it is and the river has had a decisive influence on the growth of the city since Roman Times. For 500 years it was the only reliable way to move about but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changes came that were to alter the face of London and transform our relationship with the river.
This event is part of Totally Thames 2017 that runs from 1-30 September
www.totallythames.org
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-royal-highway-to-common-sewer-the-river-thames-and-its-architecture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, QC, is a British barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She will be speaking on legal issues of topical interest.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-grays-inn-reading
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
One year ago, Britain decided, in the Referendum, upon its future relationship with the European Union. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-and-the-eu-in-or-out-one-year-on
What have been the consequences of that decision? How is the relationship like to develop? Did we make the right decision?
This lecture will discuss the implications of the 2016 Referendum.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-and-the-eu-in-or-out-one-year-on
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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THE GRESHAM SPECIAL LECTURE 2017
An economic model for news that has existed for 200 years or more is disappearing. Are we facing the prospect of societies without 'news' as previously understood? And why does it matter?
Alan Rusbridger is a British journalist, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall Oxford, and the former editor-in-chief of The Guardian.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-world-without-news
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Migration from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe has reached mass proportions in the last few years. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/migration-a-historical-perspective
This is only the most recent development in a long history of population movements into, out of and within the Continent. Beginning with the story of European migration to other parts of the world, the largest mass migration in history, that took on immense proportions in the nineteenth century, the lecture goes on to discuss the repeated experiences of forced population exchanges, flight, and "ethnic cleansing" in Europe in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. By examining this wider historical context we can begin to discern common features of migrants and refugees in many different situations, assess the problems they pose to receiving countries, and analyse how these countries have succeeded or failed in the attempt to assimilate large populations of immigrants.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/migration-a-historical-perspective
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In this talk, the concept of the 'good' doctor will be explored and how we can ensure that our doctors are 'good'. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-right-stuff-how-do-we-make-good-doctors
This question is crucial at time when morale in the health services appears low and inquiries reveal poor practice by some health care professionals. I will discuss the implications of these developments for the teaching of medical ethics, at both senior and junior levels. The idea of 'virtue' in medical practice will be considered, and how this may be linked to professional identity and responsibility.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-right-stuff-how-do-we-make-good-doctors
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Alan Turing famously proposed a test of artificial intelligence. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/artificial-intelligence
What has been achieved? Professor Stephen Hawking has said that real artificial intelligence will mean the end of mankind. Is that a real threat? Are there limits to what a silicon brain might do?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/artificial-intelligence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Are the streets now paved with gold? The first Conservation Areas were designated in 1967, today at the golden anniversary there are some 10,000 sites. The presentation will explore the origins, variety and some challenges for the future. The wider planning history offers insights into colourful individuals, dramatic events and some links to the very doorstep of Gresham College.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fifty-years-of-conservation-areas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The artist M.C. Escher's work often used ingenious tilings of the plane with interlocking figures such as fish and birds. Although these tilings could in principle extend forever, Escher could not show this on a finite picture. But a diagram from a paper by the mathematician Donald Coxeter presented one solution to this conundrum. We will look at the mathematics of this diagram and how Escher used it. We will also see how Coxeter produced mathematical research based on aspects of Escher's work.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/escher-and-coxeter-a-mathematical-conversation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
We need to think of economic policy as some path co-ordinating monetary, financial and fiscal policy. The economic landscape that has been outlined implies some new cyclical and structural economic policy options facing the UK. These concepts will be discussed in this final lecture of the year.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-policy-responses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Charles Dickens's expert eye for detail enabled him to describe many medical conditions in his writings. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-mr-pickwick-to-tiny-tim-charles-dickens-and-medicine
He supported hospitals, children's welfare, public health and the rehabilitation of prostitutes. Through his Journals and lectures he was able to reach out to the population at large and campaign on all of these issues. Dickens also suffered with a number of medical conditions which will be discussed in detail during the lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-mr-pickwick-to-tiny-tim-charles-dickens-and-medicine
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Using DNA and gene-based therapy to treat human diseases may sound like science-fiction, but there are already several gene therapies in use today, for diseases such as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. This lecture will describe what gene therapy is all about, the recent advancements in the field and what the future holds for gene therapies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gene-therapy-the-future-has-arrived
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
My job has been one of duty and privilege, working worldwide with wonderful colleagues. Few people are lucky enough to save lives or change them for the better. Few also experience the horror of losing lives or worsening them. In this lecture I want to share some of the astonishing experiences - funny, scary, sad - that have made my job so satisfying.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-life-as-a-childrens-heart-surgeon
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY/ GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-can-make-you-fly
Well, not quite. But it can make you seem to be flying, virtually. Some of the mathematical principles that can be used for creating such an effect will be discussed, with a focus on partial differential equations used for such a virtual image manipulation or restoration task. After lifting the mystery on the flying mathematician, we will see that such principles can be used beyond special effects, in the reconstruction of crucial information in satellite images of our earth, restoration of MR images in molecular imaging to the renovation of digital photographs and medieval artwork.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-can-make-you-fly
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Personal information is understood as the property of individuals, especially in the domain of health care and no information can be disclosed without permission of its 'owner'. This way of thinking about information raises questions about the ethics of information sharing, and our identity as social animals who are connected by discussion and conversation. Dilemmas about information sharing will be discussed in relation to (a) research and (b) the management of risk in health care.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-right-stuff-information-privacy-and-the-ethics-of-disclosure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The reign of Elizabeth II has been the longest in British history. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/queen-elizabeth-ii
It has coincided with the transformation of the mystical monarchy into a welfare monarchy, and the development of a multi-racial Commonwealth, which currently comprises 54 independent nations and nearly a third of the world's population. The Crown has grown stronger both at home as a symbol of the nation, and in the Commonwealth as a symbol of a diverse group of countries nations co-operating together for the common good.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/queen-elizabeth-ii
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Prior to the twentieth century, most environmental observations such as rainfall amounts and air temperatures were made by lay observers with interest and time on their hands. Later on, such measurements moved largely into the realms of professionals, but today the role of amateur observers is being revisited. The advent of smart phones and GPS is increasingly allowing citizen observers of wildlife, ecology, air and water quality, and flooding, to enhance our understanding of environmental science. What opportunities exist for individuals to help to solve some of the most complex problems on Earth? And what motivates people to join an environmental research team?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/all-must-have-prizes-citizen-science-and-the-environment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Since the premiere of John Cage's infamous 'silent' work 4'33", scholars have been fascinated by the question of what noise is, how it differs from music, and whether it can ever be beautiful. Drawing on ideas from musicology and philosophy, this lecture will explore these questions, examining our changing understandings of noise and taste in relation to the shifting socio-political landscape of the 20th century. Ultimately it will seek to question how we experience music in the present day, and discuss whether artistic beauty still has a place at all.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-is-noise-beauty-and-taste-in-20th-century-music
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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One of the great theological debates in the early church arose from Gnosticism. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-matter-evil
It was movement in late antiquity which held that the material world was evil. Salvation was understood in terms of deliverance from the material world into a spiritual realm. Early Christian writers resisted the idea, holding that the material world was not evil. Yet many questions remain unresolved, particularly the question of how human beings are able to transcend the material order.
This lecture explores such questions in dialogue with Philip Pullman's complex Dark Materials trilogy which provides a framework for discussing how human beings relate to the material world, and the origin of evil.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-matter-evil
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will explore vulnerable parties and children in the Family Court. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-point-one-children-why-there-is-no-typical-family-in-the-family-court
The common denominator is frequently one of poverty - in education, income and expectations. The range of disabilities that can be involved in court will be considered, and the way that law and practice responds to seek to protect an affected person's rights. The general principles which the court has to address if it is to deliver a fair system to the most vulnerable will be outlined.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-point-one-children-why-there-is-no-typical-family-in-the-family-court
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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By the twelfth century the West could be imagined as a soundscape of Latin plainsong and be given a name: Latinitas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singers-in-the-making-of-europe
The Gregorian chants for the Mass figured prominently in this body of shared material, and were spread by many different methods of colonisation and conquest. This was both internally by the foundation of new houses in abandoned or waste areas and externally by crusade in Spain, eastern Europe and Livonia. The singers of the Latin churches were therefore masters of an art that belongs with other aspects of medieval culture that helped to impel what may be called 'the making of Europe'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singers-in-the-making-of-europe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Is it possible to build software so that you know that it is correct? How could this be done? Has anyone tried? What would it cost?
This lecture discusses the Tokeneer experiment conducted by the US National Security Agency, and casts some light on these questions.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-software-correct-by-construction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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For most of the period since we have had records, the UK has held a positive net international investment positions versus the rest of the world. But the UK is now a net debtor versus the rest of the world. We shall examine the reasons for this extraordinary reversal and what it means for the exchange rate and whether it implies constraints on the current account, and ultimately on output growth.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-external-financing-position
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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South Africa's Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and the Afrikaner people it served had, since the 17th century drawn a distinction between white 'Christians' and the apparently unconvertible 'heathen' peoples around them. The Afrikaners' identity as a covenanted people was reinforced by the British conquest of 1899-1902. In the effort to maintain a white-ruled South Africa, some Afrikaners flirted with Nazism, but from 1948 the National Party chose a different path: a doctrine of 'apartheid' or 'separate development', which drew deeply on the DRC's theology. Theology legitimised apartheid, but was also instrumental in bringing it to a sudden and remarkably peaceful end.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gospel-of-apartheid
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Eradicating an infectious disease for all time is one of the greatest gifts a generation can give to all subsequent ones. To date only one human disease, smallpox, has been eradicated, with two more (polio and Guinea worm) being tantalisingly close. Several other major diseases are talked about as eradication targets. Eradicating diseases is however very difficult for scientific but also political reasons. Many eradication attempts have been tried and failed. This lecture will examine the opportunities and difficulties of eradication.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-eradication-of-infectious-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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George VI was the unexpected king. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-george-vi
As the second son of George V, he had no reason to believe, until less than a month before his accession, that he would succeed to the throne. He reigned in an atmosphere of almost perpetual crisis - confrontation with the dictators, war, decolonisation and the difficult economic problems of the immediate postwar years. His human qualities reinforced the spirit of social solidarity which helped Britain to victory in war and recovery in peace.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-george-vi
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The annual consumption of electricity in the UK is 300 TWh https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/energetic-mathematics
It is supplied over a complex network starting, usually, with power being generated at a power station. This is then transmitted over a high voltage network, before being reduced in voltage and distributed to commercial, industrial and residential consumers. Mathematics is vital in ensuring that the lights stay on as the planners of the grid need to solve non-linear differential-algebraic equations to work out how much electricity can be generated, distributed and stored. These challenges will increase in the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/energetic-mathematics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The use of experts in the family courts can make a significant difference to outcomes. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/expert-witness-a-zero-sum-game
The debate about the use of experts in court cases reflects the conflicted stance society takes on the emotive issue of child protection. It is a gross injustice to the child and parent for social workers, backed by 'expert' opinion, to wrongly remove children but it is equally unacceptable for vulnerable children to be left at home to suffer abuse.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/expert-witness-a-zero-sum-game
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Frost's line, 'I found a dimpled spider... holding up a moth like a white piece of rigid satin cloth' exploits simile. But how can a moth be like cloth? What does likening one material, the fragile, semi-transparent wing of a moth, to a woven fabric, stimulate in the reader's mind.
This is one of a number of examples that will be explored with a view to refining our understanding of similie.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-poetry-of-robert-frost-the-power-and-intrigue-of-simile
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Faced with escalating population pressure and new construction technologies, western architects are designing cities in the skies, and under the sea. If built, these will sit alongside older metropolitan areas such as London, Tokyo and Shanghai, where more and more people are squeezing into built-up areas. The era of 'megacities' is already with us, and the pace of development is escalating. But how can and will people live in these places, and what are the challenges of managing their living environments to ensure that they are fed, have water to drink, clean air to breathe, and can dispose of their waste? Are we facing a utopian or dystopian urban future?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-environmental-challenges-of-mega-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Long before there were stars, there was the stuff that stars are made of. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/observing-the-dark-ages
This era of the universe is called the dark ages, when the universe was transparent before the galaxies formed. Peering back in time with the largest telescopes reveals younger and younger galaxies ad the time when there were no galaxies and no stars. For the first 380,000 years of cosmic history, the universe was dense and opaque. All was dark - a dense fog, dominated by an impenetrable mixture of radiation and matter. Looking forward from the Big Bang, the fog lifted as the universe cooled, resulting in a race to detect the state of the universe in the dark ages.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/observing-the-dark-ages
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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As the year 2000, 'Y2K' - approached, many feared that computer programs storing year values as two-digit figures (such as 99) would cause problems. There is a widespread belief that the millennium bug was a myth, invented by rapacious consultants as a way to make money. What was the truth? What, if anything, happened? Have we learnt all the right lessons?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-in-y2k
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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One interesting area of debate concerns human identity and whether we can give a purely scientific account of human nature in terms of its physical, chemical and biological components. Or do we need additional perspectives to deal with the complexity of human nature? In addressing these issues, the focus will be on how we deal with human nature, particularly our capacity for selfishness and the notion of sin. What scientific approaches might help us explore this, and offer ways of resolving this problem?
Focussing on Richard Dawkins's classic work The Selfish Gene (1976), we will look at some of its core themes, the capacity of humanity to transcend its genetic limitations and predispositions. How does a scientific narrative about selfish genes correlate with a theological narrative about sin?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-humanity-naturally-good
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Two futures are outlined for the professions. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions
Both rest on technology. One is reassuringly familiar. It is a more efficient version of what we have today. The second is transformational - a gradual replacement of professionals by 'increasingly capable systems'. In the long run, in an Internet society, it is claimed, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the UK and USA, counter-terrorism efforts have had disparate impacts on racial, ethnic or religious minorities, with members of these allegedly 'suspect communities' subjected to various adverse government actions (eg surveillance and detention). What lessons can be gleaned from British and American experiences? Are the underlying policies and practices consistent with Anglo-American conceptions of the rule of law and individual rights?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/suspect-communities-in-anglo-american-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The lecture will cover the history of the western world as seen through the food that nourished builders for the Great Pyramids, free men of the Roman Empire, the expansion of Christianity, and the development of Europe until modern science and technology replaced complex ecosystems of sourdough cultures with monocultures of fast, commercial, and comparatively tasteless yeast.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-rise-and-fall-of-sourdough-6000-years-of-bread
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Bach's title page to the Orgelbüchlein reads: "Little organ book in which guidance is given to an inquiring organist in how to accomplish a chorale [prelude] in all kinds of ways, and at the same time to become practised in the study of pedalling... for the highest God alone Honour..."
The Orgelbüchlein is the jewel in Bach's organ music - a collection of magnificent miniatures which encompass all the musical emotions and which allow the organist to show all the colours and sonorities of the instrument at his disposal. The organ at St. Margaret Lothbury is rich in those sounds which Bach had in mind when he composed these wonderful preludes.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bachs-orgelbchlein-little-organ-book
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In 2007, a team of doctors and scientists ascended to the roof of the world to understand more about how we adapt to high altitude - and why some of us adapt better than others. The Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition was central to a fifteen year programme of research aiming to understand how humans adapt to low oxygen levels when critically ill. The researchers believe that changes in human physiology that allow some humans to climb the highest mountains on earth, may also be of benefit when oxygen levels in the body are low because of illness. This story combines high science with exceptional human endeavour.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/xtreme-everest-taking-medicine-from-mountainside-to-bedside
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The period since the start of the financial crisis has been dominated by talk of the "balance sheets" of households, the banking system or the government. We shall concentrate on the evolution of the asset and liability position of the UK's household, firm and government sector prior to the financial crisis and where we currently stand in terms of adjustment that is still required.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debt-and-the-household-balance-sheet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Most open-heart surgery in children requires the use of donor blood. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/i-wont-have-blood-a-battle-between-belief-and-duty
Jehovah's Witnesses believe, on the basis of biblical texts, that blood should not be ingested or transfused. There is thus a tension between clinical teams and devout families. This lecture explores that tension, and considers how we might perform open-heart surgery without blood.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/i-wont-have-blood-a-battle-between-belief-and-duty
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Edward VIII reigned for just 325 days. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-edward-viii
The history of his reign is in large part the history of the abdication. However, as Prince of Wales, Edward had been the first heir to the throne to find a genuine role for himself, as a spokesmen for the ex-service generation. His Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, said that he had 'a wider and more intimate knowledge of all classes of his subjects --- than any of his predecessors'. The abdication, often regarded as a constitutional crisis, in fact resolved a crisis which never became constitutional, since Edward did not allow any constitutional differences to arise between him and his ministers or between him and Parliament.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-edward-viii
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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We all rely on materials: natural ones like wood and stone - or manufactured ones such as steel, glass and concrete. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematical-materials
With modern technology, we can now design and manufacture meta-materials with a wide variety of mechanical, electrical, thermal and other properties. These often have different properties, combined in a complex manner. The resulting behaviour of the material emerges from the way that the properties interact, which can be very different from the sum of the parts. The mathematics needed to design and study such materials is rich and challenging.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematical-materials
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The richly illustrated talk will show one can start making beautiful images of the night sky https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-art-of-astrophotography
Armed with just a digital camera and a tripod allied to the use of free software that is easily available. Without going into excessive detail, the talk looks at how digital cameras coupled to small telescopes can image the Moon, planets, clusters and nebulae and will finally illustrate how cooled CCD cameras and larger telescopes can be used to produce professional images of remote galaxies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-art-of-astrophotography
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Nazism was not a Christian movement in any meaningful sense https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-kingdoms-in-the-third-reich
German Protestants of the 1920s and 1930s shared many Nazi assumptions and voted disproportionately for the Nazi party, partly in the hope that they might use it for their own ends. One result was the 'German Christian' movement, which tried to create a dejudaised Christianity which the Nazi state would accept with a place in the coming Aryan utopia. Many moderate, sensible Christians in Germany, even in the supposedly anti-Nazi 'Confessing Church', collaborated with the regime in other ways. This lecture will explore how so many Christians came to support Nazism, and how some managed to oppose it.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-kingdoms-in-the-third-reich
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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There was a time when old places were valued simply for their beauty and interest. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-value-of-heritage-and-the-heritage-of-value
Since the 1980s, for many, this is not enough. There is now a whole industry calculating the financial contribution of our history to everything from climate change to health. Have these calculations added to the value of our heritage or have they fundamentally devalued it. Is it time to develop a new argument as to why we should care about our historic environment?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-value-of-heritage-and-the-heritage-of-value
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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To mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-february-revolution-in-russia
The dilemmas of modern empire and monarchy will be discussed, firstly in general terms and then specifically in terms of Russia. What were the key challenges facing Nicholas II and why was he unable to meet them, both in the domestic and international contexts. The lecture will explain how the effects of Russia's involvement in the First World War firstly undermined all support for the monarchy and led to its sudden collapse in February 1917, and subsequently allowed the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Provisional Government so easily eight months later.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-february-revolution-in-russia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The issue of Shaken Baby or Natural Cause will be examined. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/guilty-until-proven-innocent
A case study involving a bereaved parent, the transformation of a family home into a crime scene, with the pregnant mother facing a murder trial and her baby removed at birth. Exoneration and reunification, despite a jury acquittal, did not happen until the Family Court's decision. The lecture will explore how such a decision was arrived at and the impact it has had on our understanding of Non Accidental Injury (NAI) versus undiagnosed rickets and Vitamin D deficiency that can mimic gross abuse.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/guilty-until-proven-innocent
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The universe was static, that was the credo of all scientists and philosophers until three decades into the twentieth century, when the expansion was discovered. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-accelerating-universe
Three quarters of a century later, the notion of a simple expansion of the universe was found to be wrong: the universe is accelerating. One implication is that before 2000, we believed that our successors, billions of years hence would see an ever larger space of galaxies, more numerous than grains of sand on a vast beach. Today with our telescopes we can see billions of galaxies: in the far future there would be, we once believed, uncountable billions to study and even search for signs of life. But with the discovery of accelerating space, our horizon has shrunk immensely. The distant galaxies are racing away from us at ever faster velocities. In a hundred and fifty billion years time, our Milky Way will be the only galaxy left in the observable universe. This lecture will explore the origin of this paradigm shift in our cosmic horizon, and discuss the origin of the acceleration as a phenomenon that we call dark energy.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-accelerating-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Storm Desmond brought unprecedented floods to Lancaster in December 2015 https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/living-without-electricity
Electricity supplies were cut off and not fully restored for six days. The disruption revealed how dependent on electricity modern city life has become. What happens when power, communications, and transport are all disrupted, when shops cannot function, and when most people cannot find out what is happening? What lessons have been learnt?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/living-without-electricity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture on slavery will present an overview of the challenges and an outline of what is needed to prevail, by one of the world's leading activists and thinkers on the subject, Dr Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/numberless-diverse-acts-of-courage-and-belief-the-struggle-against-slavery-in-history-and-in-the-present
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Early in 2016, the criminal and civil courts of England and Wales embarked on a modernisation programme aimed at reforming procedures that have survived for centuries. The judges themselves are helping to design the computerised courts of the future. New software will empower litigants to bring and defend cases without the need for lawyers. Judges will be able to decide cases whenever and wherever they choose to open their laptops. But will justice suffer? What if you cannot manage the technology? What if your opponent but not yourself can afford legal advice? Will the courts continue to deliver justice? Might your dispute be decided by a computer? In the first of a series of three annual lectures, the reforms will be monitored as they are planned, tested and launched. Will this project be an IT disaster? Or will it demonstrate that online justice can be just as good as the courts that have served us for hundreds of years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/justice-online-just-as-good
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the line, 'The Western wave was all aflame', the 'Western wave' refers to the sea. But is it this simple? What do forms of substitution, synecdoche (a figure of speech in which the name of a part is used to stand for the whole) for example, lend to this magnificent and shadowy poem?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/samuel-taylor-coleridge-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-and-poetic-technique
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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One of the most distinctive characteristics of human beings is their capacity to alter their environments through technology. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/respecting-and-transcending-nature
This raises important ethical and religious questions concerning the human engagement with nature, such as whether there are limits to what we can do with science (as in the genetic modification of crops). Yet there are deeper questions, about the way in which science can be used for destructive purposes.
The writing of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) show how his experience of the technology of warfare in the First World War had a lasting impact, causing him to reflect on how science could be used to destroy humanity, as much as to improve conditions. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings contrasts the purity and simplicity of those living close to nature with those who try to alter nature for their own ends. Reflections on scientific and religious frameworks enable us to respect nature on the one hand, while transcending its limits on the other.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/respecting-and-transcending-nature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In the year 754 the first pope ever to cross the Alps came to a small chapel in what is now northern France and prostrated himself before the king of the Franks, beseeching him for military aid. The pope came with singers from the Roman song school. When he and the king signed 'treaties of peace' together the foundations were laid for what has long been known as Gregorian (or better 'Frankish-Roman') Chant. This is the music of a trans-alpine Western Europe beginning o revive, albeit very slowly, after the withdrawal of Roman imperial power. No activity marked this broader horizon more potently, or more often, than the daily celebration of Gregorian chant by priests, deacons and singers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-christian-singer-charlemagne-and-beyond
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture explains how my participation in making some videos for the University of Nottingham's 'test-tube' YouTube channel led to collaboration with the video-journalist Brady Haran, and the creation of the YouTube channel, The Periodic Table of Videos. Beginning as a collection of 120 videos (one for each of the elements of the Periodic Table, plus introduction), it gathered momentum and now has about 600 uploaded videos, 790,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 130 million views in over 200 countries. Its evolution and success will be explained.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-test-tube-to-youtube
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A celebration of the heart for St Valentine's Day. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/affairs-of-the-heart-an-exploration-of-the-symbolism-of-the-heart-in-art
How is it that a simple pump has become a symbol of the highest human emotions of love, truth, conscience and moral courage? How have artists represented this over the centuries? And how effective have those representations been? This lecture will be an interdisciplinary presentation by Professor Martin Elliott and Dr Valerie Shrimplin (art historian and registrar of Gresham College).
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/affairs-of-the-heart-an-exploration-of-the-symbolism-of-the-heart-in-art
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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We all eat and have an interest in food! https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-much-maths-can-you-eat
Indeed food and beverage processing is the world's largest manufacturing industry with a UN Forecast that the world food output must increase by 70% by 2050. The many existing, and potential, applications of mathematics in agricultural-science and food technology will be described, explaining how the fundamental process of freezing, cold storing, cooking, making, eating, and even digesting, food are all areas in which the application of areas of mathematics such as thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and partial differential equation theory can make a very big difference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-much-maths-can-you-eat
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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International competition drives schools and universities around the world as never before, and an increasingly complex world places more demands for evidence of qualifications and standards. Clashes with constraints of state funding created enormous pressures and educators struggle with their own skills and approaches. New technology, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), threatens to disrupt the foundations of traditional 'chalk and talk'. More than half of the Eurozone's young workers are in temporary jobs and the UK seems to have a talent mismatch between skills on offer and what employers need. Amidst the challenges, the changes, and the confusion, what can be done? How can medieval-type apprenticeships become an increasingly important part of a modern answer? The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Dr Andrew Parmley, will explore the historical background to apprenticeships, their importance over the centuries, and their relevance to the future. He will set out how apprenticeships can rise to the challenges of modern education in a modern society, provide training for working life, and benefit apprentices themselves throughout their lives. You can read more about the City of London's The City's Business programme here, which looks at how businesses can support young people to develop skills for work.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/apprenticeship-politics-education-or-reality-television
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Oceans have been the least well-known major component of the Earth's environment. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/under-the-sea-whats-happening-in-our-oceans
Whilst deep ocean exploration has enabled great advances in understanding the nature of sea floors, we are only recently starting to understand patterns of marine circulation and how these have changed over time. Scientists are also finding increasing evidence of human-induced damage at vast scale - destruction of fish and coral ecosystems, and vast gyrating pools of plastic refuse, for example. What attempts are being made to reduce the footprint of human activity on the oceans, and can they succeed in restoring the largest living space on earth?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/under-the-sea-whats-happening-in-our-oceans
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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In this lecture, I will present and review developments in moral psychology over the last two decades. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-right-stuff-how-do-we-make-moral-choices
Specifically, I will explore the neuroscience of moral decision-making, and the implications of this research for ethical issues such as moral responsibility. I will particularly focus on the capacity to make unwise decisions that are unpopular with others; and the question of whether values can be taken out of the research into moral choice-making. I will conclude by asking further questions about the implications of this work for training in medical ethics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-right-stuff-how-do-we-make-moral-choices
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Cyberspace must not be an unpoliced area of society - it is much too important for that. But the courts have ruled that mass surveillance of citizens by their Government is disproportionate and unacceptable in a democracy. After Edward Snowden revealed the existing extent of surveillance, Internet experts have strengthened encryption and the security services say that their ability to disrupt criminals have been weakened.
In the battle between the spooks and the geeks, who will win? And who should win?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-dilemmas-of-privacy-and-surveillance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Most equate 'anaesthesia' with general anaesthesia. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-local-anaesthesia
This is likely because the introduction of general anaesthesia (1847) pre-dated that of local anaesthesia (1884). The drugs used for these first demonstrations, ether and cocaine, had been in existence for centuries before pioneers made the mental leap between the knowledge that they could cause - respectively - sedation and numbness, and the potential for these effects to be used for the benefit of humanity. Dr Harrop-Griffiths will put a humorous spin on a fascinating story.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-local-anaesthesia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Rapid economic growth in the emerging worlds has taken many families out of poverty but has placed downward pressure of manufacturing wages in the advanced world. Along with increasingly lower real interest rates that have placed upwards pressure on asset prices, these twin forces have the propensity to accelerate income inequality, what do the facts say?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/macroeconomics-capitalism-inequality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The blight of the concrete municipal buildings of the 1960s and 70s in the historic centres of our cathedral cities is all too familiar. Everyone wants to avoid the same mistakes being made again, but there is a fissure between those who wish to build in contemporary styles and materials and those who want to adopt a local historical vernacular. There is also a tension between developers who say they have to build big and residents who want a human scale. Can we reconcile old and new in our historic cities?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perfection-or-pastiche-new-buildings-in-old-places
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Can a scientific theory ever be confirmed? https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-we-trust-a-theory
Must a scientific theory be falsifiable? These are deep questions that have fascinated philosophers from David Hume to Karl Popper, and continue to be at the core of scientific reasoning. Theories such as that of the multiverse or almost all string theories make no empirically verifiable predictions. Does this move them into the realm of metaphysics, or even quasiscience? Modern philosophers of science have moved on beyond the notion of falsifiability. They refer to the old school who believed in empirical testing of scientific theories as the Popperazzi. Now one applies statistical inference, pioneered by Reverend Thomas Bayes in the 19th century, to infer the likelihood that a theory is correct. Philosophers argue that while one can never prove that a theory of the universe is correct, one can increase the level confidence in the theory even without any empirical tests, if the theory satisfies certain conditions that I will explain. In this way one can provide non-empirical support for string theory and even the theory of the multiverse.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-we-trust-a-theory
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Many creatures manipulate their fellows, their partners, their enemies and even their friends in an attempt to gain advantage for themselves. Professor Steve Jones (Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment at University College London) will talk about the crafty ways of living creatures from orchids to ourselves, and about how, beneath every beauty, lies a beast.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cheats-liars-and-fornicators-the-hidden-face-of-mother-nature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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This lecture will explore and explain the difference in outcomes between cases in Crime and Care, considering the framework of 'Beyond reasonable doubt' versus 'the balance of probabilities' and the concept of the judge's role to determine the law and the jury the facts, as against the idea that the judge determines all. Rules on disclosure, hearsay, use of expert witnesses, and time scales in court will be examined to consider why a Not Guilty verdict in Crime may not be enough, in some cases, to resume being a parent.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/when-legal-worlds-collide
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The United States in the early nineteenth century was one of Christian history's great moments of sectarian creativity. The religious entrepreneurs of a newly democratic society rebelled against the proliferation of denominations by creating new movements of their own, from Utopian communities to apocalyptic revivals. The most notorious such movement, the Millerites, forecast the end of the world for 1844 - in the most modern, rational and compelling terms.
This lecture will explore why Millerites believed the predictions, what effects they had, and how they responded to the 'Great Disappointment'. And it will look at how two very different but almost equally successful modern Christian movements, the Seventh-day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, emerged from the wreckage.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/americas-advents
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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'When well-appareled April on the heel/ Of limping winter treads'. A calendar month cannot dress, nor can a season walk.
This lecture will explore the magic of personification in Shakespeare's poetry.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-sonnets-and-the-use-of-personification
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Is science complete in itself, or does it act as a pointer or signpost to matters beyond its boundaries? This discussion is often framed in terms of 'natural theology', understood as a way of interpreting nature as bearing witness to the existence and nature of God.
One of the most vigorous writers on this is C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) whose arguments against naturalism will be considered, together with alternatives which he proposes, as developed in works such as Miracles and The Chronicles of Narnia.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-reality-limited-to-what-science-can-uncover
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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Amidst the increasingly material penury of the early medieval world, Rome and Byzantium (that is to say New Rome, now Istanbul) offered a continuing example of opulence and luxury that was expressed in worship with expensive textiles, precious metals and sonorous titles of office, including now the singer or cantor, that proclaimed supreme honour and eternal victory through liturgy. In the Western kingdoms, to maintain rich services, with a staff of good singers, was one of the ways in which a king came into his inheritance as surely as moving into the old governor's palace. In this lecture we shall explore what the singing of Rome meant far afield: in northern England, Ireland, Spain and Germany.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/roman-singing-and-its-influence-across-europe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Sudden death in the young is more common than you think. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sudden-death-in-the-young-a-terrible-waste
It is, as my own family knows only too well, an appalling injustice in terms of lost life and potential. This lecture considers the causes of sudden death, its impact on families, the difficulties of carrying out research, and some of the legal and social obstacles to discovering more.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sudden-death-in-the-young-a-terrible-waste
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The study of perspective in art has led to a branch of mathematics called projective geometry, which addresses the relationship between landscapes viewed from different locations. One of the key features of the subject is the concept of 'point at infinity', which represents the meeting point of parallel lines. The lecture will tackle the question of where to stand in order to photograph the restored four chimneys of Battersea power station equally spaced along the skyline. The answer will take us to the heart of projective geometry, to theorems about conics, and allow us to generate images that are around us on a daily basis.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mathematical-skyline
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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It was during the reign of George V that constitutional monarchy reached its maturity. It came to be taken for granted that the powers of the sovereign would be used in a genuinely impartial way. This proved of particular importance with the advent of the first Labour government in 1924. George V's reign coincided with the fall from power of five emperors, eight kings and eighteen other dynasties. But in Britain the monarchy gained in popular esteem and this helped to preserve parliamentary government in the difficult years between the wars.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-george-v
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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FULBRIGHT LECTURE
Walter Scott's phenomenally popular novels and poems created an image of Scotland as a land of sublime scenery and heroic chivalry. Why is it Scott's version rather than any of the many other nineteenth-century literary representations of Scotland that has endured in the popular imagination? This lecture will explain why Scott's romanticised representations of Scotland were such a hit, and how his enduring legacy has helped or hindered Scotland as it seeks to define its place in Britain today.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/did-sir-walter-scott-invent-scotland
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Smoke from burning forests, and photochemical smog in Beijing and Delhi are visible from space. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/something-in-the-air-the-insidious-challenge-of-air-pollution
Most of the air pollution in cities such as London is invisible even at ground level. The WHO suggests that the cost of contamination within Europe alone amounts to $1.6 trillion, with massive implications for the health of both rich and poor people alike. How much do we know about this, and can anything realistically be done about it?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-goes-to-the-movies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Martyn Thomas CBE provides an in-depth analysis on the concerns surrounding today's safety-critical systems https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-critical-systems
Software is an essential part of many safety-critical systems. Modern cars and aircraft contain dozens of processors and millions of lines of computer software.
This lecture looks at the standards and guidance that are used when regulators certify these systems for use. Do these standards measure up to the recommendations of a report on Certifiably Dependable Software from the US National Academies? Are they based on sound computer science?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-critical-systems
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Chris Budd OBE offers an insight into the world of Hollywood through the eyes of a mathematician. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-goes-to-the-movies
An enormous amount of our leisure time is spent interacting with the media, watching television and movies. Much of the space on our computers (and on the Internet) is taken up with static and moving images, and images are also extremely important in fields varying from medicine to crime protection. These images are stored as numbers, and mathematics can be used to create, manipulate and change them. Characters such as Shrek are actually a collection of triangles and other mathematical objects, demonstrating the role of mathematics in the creation of movies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-goes-to-the-movies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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From the first Christmas song by a 12th-century Northumbrian hermit, through the earliest surviving Christmas carol of the mid-14th-century, to the heyday of the carol in 15th-century England, Jeremy Summerly traces the early history of the world's favourite musical genre with sung illustrations from the St Luke's Carollers of Chelsea.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-carols
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A singer in a church of 450-650 was generally appointed in the same way as a gravedigger - too lowly to demand the bishop's attention. While the task of selecting a reader required the bishop to hear reports of the candidate's reputation for honest living and a presentation in a public ceremony, a singer who was often charged to voice the same divine words but in song could be admitted without any references or any codified rite of induction. Yet arrangements were increasingly made to school singers in the great metropolitan churches of the West, as will be demonstrated.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/schooling-singers-in-the-cathedrals
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The one built environment issue on which there is political consensus is an urgent need to build more houses. For many, especially in historic towns and villages, this has raised huge opposition. The housebuilders are branded vandals; their opponents NIMBYS. Heritage legislation was not designed to assess and control volume house building and many feel that what is proposed will destroy hundreds of years of history. Housebuilding and heritage can be reconciled, but at the moment far too few local authorities know how to do it.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tough-choices-heritage-or-housing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The essence of life as we know it was produced in the first three minutes after the beginning of the universe. By this, I mean the stuff that we and the Earth are made of, particles of matter that we call baryons. But well before the baryons were created, the universe began from virtually nothing. There was empty space, and time, but no more. Yet within instants, thanks to the occurrence of quantum fluctuations, it attained its huge size, homogeneity and isotropy. The universe is enormous, it is relatively uniform when we smooth over the galaxies, and it looks the same in all directions. More remarkably, during this enormous inflation of space, the universe very early on developed the seeds from which all structure eventually formed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-three-minutes-of-creation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Dickens is often credited with virtually inventing Christmas as we now know it and is in any case strongly identified with this festival. This is primarily owing to the immense and enduring popularity of his first 'Christmas Book', A Christmas Carol. In Prose (1843), but his subsequent seasonal offerings during the following quarter-century also contributed to this result. In this lecture I shall be looking at both contemporary and later responses to Dickens's Christmas writings, and considering the extent to which he can be seen as the creator of the modern Christmas.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-founder-of-the-feast-dickens-and-christmas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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FULBRIGHT LECTURE
In 1853, the German Physiologist Eduard Pflüger published the first in a series of startling experiments on living, decapitated frogs. He elicited behaviours in these compromised animals that seemed more than just reflexive - the behaviours seemed purposive. An ensuing controversy over whether these frogs could be considered genuinely conscious pitted the English polymath G.H. Lewes against T.H. Huxley. Their debate curiously intertwined empirical with a priori philosophical concerns, concerns which we will try to tease apart.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-curious-case-of-the-decapitated-frog
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Amongst all his astronomical allusions, Shakespeare demonstrates a deep knowledge of the night sky and its movements. Although he gives the conventional view of his age that astronomical events offer portents for human affairs, his characters sometimes take a sceptical view, and there are hints that he was aware of the new Copernican world-view that was taking hold during his lifetime. The lecture will be illustrated with quotations from Shakespeare's plays. This lecture also marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1616.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-astronomy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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One of the most common themes underlying both the natural sciences and Christian theology is that the world is ordered or structured, and that this order can be discerned by an inquiring mind and represented theoretically. Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) saw human beings as searching for 'patterns' in life, and explored this theme in her detective novels, as well as in her religious writings.
How can we find the best explanation of what we observe? And why do human beings enjoy solving puzzles - whether this relates to the identity of the murderer or the meaning of life? Sayers's approach will be considered in the light of contemporary psychological research and her belief that Christianity can help uncover the coherence of the world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-faith-make-sense-of-things
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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When should intervention take place to safeguard a child? Areas where harm may arise include children at risk of being radicalised; parents promoting terrorism; or planning or being groomed to travel to Syria (with or without their parents). But removal is not a 'risk free' option since it may appear to be victimisation; reinforce a perception of 'them and us'; or radicalise those who were previously uninvolved. Emerging law and practice in this area will be examined.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-one-individuals-radicalism-anothers-right-to-free-speech
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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In the commerce second lecture, trends in the labour market will be considered, examining patterns of unemployment, employment, hours worked and real wages. Do high participation rates in the labour market reflect and/or represent economic progress or an economy mired in low-skill low-wages jobs?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/employment-and-unemployment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Doctors' careers can be sometimes built on publication rates and citation indices. Medical journals preferentially publish positive results, which also benefits industry. It is not surprising that scientific fraud occurs. When discovered, reputations are broken and livelihoods lost. The collateral damage to innocent patients and other researchers can be catastrophic. This lecture reviews some classic and some new examples of fraud and discusses what can be done to prevent it.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/seeing-through-the-lies-innovation-and-the-need-for-transparency
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Thomas More's Utopia was first published 500 years ago. Its central idea, of a perfect but impossible place, has since become part of our mental furniture. But what does this very amusing (though also rather stern) book mean? It has sometimes been seen as a satire on the inevitable conformity of political equality but may rather offer a portrait of a magnificently just society. Utopia's links both with London and with the civic culture of Renaissance Europe more generally will be explained. Focussing on its significance at the time when it was written, with reflections on its remarkably varied legacy. This is part of the Being Human festival and is complemented by an exhibition at the University of London's Senate House which runs until December 2016, Utopia and Dystopia.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/thomas-mores-magnificent-utopia
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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The European Court of Human Rights has been at the crossroads of two legal civilizations: the Continental Civil Law on the one hand and the British Common Law on the other. The common-law construction with its analogical reasoning is based on the formula that 'the like cases should to be decided alike'. This legal tradition is more open-textured than the logical reasoning in the Continental legal system. Also, Continental judges are, since Montesquieu, thought of as merely 'les bouches de la loi' - bound to derive their judgements from an abstract normative major premise. Here we have yet again two different approaches to reality.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/in-the-context-of-the-common-law-the-european-court-of-human-rights-in-strasbourg
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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There is wide variation in how easy cancers are to prevent but greater understanding of modifiable risk factors will lead to many cancers becoming substantially less common in the future. Some, such as cervical or lung cancers are already completely or largely preventable. For a few such as prostate cancer there are no current prevention strategies. For most cancers, however, the risk can be substantially reduced. Finding the right balance between the role of the state and of individuals in preventing cancer is often difficult.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-prevention-of-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Dickens' use of exaggeration is key to his style. But its use has myriad effects from making a character's disposition unmissable, to adding whimsy and humour.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/charles-dickens-hard-times-and-hyperbole
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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Information plays a huge role in the modern world, with vast amounts of data literally at our finger tips. The Internet is leading to an ever-increasing amount of data, leading to the 'challenge of Big Data', in which we have to deal with huge amounts of data of direct relevance to people's lives. Without mathematics, we would be unable to store, transmit, interpret, process or understand any of this. The rise of Big Data is associated not only with major technological challenges, but also with significant ethical and privacy issues, and has major policy implications.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-challenge-of-big-data
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Human-induced climate change has been identified by scientists and politicians as the greatest threat encountered by humanity. Deserts, oceans, forests, icecaps, shorelines and reefs all seem threatened, with catastrophic consequences for human life. The lecture will investigate the latest evidence about what is happening to the global climate, speculate on the environment that our children could face in 2100, and discuss some strategies that might be used to make a difference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hotting-up-meeting-the-challenges-of-climate-change-in-the-twenty-first-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The English Civil Wars of 1642-8 began as the last of Europe's wars of religion and ended as the first modern revolution. Parliamentarians had been fighting for the chance to finish England's Reformation, but the experience of war convinced some of them that thr mere reshaping of the establishment was not enough. To be true to their religious vision, something more searching and profound was needed. This restless spirit manifested itself in various sects and fellowships, united by a loathing of complacency and hypocrisy, which both supported and helped to undermine the republican experiment.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-republic-of-king-jesus
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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From Leonardo da Vinci to the Brothers Grimm our fascination with hair has endured in art and science. We love it for its "body" or "volume", the fluffiness and elasticity that comes from its random waves and curls. But apart from a purely tactile response, can we take a more quantitative approach to hair, to explain these macroscopic properties in terms of the behaviour of individual hairs? We know that the important physics governing hair involves the interplay of its elasticity, weight, and curliness, but it is only recently that these have been synthesized into a mathematical theory. This talk will cover the mathematics involved, focusing on the important historical developments of elasticity theory due to Euler and Bernoulli and the determination of energy-minimizing shapes through the calculus of variations.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leonardo-rapunzel-and-the-mathematics-of-hair
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Edward VII had an instinctive understanding of the human side of monarchy. Both at home and abroad, he sought to conciliate, and was known as Edward the Peacemaker. He helped to create the good feeling with France which prepared the way for the Entente Cordiale of 1904. At home he faced a constitutional crisis when the House of Lords rejected the budget in 1909. The crisis remained unresolved at Edward's death in 1910.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/king-edward-vii
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
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At some time in the fourth century some bishops assembled for a synod in a city whose site is now in Turkey. Today, the place where they met retains little of the grandeur that made it an appropriate choice for such a gathering; there are only broken walls in a coarsened landscape, grazed by sheep, to recall the colonnades and forum of the ancient city with its basilicas. In their deliberations, the bishops identified for the first time in Christian history, an actual ministry of song. They decreed that Only regularly appointed singers capable of reading from parchment, should be allowed to ascend the pulpit from now on and sing in churches. This lecture will build on this foundational moment in Christian musical history.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/towards-a-ministry-of-singing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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For some, twentieth-century buildings are not heritage, but for an increasing number, they are the most threatened buildings in Britain. Post war modernism is now at the centre of the hardest fought and most controversial conservation debates. Which buildings, if any, should be listed and what should the criteria be? How far can experimental buildings of the 1960s and '70s be altered for new uses? Should there be new rules for a new era of conservation?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/saving-the-twentieth-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A lecture by Professor David Phillips from Imperial College London http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-little-light-relief
Light, particularly sunlight, has always occupied a mystical power and is commonly held to bestow good health upon recipients of its rays. That there is both truth and fallacy in such beliefs will be demonstrated as the science of photo-medicine is dealt with from a chemist's point of view. The subject encompasses the effects of light on the skin, diagnostic uses of light, and therapeutic aspects, with a brief consideration of the harmful effects of solar radiation. The lecture will be illustrated with demonstrations. No prior knowledge of chemistry or science is necessary.
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
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With London already Europe's biggest metropolitan consumer market and continuing to grow, and the move to ever larger container ships in the Port, what is the future for the River Thames? Will it continue to be an industrial hub, a centre of population with the growth of high-rise blocks, or a focus for recreation?
Part of the Mondays at One Maritime London Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-science-rob-nature-of-its-mystery-and-beauty
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The main speaker, Professor Jan van Maanen will discuss Leibniz (1646-1716) and the Curve of Quickest Descent
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/curves-in-honour-of-leibnizs-tercentenary
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Kenneth Falconer delievers his lecture on 'Fractal Curves: From the Esoteric to the Ubiquitous' http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/curves-in-honour-of-leibnizs-tercentenary
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/curves-in-honour-of-leibnizs-tercentenary
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Dr Lawrence takes up the theme of spirals and the work of Archimedes http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/curves-in-honour-of-leibnizs-tercentenary
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/curves-in-honour-of-leibnizs-tercentenary
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The treatment for people with many cancers has been transformed in the last two decades, and further major improvements are expected to occur over the next twenty years. Improved surgery and radiotherapy have been joined by less toxic chemotherapy targeting specific genetic abnormalities in cancer cells. Better genetic understanding of cancer and harnessing the immune system to fight disease are among the approaches revolutionising a group of diseases once seen as incurable.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-treatment-of-cancer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Joseph Silk FRS embarks on an illustrious journey through the universe to explain the paradigm shift in today's scientific view on the physical expansion of space http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-expanding-universe
It was once inconceivable that the universe could be expanding. The static universe survived three thousand years of analysis and observation, to become enshrined as a cosmological solution to the equations of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Only after three decades into the twentieth century did a paradigm shift occur. This was based on observational data, but it was to take decades before the recession of the galaxies was accepted as the conceptual proof of the physical expansion of space. I will recount how the recession of the galaxies was first discovered and eventually accepted as a physical model for the expansion of the universe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-expanding-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Examples of disease as shown in artworks will be examined, from the medical and surgical point of view as well as the historical and artistic ones, particularly visual loss as portrayed by artists from pre-historic times. The special mystery in the story contained within Van Eyck's The Virgin with The Canon (1436) will then be discussed, providing a fascinating religious, legal, medical and sociological explanation for the Canon's blindness and contemporary attitudes towards it.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/van-eycks-the-virgin-with-the-canon-visual-disability-and-societal-attitudes-as-depicted-in-the-northern-renaissance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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London at one time was the largest port and industrial city in the world. Bermondsey, Deptford, Blackwall and Greenwich were all major centres for shipbuilding. This lecture will look at the industrial river and consider the changing needs of shipping with the transition from sail to steam and its impact on London as a port.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-sail-to-steam-londons-role-in-a-shipbuilding-revolution
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In dialogue with Professor Alister McGrath, Lord Harries (Emeritus Gresham Professor of Divinity) will discuss his new book. Life is at once so wonderful and so appalling. We glimpse something of God in the beauty of the world, but then this seems to be contradicted by the evil and suffering. Drawing on the insights of the Christian faith how can we live with this contradiction?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-beauty-and-the-horror-searching-for-god-in-a-suffering-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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It has been said that if you are not paying for a service, then you are the product, not the customer. To what extent is this true for free software, social networking, and other free IT services and products? If we are the product, are we selling ourselves too cheaply? Who is tracking us, and how? How can we retain control?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-customer-or-the-product
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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There were dramatic changes in the Roman, Saxon and medieval ports of London, which directly reflected the equally dramatic changes taking place in contemporary society, economy and culture. How might the study of the first 1,500 years of port history (encapsulating profound changes ranging from location, infrastructure and technology to variations in river levels) help when making predictions for the future?
Part of the Mondays at One Maritime London Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-growth-of-london-as-a-port-from-roman-to-medieval-times
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Recent developments in space technology have allowed us to view the Earth in new ways, and to identify our impact on land, atmosphere, oceans and freshwater in astonishing detail. Our planet's fragility as a life support system is being revealed today in ways that would not have been anticipated even twenty years ago.
The lecture will explore some of the science behind these observations, show a range of the curious and beautiful imagery being generated, and ask questions about the opportunities and risks of this type of environmental surveillance.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scratching-the-surface-looking-from-space-at-human-impact-on-earth
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The heart beats continuously to sustain life. Its basic rhythm is well known, and has been used as a soundtrack to evoke romance, tension and horror. In this lecture, Professor Elliott will describe how the rhythm is generated. With the help of a percussionist (Nick Buxton of La Shark) and a dancer, he will demonstrate the evocation of those emotions, and what happens when the rhythm of the heart goes awry.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-rhythm-of-life-the-beat-and-dance-of-the-heart
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Narrative, the way a tale is told, is less straightforward than we might suppose. Austen handles irony brilliantly and systematically exploited new ways of narrating, including free indirect discourse.
This lecture explores why Austen's way of narrating are so compelling.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/jane-austen-persuasion-irony-and-the-mysterious-vagaries-of-narratives
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Mathematics has played a vital role in the development of human civilisation, and is the foundation of much of modern technology and popular culture. However, the achievements of mathematics and mathematicians are often unknown or misunderstood. The contribution of mathematicians over the centuries will be celebrated, showing how mathematical ideas have huge relevance today - varying between Maxwell and the mobile phone, Florence Nightingale and modern statistics, Pythagoras and the development of music, Euclid and art, Euler and Facebook, and Cayley and Google. Even basic mathematics can make a profound difference to our lives.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-have-mathematicians-done-for-us
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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The lecture will examine the changing shape of the Thames Valley (the London end in particular), evidence of population movement and urban growth and the appearance of agricultural and industrial activity from the earliest times to the arrival of the Romans.
Part of the Mondays at One Maritime London Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-early-river-thames-the-iron-age-and-before
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Jo Delahunty QC offers an inside perspective of the family justice system and discusses some of the issues family courtrooms deal with http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sex-death-and-witchcraft-what-goes-on-in-the-family-court-room
Think of family and what comes to mind? At best, a family united by children, love, partnership; At worst: the death of love, divorce, parents feuding over money and children. But what of the situation where the dispute is not between partners but The State and The Family? A child may be removed because professionals fear that they may suffer, no longer protected by parents but at risk from them.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sex-death-and-witchcraft-what-goes-on-in-the-family-court-room
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Christopher Page looks at the early Christians singing and illustrates it with performances by the world-renowned tenor Christopher Watson http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-music-of-the-first-christians
Early in the second century a Roman governor interrogated a group of Christians to satisfy himself that they had not offended against his recent edict banning clubs that might acquire a political slant. The Christians told him that they said that they convened before dawn on Sundays, when they were accustomed to sing a hymn of praise, and that they met subsequently to share a common meal. Perhaps to confute the rumour that they and their co-religionists indulged in cannibalism, the prisoners insisted that they ate perfectly innocent food when they gathered. Like many others in the first and second centuries, the governor thought the Christians very strange. So they were in many respects, but they were not so strange that they repudiated the use of ritual song. We begin our survey with the music of the first Christian communities.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-music-of-the-first-christians
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Discussion of Britain's imperial past is increasingly bifurcated along populist 'good' and 'bad' narratives. An account of the UK's colonial legacy through the prism of urban history allows for a more nuanced and reflexive critique of Empire. The rise and fall of the British Empire will be discussed through the history of ten cities, exploring how their architectural, planning, and commercial history elucidates their place within the imperial story.
The Royal Historical Society / Gresham College Annual Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ten-cities-that-built-an-empire-understanding-british-imperialism-through-the-urban-past
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Alister McGrath explores how the natural sciences and Christian theology might offer an enriched or deepened vision of reality, which transcends the limits placed on each http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-science-rob-nature-of-its-mystery-and-beauty
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was one of the most acute observers of the tensions to emerge between science and religion during the Victorian age. We shall explore Ruskin's concerns, set against the background of the Industrial Revolution, and ask how can we do science without losing sight of the beauty of nature? And in what ways might a religious reading of nature help meet at least some concerns?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-science-rob-nature-of-its-mystery-and-beauty
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In this first lecture, economic performance will be considered in terms of income and productivity growth, prior to and following the recession. We shall examine the so-called "productivity puzzle" and explore the possible explanations and solutions.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/recession-and-recovery
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Supermassive black holes lurk in the very centres of galaxies. The Milky Way has a central black hole of four million solar masses. Today it is quiescent. But we have reason to believe that millions of years ago it was active. Traces of exploded debris are seen around our galactic centre that arose in a violent explosion some tens of millions of years ago. Most galaxies have massive central black holes, in some cases weighing billions of solar masses. These once were the sites of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, that astronomers recognise as quasars. I will describe feeding the monster within: the rise of the quasars, and how supermassive black holes formed long ago. These immensely luminous objects in the nuclei of galaxies were active when the universe was young. Current data suggests that supermassive black holes formed along with the first galaxies. The ultimate window on building massive black holes is gravity waves, and I will describe gravity wave experiments being planned to search for traces of the formation of such black holes.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/black-holes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Professor Paul Cartledge explores the democracy in ancient Greece and the origins of the word, and how that distinguishes from today's notion of democracy http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ten-things-you-really-should-know-about-ancient-greek-democracy
Myths abound about ancient Greek democracy - actually, there was no such thing. That is, there was no such one thing. Even Athens, which invented both the thing and the name, had at least three versions over a span of about 150 years. But although the ancient Greeks have given the world 'democracy', ancient Greek democracy was in several crucial and fundamental respects very different indeed from, if not opposite to, what passes for 'democracy' today.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ten-things-you-really-should-know-about-ancient-greek-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A gentle introduction to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity will discuss the curvature of space that gives rise to 'Gravity' and Gravitational Lenses. Experiments since 1915 have been undertaken to test its accuracy with recent observations by Jodrell Bank astronomers having shown that Einstein's theory must be at least 99.95% right. The first direct detection of the gravitational waves produced when two black holes merged in the far Universe has helped to show that his theory is still unchallenged.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/proving-einstein-right
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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When Hamlet posed the like question as he contemplated suicide, he faced the voyage to 'the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns'. Similar dread was faced by judges when considering the possibility of a death sentence, due to the awesome finality of such a judgment. Even after the abolition of the death penalty, life and death decisions still have to be made by judges, such as whether a very seriously mentally disabled baby should be allowed to die rather than be force-fed, or in the case of the conjoined twins where the stark issue before the court was whether it would be lawful to kill one to save the other.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/to-die-or-not-die-that-is-the-question
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The discovery of a spring and a Mesolithic land surface at Blick Mead about 2 km from Stonehenge, that has well preserved and substantial Mesolithic deposits, potentially transforms our understanding of the Mesolithic use of the pre-Stonehenge landscape, and the establishment of its later ritual landscape. This talk outlines the newly discovered local landscape history of the Vespasian's Camp area, the field interventions, and concludes with a review of the site and its wider significance and context for the later development of the Stonehenge ritual landscape.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-cradle-of-stonehenge-blick-mead-a-mesolithic-site-in-the-stonehenge-landscape
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Queen Victoria was the first constitutional monarch. During her reign the power of the monarchy declined but its influence grew. When Victoria came to the throne, the monarchy was probably less popular than at any time since the seventeenth century. By the end of her reign, it had been raised to a level of prestige and affection which it has never lost. The Crown had become the symbol not only of British nationhood but also of Empire. How did this come about?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/queen-victoria
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Zika virus originated in Africa and causes a febrile illness but was little known until it spread within Brazil in 2014. It is now found from Mexico to Paraguay as well as in other parts of the world and has been linked to serious birth defects. The disease shows no signs of abating. There are no drugs or no vaccine, so the method of control is to attack the mosquito. This lecture will discuss the virus and its epidemiology and compare it with the dengue fever virus about which much more is known. What makes the mosquito (Aedes aegypti) a super efficient transmitter of viruses? and how it might be controlled by the use of genetically modified mosquitoes? The lecture will also discuss the 'nightmare scenario' of the increased range of the mosquito as a result of climate change.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-zika-virus-dengue-and-the-yellow-fever-mosquito
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Insects are the most abundant and enduring multi-cellular life form ever to have evolved. They are fast breeding, highly evolvable and, thanks to their body-plan, are future-proofed like no other animal. There are 40 tonnes of insects for every human being alive and they account for well over half of all known species. They are an essential component of global food chains and without them as pollinators, predators and recyclers, the world would be a very different place.
As model organisms in research, insects have greatly helped our understanding of genetics, physiology and behaviour. But they have a dark side - they have changed the short course of human history by killing hundreds of millions of people and destroying their crops.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bug-world-sex-violence-and-a-cast-of-billions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A debate on the theme: "What is the value of finance and insurance to the economy and are the right regulatory frameworks in place to underpin this value?" with a follow up discussion session. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Debate chaired by The 4th Earl of Selborne GBE FRS, Chairman of the Foundation for Science & Technology and speakers Professor John Kay CBE FBA FRSE, Author and FT Columnist, Anne Richards CVO CBE, Chief Executive of M&G Investments, John Nelson, Chairman of Lloyd's of London.
John Kay's latest book - Other people's money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People? - is useful context for the debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A debate on the theme: "What is the value of finance and insurance to the economy and are the right regulatory frameworks in place to underpin this value?" with a follow up discussion session. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Debate chaired by The 4th Earl of Selborne GBE FRS, Chairman of the Foundation for Science & Technology and speakers Professor John Kay CBE FBA FRSE, Author and FT Columnist, Anne Richards CVO CBE, Chief Executive of M&G Investments, John Nelson, Chairman of Lloyd's of London.
John Kay's latest book - Other people's money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People? - is useful context for the debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A debate on the theme: "What is the value of finance and insurance to the economy and are the right regulatory frameworks in place to underpin this value?" with a follow up discussion session. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Debate chaired by The 4th Earl of Selborne GBE FRS, Chairman of the Foundation for Science & Technology and speakers Professor John Kay CBE FBA FRSE, Author and FT Columnist, Anne Richards CVO CBE, Chief Executive of M&G Investments, John Nelson, Chairman of Lloyd's of London.
John Kay's latest book - Other people's money: Masters of the Universe or Servants of the People? - is useful context for the debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/conference/what-is-the-value-of-finance-and-insurance-to-the-economy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A detailed account of London Fog and its various artistic representations by Dr Christine Corton http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-fog-and-the-impressionists
The lecture will explore different artistic representations of London Fog by artists such as W L Wyllie, Monet, Whistler and the Japanese artist Yoshio Markino. Viewed largely as a nuisance by London-born artists, it took foreign artists to make London Fog more acceptable.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-fog-and-the-impressionists
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Rt Hon Sir Peter Gross explores the aspects of and changes in judicial leadership in the 2016 annual Gray's Inn Reading http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/judicial-leadership
History portrays judges as passive umpires, ensuring fair play between litigants at trial before delivering judgement on their disputes. We have over the last thirty years travelled a considerable distance away from that historic picture. In this year's lecture Sir Peter Gross, Lord Justice of Appeal and formerly Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales, considers how the modern judiciary has to now undertake a wide-ranging and active leadership role both inside and outside court and how that role may evolve in the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/judicial-leadership
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will explore the extent to which Canaletto built upon the existing visual landscape of London and how much he adapted and innovated works by artists like Samuel Scott to produce stunning aspects of London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/canalettos-london-legacy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In this talk Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA looks at recent and current conspiracy theories research to come up with some surprising answers http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/conspiracy-theories-a-threat-to-democracy
Conspiracy theories seem to be everywhere nowadays, encouraged by the internet, and perhaps also by postmodern scepticism. But are they really more common than they used to be, and if so, do they constitute a threat to democracy, as a number of commentators have argued? Are they indeed more prevalent in democracies than in dictatorships?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/conspiracy-theories-a-threat-to-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Gwen Adshead looks at the risks factors and the common types of violence, within the context of treatment and therapy issues http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-changing-risk
In this talk, I explore the ethical issues that arise when people seek to change their minds. I discuss the political aspects of changing minds; the use of stories and media to create a change. I focus my talk on the process of changing "bad" minds into "better" minds, and the question of whether there is a duty to try and change people's minds when they have offended. I will ask if there is a right to be left alone to make bad choices, using examples from mental health case law.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-changing-risk
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Martyn Thomas CBE explores some of the triumphs and pitfalls of Big Data http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/big-data-the-broken-promise-of-anonymisation
It is often claimed that your personal data is safe because it has been anonymised, but computer scientists know how easy it is to re-identify the individual by matching the data against other public datasets. Anonymised detailed personal data is a contradiction - a broken promise. The consequences and the alternatives will be discussed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/big-data-the-broken-promise-of-anonymisation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In 1635, King Charles I asked his friend, Peter Paul Rubens to adorn the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace with a vast mural cycle glorifying the Stuart dynasty.
The lecture will discuss the importance and impact of Rubens on English culture and society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rubens-and-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Gresham Special Lecture 2016
What kind of system of higher education do we need? How should it relate to secondary schools and other forms of post school education and training? How shall we pay for it? What kind of international role should universities have? And how should they contribute to the public realm?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/universities-some-policy-dilemmas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Gwen Adshead explores violence, offenders and the criminal personality through the perspective of psychology and psychiatry http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-criminal-mind-the-relationships-between-criminology-and-psychology
A discussion of how the study of psychology and psychiatry relates to the study of criminology. Historically criminals have been defined as a group who are seen as "other" to non-criminals. However, modern thinking has moved away from this with developments in the psychology of criminal rule-breaking and discussions of how individual psychology can assist the understanding of criminal rule-breaking and risk; including approaches to rehabilitation and behavioural change. Professor Adshead suggests that these different discourses have much to offer one another.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-criminal-mind-the-relationships-between-criminology-and-psychology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
An extensive overview of the art of Hans Holbein the Younger by Dr Susan Foister: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hans-holbein-the-younger-a-man-very-excellent-in-making-of-physionamies
Hans Holbein the Younger, portraitist, muralist, designer of jewellery and precious metalware, spent half of his distinguished career in London during the turbulent reign of King Henry VIII.
Arriving in 1526 as a German speaking citizen of the city of Basel, Switzerland, he swiftly rose to become a court painter trusted to provide the likenesses of the King's potential Queens.
This lecture will explore Holbein's work as a resident of the City of London, and examine the tensions between artists of the court and the City as well as the synergies between London and the continent which made the Tudor metropolis a magnet for foreign artists seeking fame and fortune.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hans-holbein-the-younger-a-man-very-excellent-in-making-of-physionamies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Jagjit Chadha evaluates the short- and long-term economic effects should the UK votes to leave the EU on 23 June, 2016: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/assessing-the-economic-risks-from-brexit
In this lecture, Professor Chadha, recently appointed as Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, will consider how to interpret the published analysis on the consequences of a possible Brexit. While most studies (e.g. HMT and OECD) have highlighted the consequences for macroeconomic outcomes in terms of a set of point forecasts of real GDP per household, in this lecture Professor Chadha will consider how exit from the EU may affect the ability of the UK to share risk arising from macroeconomic shocks with the EU and the Rest of the World through trade in goods and assets.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/assessing-the-economic-risks-from-brexit
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A historic overview of the effect, which the Great Fire had on London by Dr Stephen Porter http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/londons-great-fire-and-its-aftermath
What does it feel like to hold a baby's heart in your hands? To 'feel' their life. No one really talks about this, but as well as the obvious responsibility associated with cardiac surgery on children, there is also (for almost all surgeons) a great deal of emotion.
In an attempt to explain that to you, this lecture compiles a series of video interviews with paediatric cardiac surgeons around the world who explain how that physical contact with someone else's beating heart makes them feel.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/londons-great-fire-and-its-aftermath
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Leading up to the vote on whether the UK should leave or remain a part of the European Union, Professor Sir Richard Evans chairs a debate on this vital issue. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eu-debate-should-the-uk-leave-or-remain
The debate opens to the floor with a vote collected at the beginning and end of the debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eu-debate-should-the-uk-leave-or-remain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Leading up to the vote on whether the UK should leave or remain a part of the European Union, Professor Sir Richard Evans chairs a debate on this vital issue. http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eu-debate-should-the-uk-leave-or-remain
The debate opens to the floor with a vote collected at the beginning and end of the debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eu-debate-should-the-uk-leave-or-remain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Martin Elliott interviews paediatric cardiac surgeons from around the world gathering their thoughts and observations of 'what makes them tick' http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-development
What does it feel like to hold a baby's heart in your hands? To 'feel' their life. No one really talks about this, but as well as the obvious responsibility associated with cardiac surgery on children, there is also (for almost all surgeons) a great deal of emotion.
In an attempt to explain that to you, this lecture compiles a series of video interviews with paediatric cardiac surgeons around the world who explain how that physical contact with someone else's beating heart makes them feel.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-development
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
An overview of Mathematics, Measurement and Money and their evolution over time http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-measurement-and-money
THE JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY/ GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE
Throughout its brief history, mathematics has been closely linked with measurement and money. In the ancient settlements the rules of arithmetic and geometry were used to solve problems about the allocation of food and resources. When life became more complex, the use of coined money led to computational problems that required good algorithms for their solution.
Nowadays we rely on mathematics for security, and the links between information and money have become blurred. Can mathematics keep us safe?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mathematics-measurement-and-money
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Close examination of the events leading up to the Iraq War 2003 and detailed analysis of the decision making process by Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iraq-war-2003
Britain held her first national referendum in 1975 - on whether we should remain in the European Communities, forerunner of the European Union, which we had joined in 1973. The result was a two to one majority for staying in. Party attitudes were almost the opposite to what they are today. The Labour government favoured staying in, but the party in the Commons and in the country did not. The Conservatives were enthusiastically for staying in. The nationalists in Scotland and Wales favoured leaving.
The referendum was not held solely because the Labour government sincerely wished to discover the views of the British people, but to paper over the cracks of a divided party; nor did the two to one majority indicate widespread popular enthusiasm for Europe. Britain was at that time, economically, the sick man of Europe. One of Britain's European Commissioners, Sir Christopher Soames said that it was no time to leave a Christmas club, let alone the Common Market! In addition, there was considerable deference towards the pro-European political establishment - Harold Wilson, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Edward Heath. Neither of these factors are present today.
Populist politicians such as Tony Benn and Enoch Powell tried to stimulate a grass-roots nationalist movement against Europe, such as had defeated the pro-Europeans in Norway in a referendum held in 1972. Such movement did not materialise. Could it do so today?
Are there any lessons to be learnt from the 1975 referendum?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iraq-war-2003
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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As part of the symposium entitled 'Cultural Heritage and War', Sir Derek Plumbly, Dr Elisabeth Kendall and Dr Mark Altaweel answer questions from the floor in panel discussion chaired by Professor Tim Connell.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-heritage-and-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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As part of the symposium entitled 'Cultural Heritage and War', Dr Elisabeth Kendall shares her experiences of poetry within the Arab world and how it is interpreted and manipulated by different cultural groups across the Middle East.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-heritage-and-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
As part of the symposium entitled 'Cultural Heritage and War', Dr Mark Altaweel discusses the situation in Iraq and Syria since the Fall of Mosul in 2011 and the looting of historical objects and artefacts coming into the Western Art Market and being sold illegally.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-heritage-and-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
As part of the symposium entitled 'Cultural Heritage and War', Sir Derek Plumbly shares his perspective on the present crisis in the Middle East, with a history and an overview.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-heritage-and-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
As part of the symposium entitled 'Cultural Heritage and War', Professor Tim Connell opens the debate with an introduction to the topic.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-heritage-and-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Gwen Adshead explores how psychological therapy affects the mind and its implication on mental development http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-development
In this talk, I will discuss what happens when minds change, drawing on evidence from neuroscience and research into psychological therapy. I will discuss mentalisation: the process whereby humans learn to read others intentions, and explore how that can fail. I will discuss research into mindfulness practice, and the implications for mental development.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-development
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Close examination of the events leading up to the Iraq War 2003 and detailed analysis of the decision making process by Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iraq-war-2003
Britain and the United States had long been fearful that Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, was developing weapons of mass destruction in breach of the armistice agreement which had ended the first Gulf war in 1991. After the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, President Bush determined on regime change, a policy first announced by his predecessor, President Clinton. Britain's Labour government, led by Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as well as the Conservative opposition, supported the United States. There was, however, considerable opposition to the war, opposition which appeared justified when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. The Iraq war led many to feel that government was insufficiently accountable to Parliament, and it increased popular distrust of political leaders, a distrust which remains today.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iraq-war-2003
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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An overview of the impact of development and developers on the water environment by Professor Carolyn Roberts http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/development-developers-and-the-water-environment
Would you want a quarry near your house? Driven by EU law, environmental impact assessment is now a requirement for developers planning mineral extraction, waste disposal sites and major housing schemes. Initially, the emphasis lay on the prevention of environmental damage, but very rapidly this shifted into the language of 'sustainability', and what might be gained from development.
In theory, beautiful and inspirational new landscapes can be created, that encourage outdoor recreation and biodiversity. But there is still some reluctance from industry, and local residents inevitably oppose development.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/development-developers-and-the-water-environment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Professor Dr Simon Thurley identifies the five events that shaped London's landscape as we know it today http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-five-catastrophes-that-made-london
London is the most dynamic old world city on the planet - renewal has been at the heart of its success. Disaster has never been courted, but when it has come it has provided the platform for advances that have been at first sight architectural but with hindsight economic and social.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-five-catastrophes-that-made-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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When referring to the play within the play 'The Real Thing' entitled 'House of Cards', Professor Jack explains the different meanings of this phrase in her lecture 'Theatre and Love: Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-love-tom-stoppard-the-real-thing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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This concluding lecture considers a leading theme of Christian theology - that we have some innate tendency to believe in God (e.g., Pascal, George Herbert, and C. S. Lewis). The lecture then considers the evidence from recent "evolutionary cognitive science of religion" that religion is natural. The lecture assesses these findings, and considers their implications for debates about the future of religion in western culture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-god-wont-go-away
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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In his last lecture, Geoffrey Nice reviews what he has discussed over the last four years. Law should not be of that much concern, most of the time, to non-lawyers if it delivers what the public needs. So identifying what may interest and inform a Gresham audience is never easy for Gresham Law Professors. Geoffrey Nice reviews what he has learned often giving lectures about things he wanted to learn about that affirm how law should be the servant of man, never her mistress. He will bring some topics up to date explaining how particular views have developed and changed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/law-and-lawyers-not-all-bad-a-life-in-the-law-not-all-good
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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Detailed overview of the variety of cybercrimes and cyberattacks presented by Professor Martyn Thomas CBE http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cybersecurity
The current approach to cybersecurity is flawed. Effort is spent trying to "educate" users not to click on links in emails or to open attachments, when this is exactly how those features were designed to be used. Similarly, users are expected to take responsibility for what their computers are doing, but every software product they use demands the right to go online, upload usage data and download updates. So how would you know that you have become part of a botnet? We need a new approach to cybersecurity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cybersecurity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The talk explores the efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) and its effects on today's financial markets http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-efficient-markets-hypothesis
The essence of financial prices is that they should reflect all publicly available information. This means that they should have no predictive power for future financial prices. But learning, fads, fashions and herds tend to throw up anomalies for this position. And the role of incomplete or asymmetric information should not be overlooked after the crisis. Can the hypothesis be rescued?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-efficient-markets-hypothesis
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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An extensive overview of the disease of ageing - dementia by Professor Chris Whitty http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dementia-at-risk-of-being-forgotten
The remarkable improvements in child health, cardiovascular disease and cancer survival over the last few decades have not been replicated in dementia. As populations age, inexorably the burden of dementia, mainly a disease of ageing, is steadily increasing. The scientific understanding of dementia has advanced, but if the current slow rate of improvement in prevention and treatment is maintained, the burden of dementia will increase substantially over the next few decades.
Advances in prevention and treatment of dementia in the elderly, including Alzheimer's, are painfully slow despite the scale of the problem. Is this a failure of science, of the will of our generation to tackle a problem restricted to the elderly, or do we need to accept that it will just happen and plan to minimise its inevitable substantial impact on individuals, families and society?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dementia-at-risk-of-being-forgotten
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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An extensive overview of the current global effort for space exploration and the challenges mankind faces http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/our-future-off-earth
The Space Age is half a century old. Its early successes were driven by a fierce superpower rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States, which tended to obscure the fact that exploration and risk-tasking is built into human DNA. Decades after we last set foot on the moon, space activity is finally taking off. A vibrant private sector, led by SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, plans to launch supplies cheaply into earth orbit, and giving people the chance of a sub-orbital joyride. Fighting gravity will always be difficult but new materials are being developed and engineers are rethinking rockets and developing new propulsion technologies.
Permanent bases on the Moon and Mars are now within reach, and a new Space Race is brewing. We can now envisage our future off-Earth.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/our-future-off-earth
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Who makes great buildings patrons, architects and builders? Are successful places, like London, made by careful planning or by serendipity? The career of Wren, often thought as the greatest English architect, tells us a lot about what leads to architectural success and tells us a lot about London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sir-christopher-wren-buildings-place-and-genius
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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The Britain's love affair with the the European Monetary System (ERM), precursor to the euro, and its political ramification http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leaving-the-erm-1992
In October 1990, in the last days of her premiership, Margaret Thatcher announced, against her better judgement, that Britain would join the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System (ERM), precursor to the euro. In September 1992, during John Major's premiership, Britain found herself unable to sustain membership and left the ERM. This had fundamental consequences for the Conservative Party, destroying its reputation for sound economic management, and legitimising euroscepticism, so making it less likely that Britain would join the euro.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leaving-the-erm-1992
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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An overview of the major contributions of two of the founders of computer science - John von Neumann and Alan Turing http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/turing-and-von-neumann
Alan Turing (1912-1954) and John von Neumann (1903-1957) had an enormous range of interests not only in pure mathematics but also in practical applications. They made major contributions during the Second World War; Turing on cryptography and von Neumann on weapons development. The Turing machine formalised the idea of an algorithm and the Turing test is important in artificial intelligence while von Neumann founded the subject of game theory. Both are considered founders of computer science.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/turing-and-von-neumann
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture seeks to analyse the tensions between the Queen's changing roles as head of state, head of the nation and Head of the Commonwealth http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-queen-at-90
The sixty four years of the Queen's reign - the longest in British history - have seen radical changes in British politics and society. But in 2016 as in 1952, the Queen remains both head of state and also head of the nation - or rather head of the multi-national polity that the United Kingdom has now become. The Queen is also Head of the Commonwealth, an organisation which has been transformed during her reign. In 1952, it contained just eight member states. Today, it contains 54 members, nearly one-third of the countries of the world, of which 16 have the Queen as head of state.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-queen-at-90#5gtBQO8F9YjsDdCK.99
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In depth analysis of Christian Protestantism and how that shapes the contemporary world http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-would-jesus-do-christian-culture-wars-in-the-modern-west
Christian Culture Wars in the Modern West Europe and North America are now marginal in global Protestant Christianity, but they remain the vital test-bed of how this religion and post-industrial society can, or cannot, adapt to each other. This lecture will explain how, following the moral trauma of the Second World War, Christianity has produced both a bold, sometimes self-defeating liberalism, and also a newly assured but politically compromised conservatism; and explore the deep continuities connecting the two, and how they continue to shape the contemporary world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-would-jesus-do-christian-culture-wars-in-the-modern-west
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In depth analysis of the language tools in Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' and its numerous interpretations http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-language-samuel-beckett-waiting-for-godot
Beckett's Waiting for Godot has been interpreted in myriad ways. Some claim it is a work that explores the bleak absurdism of human life. Others have argued that it is an allegory of various kinds. These will be explored, but also the question as to what is it about the play that lends itself to such diverse interpretations? Plays are more than language. Is it in the relationship between language and the other aspects of theatre craft that the most convincing interpretation of the play lies?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-language-samuel-beckett-waiting-for-godot
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Extensive overview of Britain's rivers and the reasons for their destruction http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britains-damaged-rivers
From the nineteenth century onwards, growth in the UK's towns and cities damaged rivers environments. In addition to shifting patterns of erosion and deposition, and pollution, engineers created straight, concrete-lined watercourses, largely devoid of life and visual interest. The scale of change, and the impacts on the water environment, began to be understood only in the 1970s, since when specialists have attempted to manage rivers in ways that maintain channel and floodplain biodiversity.
Local communities have been vital in supporting those few areas, including a couple in London, where genuine improvements have been secured. Can we restore our rivers, and how might application of the science of geomorphology maximise the chances of success?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britains-damaged-rivers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With the in/out Europe vote to come (or having gone) what will the result mean for Human Rights? How is or has the debate been framed?
The lecture will present a review of what has happened in the courts since 2015, with an opportunity for debate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-whether-in-europe-or-out
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Inspirational talk by Professor Joseph Silk FRS on the giant clusters of galaxies dominated by dark matter http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-dark-side-of-the-universe
Dark matter dominates the contents of the universe. The Milky Way is full of dark matter. Is dark matter an as yet undiscovered particle? The search for dark matter focuses on deep underground and large telescopes on the earth and in space. The most massive objects in the universe are giant clusters of galaxies that are dominated by dark matter.
Clusters are dark matter telescopes and amplify background galaxy images. Clusters are used to map the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-dark-side-of-the-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
An exploration of some spectacular failures of modern day computer-aided systems, which fail to take into account the real-world http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computers-people-and-the-real-world
Almost nobody wants an IT system. What they want is a better way of doing something, whether that is buying and selling shares on the Stock Exchange, flying an airliner or running a hospital. So the system they want will usually involve changes to the way people work, and interactions with physical objects and the environment. Drawing on examples including the new programme for IT in the NHS, this lecture explores what can go wrong when business change is mistakenly viewed as an IT project.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/computers-people-and-the-real-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture opens by exploring the relation between religion and morality, looking at some issues raised by writers such as Iris Murdoch and C. S. Lewis, including whether ethics can be "read off" nature, and whether some transcendent ground is necessary for ethics. We consider whether science is able to offer a firm basis for morality, engaging recent works such as Sam Harris's Landscape of Faith (2010), and Alex Rosenberg's The Atheist's Guide to Reality (2011).
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religion-morality-and-meaning-how-do-we-know-whats-right-to-do
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What are the effects of genetic variations on the human population throughout the ages? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/homo-sapiens-an-endangered-species
Mankind, now so abundant, has for long parts of its history been reduced to tiny numbers, and almost to extinction.
Discussed is the evidence for this, about how we reached our present enormous abundance, and what the future of the human population might be.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/homo-sapiens-an-endangered-species
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The business methods and achievements of Lancelot "Capabilitity" Brown, Joseph Paxton and Henry Wise will be demonstrated as well as their place in British society and their relationships with their clients and employers.
Part of the Mondays at One Garden Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gardening-entrepreneurs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Capital should flow from countries with low marginal rates of return to countries with high marginal rates of return. The former tend to be high income countries, where investment possibilities have been exhausted, and the latter are low income countries, with a wealth of opportunities, and yet capital flows the other way, why? Can we explain the pattern of capital flows?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-doesnt-capital-flow-from-high-to-low
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Fully-functioning artificial hearts are now a reality. How did we get here? What are the real risks, to individual and society? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-artificial-heart-a-new-ending
Since the development of the heart lung machine in the middle of the last century, cardiac surgeons have dreamed of developing an artificial heart to deal with the failing human heart. Those dreams have now reached reality, and the first fully implantable artificial hearts are in use. Previously considered a bridge to heart transplantation, they are now being considered as potentially successful treatments in their own right, a 'destination' therapy. Materials science, fluid dynamics, pump technology, advanced electronics and advanced power supplies have all contributed to this development.
This lecture will describe these developments and consider some of the risks of the devices both for the individual and, if successful, for society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-artificial-heart-a-new-ending
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
It will be argued that fundamental research into astronomy, cosmology and particle physics is a luxury that humankind cannot do without. This cultural, technological and scientific returns of such an enterprise far outweigh the costs.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-society-needs-astronomy-and-cosmology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The story of the most productive collaborations in mathematical history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hardy-littlewood-and-ramanujan
The collaboration between G.H. Hardy (1877-1947) and J.E. Littlewood (1885-1977) was the most productive in mathematical history. Dominating the English mathematical scene for the first half of the 20th century, they obtained results of great influence, most notably in analysis and number theory. Into their world came the brilliant and intuitive mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), who left India to work with Hardy until his untimely death at the age of 32.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hardy-littlewood-and-ramanujan
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With over 5000 species of plants - many of them medicinal or otherwise 'useful' to our lives - Chelsea Physic Garden still serves the same purpose almost 350 years after it was founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.
This lecture will revisit its past; some of the antique technologies pioneered there as well as profile some of its notable people and, of course, plants.
Part of the Mondays at One Gardens Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture follows the adaptation of evangelical Christianity in East Asia, Southern Africa and Latin America in the post-imperial age: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-worlds-local-religion
In the post-imperial age evangelical Christianity has become a genuinely global religion. But it is also deeply local, adapting to and challenging social structures, and developing unique, often incompatible doctrines. This lecture will explore this adaptation in three contexts - East Asia, Southern Africa and Latin America - to ask what evangelicalism has brought to those societies, how (and to what extent) it has put down roots there, and how it has changed them and been changed itself in the process.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-worlds-local-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture follows the architectural journey of the medical profession in the capital from a closed shop to a nationalised democratic institution.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/set-square-and-stethoscope-the-architecture-of-londons-medical-profession
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
An overview of the political turmoil that went on in Britain in the lead up to the Falklands War in 1982: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-falklands-war-1982
In 1982, Argentina, which had long claimed the Falklands, invaded the islands and declared sovereignty over them. The Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, sent a task force to recover the islands. Despite some public scepticism and considerable logistical difficulties, they were recaptured. Success in the Falklands helped exorcise memories of Suez. It played a major part in the Conservative landslide election victory of 1983 and so contributed to the success of what came to be called Thatcherism.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-falklands-war-1982
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
This talk will look at the emergence of wildlife gardening in a number of locations ranging from homes to schools to businesses. A number of examples from around the world will help us to think about the potential of London's gardens.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/wildlife-gardening
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Reputations tumble; men once popular and famous but too powerful are condemned and imprisoned. Others fear their reputations will not long survive their deaths. Others will 'get away with it' as presumably they always have. How will all this be viewed in decades to come?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sex-and-the-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The discovery of exo-planets and of Earth twins will be described, with a review of attempts to estimate the probability of finding life in the universe - for example how many stars do we need to survey to find suitable planets? How much time is needed to generate life?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-common-is-life-in-the-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
THE LONG FINANCE SPRING CONFERENCE
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and Net Present Value (NPV) analyses have long been part of the financial analyst's toolbox. By deciding on a discount rate and using that discount rate in some exponential equations it can be argued that future generations will be richer than us, so we can spend wantonly now. Or that something expensive is really quite cheap if we make a very small change in the discount rate.
This conference will examine the implications of discount rates on society's long-term decisions such as health, education, infrastructure, and the environment.
Supported by the Z-Yen Group
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-you-interested-or-discounted-long-term-social-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Examples will cast light upon the quirks of our calendar, and you'll also learn a quick way to work out the day of the week of any given date.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/calendar-curiosities-for-29-february
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Chris Whitty tackles stroke and what advances have been made to combat and alleviate the condition.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stroke-in-the-elderly-slowly-retreating
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Jack explores the themes and questions raised in Anton Chekhov's last play 'The Cherry Orchard'
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-the-family-anton-chekhov-the-cherry-orchard
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How can faith be rationalised against the theory of evolution? Is conflict inevitable, or might faith complement Darwinian science? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-evolution-and-god-the-present-debates
This lecture sets the scientific and religious context for Darwin's theory of evolution, before considering this theory and the challenges this raised for traditional religious beliefs. In particular, we will consider some issues raised by Richard Dawkins in his Blind Watchmaker (1986) and The God Delusion (2006). The lecture will then conclude by looking at "social Darwinism", particularly the controversial question of eugenics. If we understand how evolution happens, can we - and should we - take control of the process?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-evolution-and-god-the-present-debates
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
During the last thirty years, the name of Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) composer, abbess and naturalist, has been gradually rescued from obscurity, notably by recordings of her works. The lecture will provide an opportunity to hear some of Hildegard's most impressive compositions but also to explore more widely the phenomenon of the medieval female composer. For while Hildegard was unique, she was not alone; the richness of the musical remains she has left eclipse every competitor, and yet there were many other female mystics who created rhapsodic spiritual song whose works have not survived. Many of them are little known, but here they will step into the light.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-the-mystery-of-women
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Is it possible to bring patient choice and feedback into healthcare in order to improve the NHS system?
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-to-choose-a-doctor-or-surgeon
Various governments have promoted 'patient choice' as part of NHS reforms. Yet few people know how either to make that choice or how to exercise it.
This lecture will consider the criteria one might use to differentiate one doctor from another or one surgeon from another, and whether you should be judging the individual, the team they work in or the organisation that houses them. We will also consider whether the promises of patient choice are either real or implementable in the new NHS, and how you, as a member of the public, might navigate the system and get your way.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-to-choose-a-doctor-or-surgeon
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
We have an idea of where to place the cradle of civilization, but where is the cradle of disease?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/germs-genes-and-genesis-the-history-of-infectious-disease
Where do infectious diseases come from? Some come from animals, but we gave some back (as cattle picked up TB from farmers). Leviticus discusses the problem of leprosy at some length and even develops an early form of quarantine. Epidemics of various kinds began only when human populations and the first cities (Babylon included) were large enough to sustain the infectious agents responsible.
Now genetics, of humans and their enemies, is beginning to tell us more. And the news is not good.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/germs-genes-and-genesis-the-history-of-infectious-disease
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Two of the greatest mathematicians habe their shared history and correspondence examined: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gauss-and-germain
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Possibly his most famous work was his book on number theory, published in 1801. After reading this book, the French mathematicians Sophie Germain (1776-1831) began corresponding with Gauss about Fermat's last theorem, using a male pseudonym.
Subsequently her interests moved to working on a general theory of vibrations of a curved surface which provided the basis for the modern theory of elasticity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gauss-and-germain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Britain's Groundwater is amongst its most precious and most threatened resources. Professor Roberts explains: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/oil-on-troubled-waters-the-industrial-legacy-and-britains-groundwater
Groundwater is an important source of drinking water in London and elsewhere, but the legacy of the UK's industrial revolution includes contamination at an extreme and increasingly widely-realised scale.
Drawing on research in the English Midlands, the lecture will explore how mining, metal-based manufacturing, and the oil industry have produced an environmental conundrum that is very complex to solve. How can sites that are part of our industrial heritage be prevented from polluting rivers, and poisoning local residents? Who is responsible, and how can the 'clean-up' be tackled?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/oil-on-troubled-waters-the-industrial-legacy-and-britains-groundwater
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
A historical analysis of our understanding of the mind: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-health
What happens when people change their minds? In this lecture, I will offer a historical perspective on changing minds, starting with a discussion of the role of medicine in changing minds. I will discuss the move from changing behaviour to changing thinking, and changing stories; and how modern mental health services use such ideas.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-minds-and-mental-health
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Software presents a paradox, its ease of use allows for complexity and adaptability, yet these features often make software impossible: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-can-software-be-so-hard
How can it be possible for teenagers to write smartphone apps that make them multi-millionaires when many commercial and Government IT projects fail, despite employing the skills and resources of international IT companies? What is software and how is it developed? How confident do we need to be that it is sufficiently correct, reliable, usable, safe or secure? What evidence would we need? The main reasons why software projects overrun, get cancelled, or deliver inadequate software will be explored, using examples of project failures and the litigations that often result.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-can-software-be-so-hard
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Is the carry trade a 'pennies from heaven' magic trick, or does it tell us something fundamental about economic theory?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-carry-trade-and-uncovered-interest-rate-parity
Basic economic theory tells us that borrowing money in a currency with low interest rates should not yield a profit compared to borrowing in a currency with high interest rates. This is because the interest rate differential should simply inform us about expected exchange rate depreciations. But, when it comes to the City, does the theory stand? Has it ever? Do funds make money because they ignore the theory?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-carry-trade-and-uncovered-interest-rate-parity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 2016 Boyle Lecture: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mathematics-of-evolutionary-biology-implications-for-ethics
The latter part of the 20th century saw a revulsion against classic forms of "natural theology" which was propelled as much by theological fashion as by secular scientific resistance. This lecture lays out a cautious case for the reconsideration of a new style of "natural theology". It does so in the light of remarkable new discoveries in mathematicalized accounts of evolutionary "cooperation" which significantly challenge the idea of pervasive randomness in evolutionary processes. The ethical and teleological questions which are raised by these cooperative phenomena, it is argued, demand some sort of meaning-making response and ultimately metaphysical issues cannot be shirked. The question of God is reconsidered in this context, with a surprising final twist to the argument in which the human epistemic subject is itself drawn towards an invited transformation.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mathematics-of-evolutionary-biology-implications-for-ethics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Joseph Silk explains what the relics of the earliest universe can tell us about our past and our future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-formation-of-our-galaxy
A typical galaxy, like our Milky Way, has one hundred billion solar masses in stars. It is remarkable that one can do back-of-the-envelope estimates that lead to predictions of the characteristic mass of a galaxy. I will describe how galaxies formed. Beginning from infinitesimal fluctuations in the early universe, gravity helped concentrate the matter into clouds that fragmented into stars and assembled into galaxies. With the largest telescopes, one can look back in time and decipher the remote signatures of galactic youth and even birth.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-formation-of-our-galaxy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Heather McLaughlin takes audience questions and discusses the topics with the lecturers: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-panel-discussion
After a series of brilliant lectures all arguing that Britain should seek to reclaim its place at the top of the world maritime industry, Professor McLaughlin takes to the stage to chair a panel discussion and to take to take audience questions.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Dr Nikolas Tsakos responds to Professor Grammenos' lecture by looking at the international industry and Britain's place in the market: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-a-response
Dr Nikolas Tsakos responds to Professor Grammenos' lecture by looking at the international industry and Britain's place in the market.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-a-response
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A History of the Maritime industry as told by an academic who has studied it: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/35-years-of-londons-maritime-cluster-through-the-eyes-of-an-academic
As a central figure in education, Professor Grammenos has seen the Maritime industry of London change enormously over his 35 years in the industry. He's even been responsible for some of the larger changes himself. In this lecture, Professor Grammenos looks at the history of the Maritime Cluster, charts its changes and looks towards its future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/35-years-of-londons-maritime-cluster-through-the-eyes-of-an-academic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Lord Mayor of the City of London sketches the importance of shipping to the national and international economies: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-an-introduction
The Lord Mayor has a deep and abiding professional interest in shipping, and so he was thrilled to be able to curate an event so close to his heart. In this introduction, The Rt Hon, The Lord Mayor Lord Mountevans lays out the importance of the Maritime industry to the City of London and to the nation as a whole.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-an-introduction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The welcome address for the Lord Mayor's event on shipping: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-welcome
This is the Welcome address for the Annual Lord Mayors Event, 2016. Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli welcomes the audience and the speakers and lays out the days exciting agenda.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-the-global-maritime-centre-in-a-changing-world-welcome
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Data Protection Act 1998 is, currently, the only piece of English legislation which is specifically directed at protecting personal information and an individual's privacy in respect of it: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/celebrities-the-media-and-the-personal-data-privacy-wars
The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) should properly have been called the Data Privacy Act: it is about privacy of personal data and not merely its security. Recent cases - if successful for the claimants - will change the litigation landscape for everyone.
The protection of personal data is, as a result, the fast-maturing celebrity privacy remedy of choice.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/celebrities-the-media-and-the-personal-data-privacy-wars
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A Doll's House is a three-act play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Its first performance was at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, in Denmark, on 21 December 1879. It is often considered to be a feminist play as Nora, the heroine, leaves her husband and children intent on self-discovery. Ibsen, on the other hand, denied any conscious attempt to provide propaganda for the women's rights movement and claimed that his concern was for the description of humanity. If the play is about the need to find the self and to live true to that self, then what is the nature of individualism that the play promotes?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-individualism-henrik-ibsen-a-dolls-house
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How have Christian writers rationalised the idea of divine creation with critical thinking? Professor McGrath explains: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cosmology-and-creation-how-do-they-relate-to-one-another
This lecture considers some themes within the Christian tradition dealing with the concept of "creation", noting especially Aristotle's notion of the eternity of the world, and the tensions this caused for Christian writers such as Thomas Aquinas. We then turn our attention to cosmology, noting the major scientific developments over the last century. The final section of the lecture will consider how a scientific "narrative of origination" relates to a religious "narrative of creation", and how these narratives intertwine and interconnect.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cosmology-and-creation-how-do-they-relate-to-one-another
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the upheaval of the French Revolution, another quieter revolution was born that changed the scientific world forever: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/no-need-for-geniuses-scientific-revolutions-and-revolutionary-scientists-in-the-
The French Revolution is famous for its political upheavals, but few know that it was also a time when Paris was the world centre of science in a way that has never been matched before or since. I will take a tour of the city from the Eiffel Tower to the Champs Elysees, taking in the Tour de France on the way, to show how a small group of talented men and women revolutionised science from physics to biology - and how some of them paid a heavy price.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/no-need-for-geniuses-scientific-revolutions-and-revolutionary-scientists-in-the-
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
A breakdown of the complex interlacing of federal and state level laws governing the right to die in America: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-ethics-of-physician-assisted-suicide
The legislation of assisted suicide in the UK is as controversial as the Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) that led it its decriminalisation in Oregon in 1994. The United States Supreme Court subsequently rejected an attempt to have the law declared unconstitutional but steps seem to be needed to address the ethical concerns raised by members of the academic, political, and religious communities, including safeguards to protect vulnerable people. What can be learned in the UK from the USA experience?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-ethics-of-physician-assisted-suicide
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Ryrie discusses the liberal Protestantism that swept Europe and how it changed the continent and faith: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-dreams-and-nightmares-of-christian-liberalism
In the nineteenth century, some of the Protestant Christians facing new challenges of secular science, history and philosophy decided to listen, to learn from and even to outflank their critics. This 'liberal theology' was creative, honest, necessary and - as it turned out - horribly dangerous. This lecture will trace liberalism's ordeal from its early ideals to its deep involvement in the First World War, and discuss its continuing relevance in the contemporary world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-dreams-and-nightmares-of-christian-liberalism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
How does litigation affect medical care? Professor Martin Elliott explains: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/to-blame-or-not-to-blame-the-medical-profession-and-blame-culture
Traditionally, medicine has been taught by imitation, apprenticeship and humiliation. Think Sir Lancelot Spratt. Whilst that has clearly improved, there persists, in many areas, a blame culture. Following regulatory changes and various hospital scandals there is much 'holding to account'. The combination of tradition and punitive language has done little to foster a just culture, which most researchers think is the ideal. There is increasing litigation and subsequent cost, and it remains the case in the UK that negligence has to be proved to get compensation for medical accident.
This lecture reviews the current situation and considers some other ways of dealing with the issues.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/to-blame-or-not-to-blame-the-medical-profession-and-blame-culture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Bogdanor explains how a loan ended the post-war consensus and drove the Labour Party from Government until the 90s: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-imf-crisis-1976
In 1976, the Labour government sought a loan from the International Monetary Fund to meet deteriorating economic conditions. The Fund demanded large cuts in public spending. After a bitter Cabinet battle, the Cabinet agreed, so ending plans to expand the economy and improve the social services. Many believed that 1976 was also a crisis for democratic socialism, a philosophy which had sought social improvement through economic growth. That philosophy now appeared irrelevant during a period of austerity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-imf-crisis-1976
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Flood explains the lives and work of the 'Mother and Father of Computing': http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/babbage-and-lovelace
The central figure of 19th-century computing was Charles Babbage (1791-1871), who may be said to have pioneered the modern computer age with his 'difference engines' and his 'analytical engine', although his influence on subsequent generations is hard to assess. Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron and a close friend of Babbage, produced a perceptive commentary on the powers and potential of the analytical engine; this was essentially an introduction to what we now call programming.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/babbage-and-lovelace
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A Panel discussion on the issues raised at the conference: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Professor Tim Connell chairs a panel discussion from the speakers at the Cyberspace conference. The panel also attempt to answer questions from the audience.
This is part of a conference of Lectures you can find the other talks at this link: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli discusses the possibility of insuring against Cyber calamity: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Cyber-crime is an increasingly present threat as the criminals become ever more sophisticated. Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli wonders if we might be able to insure against the harm caused as a part of a nationwide response to this threat.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Why is Cyber security on the rise when we have th tools to defend our selves? Sir John O'Reilly explains: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Cyber Security - or rather cyber insecurity - is very much in the news. Pretty much daily we hear of another security breach with thousands, even millions, of people affected. Yet surely we have the technology to enable the IT professional community to protect us from all this, do we not?
This is part of a conference of Lectures you can find the other talks at this link: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
An introduction to the conference and its themes and importance: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Professor Tim Connell welcomes the audience and the speakers and lays out the themes of the conference. From the dominance of Google, to the shadowy world of the Dark Web, this lecture is a must for those looking to know more about our increasingly digital world.
This is part of a conference of Lectures you can find the other talks at this link: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cyberspace-security-and-democracy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Drought threatens the globe and water security becomes a top priority for nations. Professor Roberts explains: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-creeping-paralysis-of-drought
Water shortage is an increasingly common challenge to development in southern England, as water is progressively diverted away from supporting ecosystems, and into agri-business, industry and homes. Climate change and population growth appear to be drawing us closer to the edge of an abyss. Drawing on research in the developed world (particularly in Spain and the UK), the lecture will explore the anatomy of severe droughts, and their consequences.
Can technology innovation offer realistic solutions to this problem, or will the competing interests of many different stakeholders prevent us from agreeing what needs to be done?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-creeping-paralysis-of-drought
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Welcome to the hidden world of Parasites: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-parasite-zoo
Parasites are everywhere and it is normal for animals, ourselves included, to be infected with them. Parasites are specially adapted to be able to live inside other animals, and in so doing they have had profound effects on their hosts' evolution.
In these lectures we'll meet the rich diversity of parasites, and their fascinating lives.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-parasite-zoo
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The History of computing has fit an extraordinary amount into a very short time. Professor Martyn Thomas takes us through it here: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-very-brief-history-of-computing-1948-2015
The world's first modern computer, in Manchester in 1948, was followed remarkably swiftly by the first business software, but by 1968 software was in crisis and NATO called a conference. The problems were diagnosed; solutions were proposed - and largely ignored. A second Software Crisis was announced in the early 1980's and again the effective solutions were considered impractical and the practical solutions were largely ineffective. Meanwhile as Moore's Law predicted, hardware costs continued to fall exponentially, making software systems ubiquitous and leading to a third software crisis, this time of cybersecurity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-very-brief-history-of-computing-1948-2015
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The first of two lectures in 2016 by Fulbright Scholars. This talk is about American Military History: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-american-way-of-war-in-history-and-politics
The recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have provoked intense discussion both inside and outside the United States on the nature of a distinct 'American Way of War'.
This lecture addresses the intellectual antecedents of this term and its role in shaping both scholarly and military ideas about how the USA conducts war.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-american-way-of-war-in-history-and-politics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What did it mean for to cry in response to music?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears
According to one early-medieval author, 'there are many who are moved by the sweetness of singing to bewail their sins, and who are readily brought to tears by the sweet sounds of a singer'. A thousand years later, Hector Berlioz tells how a musician was so moved during the performance of an opera that 'two streams of tears burst violently from his eyes, and he wept so hard that I was compelled to lead him out of the hall'. Tears and music have a long history together, but a show of tears means different things at different times. The purpose of this lecture is to explore the nature of a lachrymose response in the medieval experience of music.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A lecture on dancing in medieval England and its contentious place in society alongside the increasingly sombre influence of the church: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance
During the eighteenth century, Western Europe gradually relinquished a form of musical experience that had been vital to the life of royal courts, town squares and streets for the best part of a thousand years: the company dance performed by dancers, especially young women, holding hands and moving in a ring or a line. Medieval poems, sermons, chronicles and a great many other kinds of writing reveal much about these dances: where they were performed, when, by whom and to what effect, enabling us to restore a picture that has greatly faded over the centuries.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Jeremy Summerly and the St Luke's of Chelsea Choir return to Gresham College to deliver a history of the Christmas Carol: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro
At the end of the Georgian era, a revivalist collection of Christmas music was published by the MP for Bodmin and another by a Cornish solicitor. Half a century later, a Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols was celebrated on Christmas Eve 1880 in the cathedral at Truro.
This lecture, with live musical illustrations, shows how the rustic English carol was preserved in the villages of the West Country and later served back to Cornish urbanites as representative of the height of ecclesiastical sophistication.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Prisons and why we use them by a leading criminal lawyer and judge: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prison-and-why-we-send-people-there-does-it-work-should-it
'They deserve to be put away'; 'Appeal the sentence - too short'; 'They should lock him up and throw away the key'. How civilised has it ever been to imprison other humans - or to want to do it? How many prisoners had their fates determined by circumstance, how many by truly free will? How often has increasing prison building been used to increase a politician's vote? How impossible would it be for most politicians to argue for fewer prisons because they do not work, when as a society we have to assume they do?
Modern experience in diverse countries - from Norway to the USA - may suggest that money can be better spent than on keys, bars and walls.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prison-and-why-we-send-people-there-does-it-work-should-it
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Joseph Silk explains what the relics of the earliest universe can tell us about our past and our future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
The history of our galaxy will be addressed by a local approach that is in essence the search for fossils. To probe back in time, one can look in our vicinity for the oldest stars. This motivates exploration of the field of galactic archaeology where one effectively digs into the past. Stars that formed long before our Sun are different; they are deprived of most heavy elements. Their orbits and their chemical signatures trace the evolution of the galaxy. We will learn how our galaxy formed by the assembly of diverse fragments of star-forming clouds.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Chadha examines the equity risk premium and whether this is a justifiable position: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-costs-of-business-cycles
What kinds of returns should we expect from risky stocks and shares (equities)? Should equities yield a high return relative to short term risk-free instruments? Do they still do so in the post-crisis world? For what reasons might investors demand such a premium? What do these high returns tell us about investor risk aversion?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-equity-premium-and-low-interest-rates
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The NHS can learn about safety from the aviation industry: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/aviation-and-its-contributions-to-healthcare
There are surprising similarities between the aviation (and especially airline) industries and healthcare; especially cardiac surgery. Both involve highly trained and skilled people working in teams over unusual hours and in stressful circumstances whilst being responsible for the lives of others. How airlines mitigate its risks and investigates its disasters has important lessons for healthcare.
This lecture will explore these lessons, with examples from both camps, and concentrate on the human factors which govern the performance of high reliability organisations.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/aviation-and-its-contributions-to-healthcare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
What have we learned since Einstein made his predictions and from his theories?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/was-einstein-right
One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein completed his General Theory of Relativity. He made space and time flexible and explained gravity as due to the curvature of the combined space time. The observation of the predicted light-bending during a solar eclipse a few years later confirmed the basic ideas of the theory and made Einstein a scientific superstar. Since then the theory has passed a variety of tests with flying colours and phenomena predicted by the theory have become central to our modern understanding of the Universe.
This is the story of brilliant physical intuition leading to deep insights of the Universe in which we live.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/was-einstein-right
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
An examination of the dogma and methodology that hinders and helps debate in science and religion: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/faith-proof-and-evidence-what%E2%80%99s-right-to-think
This lecture will consider the place of evidence in science and religion, looking particularly at some of the debates about the rationality of faith associated with "New Atheist" writings, such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (2006). The lecture will look at some classic arguments for the existence of God - such as Thomas Aquinas' cosmological argument, and C. S. Lewis's argument from desire - and consider how these might fit into the overall theme of the "rationality of faith".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/faith-proof-and-evidence-what%E2%80%99s-right-to-think
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Simon Thurley looks at the history of the guildhall as a seat of power to rival that of Parliament and Monarchs: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/envy-of-kings-the-guildhall-of-london-and-the-power-of-the-medieval-corporation
The government of the City of London is older than parliament itself and its Guildhall is a rival to the Palace of Westminster. This makes the Lord Mayor a King in his own palace; but how has this been expressed in architecture?
This lecture looks at the architectural patronage of the City's Lord Mayors from earliest time to the present.
London has always been an architectural laboratory. Arguably it has been home to more invention in building types than any other city on earth. These four lectures look at London's built environment through some great buildings and their creators and ask why and how has London sustained a reputation for architectural innovation?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/envy-of-kings-the-guildhall-of-london-and-the-power-of-the-medieval-corporation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Are we correct to examine the work of Sylvia Plath through the lens of her relationship with Ted Hughes? Professor Jack discusses the poetry of Sylvia Plath: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-and-co-dependency-the-poetry-of-sylvia-plath
Readers and critics have been exploring Plath's work for half a century. Is there anything new to be said? The publication of Plath's complete journals in 2000 and the release of her personal papers in various archives as well as those of her estranged husband, the poet Ted Hughes, and the publication of his Birthday Letters (1998) and correspondence (Letters of Ted Hughes, 2009) provided material for persuasive research about Plath and Hughes's shared creative processes. Plath's despair and suicide influence our reading of her poetry. To what extent should we be influenced by the creative co-dependency of her poetic relationship with Hughes and his poetry?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-and-co-dependency-the-poetry-of-sylvia-plath
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Flood gives a fabulous overvierw of the lives and work of two mathematicians, Hamilton and Boole: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hamilton-boole-and-their-algebras
William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) revolutionized algebra with his discovery of quaternions, a non-commutative algebraic system, as well as his earlier work on complex numbers. George Boole (1815-1864) contributed to probability and differential equations, but his greatest achievement was to create an algebra of logic 'Boolean algebra'. These new algebras were not only important to the development of algebra but remain of current use.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hamilton-boole-and-their-algebras
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Serious flooding and the water security of the nation's water are Professor Roberts' topics in this lecture: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-next-big-uk-flood-britain-under-water
What are the odds that events will conspire to put London under water during the next few years? Are the catastrophic Summer 2007 floods in the English Midlands and the recent events of southeast England harbingers of worse to come, particularly as the climate shifts?
Serious flooding poses major challenges to the UK's security, despite changes in the way we try to manage both water and damage.
The lecture will review the UK's recent experiences and explore how management and infrastructural improvements are being attempted. Can science, technology and collaboration reduce our vulnerability to floods?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-next-big-uk-flood-britain-under-water
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram/greshamcollege
Professor Page examines the medieval belief in the healing power of song: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-chant-as-cure-and-miracle
As the monks were singing in a French abbey of the twelfth century, a cripple, who had crawled into the church suddenly, began to cry aloud and to extend his contorted limbs, 'and thus he that came into the church on four legs departed on two'. It has been generally forgotten that men and women in the Middle Ages believed that the singing of monks and clergy during worship had the ability to produce sudden and dramatic cures: the music entered the ear as a healing spiritual balm that could hasten results beyond the reach of any contemporary physician.
Crooked limbs became straight with a loud, cracking sound; wounds and sores were closed and healed. This lecture will be devoted to this little-known landscape of medieval musical experience.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-chant-as-cure-and-miracle
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Whitty continues to look at the medical innovations that will revolutionize healthcare: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/keeping-the-heart-young-in-an-old-body
The heart was the organ that, until recently, aged fastest in wealthier societies, with death and disability from heart disease common in otherwise healthy older people. Deaths from heart disease have dropped rapidly over the last three decades, and disability from cardiac failure is substantially reduced in many countries. A combination of lifestyle changes such as reduced smoking, public health, medical and surgical interventions mean that it is now possible to keep the heart relatively young in an aging body.
This lecture will consider how keeping the heart relatively young in the elderly has been achieved in incremental steps, and the implications for other health problems.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/keeping-the-heart-young-in-an-old-body
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Suez Crisis marks the end of Britain's era of global dominance. Professor Bogdanor explains its significance: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-suez-crisis-1956
In 1956, Egypts President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company. In response, Britain, together with France and Israel, attacked Egypt. The Suez War was the only major military engagement in the 20th century which was opposed by the official opposition. It was opposed also by the United States and the United Nations. Britain and France were compelled to withdraw from Egypt. Suez damaged the reputation of the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden. He had been the last Prime Minister to act as if Britain was still a world power; and the first Prime Minister to have to face the reality that she was not.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-suez-crisis-1956
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Ryrie explains how Christian involvement in the Atlantic Slave trade caused a profound crisis for followers and how it has shaped the Protestant Faith: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-we-learned-that-slavery-is-wrong
It seems obvious now, but it hasn't always. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the old consensus that slavery was a mere fact of life, a tolerable evil, broke down, as Protestant activists opposed slavery ever more forcefully - and as other Protestants defended it ever more idealistically. As this lecture will explore, the result was not only the end of legal slavery but profound changes in Protestant Christianity which resonate to the present.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-we-learned-that-slavery-is-wrong
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Nice relates the incidents and the legal prceeding that now swirl about the ship the Mavi Mamara after its attempt to run the blockade of Gaza: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-the-citizen-have-the-right-to-protest-on-the-high-seas
The MV Mavi Marmara was one of several vessels loaded with humanitarian aid that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza in 2010. A case has been started at the International Criminal Court, in which a fundamental issue (separate from the killings by the Israelis of 10 people on board) is whether people should be allowed to protest on the high seas, as the passengers on the ships of the flotilla were doing, in part.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/does-the-citizen-have-the-right-to-protest-on-the-high-seas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Sun is a second generation star, Professor Silk discusses what we can learn from its ancestors: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-stars
Eddington once famously said that a physicist on a cloud-bound planet could predict that there are stars. The first series of lectures will be devoted to fundamental questions that have simple answers. What is a star? What is a galaxy? All devolves around knowing their masses. Why should a star like the sun weigh in at two billion trillion trillion tonnes? No more, no less. And all other stars, countless in number, are between a tenth of a hundred times the mass of the sun.
This leads us into a description of the first stars in the universe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-stars
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A detailed description of one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times, and how we can be sure that it is Richard III.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-king-in-the-car-park-the-discovery-and-identification-of-richard-iii
This lecture will focus on discussion of the archaeological dig, how this progressed, and the archaeological evidence for the remains being those of Richard. I will then move on to the lab-based work (radio carbon, isotropic analysis, scoliosis investigation, battle wounds, etc), and consider the DNA analysis and the search for living relatives and the reconstruction of Richard's kin network. I will end with an overall assessment of the evidence, taken together, of the remains being those of Richard III.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-king-in-the-car-park-the-discovery-and-identification-of-richard-iii
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Some say that she is the mother of Computing, to others she's a historical curiosity, Ursula Martin unpicks the life of Ada Lovelace: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-scientific-life-of-ada-lovelace
Ada, Countess of Lovelace, was born Ada Byron on 10 December 1815, and died, after a long and painful illness, in 1852. The daughter of the poet Lord Byron, and his wife Annabella (nee Milbanke), she married in 1833 William King, who was created Earl of Lovelace in 1838.
Professor Martin will talk on her life and contribution to mathematics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-scientific-life-of-ada-lovelace
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
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A phenomenal mathematician, Hanna Neumann achieved her success in the fac of the Nazis, an imprisoned husband and entrenched misogyny: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hanna-neumann-a-mathematician-in-difficult-times
Dr Peter Neumann OBE describes the life of his mother, Hanna Neumann, and her long and distinguished career as a female mathematician in the early part of the 20th century.
His talk is part of an afternoon of lectures on Women in Mathematics, celebrating the life of Ada Lovelace.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hanna-neumann-a-mathematician-in-difficult-times
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A history of Hypatia, the first recorded female mathematician: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hypatia-sifting-the-myths
The first woman mathematician of whom we have reasonably secure and detailed knowledge, Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, mathematician, astronomer, and member of the Museum. Reputed to have outshone her father in her studies, she devoted her life to the teaching of mathematics and Neoplatonist philosophy in Alexandria. She is most famous for her brutal murder (c.415 AD) by a zealous crowd of monks. Much has been written about her, but little is known for certain. This talk attempts to give an account of current thinking on her life and her mathematics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/hypatia-sifting-the-myths
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Timothy Garton Ash discusses the difficulty of memory laws and free speech: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/free-speech-and-the-study-of-history
A growing number of countries have so-called memory laws, ranging from the criminalisation of Holocaust denial, to prescriptions for the teaching of certain subjects, memorial days and public monuments. Which, if any, of these are justified? Which are more effective in combating evils they are supposed to combat, based on misinterpretations of the past?
The lecturer, who has just completed a book on free speech, will argue that phenomena such as Holocaust denial are better contested by the completely free, robust exchange of scholarly, journalistic and political debate, and that the state should not use its coercive power to limit the study of history.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/free-speech-and-the-study-of-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This is the 2015 Peter Nailor Memorial Lecture on Defence: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-2015-strategic-defence-and-security-review-and-its-implications
Lord Robertson, former UK Defence Secretary and Secretary General of NATO, will discuss the Review and its importance and relevance in securing Britain in an age of uncertainty.
As stated in the Review: 'Our country has always had global responsibilities and global ambitions. We have a proud history of standing up for the values we believe in and we should have no less ambition for our country in the decades to come. But we need to be more thoughtful, more strategic and more coordinated in the way we advance our interests and protect our national security'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-2015-strategic-defence-and-security-review-and-its-implications
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What can a skeleton tell us about disease? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-archaeology-of-disease-documented-in-skeletons
Disease affects us all during our lives. This lecture will show how archaeological skeletons can inform our understanding of people's health in the past. It will focus on how this is done and why it is important, including recent research on infectious disease. It will show how the deep time perspective that we gain by analysing skeletons from different burial contexts provides us with a better understanding of who we are today.
Part of the Mondays at One Archaeology Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-archaeology-of-disease-documented-in-skeletons
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
In the year of the battle's 600th anniversary, Agincourt remains one of the most resonant names in the roll-call of English military history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/agincourt-or-azincourt-victory-defeat-and-the-war-of-1415
Thanks to Shakespeare, the triumphant tale is embedded in our national psyche: the astonishing victory against overwhelming odds of Henry V's 'happy few' over the flower of French chivalry. But if we cry God for Harry, England and St George, we tell only half the story. What of those who cried God for Charles, France and St Denis?
The battle is set in its fifteenth-century context - when the outcome of military conflict was understood as the result of God's will - and unravels the implications of two contrasting narratives: English victory at Agincourt, and French defeat on the field they knew as Azincourt.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/agincourt-or-azincourt-victory-defeat-and-the-war-of-1415
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
With the launch of a new book celebrating 800 years of the Lord Mayor's Show, The Pageantmaster presents this special lecture: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lord-mayors-show-800-years-1215-2015
For eight centuries the City of London has hosted one of the world's greatest public parades, as the newly elected Lord Mayor embarks on a procession through the heart of the City to the edge of Westminster, culminating in an oath of allegiance to the representatives of the Crown. This ancient tradition has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the London calendar, combining pageantry with carnival-esque levity in a distinctly English blend of grandeur and irreverence.
To mark the 800th Lord Mayor's Show, Dominic Reid OBE, the Show's Pageantmaster, and publisher Third Millennium have brought together a host of experts to produce Lord Mayor's Show: 800 Years 1215-2015, the first comprehensive illustrated history of the Show. For this special panel event Dominic is joined by some of the contributors to the book to discuss the significance of the Show across the ages, the great traditions, paraphernalia and personalities associated with it, and the ways in which it has been represented in everything from painting and literature to film and television.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lord-mayors-show-800-years-1215-2015
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
The Inaugural lecture of the newest Gresham Professorship, this post will focus on Information technology and is held by Martyn Thomas: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-we-trust-computers
Computers and software have transformed the world in 67 years and the pace of change is still accelerating. The achievements have been extraordinary: we have the Web, Google and GPS - but we also have viruses, spam and cybercrime. What can we learn from past triumphs and disasters to help us decide about Big Data, driverless cars, artificial intelligence and life in silico?
Might the future be built on sand, metaphorically as well as literally?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-we-trust-computers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Flood reviews the year that made Einstein famous as he published some of his greatest work: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/einsteins-annus-mirabilis-1905
In 1905, his 'year of wonders', Einstein published four papers of ground-breaking importance. First he published the work that introduced quanta of energy - a core idea of quantum theory. Next was a paper on Brownian motion explaining the movement of small particles suspended in a liquid. His third paper introduced the special theory of relativity linking time, distance, mass and energy while his fourth paper contains one of the most famous equations of all, E=mc².
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/einsteins-annus-mirabilis-1905
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
From symbols scratched below the floorboards, to beliefs in witchcraft, and through to James I and the Gunpowder Plot.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ritual-protection-marks-and-witchcraft-at-knole-kent
An historic building survey at Knole, Kent enabled a very surprising revelation about the history of the house in the early 17th century. A series of symbols beneath the floorboards carved by the carpenters working at the house were intended to protect the building from possession by witches, demons and evil spirits. Further research showed that the symbols were related to James I, witch trials and the Gunpowder Plot.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ritual-protection-marks-and-witchcraft-at-knole-kent
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Roberts describes her work with UK police forces: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-body-in-the-river-the-application-of-environment-science-in-murder
The bodies of murder victims, whole or in pieces, often end up in rivers or canals. Carolyn Roberts' work as an Expert Witness with UK police forces has applied the principles of hydrology to murder investigations.
In these tragic and gruesome settings, environmental science can help to identify where bodies have come from or gone to. Drawing on macabre and fascinating case studies, the lecture will range from particular cases to general principles of tracing bodies, and the application of science in supporting the law.
Probably not for those of a nervous disposition, but of guaranteed interest to the curious.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-body-in-the-river-the-application-of-environment-science-in-murder
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Elliott explains what happened when a top heart surgeon went to work with a F1 team and what lessons were learned: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/formula-1-and-its-contributions-to-healthcare
At first sight, there is little relationship between the high tech, high cost, high speed and highly competitive world of F1 and heart surgery for children. Yet Formula 1, with its extraordinary teamwork, rates of innovation, commitment to excellence and relentless pursuit of safety has taught us a great deal.
This lecture will consider the parallels between our activities, describe the lessons learned and consider how we, in healthcare, might benefit more from how they work and their technology. And a little of what they have learned from us!
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/formula-1-and-its-contributions-to-healthcare
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Professor Belinda Jack examines the power and impact of T.S. Eliot's works 'The Four Quartets': http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-and-exile-t-s-eliot-four-quartets
These poems retain a stubborn opacity and no interpretation is ever wholly satisfactory. The difficulty of Eliot's poetry is partly a function of the poems' dense allusions to so much other poetry. But by exploring the idea of exile in relation to locality and the idea of space more abstractly, the shape of Four Quartets as descriptive of a spiritual journey comes into better focus. Autobiographically it is clear that Burnt Norton, the house and its extensive gardens, East Coker, and above all the religious community at Little Gidding, matter greatly to our understanding of both Eliot's life and also his poetry. But the antithesis of place, that is the idea of exile from place, is equally important.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-and-exile-t-s-eliot-four-quartets
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
A personal and intensive examination of Professor McGrath's journey to faith: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-wonder-to-understanding-beginning-a-journey
This lecture considers the sense of wonder that many experience in looking at the natural world, and explores how this can lead to both science and religious faith - and sometimes both. It will examine the role of theories in science and religion, and how these can lead to a deeper appreciation of the beauty of the natural world.
The lecture will consider the general relation of science and faith, including reflecting on the current status of the "warfare" model, before moving on to consider more reliable accounts, including "multiple maps of reality" (Mary Midgley), "multiple narratives about life" (Christian Smith) and "multiple levels within reality" (Roy Bhaskar). The lecture will also consider Karl Popper's notion of "ultimate questions" , and reflect on how these questions can be answered by science and religion. The lecture will ultimately consider the existential importance of these questions, and how human beings appear to have some inbuilt instinct or intuition that such questions are both important, and answerable - however provisionally.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-wonder-to-understanding-beginning-a-journey
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
Osteologist, Don Walker, explains what archaeologists can learn from the bones found is a mass grave: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mass-burials-from-st-mary-spital-london
The excavation of St Mary Spital in East London uncovered a large number of emergency mass burial pits. Dating places the burials in the mid-13th century and may provide the first archaeological evidence of a global catastrophic volcanic event.
Part of the Mondays at One Archaeology Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mass-burials-from-st-mary-spital-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
At the heart of virtually all the medieval music that survives, is the human voice. This is an ancient heritage. The early Christians under the Roman Empire believed themselves to be engaged in a pilgrimage through a transitory world, where they were strangers, to their true home and an eternal liturgy 'where my servants shall sing for joy of heart', as St John the Divine says in Revelation. But why have singing in worship? What was to be gained, in the early Church and in its medieval descendant, by having a choir singing snippets of the Scripture, often extracted from their original context and sewn together in new patterns? We shall find that the answer lies in the breathing body.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-the-stations-of-the-breath
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice chairs a panel discussion on the Gaza-Israel conflict and the issues raised in his lecture.
The panel includes more members of a fact finding trip to Gaza and Israel. The Panel answers questions form the audience.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gaza-israel-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
'War Crimes' - do we use the term too casually? Commentators have usually assumed the Israel-Palestine armed conflict might be lawful, even if individual incidents on both sides attracted condemnation. But is that assumption right? May the conflict lack legality, on one or both sides?
The 2014 Israeli-Gaza conflict allows exploration of some of the underlying issues. General Nick Parker explains how he advised Geoffrey Nice to approach the conflict's legality from a military point of view. Geoffrey Nice explains what conclusions he then reached. Were war crimes committed by either side?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gaza-israel-the-legal-and-the-military-view
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What can we learn about our ancestors from the artefacts they've left behind?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/artefacts-and-the-study-of-life-in-roman-london
From jewellery and domestic utensils to weaponry and religious objects, artefacts provide a vivid connection to London's Roman past.
This lecture explores the ways in which archaeologists can analyse and interpret these objects, presenting some results of the latest research into the artefacts from excavations in the City of London and the new insights they provide into the lives of the first Londoners.
Part of the Mondays at One Archaeology Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/artefacts-and-the-study-of-life-in-roman-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Can we insure ourselves against future recessions and crashes?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-costs-of-business-cycles
How much would you pay to avoid a recession? In other words, can we place a price on the economic costs of business cycle fluctuations? Standard economic models give some clues but they bring difficulties. Can we account for the known difficulties with these models, or is it yet more complicated?
In the real world, might government policy have already acted to reduce the costs of fluctuations?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-costs-of-business-cycles
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A brilliant lecture that will radical reshape your understanding of the Plague: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1665-londons-last-great-plague
350 years ago, London experienced a devastating outbreak of plague. Some 70,000 people died and the capital's social and economic life was disrupted for months.
The story is seemingly well-known but on closer examination there are still many disputed or puzzling features. Can we be sure that we understand the epidemic any better than those who lived through it?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1665-londons-last-great-plague
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Inaugural lecture by Professor Joseph Silk as the new Gresham Professor of Astronomy covers the fiery moments after the creation of the Big Bang: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-primordial-fireball
The universe underwent an inflationary period of expansion. From an extremely hot beginning, it cooled down then reheated to form the expanding universe that we observe today. The relic radiation generated the fossil glow of the cosmic microwave background radiation, a testament to its fiery origin. Microwave telescopes map out the structure of the universe long before the galaxies were present, only 370,000 years after Big Bang. The current challenges in cosmic microwave background astronomy will be described.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-primordial-fireball
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Bogdanor explains how the NHS and The Korean War caused near civil war on the Labour Party that created it: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-national-health-service-crisis-1951
The NHS had been established by the post-war Labour government in 1948. By 1951, there were already heavy pressures on health spending. In addition, after the Korean War broke out in 1950, Britain decided to rearm. In his budget, the Chancellor, Hugh Gaitskell, sought to balance his budget by imposing charges on false teeth and spectacles. Two cabinet ministers resigned in protest - Aneurin Bevan, architect of the health service, and Harold Wilson, the future Prime Minister. The crisis provoked a running battle between Left and Right in the Labour Party which lasted for over forty years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-national-health-service-crisis-1951
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli sits down with Mark Hoban for an in depth discussion of the issues and topics raised in the 2015 Sir Thomas Gresham Finance Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/panel-discussion-public-interest-vs-private-profit
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Twelfth Sir Thomas Gresham Finance Lecture: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/public-interest-versus-private-profits
The conventional model of risk transfer and sharing is being challenged. The traditional boundaries between the roles of the state, the private sector and the individual in managing risk are blurred. With public policy now being both a driver of and a response to market developments, new models of risk sharing are being created. Who are the winners and losers from this shake up of risk?
This is the 2015 Sir Thomas Gresham Finance Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/public-interest-versus-private-profits
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Royal Society was founded at a Gresham College lecture delivered by Robert Hooke. We imagine that it would have been something like this panel which features five of the Emeritus Gresham Professors of Astronomy and thus the leading thinkers in the field. Together, the panel tackles issues of profound importance to the future of Astronomy and answer questions from the audience. This is a once in a lifetime gathering and a must watch for all Astronomers and Physicists.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-cosmic-perspective-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 'curious and ingenious' men who met at Gresham College and founded the Royal Society were fascinated by the Sun and Planets; the 'fixed stars' were a distant mystery to them. Over succeeding centuries, cosmic horizons have expanded - largely thanks to ever more powerful instruments. So has our understanding - though each advance brings into focus a new set of mysteries.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-cosmic-perspective-four-centuries-of-expanding-horizons
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What lessons should the world learn about resource management from one of the most densely populated cities in the world: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singapore-at-50-oil-and-water-inextricably-mixed
Modern civilization depends on both energy and water. The world is facing crises in the availability of both. Water is needed to produce energy and energy is needed to process and move water. Different countries address their challenges in different ways and with different degrees of urgency - Singapore shows how a small and densely populated island can successfully balance the needs of people and environment
Globally the energy challenge is to meet the needs of a growing world population while burning less fossil fuel. The water challenge is to meet the needs of agriculture, industry and people, while leaving sufficient for the other kinds of life on earth. Lord Oxburgh, previously Chairman of the British House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and Chairman of Shell UK, is a recipient of Singapore's Honorary Citizen Award.
This lecture will be delivered as part of the 2015 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/singapore-at-50-oil-and-water-inextricably-mixed
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A discussion of the history of busking and street music in the City of London: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-street-performance
Drawing on a range of historic sources - including selections from Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor and Charles Babbage's Passages in the Life of a Philosopher - particular focus will be given to the way in which various residents of the City responded to the 'street music problem' of Victorian London. This is by far the most heavily documented period in the history of busking and street music in the City. The street music 'problem' emerged in light of the growing middle and literary classes and the disruption the presence such street musicians caused to the quiet tenor of their home-working lives.
The debates that occurred here - which involved notable figures such as Charles Dickens, Charles Leech, and Charles Babbage - resulted in the development of the Street Music Act of 1864 and paved the way for much of the subsequent legislative control of street musicians in the City. The debates about street performances in London in this period shed light on the present-day situation of busking and street music in the City.
This lecture will be delivered as a part of the 2015 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-street-performance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The benefits of singing in a choir are many and various. In particular, there are positive physical outcomes and mental health benefits.
These are related to improved cardiovascular fitness (including lung function), as well as improved mood and general alertness, often allied to a feeling of being spiritually uplifted. Because singing involves many different areas of the brain acting in concert, there are often associated cognitive benefits, such as improvements in children's reading ability that are linked to increased auditory discrimination that supports phonological development.
There are also social and psychosocial benefits, as singing in a collective can improve participants' sense of belonging and of being socially included by engendering a positive sense of community. Benefits are available across the lifespan and are indicated pre-birth in the final months of foetal life. At the other end of the lifespan, singing can bring a stronger and more positive sense of identity in a context where there is often a sense of loss of control due to the challenges of aging. There are also musical and cultural benefits as participants gain skills, knowledge and understanding of the nature and place of music in their lives and the lives of others.
This lecture will be delivered as part of the 2015 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-benefits-of-singing-in-a-choir
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How do you rebeuild one of the world's largest cities? You need a cunning plan: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/replanning-london-after-the-second-world-war
London was, during the Second World War, the largest and most obvious target, and the most badly-bombed city in the country. Ideas about rebuilding began very early, even during the Blitz itself. The number, scale and variety of plans was large, ranging from the "informal" - produced by individuals, and probably more for promoting themselves than as serious contributions, and a range of organisations - to the "formal", produced by Borough Councils and other authorities, by their own staff or eminent consultants. Central Government was also involved, in urging some authorities to make plans, in recommending consultants, and in commissioning large-scale plans.
The hierarchy of official plans (for the City, County and Greater London) were the culmination of ideas about city structure, function and design, as well as approaches to planning, that had been developing before the war. They were hugely influential elsewhere in Britain and, through various forms of promotion, elsewhere in the world. This talk will explore the range of plans, what was proposed, and the gap between proposals and what was eventually - often years or decades later - actually built.
This lecture will be delivered as a part of the 2015 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/replanning-london-after-the-second-world-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How did Sir Christopher Wren rebuild the City Churches?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sir-christopher-wren-and-the-rebuilding-of-the-city-churches-after-the-great-fir
In this lecture, Anthony Geraghty will reveal how Sir Christopher Wren went about rebuilding over fifty churches in the decades after the Great Fire. He will describe the several factors - economic, political, religious, aesthetic - that shaped the appearance of these much-loved buildings.
This lecture will be delivered as part of the 2015 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sir-christopher-wren-and-the-rebuilding-of-the-city-churches-after-the-great-fir
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 2015 Grays Inn Reading: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/civil-litigation-should-the-rules-be-simpler
The address by Sir Stephen will explore the reasons why the rules of civil procedure are so long and complex, and whether it is desirable and practicable to simplify them, having regard in particular to the needs of litigants in person who are unfamiliar with the legal process.
This is the 2015 Gray's Inn Reading.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/civil-litigation-should-the-rules-be-simpler
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Final lecture in our series on industrial safety: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-in-the-nuclear-industry
Energy security and meeting the needs of both industry and consumers have become key topics for government. Major decisions will have to be taken by the next government over both de-commissioning and the re-commissioning of nuclear power stations. But how safe is safe? Can the experts re-assure us that modern advances in nuclear technology and its management can provide us with safe low-cost energy?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-in-the-nuclear-industry
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
On the 200th anniversary of the battle, Professor Sir Richard Evans discusses the Battle of Waterloo, and places it in its historical context with proper credit given to the Prussian General Blucher: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/waterloo-causes-courses-and-consequences
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18th June 1815. The 200th anniversary has prompted widespread commemoration. But what was the battle about? Who fought it? Why did it take place in 1815 and at Waterloo? Finally, what were its consequences?
The answers to these questions are by no means as simple or straightforward as they seem, and will be explored in this illustrated lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/waterloo-causes-courses-and-consequences
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A clinical psychiatrist discusses what it means to treat violence: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-we-treat-violence
In this last lecture, Dr Adshead will discuss the conceptual implication of the term 'treatment' in relation to violence reduction and prevention. Drawing on her experience as a therapist working with violent men, she will discuss the purposes of therapy in this context; and the ethical implications.
She will review what is known about the effectiveness of therapy for violence perpetrators, and conclude with a discussion about what it might mean to treat human 'attitudes'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-we-treat-violence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A Discussion of the influence science has on the writing of Dickens: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/charles-dickens-and-science
In his novels and essays, Dickens showed his considerable knowledge about the scientific developments in the 1850s and 1860s, which he wove into his stories and descriptions of London's life and environment. His brilliant essay on 'a new ology' describes how a science moves from its first tentative steps to mature general concepts, when they are often transformed into other areas of science and human understanding - a very modern perspective.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/charles-dickens-and-science
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A lecture concerning aviation safety: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-in-the-air-technology-people-and-practice
Flying is one of the safest modes of travel, and few of us consider a weekend flight to the Continent as hazardous, or crossing the Atlantic as a risky business. Air safety covers everything from aircraft loading and technical standards to the dangers of birdstrike, icefalls, volcanic ash and low-flying aircraft. How is air safety controlled and regulated and how safe can we really be?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-in-the-air-technology-people-and-practice
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An examination into the history and future of pheromone reseach: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/success-of-the-smelliest-the-search-for-human-pheromones
Pheromones are powerful sex attractants in moths, dogs and many other animals but what about humans? Sadly, despite what you see advertised on the Internet, there is no robust evidence that human pheromones can make you irresistible. Nonetheless, smell is important to us.
Come to hear why the search for our elusive human pheromones is still on and where we should go next in the hunt.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/success-of-the-smelliest-the-search-for-human-pheromones
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A short overview of the technology, vision, individuals and organisations behind lighthouses in the UK:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-at-sea-and-lighthouses
The Brethren of Trinity House have been responsible for safety around our shores for five hundred years. Michael Faraday made a major contribution to the effectiveness of lighthouses that has lasted to this day. How are mariners and their cargoes kept safe and what is the significance of the role of the expert in providing advice to the state and its agencies?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-at-sea-and-lighthouses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A Detailed overview of the new theories of Central Banking: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-new-art-of-central-banking
Following the Long Expansion and the global financial crisis, money and monetary policy is now firmly linked (again) to both financial and fiscal stability. So how do we re-write the monetary rule book? Specifically, how many instruments do we have to control so many variables? And how should we deal with the unknowable threats that lurk in the nightmares of policy makers? And how much current growth are we prepared to give up in order to meet these threats?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-new-art-of-central-banking
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An overview of the end of the great period of the English Royal architecture in Palaces and Castles during the Stuart era: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/womens-careers-from-oxfam-to-a-cambridge-college
In his short reign James II built a surprising amount, including a large royal chapel - the architectural symbol of his conversion to Roman Catholicism. His successors William and Mary were great builders too, but in an entirely different vein. William did not want a grand monarchical court set in vast places, he began to set the monarchy on a different trajectory. By the time George I came to the throne in 1714 the process was complete and royal palaces were ornamental additions to the British state rather than the seat of power and influence that they had been for more than a thousand years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-last-stuarts-and-the-death-of-the-royal-powerhouse
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Dame Barbara, President of Murray Edwards College and Former Chief Executive of Oxfam, calls on her experience at Oxfam and Cambridge to discuss women's careers and current thinking on how women can succeed and 'get to the top'.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/womens-careers-from-oxfam-to-a-cambridge-college
This is the 2015 Gresham Special Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/womens-careers-from-oxfam-to-a-cambridge-college
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A short history of the engineering and scientific force put to work to save lives underground, focussing particularly on the work of Sir Humphry Davy and George Stephenson:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-underground-mining-and-the-miners-lamp
Mining disasters such as those at High Blantyre in 1877 or Gresford (1934) are a reminder of the hazards of mining.
Work done by Sir Humphry Davy and George Stephenson on the safety lamp will be used to illustrate the problems of taking scientific knowledge out of the controlled environments of the laboratory and putting it to practice use.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/safety-underground-mining-and-the-miners-lamp
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Why did Bach make his famous journey to North Germany to visit the great organist - composer Dieterich Buxtehude, when there were other celebrated musicians closer to Arnstadt? Did he have lessons from Buxtehude, take part in performances or perhaps seek employment in Lubeck? And what changes took place in Bach's music before and after his visit?
There will be live examples using the famous 1801 organ at Lothbury.
Organist: Anne-Caroline Prenat from Switzerland
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/walking-to-fame-bachs-visit-to-buxtehude
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture offers a survey of the brilliant new breakthroughs in treatments for heart defects and their implications for medical practice more generally: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-next-disruptive-technologies-new-ways-to-treat-old-diseases
Advances in prenatal diagnosis, fetal intervention and methods of imaging and functional assessment will be presented. The possibilities of gene therapy, regenerative medicine and stem-cell based tissue construction will be described, as well as the opportunities for monitoring patients directly by remote technology. This might minimize the need for direct doctor:patient contact, further reducing cost, but it does present the problem of ever-increasing volumes of data to manage.
What affects are these changes having today, and how might they affect the future of medical services in this country and beyond?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-next-disruptive-technologies-new-ways-to-treat-old-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Why do businesses fail and what can we do about it?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-businesses-fail-and-what-can-be-done-about-it
Businesses fail all the time. They either go broke, destroying value and throwing people out of work, or they suffer catastrophic systems failures that cost money and, sometimes, human lives. Why does this happen? Some have argued that the world economic system is at fault, but the real cause might lie with people. Nearly every business failure can be traced back to human failings, weaknesses among leaders and managers.
Key sources of weakness will be identified, and a challenge issued to both the business world and the management education system to do something about them.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-businesses-fail-and-what-can-be-done-about-it
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A second lecture on the people coping with the disease and the stigma of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/standing-up-for-fatigue
This second lecture on ME/CFS complements the lecture of 5 May 2015, providing an overview of new and exciting research developments into the complex, long-term chronic illness.
The lecture will give insight into our understanding of fatigue and the implications for one of the many symptoms experienced by people with CFS/ME.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/standing-up-for-fatigue
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A timely symposium on Brazil to promote understanding of this nation's vibrant culture and unique history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brazil-a-force-in-the-world
As a former diplomat in Brazil, there are few people as keenly engaged with Brazil and its relationship with the world. Alan Charlton breaks down the manifold relationships that Brazil has forges with the wider international community.
The symposium will look at the country's rapidly developing economy and place in the world in the context of its history, geography and politics. Current events and issues will be considered at a time when attention has been focused on the country through the World Cup and the Olympics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brazil-a-force-in-the-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A timely symposium on Brazil to promote understanding of this nation's vibrant culture and unique history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-questions-and-answers
Professor Tim Connell leads the panel of experts in responding to audience question, comments and concerns at the end of the Gresham College symposium on modern Brazil and its place in the world. A fascinating discussion of a country that is just reaching an era of global importance.
The symposium will look at the country's rapidly developing economy and place in the world in the context of its history, geography and politics. Current events and issues will be considered at a time when attention has been focused on the country through the World Cup and the Olympics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-questions-and-answers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A timely symposium on Brazil to promote understanding of this nation's vibrant culture and unique history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-questions-and-answers
Professor Pallares-Burke, speaking as an academic and as a native Brazilian, gives a unique insight into how Brazilians see themselves. Drawing on culture, history and media, sh weaves a compelling picture of a people quite unlike any other.
The symposium will look at the country's rapidly developing economy and place in the world in the context of its history, geography and politics. Current events and issues will be considered at a time when attention has been focused on the country through the World Cup and the Olympics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-questions-and-answers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A timely symposium on Brazil to promote understanding of this nation's vibrant culture and unique history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-an-introduction
Professor Tim Connell opens the symposium with a brief history of the South American gentle giant, Brazil. As well as grounding our understanding of this country, Professor Connell also speaks to the culture and personality of its people.
The symposium will look at the country's rapidly developing economy and place in the world in the context of its history, geography and politics. Current events and issues will be considered at a time when attention has been focused on the country through the World Cup and the Olympics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brazil-order-and-progress-an-introduction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Joint London Mathematical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/geometry-a-new-weapon-in-the-fight-against-viruses
Viruses like the common cold look like tiny footballs and mathematics can therefore help to understand how they form and evolve. Our highly interdisciplinary approach in understanding and combating viruses, in which mathematics plays a key role, provides surprising new avenues in our fight against viral disease.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/geometry-a-new-weapon-in-the-fight-against-viruses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A keen and academic assessment of the recent general election by one of Britain's top political historians: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-2015
The 2015 election will be the first one since 1935 at which a coalition government will be defending its record. It will be a multi-party election in which the competition will be between not only the three major parties, but also the nationalists and UKIP. A hung parliament and a further coalition are both distinct possibilities.
This lecture, to be delivered just five days after the likely date of the election, will seek to make sense of the outcome.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-2015
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
World renowned pianist and academic, Professor David Owen Norris breaks down a new understanding of performance success: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/beyond-surprise-or-satisfy-a-new-theory-of-performance
That the key to an audience's attention is to fulfil or frustrate its expectations is a theory first hinted at in 1752 by Charles Avison.
David Owen Norris fleshes it out with examples, including the blind-folded cellist and an occasion when Sir Peter Pears sang Eugene Onegin. And he takes the theory further by gazing into a looking-glass.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/beyond-surprise-or-satisfy-a-new-theory-of-performance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What can we learn about violent people?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perpetrators-of-human-violence
In this lecture, Gwen Adshead will review what is known about perpetrators of human violence, both male and female. She will explore similarities and differences between different groups of perpetrators, and explore the role of trauma in the genesis of human violence; with particular reference to homicide, child abuse and that sub-group of offenders called 'psychopaths'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/perpetrators-of-human-violence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What is Keats' poem about, and why is it one of the greatest poems ever written?
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-immortality-john-keats-ode-to-a-nightingale
'Thou wast not born for Death! immortal bird/ No hungry generations tread thee down.'
Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale' contains these curious lines. How can a bird be 'immortal'? The poem is partly about immortality, but how does its complex poetic web work?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-immortality-john-keats-ode-to-a-nightingale
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Is a belief in God a natural outcome of logical and cohesive approach to our experience of the world?
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/forms-of-religious-thought
The lecture will argue that there is a logical pattern to the different forms of religion in the world, and will set out the main differences and convergences between them in a systematic way. It will be argued that the idea of 'God' integrates various types of interpreted experiences in a coherent and comprehensive way.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/forms-of-religious-thought
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
With all the challenges facing Britain's Ecology and Environment, can we we still see the green and pleasant land?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-green-and-pleasant-land
There are many environmental initiatives and legislation affecting the British countryside: protection of scenic and habitat areas, safeguards for particular species, restrictions on development, and animal welfare legislation. However, our countryside is still damaged by pressures that are reducing biodiversity, increasing flooding, damaging soil fertility and rendering our scenery less diverse.
The reasons behind environmental deterioration will be examined as well as strategies to improve quality whilst feeding more people.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-green-and-pleasant-land
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The second part of our memorial lectures for the 20th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/srebrenica-justice-and-legacy
The results of the last twenty years of trails about Srebrenica in the year of the 20th anniversary (July 1995) of that massacre. This lecture will investigate the state of the trial and where it leaves those affected by the massacre and their search for justice and truth. It is hoped that there may be live - or video - contribution from victim or perpetrator witnesses to events.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/srebrenica-justice-and-legacy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
ME/CFS is a complex, long-term, chronic illness affecting an estimated 250,000 people in the UK. This lecture will provide a general account of the history, epidemiology, suggested cause, disease mechanisms and current treatment approaches for ME/CFS.
A follow-up lecture, 'Standing up for fatigue' will provide an overview of research developments into fatigue, a common and disabling symptom of ME/CFS.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/myalgic-encephalomyelitis-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-not-just-tired-all-the-time
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In the aftermath of the financial crash, we began to realise that the models were too simple and the degree of certainty offered to agents was too high. As a result, decision-making stopped dealing with the possibility of mistakes. A richer structure was required in models and there is a need to abandon spurious attempts to over-engineer economic stability.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/where-the-great-experiment-went-wrong
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Chilhood globally, and in Britain, is now safer than at any time in recorded history, with childhood deaths falling rapidly almost everywhere. Neonatal deaths (those in the first 28 days after birth) have fallen, but much more slowly than in later childhood.
Worldwide, we are approaching a point where almost half of all deaths in children under 5 occur in the first 28 days (neonates), and most of these are in the first week of life. In the UK, most of those who die by the age of 20, do so in the first year, and the highest risk is on the day of birth.
This lecture will briefly outline the reasons for the fall in child deaths, and then examine in more detail what we can do to reduce neonatal mortality globally, including low income countries and higher income ones such as in the UK.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/suffer-the-little-children-the-gradual-improvement-in-child-health-has-left-newb
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
During 1914-18, medicine and health were critical issues in all countries and in all armed forces.
This lecture draws comparisons between different theatres of the war and seeks to explain the different degrees of success with which armies dealt with the medical problems of war. It shows the importance not only of technical and geographical factors but of the growing politicisation of medicine, domestically and internationally.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/war-health-and-medicine
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
By the 1830s, caricaturists had begun to show the fashionable guitarist as a man's instrument, but musical ability at the amateur level with guitar, harp or pianoforte was insistently gendered as female. The guitar, being a light, curvaceous and softly voiced instrument, was easily associated by the censorious, not always males, with the most vapid aspects of young female minds raised on restricted mental food or with an art of licensed seduction necessary for making successful marriages.
The discussion will broach the question, little explored, of whether the guitar, like the harp and pianoforte, was the subject of a campaign, in effect, to control the potency of musical art in a domestic context by associating it with the narrowed social and intellectual sphere that non-working women were encouraged to inhabit, and with a coquetry which the male viewer (and listener) was always at liberty to indulge or censure as he thought fit.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-and-the-fair-sex
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Charles II's court has often been portrayed as devoted to pleasure and debauchery. While this is true to an extent, Charles was also an astute political operator who understood the importance of court etiquette - in which architecture was very important. He introduced new fashions and forms into English palaces but, under the surface, many of his innovations were backward-looking and reactionary, reinforcing traditions and practices that had been established before the Civil War.
This lecture untangles architectural innovation and reaction in the Restoration years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/restoration-and-reaction-palaces-of-the-restoration
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 2010 election led to the first peacetime coalition government in Britain since 1931. It occurred in the midst of a financial crisis, with Britain facing a large budgetary deficit, necessitating a period of austerity. So difficult was Britain's economic position that Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, declared that 2010 was an election which any rational party would wish to lose.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-2010
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Scientific knowledge aims at a dispassionate value-free assessment of publicly accessible, repeatable, and quantifiable data. But there is another sort of knowledge, knowledge of ourselves and other persons, which is very different, requiring engagement, personal evaluation, and involvement. This knowledge is seen in history, in self-awareness, and in relations with other persons. It is the basis of a religious form of knowing.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religion-and-experience-a-philosophical-exploration-personal-knowledge
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
There are two versions of Gray's famous 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard'. They are both about how we may be remembered, a thought that often comes to us when we're in a graveyard reading gravestones. But the poem is also about more common experiences, of isolation, of family, of ambition. Why did Gray write two versions?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/locally-green-does-it-make-a-difference
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Are local environmental organisations merely groups of white, middle class and middle aged NIMBYs, with an eye to property prices? Have the UK's major environmental pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth lost their way? Has the environment dropped out of the media and public consciousness?
Drawing on examples where local, national and international environmental imperatives have clashed, the lecture will range across some initiatives apparently intended to improve the environment, including The Mayor of London's Low Carbon Prize, the Transition Town Network and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme. The 'voices', of some of those centrally involved the debates will be heard, whilst we explore whether any of these organisations actually made a difference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/locally-green-does-it-make-a-difference
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The results of the last twenty years of trials about Srebrenica in the year of the 20th anniversary (July 1995) of that massacre. This lecture will trace - through court evidence - what happened. It will also point out what is missing about the involvement of the warring parties and the international community.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/srebrenica-genocide-and-trials
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
For each exciting advance or discovery that takes place in Astronomy, other just as important questions either arise or remain unanswered. In my last Gresham lecture I shall review what the near future might bring - the exciting space missions, satellites and telescopes - and the fundamental scientific challenges they are designed to tackle.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-next-big-questions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many people are familiar with Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Vatican, of Mary holding the dead body of Christ in her lap. However Michelangelo's work was the culmination of many and varied representations of this scene over the centuries, and there are some highly evocative modern works of the same subject.
Lord Harries will explore the visual history of one of the most moving of all Christian images.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-pieta-in-art
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The near loss of price stability in the 1970s led to serious attention being paid to the role of expectations in economic management and the need to find monetary rules that respected changing incentives faced by households and firms under different economic environments. Models were then developed that mostly yielded arguments for price stability under an interest rate feedback rule and for a decade or so, under the Long Expansion, all seemed well.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-science-of-monetary-policy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many people see gene and environment as separate entities and believe that height, weight, or personality type can be sliced, rather like a cake, in a section controlled by inherited factors or nature, while others are due to differences in the environment, or nurture.
In fact "heritability" (a measure much misunderstood by politicians and educationists) is more subtle than this and always involves an intimate interaction between the two, whether we are interested in height, weight, sport, or intelligence.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nature-nurture-or-neither-the-view-from-the-genes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
North America's production of domestic energy from its shale gas sources has been controversial. The release of contaminants into water and air are regulated, but more action seems needed against issues related to shale gas production.
Is enough being done to address risks accompanying shale gas extraction activities for the protection of the public and the environment?
Part of the 'American Perspectives' Fulbright series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-regulation-of-shale-gas-extraction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Does cardiac surgical treatment need to be as expensive as it is? How might costs may be reduced?
Comparisons will be made of the mode of service delivery in the UK with that in India and China, with specific attention being paid to cost, efficiency, process and training. Problems that might be helped by a more global approach will be considered, as well wider implications for speciality services during the current period of austerity.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/doing-more-for-less-paediatric-cardiac-surgery-after-the-financial-crisis
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The First World War put unprecedented strains on the economic, social and political systems of all the combatant nations. A year after the war ended, the Great European Empires had collapsed, and new, extremist ideologies, from fascism to communism, had emerged to disturb the postwar political world.
This lecture explores the reasons for the radical political changes that made the First World War the seminal catastrophe of twentieth-century Europe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/politics-and-the-first-world-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Although many people contributed to the study of infinity over the centuries it was Georg Cantor in the nineteenth century who established its modern development. Cantor created modern set theory and established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between sets. For example he showed that the set of all integers can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the set of all fractions and so these two sets have the same infinity. But he also proved the remarkable result that there are infinitely many infinities, all of different sizes.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cantors-infinities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
One of the most extraordinary pieces of new mathematics was a discovery by the Spanish physicist Juan Parrondo, who was building a computer simulation of an effect in quantum theory. One has two simple coin-tossing games, each of which favours one's opponent. Suppose at each turn one chooses randomly which losing game to play. Astonishingly, this random switch between two unfavourable games can produce a favourable one. (For those who find this hard to believe, I will provide a demonstration!)
Parrondo's Paradox has been used to explain the behaviour of viruses, and offers investors the potential to reduce the risk in their portfolios.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/two-losses-make-a-win-how-a-physicist-surprised-mathematicians
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Early 20th-century literature and social sciences contested with one another over gender formations. While social sciences created taxonomies of normalised and medicalised difference, modernist literature simultaneously validated the autonomous particular that defies categorization.
Characters as gender misfits countered an imposed social science model, instead emphasising individuality. Close readings from the poetry of T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, W.D. Yeats and Stevie Smith document this literary struggle with the contemporaneous social sciences.
Part of the 'American Perspectives' Fulbright Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-misfits-gender-in-early-twentieth-century-literature
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Almost any risky business decision can fail. One of the hardest and most important decisions we may need to make is when an important line of activity unravels. Should we cut our losses?
This lecture explores escalation of commitment. What drives us to lavish time, money and energy on hopeless endeavors? How can we stop things spiraling out of control?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/knee-deep-in-the-big-muddy-escalation-of-commitment
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The execution of Charles I brought about the sale of the century. Royal palaces were sold, as were their contents, with just a small number of royal buildings reserved for the republican regime. Oliver Cromwell became a King in all but name and his need for magnificent residences and buildings to accommodate the machinery of state was as great as the monarchy's. Cromwell is shown in an unfamiliar light - interested in French furniture and fashions and holding court in princely style.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/revolutionary-state-royal-palaces-in-cromwells-england
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 1979 election inaugurated the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, the longest continuous premiership since that of Lord Liverpool (1812-27), and an 18 year period of Conservative government. It occurred after the 'winter of discontent', marked by public sector strikes which destroyed the Labour government's social contract. James Callaghan, defeated Labour Prime Minister, declared before the election that it marked a sea-change in British politics. Was he right?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-1979
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will reveal and analyse the history of the so-called "Negro Fort;" North America's largest ever maroon community (a settlement of fugitive slaves and their descendants).
The Negro Fort emerged at Prospect Bluff, Spanish Florida during the War of 1812 when a British Royal Marine named Edward Nicolls recruited hundreds of slaves from across the Southeast to join the British war effort. Nicolls was a radical anti-slavery advocate who carefully instilled his ideology in the minds of the former slaves before granting them the status of British subjects with full and equal rights to any white British man. At the end of the war, the British left the radicalized former slaves heavily armed and in charge of the fort at Prospect Bluff. During the next 18 months, the former slaves created a flourishing community that was driven by a strong sense of British identity. White Americans, the Spanish, and many Native Americans were deeply concerned by the existence of the maroon community and felt that it might act as a spur to slave resistance across the South. Accordingly, a large detachment of American soldiers and Indian warriors destroyed the fort in July 1816. However, the vast majority of the maroons were able to flee Prospect Bluff before the American assault and would become the key anti-American combatants in the First Seminole War.
The lecture will suggest that the actions of the maroons both deserve to be understood as central to the history of North America and provide an invaluable opportunity to understand the lives of slaves during the Age of Revolution.
Part of the 'American Perspectives' Fulbright Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-americas-largest-act-of-slave-resistance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A review of particular cases Sir Geoffrey Nice has been involved in, to provide a picture of the life of the 20th/21st century barrister. This lecture is aimed - to an appropriate extent - to amuse as well as to inform.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cases-i-have-known
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
2015 is a momentous year for the study of dwarf planets - the Dawn mission arrives at Ceres in the asteroid belt in February, and the New Horizons spaceprobe will commence its flypast of Pluto and its moons in July. We shall discuss the smaller bodies of the Solar System - from dwarf planets to asteroids.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/small-bodies-of-the-solar-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A panel discussion including questions to panel members from the audience.
The panel includes:
John Greenwood
George Tait
Professor Richard Werner
And is chaired by Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/panel-discussion-why-macroeconomics-needs-a-rethink
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Richard Werner gives a presentation on conventional and inductive economics, deriving lessons from the growth of the Japanese economy. His assertions challenge the very foundations of economics and banking with startling clarity and refreshing brillo.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lessons-we-can-learn-from-the-success-of-the-japanese-growth-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
George Tait Edwards delivers a lecture on the life and times of Dr Osamu Shimomura (1910-1989) and his Harrod-Domar Model of a High Growth, Low Inflation Japanese Economy. The lecture all examines what the west might learn from this great Japanese economist.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/elizabeths-ghost-the-afterlife-of-the-queen-in-the-stuart-era
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Alderman Professor Mainelli introduces the 2015 Long Finance Spring Conference, and in this talk he examines the "fragile roots"of economics. How much do we know and does the study of Economics merely expand an awareness of how little we know?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-study-of-money-may-be-the-root-of-much-madness-the-fragile-foundations-under
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
During the reigns of the Stuart monarchs, the image of Elizabeth was used not only to comment on current affairs, but also as a powerful example of what women could accomplish. A range of sources will be examined to further understand the impact that Elizabeth had in the century after her death in terms of politics and religion - and the perceptions about powerful women.
Part of the 'American Perspectives' Fulbright Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/elizabeths-ghost-the-afterlife-of-the-queen-in-the-stuart-era
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe and its Philae lander are key to furthering our understanding of the formation of our solar system, and the origins of life. Matt Taylor, the Project Scientist for the ESA mission, offers an introduction to the first ever soft landing on a comet and how it is opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-rosetta-mission
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Rosetta Stone is perhaps the most important archaeological find of all time; it was thanks to it that we understand the language of the hieroglyphs and came to comprehend the ancient Egyptian civilization that lay beyond them.
When the stone was discovered by mistake by Napoleonic forces in 1799, its importance was obvious; with the same text translated into three languages, it offered the chance at last to understand Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. But the cracking of the code was not at all straightforward and it took some of the greatest minds of Europe years before the most widely-anticipated code-breaking of all time was achieved.
Professor Richard Parkinson tells the story of Thomas Young, Jean-Francois Champollion and the other great Egyptologists behind the unlocking of the Stone's secrets, while also offering us an insight into the story of the Stone itself, from the questionable artifact-handling of the Victorian era through to its place today at the centre of the British Museum and of the world's consciousness.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rosetta-from-ancient-egypt-to-a-comet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An introduction to Rosetta - both the stone and the European Space Agency mission - and to the life's work of Colin Pillinger, who inspired the connection.
Just as the Rosetta Stone and the Philae Obelisk became the key to interpreting hieroglyphs and understanding ancient Egyptian civilisation, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe and its Philae lander are key to furthering our understanding of the formation of our solar system, and the origins of life. The Philae lander made the first ever soft landing on a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration.
Professor Ian Wright, Principal Investigator for the Ptolemy instrument of the Philae lander, is perfectly placed to offer this short introduction to the two.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rosetta-from-ancient-egypt-to-a-comet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Throughout recorded history people have consistently looked to nature as a source of knowledge about God. Robert Boyle shared this view and the Lecture series he founded became synonymous with such natural theology; however most in the West now consider that such speculations are illegitimate. Dr Russell Re Manning's Boyle Lecture looks again at the history of natural theology to contest the dominant narrative of its rise and fall and to suggest some new directions for its future development.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/natural-theology-reconsidered-again
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Written between the two World Wars, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is in part about a peculiarly modern phenomenon - the experience of outliving the age that formed us. As life expectancy continues to rise, how do we live feeling somewhat out of kilter? What does the novel tell us about the psychology of ageing?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-novel-psychology-edith-whartons-the-age-of-innocence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An examination of class and musicality in industrial Britain: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/harmony-in-the-lowest-home-the-guitar-and-the-labouring-poor
By the 1830s, guitars could be bought very cheaply at pawnbrokers' shops, market stalls and the humblest of the 'musical repositories' that sprang up in response to the spread of musical amateurism. For the first time in the history of western music, the working classes, and even some members of the labouring poor - never able to afford a piano, harpsichord or harp, but only a flute or fiddle - found themselves with a fully harmonic instrument and sometimes with ambitions to match. This development, often cruelly satirised is an unwritten chapter in the history of working-class self-improvement that comprehends the rise of the mechanicks' institutes and the spread of working people's access to newspapers and conversation in the urban coffee shops.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/harmony-in-the-lowest-home-the-guitar-and-the-labouring-poor
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In the 1990s a high mortality for certain operations became evident in Bristol as a result of findings by a 'whistle-blowing' anaesthetist. Information was compared with data from other centres and the General Medical Council investigation led to surgeons and the medical director involved being struck off.
The Bristol Inquiry was then launched, leading to over 160 recommendations with far reaching implications with major consequences for change in the NHS. But how many of these were put into practice, and how different is the medical practice as a result today?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-bristol-scandal-and-its-consequences-politics-rationalisation-and-the-use
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A history of one of the greatest mathematicians contribution to our understanding of the world: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mobius-and-his-band
Many people have heard of the Möbius band, a one-sided surface, but the work of August Möbius was more far reaching than just inventing a topological curiosity. His work in geometry, celestial mechanics and topology, sometimes called rubber sheet geometry, illuminates the mathematical and astronomical life of the nineteenth century. Möbius's concerns, concepts and the methods he helped to develop played an important part in twentieth century mathematics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/mobius-and-his-band
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Game Theory is a branch of mathematics which tells us how to outthink an opponent or competitor. The Prisoners' Dilemma is a paradox in which knowledge of Game Theory is dangerous: the sophisticated mathematician comes off disastrously worse than the ignoramus.
For many years, the Prisoners' Dilemma was something of an embarrassment to the subject. A rigorous mathematical argument gives a ridiculous conclusion, and there seems to be no way round it. Mathematics appears to justify selfishness.
But the power of the computer has changed everything. Recent work has used the Prisoners' Dillemma to tackle one of the big problems of evolutionary biology - in a Darwinian world, how does co-operation arise? Mathematical modelling and computer simulation use the Dilemma as the basis for a rich and provocative examination of the evolution of unselfish behaviour, and has thrown light on the generous altruistic behaviour of bats, fish, animals and people. We'll learn why it pays to be "nice", with examples from the First World War battlefield and the Champions League football field.
It is now at the heart of mathematicians' exploration of co-operation. We're gaining insights into the nature and importance of trust, and why reputation matters so much. This mathematics may help us understand how we can avoid calamitous climate change.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/when-maths-doesnt-work-what-we-learn-from-the-prisoners-dilemma
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The environment has become a professional industry, but who is responsible for what, and how might it be improved?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/professionally-green-environmental-challenges-and-uk-professional-bodies
Many of the UK's professional bodies have an explicit or implicit environmental remit (such as the 'Chartered Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment') but others, less clearly associated with environmental matters, also address these issues.
The role of professional bodies will be discussed, focusing on the tackling of real and urgent environmental challenges.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/professionally-green-environmental-challenges-and-uk-professional-bodies
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Eminent geneticist and scientist, Steve Jones, asks whether humans will evolve in the future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-human-evolution-over
Humans have evolved from ape-like ancestors over millions of years, of course; but also over thousands, for there are several cases in which we can identify natural selection - genetic changes in response to an environmental shift - over just a few millennia.
Professor Jones has been criticised for saying that at least in the developed world, and at least for the time being, this process is over. But natural selection depends on differences in survival and reproduction and they have, more or less, gone away. Processes quite different from those of the past will shape our genetic future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-human-evolution-over
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A discussion of the messgaes and subtexts of iamges of the Universe: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-beginning-and-the-end-images-of-the-universe
Creation and Last Judgement, or Big Bang and Gravitational Collapse? Science has gradually explained away many cosmological phenomena that have been the cause of spiritual faith, but explanations and interpretations of the beginning and the end (of the planet and the universe and of the self?) remain elusive.
Philosophical, theological and scientific explanations abound but visual images of the beginning and end, produced at different times by various cultures, can also be explored.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-beginning-and-the-end-images-of-the-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A discussion on the overlap between Philosophy and Religion: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-idealist-view-of-reality
There are competing philosophical views of reality. Main contenders are: common sense, reductive materialism, radical empiricism, and idealism. The lecture will review these, and defend an idealist view - that matter is a projection of mind, and that mental, conscious being is the fundamental form of reality. This is one philosophical basis for belief in God.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-idealist-view-of-reality
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
If the economy was to be regulated like a mechanism, what rules might be used to govern its fine-tuning? A number of insights have arisen on the importance of rules, gradualism and choice of instrument that this lecture will outline and explore.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fine-tuning-out-of-control
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Is violence natural? Forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead attempts to answer this question: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-nature-of-human-violence
In this lecture, Professor Gwen Adshead will explore current conceptualisations of violence, using criminological, penal and psychological perspectives. She will discuss why rates of violence appear to be falling, and whether all forms of violence are the same.
She will explore the relationship between mental disorder and violence, and the concept of 'normal' violence in liberal democracies.
Dr Adshead will suggest that it may be fruitful to understand violence as a multiply determined act which has meaning for the perpetrator.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-nature-of-human-violence
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
When did the first stars form? And how did they assemble to form the earliest galaxies? We shall look at what happened during the 'dark ages' that span the period between the Big Bang and the first galaxies, and see how the very early Universe came to resemble the one we see around us now.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-early-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Much attention is given to the total number of people living on the planet but less is given to the shape of the demographic profile of countries. Many countries are going through rapid demographic shifts. Some like the looming crisis of ageing in China are well known but countries as diverse as Iran, South and North Korea, Brazil and South Africa will be profoundly influenced by their current demographic shape.
Within Europe, there are substantial differences between where countries will be in 15 to 30 years time; the UK will, for example, be significantly different from Germany.
This lecture will consider the drivers of the shape of population structure ranging from the defeat of infectious diseases through contraception to migration policy, and likely social and economic implications of this over the next 30 years, especially for heath.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-shape-of-things-to-come-how-our-changing-demographic-structure-will-shape
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture explores decision avoidance in business. Why is costly inaction attractive? Why do individuals (and organisations) sometimes hesitate even though they know they probably have more to lose by not taking a risk? We also explore the other side of the coin: when is inaction the highest form of action?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-psychology-of-doing-nothing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Did God Evolve? Ideas and beliefs evolve as much as do bodies and brains and in some ways the two processes are similar. A survey of world religions, both now and in the past, shows some interesting consistencies, with a clear fit between levels of belief and degrees of social inequality.
From the beginning, particular faiths have been - as Darwin showed for bodies - driven by demographic success, and Christianity at least is safe, since its believers reproduce far more effectively than do we atheists.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/did-god-evolve-an-evolutionists-speculation-about-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the rapid ascendancy of the novel over all other genres. The other marked change was the sudden rise of women novelists. George Sand, like other 'Georges' was a woman, the most famous woman novelist of her age. Was her idealism peculiarly feminine?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-novel-idealism-george-sands-francois-le-champi-the-country-waif
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
t is a widely held philosophical belief that all knowledge begins with experience. But experience needs to be interpreted. This lecture argues that there are widespread human experiences of 'transcendence', and looks at the arts and at morality as providing examples of this. Such experiences need not involve God explicitly, but they postulate the existence of objective values that put in question a materialist view of reality.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/experience-and-the-spiritual-dimension
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Was Winston Churchill the greatest statesman that Britain has ever known, or are his achievements magnified through the lens of his leadership in WW2? Professor Bogdanor discusses Churchill's life and work: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-legacy-of-winston-churchill
Winston Churchill died in January 1965, having entered Parliament 65 years earlier (1900) - becoming a Cabinet minister in 1908. By the late 1930s, he had twice changed parties, was widely distrusted, and believed his career a failure. Yet, in 1940, he became the symbol of national unity. He seems remote from us today, but he remains at the heart of the debate on Britain's role in the world. Will he be regarded as pointing the way to the future or as a grandiose final chord, the prelude to the collapse of British power?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-legacy-of-winston-churchill
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A lecture to consider some important ethical issues, past and present.
Congenital disease is rare, and the cause of a tiny fraction of overall childhood mortality. Poverty, malnutrition, inadequate water supply and infectious diseases are all more important causes of death. So why do we invest so heavily in the treatment of these rare disorders and are we right to do so, especially in developing countries?
Advances were often made in the past by brave attempts at treatments based on light evident but strong belief. Would these have been 'allowed' today?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-ethical-challenges-of-new-treatments-in-children-could-we-do-now-what-we-did
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This was the 'who governs' election, fought in the midst of a miners strike. Edward Heath appealed for a mandate to adopt a strong policy towards the trade unions, but was denied it. The outcome was the first hung parliament since 1929, and a Labour minority government which went to the country after just seven months. The Liberals gained their best result - 19% of the vote - since the 1920s, but only 14 seats in the Commons. The Scottish nationalists also made striking advances. The February 1974 election inaugurated the era of multi-party politics in Britain.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-february-1974
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Joseph Fourier was interested in the mathematical study of the diffusion of heat in solid bodies which he described using infinite trigonometric series which are now known as Fourier series. These series had major applications in many other types of physical problems and led to many of the most important mathematical discoveries of the nineteenth century. Fourier series are used not only in engineering, geology and astronomy but also in number theory, control theory and statistics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fouriers-series
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Tony Mann guarantees that you will be surprised by this talk!: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/this-lecture-will-surprise-you-when-logic-is-illogical
Mathematics offers certainty. That there are infinitely many prime numbers or that four colours suffice to colour any map so that adjacent regions are differently coloured are statements which have been rigorously proved so that there can be no doubt about their truth.
Mathematics, uniquely amongst human activities, is grounded on absolute truth, or so it has seemed to generations of mathematicians. But what happens when there appears to be contradictions in the logic on which mathematics is based?
This lecture will explore paradoxes which cast doubt on logic itself. I guarantee that you will be surprised!
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/this-lecture-will-surprise-you-when-logic-is-illogical
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How green are UK Universities and should this be a factor in their ranking?:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/educationally-green-environmental-research-university-teaching-and-campus
UK universities have generated excellent environmental performance as well as research and teaching. Companies have been established, with the potential to produce major environmental benefits, and there is commitment to supporting sustainability.
Models for environmental sustainability in universities will be explored, demonstrating the importance of collaboration and innovation.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/educationally-green-environmental-research-university-teaching-and-campus
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Stephanie Flanders leads an audience question and answer session with two Britain's leading legal minds and Magna Carta experts.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magna-carta-uncovered-questions-answers
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A brief, but enlightening, discussion of the intermingled histories of the City of London and Magna Carta: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-city-of-london-and-the-magna-carta
Anthony Alridge once famously argued a case using the Magna Carta as precedent, so who better to discuss who the great charter has shaped and been adopted by the City of London. In this lecture h examines the history of the city and the Charter and how the two have become inextricably linked.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-city-of-london-and-the-magna-carta
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Modern understanding of Magna Carta has begun to mythologize the creation and signing of the charter. Lord Igor Judge, Former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales places Magna Carter in its historical context as simply another Charter in an age when charters "created like confetti". As well as the byzantine politics and open warfare that lead to the creation of Magna Carta, Lord Judge highlights the real hero of 1215, William Marshal, who's tireless campaigning and statecraft lead to the adoption of Magna Carta, ejected the French from British soil and secured the Plantaganet dynasty's hold on the throne
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magna-carta-the-medieval-context-and-the-part-played-by-william-marshal
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Alderman Alan Yarrow will present the welcome by the President of Gresham College, after which Lord Judge and Anthony Arlidge QC will uncover not only what the Charter meant in 1215, but also how it has become a talisman for freedom and democracy - and relating to the publication of their book Magna Carta Uncovered in 2014. Stephanie Flanders will conclude by thanking the speakers.
This is the 2015 Annual Lord Mayor's Event.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-magna-carta-800th-anniversary-why-it-matters-0
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Dr Maurits Ertsen discusses the lessons that Britain and the Netherlands can learn from each other flood management: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/people-protection-and-parameters-comparing-flooding-in-the-uk-and-the
Recent floods in the United Kingdom have led to debates within the country on its flood protection policy. Experts from the Netherlands, a country often seen as the standard to follow on flood protection, are involved too.
Comparison between the Dutch and the UK situations can help explain how differences in water system properties, economic development and ideas on national security result in different flooding policies and patterns in the two countries.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/people-protection-and-parameters-comparing-flooding-in-the-uk-and-the
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Page continues the his examination of the guitar in history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-and-the-romantic-vision-of-the-medieval-world
Between approximately 1750 and 1850, interest in the Middle Ages was fed by many activities with porous boundaries, including the antiquarianism of those who collected coins, seals and armour and the collection of poems generally called 'ballads' regarded as the core materials of nascent national literatures.
In poetry, and the many new publications offering serialised fiction in the Regency period, the guitar was often associated with a vanished medieval past, imagined as a time of Catholic ignorance but also of political stability and fluent minstrelsy. Here, as in other respects, the associations of the guitar ran counter to nineteenth-century industrialism and the encroachment of new brick-built suburbs into green land, and even to Anglicanism, since the guitar was strongly associated with Catholic Spain and an imagery of warm nights, vesper bells, and elderly duennas nodding over their books of hours.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-and-the-romantic-vision-of-the-medieval-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is probably the greatest new infectious disease threat to humans since the emergence of HIV; the WHO has declared it a global health emergency. In addition to the lives taken directly by the disease it is paralysing health services, trade and the livelihoods of some of the poorest in the world. It also poses a threat to other countries in Africa, and cases will occasionally be imported to Europe and elsewhere. This talk will cover the emergence of the disease, how the epidemic has developed, and what we can do to combat the threat posed by Ebola both in Africa and elsewhere.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ebola-emergence-epidemic-and-the-global-response
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In the early nineteenth century, there developed an intimate and unique association between the eminently portable guitar, an instrument capable of full harmony, and new forms of travel. Between 1800 and 1820 a new fashion for picnics arose, together with a vogue for sketching parties to capture picturesque scenes or ruins. The guitar was an ideal instrument for the many different movements of a society that was becoming increasingly mobile well before the beginnings of the railway. By 1825, steamships could be hired for excursions down the Thames or, moving out through the estuary, to Margate or to Dieppe; this kind of excursion, complete with guitars, is described by Charles Dickens in Sketches by Boz. As a result, certain coastal resorts became important centres of amateur guitar playing, and one, namely Brighton, where this lecture will come to rest, grew in royal favour to the point where major players gave recitals there.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-guitar-the-steamship-and-the-picnic-england-on-the-move
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
For the first eight decades of the 18th century, 'While Shepherds Watched' was the only Christmas hymn authorised for use within the Church of England. Because of this, hundreds of different tunes became attached to the words of this iconic carol.
With the support of live musical examples, the importance to Christmas Past and Present of our festive favourites will be examined.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-cause-for-carolling
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
1914-18 casts a long shadow across the 20th century. This lecture explores some of the ways it has been remembered and memorialised, arguing that each country has its own Great War and that British memory is especially distinctive - still shaping attitudes to continental Europe in our day.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-long-shadow-the-great-war-and-international-memory-1914-2014
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many mistakes in business look obvious in hindsight. Yet they usually take us and our organisation by surprise. What explains this paradox? This lecture explores why predictable surprises happen and what individuals and organisations can do to protect themselves from unpleasant surprises. We know a lot about how bad decisions happen. But how can we make good decisions amidst ambiguity, when everything is uncertain - even uncertainty itself?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/predictable-surprises
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Human Rights law as it developed and which draws praise from the general public. The audience will be invited to consider what they have found positive in Human Rights law development. Time will be allowed for (structured and time limited) contributions from the audience.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-developments
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Without our Sun, there would be no heat, no light and no life on Earth. An eleven-year cycle of magnetic activity modulates its appearance, and the occurrence of eruptive events such as flares and coronal mass ejections. I shall discuss how these, in turn, affect the Earth - and how the Sun currently does not seem to be behaving as expected.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-sun-our-nearest-star
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,700 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Emeritus Professor Ian Morison returns to Gresham College to update us on new findings about the early universe: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-journey-through-the-universe-gresham-lectures-on-astronomy
The launch of Professor Morison's publication of his Gresham Lectures in Astronomy, undertaken between 2007 and 2011.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-journey-through-the-universe-gresham-lectures-on-astronomy
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The long economic recession of the inter-war period had profound consequences for monetary policy. This lecture will examine the intellectual legacy of the Great Depression: (i) the acceptance of multiple equilibria; (ii) the obligation for government to stabilise the economy; (iii) and the need for accurate, timely national accounts.
The lecture will explore why this reduction in deaths and serious disease in the period from early childhood to late old age has happened, and provide an initial exploration of what we can learn for future improvements.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/health-and-the-seven-ages-of-man-serious-ill-health-in-the-very-old-and-the-very
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Shakespeare defined seven ages of man, and in his time death was no stranger in all of these groups; Shakespeare died in his early 50's.
Economic development and modern medicine have gradually squeezed life-threatening conditions to the extremes of life: the mewing infant in the developing world, and the seventh age in the developed world increasingly are where death and serious illness are concentrated.
Even in the last 15 years, the average age of onset of much life-changing illness in the UK has gone up significantly, and the average age of global childhood deaths has gone down with over 40% of under 5 year old deaths now in the first 28 days of life.
The lecture will explore why this reduction in deaths and serious disease in the period from early childhood to late old age has happened, and provide an initial exploration of what we can learn for future improvements.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-transient-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many disparate phenomena in both the local and the distant Universe have properties which are time-variable, and constant monitoring of the sky at all wavelengths is required to catch the occurrence of these events. Observations of the transient Universe cover all of modern astrophysics - from variable stars to unusual and violent events such as gamma-ray bursts.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-transient-universe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Can a novel tell us something about political history that can't be gleaned from other sources? Stendhal's famous Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) provides vivid insights into both the secret and overt machinations of the aristocracy and clergy of his day. How historically accurate can a novel be?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-novel-as-political-history-stendhals-le-rouge-et-le-noir
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The second of two lectures discussing the centrality of the ideas of autonomy, individualism and the relation of these ideas to liberal ideas of rights. We shall then go on to discuss how these ideas relate to current controversies like assisted suicide. These ideas provide a fruitful basis for a debate about liberalism and religion.
The first lecture on Liberalism, Autonomy and Rights took place on 11 November 2014.
Due to unforeseen circumstances Professor the Lord Plant will be unable to deliver this lecture. The lecture will now be delivered by Emeritus Professor of Divinity, Professor the Lord Harries.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/liberalism-autonomy-and-rights-lecture-2
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
With a player's insight (a guitar of 1825 is my main instrument) this lecture explores the experience of the Regency guitarist: the day-to day business of buying and learning the instrument for the purposes of cutting a figure as a salon amateur or indeed as a professional (to the extent that such a career was feasible - an issue to be explored). It will consider the availability of sheet-music with arrangements of opera favourites, the rise of the governess guitar teacher, the struggle of enthusiasts to cope with contemporary prejudices against the guitar, and the miseries of slipping pegs, breaking strings and damp. The role of the newspapers in advertising instruments, concerts and new music will be an underlying theme of this and several other lectures in the series.
The lecture by Professor Page was illustrated by performances by Ulrich Wedemeier of the following pieces:
Fernando Sor: Que ne suis-je la fougère!, Opus 26 (extract)
Fernando Sor: Minuet from Opus 15.
John Abraham Nuske: Fantasia (extract)
Fernando Sor: The Fantasie élégiaque, Opus 59 (extract)
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/being-a-guitarist-in-the-time-of-byron-and-shelley
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will explain how surgery for congenital heart defects has developed. It will describe the disruptive effect of the introduction of cardiopulmonary bypass, the impact of new materials, the deeper understanding of the stresses of surgery and the impact of new drugs.
However, surgery remains skill-based and the complexity of training will be outlined. Skill used to be all and the surgeons were the leaders. Now it is all about teams, a transition that has been difficult and complex, and which is still incomplete.
Examples will be used from ground-breaking collaborative work done with Formula 1, the airline and hotel industries to emphasise the importance of teamwork, and how those teams should work.
This lecture will analyse the reasons for the failure in 1914-15 of the initial war of movement and the factors underlying the trench stalemate that characterised the middle years of the conflict, before examining the return to more mobile campaigning in 1917-18.
It will include the war at sea as well as the war on land, and refer particularly to technology, tactics and logistics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-military-history-of-the-first-world-war-an-overview-and-analysis
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Leonhard Euler was the most prolific mathematician of all time. He introduced the symbols e for the exponential number f for a function and i for √-1. He discovered what many mathematicians consider to be the most beautiful expression in mathematics, e ix = cosx + i sinx: a relation connecting the exponential and trigonometric functions. The exponential function and its inverse the logarithm function appear throughout mathematics and its applications, in physics, engineering, mathematical biology, chemistry and economics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eulers-exponentials
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
We apply mathematics to some of the arts: identify Dali's use of 4-d geometry, ask if fractals distinguish abstract art works, plan the subterranean Tunnel of Eupalinos in 520BC, find the best place to view a statue, and calculate the distance to the horizon.
We see how smooth curves informed elegant design, fonts, and Henry Moore's stringed sculptures. Finally, we look at the probabilistic analysis of texts.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/100-essential-things-you-didnt-know-about-maths-and-the-arts
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Through an examination of selected Korean folktales, the lecture will illustrate how traditional society was influenced by Confucian values and how in turn folktales reinforced the values of Confucianism in society.
A brief overview will be provided of Confucian values as established in Korea, as well as an analytical framework for examining folktales. Five tales still popular in contemporary Korean culture will be discussed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-folktales-contributed-to-the-confucianisation-of-korea-mother-green-tree-fro
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture will assess how recent innovations in making historical resources available online, and in the crowdsourcing and co-creation of research materials, have effectively reconfigured the relationship between the academy and the public. We can all be historians now.
Despite limitations, an online dialogue between academic history and the public is not only inevitable, but also desirable.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-history-online
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 1959 General Election gave the Conservatives their third successive victory, the first time that a party had won three successive general elections since Napoleonic times. The outcome was widely credited to the deft materialism of Harold Macmillan, and the slogan `You've never had it so good', which the Conservatives, in fact, did not use. Did the result show that, in the words of another Conservative slogan, 'Conservative freedom works', or did it serve to mask deep-seated problems relating to the British economy and Britain's role in the world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-1959
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The first of two lectures discussing the centrality of the ideas of autonomy, individualism and the relation of these ideas to liberal ideas of rights. We shall then go onto discuss how these ideas relate to current controversies like assisted suicide. These ideas provide a fruitful basis for a debate about liberalism and religion.
The second lecture on Liberalism, Autonomy and Rights will take place on 25 November 2014.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/liberalism-autonomy-and-rights-lecture-1
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The largest collection of biometric and health data in the world, The UK Biobank is vital to the future of research: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/big-data-in-the-uk-biobank-opportunities-and-challenges
The UK Biobank allows scientists to access a vault of data on health outcomes, genotyping and biomarkers from 500,000 people, enabling a better understanding of a wide range of chronic, painful and life-threatening diseases that typically strike from middle age.
Professor Rory Collins is the Principal Investigator and in this lecture he will examine the specific opportunities, ethical implications and challenges related to the handling and use of big health data.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/big-data-in-the-uk-biobank-opportunities-and-challenges
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An exploration of Human Rights law as it developed and which draws criticism from the general public. The audience will be invited to consider what, if anything, they complain of in what is nowadays referred to as Human Rights law. The lecture will deal with topics raised and those which are more generally the subject of criticism. Time will be allowed for (structured and time limited) contributions from the audience.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-the-law
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Karl Pearson, is rembered here as a towering figure in science and mathematics: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/karl-pearsons-gresham-lectures-on-geometry-1890-1894
Karl Pearson, as well as being the Gresham Professor of Geometry was also the author of nearly 400 works on mathematics, a socialist, the writer of a passion play, a technologist, an engineer, author of a romance novel, a germanophile, an engineer, an atheist and a feminist. Dr Eileen Magnello's lecture discusses the lectures, but also paints a picture of a dynamic man and electrifying educator who is completely at odds with modern conceptions of the Victorians.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/karl-pearsons-gresham-lectures-on-geometry-1890-1894
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Rosemary A. Bailey takes the audience through the hsitory of the latin square :http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/some-history-of-latin-squares-in-experiments
Professor Rosemary A. Bailey takes the audience through the hsitory of the latin square and how it can be used in experiments. A fascinating and powerful tool of Combinatorics, the Latin Square has fascinated Mathematicians as great as Euler and Fisher, this lecture will explore more uses and methods involved.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/some-history-of-latin-squares-in-experiments
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor McDonald will discusses the history and the myth surrounding the 'Lady with the Lamp' highlighting particularly the brilliant work she did in analysis of Crieam War statistics. This work paved the way for the first truely modern hospitals.
This is part of the 2014 Gresham College/ British Society of the History of Mathematics conference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/florence-nightingale-and-her-crimean-war-statistics-lessons-for-hospital-safety-
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
One of Europe's top regulators talks about the future of the securities market after the crisis: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/financial-markets-after-the-crisis-more-europe-or-less
The UK plays a pivotal role in Europe's financial markets. The financial crisis has changed the EU single market and triggered a regulatory overhaul. What does all this mean for the UK and its financial services sector?
This is the 2014 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/financial-markets-after-the-crisis-more-europe-or-less
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Recent work has brought together what we know of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval cathedrals beneath and around Wren's St Paul's, the City of London's most important historic building and monument.
Now the little-known medieval cathedral, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, can be revealed as of European importance. It dominated the City and should be compared with other cathedrals - Ely, Norwich and Winchester.
Part of the Mondays at One Autumn Series.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is Nature's way' (Aristotle).
Mimicry forms the basis of Medical Biomimetics, the imitation of nature to treat disease.
An introduction to how the treatment of congenital heart disease can be viewed as an example of the complex mixture of technology, ethics, economics and science: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-heart-an-introduction
A visual introduction to the anatomy of the heart will be presented, showing the type of defects that can affect the function of heart and a child's quality of life, but which can be corrected by paediatric cardiac surgeons. It will demonstrate the basis of how we describe and categorise over 3000 defects that can occur and how these can affect the function of the heart and a child's quality of life. Changing methods of diagnosis and treatment over the last half-century and important surgical advances will be demonstrated.
The next lecture in this series is Heart Surgery for Congenital Heart Defects - Art or Science?, to be held at 6pm on Wednesday 19th November.
An introduction to the hunt for dark matter that takes us up to the most current research and theories: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-search-for-dark-matter
Unlike the stars and galaxies, dark matter does not give off any radiation - we can only detect it through its gravitational pull. It accounts for a quarter of the Universe, yet we do not yet understand what it is made of. The search for a better understanding of dark matter is carried out both out in space and deep underground, and where astrophysics meets particle physics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-search-for-dark-matter
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In his Principia Isaac Newton used his law of universal gravitation and three laws of motion to explain elliptical planetary motion, the orbits of comets, the variation of the tides and the flattening of the earth at its poles. Further important work on celestial mechanics was undertaken by Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Pierre-Simon Laplace and Henri Poincaré. It was Poincaré who discovered that even with Newton's deterministic laws the resulting motion may be irregular and unpredictable, the basis of modern day chaos theory.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/newtons-laws
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Nearly 20 years of archaeological investigation of the Thames intertidal zone at Greenwich, mostly undertaken by volunteer teams, have revealed a multi-period site, representing activity in the area from the Mesolithic period to the modern day.
The world faces environmental challenges from global to local levels. Well-rehearsed but impenetrable issues, include the increased likelihood of damage to life and infrastructure from climate change; carbon management policies for governments; increasing levels of poverty and hunger associated with growing populations; and, potentially, mass movement of environmental migrants.
One of the most dynamic aspects of law is that of Human Rights. Sir Geoffrey Nice has spent his career in this area and discusses its origns:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-philosophy-and-history
The philosophical and historical development of what may be regarded as essential human rights will be traced. It is essential to understand this development before criticising - or complaining about - modern Human Rights law.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/human-rights-philosophy-and-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Morality of Samuel Johnson's Rasselas. Dr Johnson was one of the most vigorous intellectuals of the eighteenth century. He was also exceptionally kind, humble and constantly battling against self-doubt. For anyone feeling fed up with life, Rasselas may be the answer.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-novel-morality-samuel-johnsons-rasselas
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An overview of the results of over 40 years of archaeological research into the origins, development and decline of the Middle Saxon trading settlement of Lundenwic, London.
Part of the Mondays at One Autumn Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-in-the-not-so-dark-ages
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
'If I could play upon the guitar', wrote John Keats in a letter, 'I might make my fortune…'
This lecture will explore the beginnings of the guitar craze in Regency England around the time of Keats' birth in 1795, as a form of salon amateurism; it will reveal the deep involvement of the instrument with some of the most potent themes of romanticism, especially in contemporary poetry of the high tradition (notably by Shelley) and the newspaper variety, together with serialised fiction. These themes include the night, the supernatural, and the complex allure of Spain and its guitars, celebrated by Byron in Childe Harold.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-romantic-guitar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
King James I was a gust of fresh air after the later years of Queen Elizabeth. Unlike his predecessor he was a family man, with dynastic ambitions and big ideas about architecture. But neither he nor his son, Charles I, became the great patrons of building that they would have liked.
The lecture explores how their unrealised ambitions contributed to the downfall of the monarchy.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cultural-revolution-palaces-of-the-early-stuart-kings
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Ely Cathedral demands interpretation. Why was it built on an island in the watery fens and why is it so large and elaborate?
Is the Octagon simply a splendid piece of architectural design or does it have a deeper meaning? Why is there such a large and elaborate Lady Chapel? Are the carved beasts and grotesques just products of the masons' playful fancy?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/interpreting-ely-cathedral
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The most extensive excavation within the City of London for 20 years revealed internationally significant evidence providing a detailed narrative for the early Roman period.
Waterlogged sediments preserved structures perfectly and the assemblage of artefacts is the largest ever recovered from Roman London.
This lecture will outline the discoveries, and show how they can revolutionise our knowledge of life in the Roman town.
Part of the Mondays at One Autumn Series.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pompeii-of-the-north
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The lecture will take an overview of the role of everyday documents in illustrating the economic development of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century, ranging from newspapers and manuscript letters of the period to invoices embellished with views of dark satanic mills, bills of lading for goods exported and samples of materials manufactured at the time and still perfectly preserved in form and colour.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/exploring-ephemera-the-illumination-of-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture explores new ways of understanding the crisis that brought war to Europe in the summer of 1914; reflects on some of the problems of interpretation that have dogged the debate over the war's origins; and considers the contemporary resonance of a catastrophe that is now nearly a century old.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sleepwalkers-how-europe-went-to-war-in-1914
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
The editors and authors of the Cambridge Economic HIstory of MOdern Britain celebrate the launch of the Fourth Edition: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-britain
The fourth edition of The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, edited by Sir Roderick Floud, Professor Jane Humphries and Professor Paul Johnson, has involved many leading economic historians in the UK, Europe and the USA, incorporating much new research.
The new edition will be launched at Gresham College, beginning with a short lecture by Sir Andrew Dilnot, followed up by two presentations by other authors (one from Vol. 1 covering 1700-1870 and one from Vol. 2 covering 1870-2010).
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-britain
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
A discussion of the prospects of finding life, simple or intelligent, beyond our own planet. There is the possibility of finding evidence of life, past or present, on Mars or even below the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa. By observing the infra-red spectra of the atmospheres of planets in nearby solar systems we might even find evidence of simple life forms. Beyond our local galactic environment our only chance is to intercept a signal from another intelligent race - SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - a search in which the lecturer played a role in what has been the most sensitive search ever undertaken, Project Phoenix. Finally, Professor Morison will give his own thoughts about how likely our quest will be achieved.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/are-we-alone-the-search-for-life-beyond-the-earth
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
The 1945 general election saw the return of the first ever majority Labour government. The Gallup poll had shown a Labour lead for over two years. Nevertheless most politicians and commentators were astonished by the result, since they expected that the war hero, Winston Churchill, would be returned to office by a grateful notion. In the event there was a swing of around 12% to Labour. How is this to be explained? Did the war radicalise the British people? Was the outcome a mandate for socialism? Or was it merely a reaction against the politics of the inter-war years?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-1945
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
Starting his series on the history and science of monetary policy, Jagjit Chadha examines the gold standard: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-gold-to-paper-and-back-again
Money was linked historically to the value of commodities such as gold in order to help preserve its value and encourage its wide and ongoing use. There are many examples of countries temporarily delinking from commodity standards. This lecture will explore the consequences of tying monetary value to commodities and why there are better choices for a government than a commodity standard.
Gresham Professor of Geometry, Raymond Flood, begins his series 'Great Mathematicians, Great Mathematics' with Pierre de Fermat:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fermats-theorems
The seventeenth century mathematician Pierre de Fermat is mainly remembered for contributions to number theory even though he often stated his results without proof and published very little. He is particularly remembered for his 'last theorem' which was only proved in the mid-1990s by Andrew Wiles. He also stated other influential results, in particular Fermat's 'Little Theorem' about certain large numbers which can be divided by primes. His 'Little Theorem' is the basis of important recent work in cryptography and internet security.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fermats-theorems
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Matthew Flinders is remembered as one of Britain's greatest navigator-explorers. But to what extent does the legend fit the reality?
: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/discovering-australia-the-legend-and-the-reality-of-the-navigator-explorer
In 1791 Mathew Flinders first sailed to the south-seas as a seventeen year old midshipman on a two year voyage with Captain William Bligh. Three years later he returned to Australia and in a tiny dingy named Tom Thumb explored much of Australia's south east coast with his good friend lieutenant George Bass. Later, Flinders and Bass sailed in the Norfolk and discovered that Tasmania was a separate island from the mainland of Australia.
After returning to England Flinders was again sent in 1801 to complete the exploration of the entire Australian coast line in the Investigator. In April 1802 while charting the south coast where no ship had sailed before, he had a remarkable chance encounter with another explorer. Frenchman Nicholas Baudin had been sent by his government on exactly the same quest: to explore the remaining uncharted coast of the great southern land and find out if the west and east coasts, four thousand kilometres apart, were part of the same land.
And so began the race to complete the first complete map of Australia and to finish the exploration of the region started two hundred years before by the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spanish and later the French and the English.
Flinders three year voyage featured great hardship, sickness, the death of crew, shipwreck and finally imprisonment. Flinders beat his French rivals in discovering and charting the remaining unknown coast but they beat him to publishing the first complete map of Australia.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/discovering-australia-the-legend-and-the-reality-of-the-navigator-explorer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
As Glasgow prepares to host the Commonwealth Games, Professor Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, explores the history and importance of the Commonwealth and asks, 'What Next?': http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-queens-commonwealth-monarchy-and-the-end-of-empire-1945-2011
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-queens-commonwealth-monarchy-and-the-end-of-empire-1945-2011
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
At times the Bowler hat has been ubiquitous, but how did the invention of two milliner brothers come to be so closely associated with British identity?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-the-bowler-hat
An icon long associated with the City of London, the unmistakable bowler hat was an essential part of every City worker's uniform. By the 1950s, businessmen wouldn't be seen in the Square Mile without one. Timothy Long, Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts at the Museum of London, explores the history of this fascinating hat.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-the-bowler-hat
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Applying modern scientific analysis to the human voice has opened exciting new avenues of teaching, expression and healthcare: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-science-of-singing
Singing affects us all in some way, but what is the science behind it? Discover the science that explains how singers can gain a wide pitch range, greater volume and sing in different styles.
This is a part of the 2014 City of London Festival.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speaking-scars-the-tattoo
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Tattoos are one of the 'distinguishing marks' recorded by police and have also often been seen as a form of writing on the body that conveys deeper messages about the bearer's identity, especially for criminals: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speaking-scars-the-tattoo
Tattoos are one of the 'distinguishing marks' specified in police descriptions, and long recorded on British passports. They have also often been seen as a form of writing on the body that conveys deeper messages about the bearer's identity, especially for criminals.
This lecture will discuss the original debates about the tattoo as a sign of criminal identity among 19th century European police and criminal anthropologists. It will conclude the series with some final reflections on the subjective and objective dimensions of identity and identification covered by these lectures.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speaking-scars-the-tattoo
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Sir Thomas Harris speaks frankly about the trials and triumphs of his time as British Ambassador to South Korea, painting a vivid picture of his service, the relationship between the nations and of the South Korean life to: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britains-relations-with-korea-a-personal-view
Sir Thomas Harris has a long and distinguished career in the Diplomatic Service, but nothing tested his skills more than the years he spent as British Ambassador to South Korea. In this lecture he reflects upon Britain's relations with Korea and gives a personal, but very learned, view of this key partner.
This is a part of the 2014 City of London Festival. More details will be announced closer to the time.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britains-relations-with-korea-a-personal-view
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This address will explore the development of the law's approach at the intersection between, on the one hand, the manifestation of religious beliefs and, on the other, the protection and promotion of secular values:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religion-the-rule-of-law-and-discrimination
It charts the shift from the historic protection of Christian orthodoxy, through the development of anti-discrimination legislation, to the recent domestic and European legislation and case law which have provided a coherent framework for the balancing of these rights consistent with the values of the Rule of Law.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religion-the-rule-of-law-and-discrimination
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This talk examines the changing role of women and girls in the music and ministry of the Anglican Church:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/faith-in-women-the-changing-role-of-women-and-girls-in-the-church
Walk into any church or cathedral today and you might hear women singing, preaching, praying publicly. In a society where the relevance of the church is constantly questioned, has this change made any difference and does it matter?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/your-hand-signatures-and-handwriting
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Signing your name is now such an automatic way of proving identity and validating a document that we forget that the signature has its own history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/your-hand-signatures-and-handwriting
Signing your name is now such an automatic way of proving identity and validating a document that we forget that the signature has its own history. This presentation will explore the challenge of forged and fraudulent handwriting and the cultivation of professional expertise in its detection. The closely related field of graphology (interpretation of character from handwriting) will also be considered.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/your-hand-signatures-and-handwriting
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Over 50 years, Higher Education provision has expanded enormously, with more students, institutions, courses and professors than previously imagined. This lecture looks at how this has affected the industry: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/more-means-better-fifty-years-of-higher-education
Kingsley Amis famously argued that, in higher education, "More Means Worse." On the basis of 50 years of teaching, research and administration, the Provost argues that, on the contrary, the expansion of universities, student numbers and research since the 1960s has benefited students, economies and societies throughout the world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/more-means-better-fifty-years-of-higher-education
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Dr Johnson's House on 17 at 17 Gough Square was formed to protect the great man's legacy, and yet it is forbidden from becoming a museum by its founder. The head curator talks about the collection, and how they walk the line between purpose and protection: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dr-johnsons-house-biography-and-display
Dr Johnson lived at 17 Gough Square from 1748-59, where he compiled his famous Dictionary of the English Language. The house has been used to present Johnson's life and works to the public since the early 20th century with a small, but representative, collection, adhering to the aim that "the House should never come to be regarded as a museum or an emporium of irrelevant 18th-century bric-a-brac" but should reflect Johnson's situation in those years and tell his story. Highlights of the collection show how it is used for biographical interpretation.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/dr-johnsons-house-biography-and-display
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How important is a name to a personal identity?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/whats-in-a-name-more-than-you-might-think
Why start with the personal name? Because we all have one: the personal name is the universal accompaniment to living in human society. Our name encapsulates our identity for ourselves and others; it is the bedrock of almost all forms of ID. Although we probably feel that our name 'belongs' to us, names have also been the target of considerable legal regulation in certain times and places. The regulation of names in Nazi Germany will be included.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/whats-in-a-name-more-than-you-might-think
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The development of polio vaccines is more than a great medical success; this is a gripping story that provides a window into the evolution of medical research during the last century: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/good-bad-and-ugly-the-history-of-polio-vaccines
Polio killed or crippled millions of people, but successful polio vaccines were developed during the mid-1950s which have spared millions from paralysis or death, pushing polio to the verge of extinction. The development of polio vaccines is more than a great medical success; this is a gripping story that provides a window into the evolution of medical research during the last century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/good-bad-and-ugly-the-history-of-polio-vaccines
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
You may know who you are, but how do I know? Professor Caplan examines the knotty problem of identity verification through history: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/identity-and-identification
You may know who you are, but how do I know? Looking at how this question has been answered in the past will focus on the emergence of modern ID. The concepts of identity and identification, will be defined in terms who we are to ourselves, subjectively; and who we are to others, objectively. Conventional elements of identity documents will be considered, to see how they have been regulated and used.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Websitehttp://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/identity-and-identification
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Stephen Hodder MBE, RIBA President, discusses the history of the Stirling Prize, and takes a look at the future of architecture discussing its social and political impact on the built environment: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/continuity-and-development-in-architecture
The Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling and awarded annually to "the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year."
Stephen Hodder MBE, RIBA President and the winner of the inaugural Stirling Prize in 1996, discusses the history of the Stirling Prize, and takes a look at the future of architecture discussing its social and political impact on the built environment.
This is the 2014 Gresham Special Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/continuity-and-development-in-architecture
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
By looking at their palaces, we can learn a great deal about how the first two Tudor kings lived, and still more about the society they established:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magnificence-a-tale-of-two-henrys
Henry VII and Henry VIII decisively set themselves, and their residences above their magnates in a palace revolution. By 1550 the way monarchs lived, and the buildings that housed them had been set for the next century and a half.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/magnificence-a-tale-of-two-henrys
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
30-50% of people are affected by obesity or pre-diabetes. How can we stop this growing medical and social problem?
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diabetes-the-new-epidemic
Worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing with the numbers projected to rise to 366 million in 2030. Risk of diabetes is even larger, since 30-50% of people are affected by obesity or pre-diabetes which may eventually progress to diabetes and/or risk of cardiovascular diseases. This can be reversible and early intervention (weight loss, exercise programmes or pharmacological) can reduce risk, but adherence and costs are an issue. Less conventional approaches such as increasing taxes on unhealthy food, financial incentives or peer-monitoring have also been proposed and Government, private institutions and media should all collaborate to fight this epidemic.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diabetes-the-new-epidemic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The most comprehensive study of women's health in modern history has yielded some surprising results. Professor Dame Beral presents these findings and advises on healthcare and lifestyle:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-million-women-study
The Million Women Study, a national study of women's health in collaboration with Cancer Research UK and the National Health Service, aims to answer many outstanding questions about the factors affecting women's health.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-million-women-study
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Vernon Bogdanor unpicks the political and social ties that brought led to the first world war: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-and-1914
'Nations slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war without any trace of apprehension or dismay', (Lloyd George, 1934). Britain has been blamed for not making the position clear following the murder of the Austrian Archduke at Sarajevo, and also for aligning with France and Russia, thus promoting the division of Europe into two camps. The government was accused of failing to avert the conflict and then involving Britain in an unnecessary war. Criticisms will be analysed to consider whether they are justified in the light of modern historical research.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-and-1914
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor du Sautoy examines the way that Mathematics has overtly and covertly inspired some of the greatest artists. He examines how they might be considered as secret mathematicians: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-secret-mathematicians
From composers to painters, writers to choreographers, the mathematician's palette of shapes, patterns and numbers has proved a powerful inspiration. Artists can be subconsciously drawn to the same structures that fascinate mathematicians as they hunt for interesting new structures to frame their creative process.
Professor du Sautoy will explore the hidden mathematical ideas that underpin the creative output of well-known artists and reveal that the work of the mathematician is also driven by strong aesthetic values.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-secret-mathematicians
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture analyses the growth of euroscepticism, first in the Labour Party after 1979, and then in the Conservative Party: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-growth-of-euroscepticism
This lecture analyses the growth of euroscepticism, first in the Labour Party after 1979, and then in the Conservative Party culminating in Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech (1988) and opposition to the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. The relationship remains controversial, leading to the pressures which have led to David Cameron's commitment to further renegotiation and referendum.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-growth-of-euroscepticism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What is the purpose of education ? In the ancient societies have answered this question in different ways, shaping the futures of those societies. Different types of education in the ancient Greek world will be considered.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/education-research-and-government-in-the-ancient-greek-world
What is the purpose of education, who should provide it and who is its primary beneficiary: the person educated, or society as a whole? In the ancient as well as in the modern world, societies have answered these questions in different ways, shaping the futures of those societies. Different types of education in the ancient Greek world will be considered, focussing on the special relationship between education and democracy: do democracies foster education because it is a benefit for the masses, or because government by the uneducated is disastrous for everyone?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/education-research-and-government-in-the-ancient-greek-world
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A world renowned eye surgeon examines the portrayal the blind in art throughout the centuries, and discusses what we can infer from these depictions:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iconography-of-blindness-how-artists-have-portrayed-the-blind
Blind people have always been with us. The attitudes of society have varied over the years from disgust and horror to sympathy and kindness. How a painter depicts whether a subject cannot see in contrast to those who can us an interesting subject with a surprising number of examples. Some if these images clearly reveal the painters attitudes to blinding disability. Many are sensitive and beautiful creations in their own right. Looking at these works of art challenges our own preconceptions about blind people
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iconography-of-blindness-how-artists-have-portrayed-the-blind
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Britain was one of the most prolific nation of slavers, and yet we tend to elide this from our histories. Dr Pettigrew considers British slavery within our history and as a part of the global history of slavery:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-to-place-slavery-into-british-identity
This lecture will revisit the determinants of British identity by examining the problem of slavery in British history from Roman times to the present day. Freedom and slavery provide the compass points for much of the British story but the causes, experiences, and legacies of slavery have not been fully integrated into British consciousness. An analysis of the economic, political, intellectual, and constitutional meanings of slavery in British history can suggest means to integrate slavery constructively into the story of Britain.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-to-place-slavery-into-british-identity
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An examination of the power of the novel format, and an explanation of its hold on western literature: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-do-novels-beguile
This lecture will be a controversial questioning of approaches to Creative Writing that are based on rules, do's and don'ts and other prescriptive guidelines. Considering common principles such as 'Show don't tell', 'avoid over-writing and foreign vocabulary', 'be sparing with adjectives' and so on, it will be shown how these admonitions are ignored or adapted in the work of notable writers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-do-novels-beguile
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Can a country ever be justly invaded? How would this be achieved and who decides?:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-and-liberal-interventionism-in-international-affairs
There is a distinct school of thought in our day which seeks to justify what has come to be called liberal interventionism in the affairs of other states. These interventions are justified by an appeal to human rights with the concomitant view that it is the job of all states to guarantee basic rights and that sovereignty is purely an instrumental value. A state which egregiously infringes rights loses its own right to sovereignty since the whole purpose of the state is the protection of rights. This connects up with Christian and other religious ideas about just and unjust wars.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-and-liberal-interventionism-in-international-affairs
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC consider the history of state immunity and its likely future:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/head-of-state-immunity-%E2%80%93-a-useful-relic
Head of State Immunity, once unchallengeable, may now seem an antiquated concept rather than an essential component required for the orderly management of international affairs. Heads of State have become exposed to judicial intervention by international tribunals. Prosecution of Kenya's President, Kenyatta, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be considered, as will the theoretical and practical basis for preserving Head of State immunity. Related and recent developments in the world of international criminal tribunals will also be explored, including the revelation by a judge at one tribunal of straight political pressure said to have been exerted on judges to reach verdicts that would be favourable to states that intervene in the conflicts of others.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/head-of-state-immunity-%E2%80%93-a-useful-relic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Gresham Ship was found in 2003. Now after years of research, the origins and purpose of the ship can be revealed:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gresham-ship-an-armed-elizabethan-merchantman-recovered-from-the-thames
The talk will summarise the discovery (2003), recovery and research on the Gresham Ship, setting the vessel in its political, economic and maritime context. It will also look at the Tudor port of London in the period that Gresham College was established and the Spanish Armada repulsed. This is the first public presentation of the five-year research programme on this material.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gresham-ship-an-armed-elizabethan-merchantman-recovered-from-the-thames
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A Final Panel Discussion of the Seminars findings and talks:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/middle-class-recruits-to-communism-panel-discussion
Sir Roderick Floud chairs the final event of the seminar; a panel discussion of the day talks. He raises some of the topics that arose in the group workshops as well as questions the audience has for the day's speakers. The panel discussion is followed by the Provost's concluding remarks and a brief outline of the plans for the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/middle-class-recruits-to-communism-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Seminar participants share their very personal histories with family members of the Communist Party:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/middle-class-recruits-to-communism-in-the-1930s-family-members-memories
Participants of the Seminar Series share their memories and refelctions on their family members who identified as Communists. This is a uniquely personal history, coloured beautifully by the affection and intimacy that only a Family member can have.
Further contributions:
Jane Bernal (on Margot Heinemann)
Phil Cohen (on Len Jones)
Norma Cohen (on parents)
Jean McCrindle (on parents)
Hamish MacGibbon (on parents)
Elizabeth Dolan (on parents)
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/middle-class-recruits-to-communism-in-the-1930s-family-members-memories
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Audience Questions prompted by the lectures on Middle Class Communism in the 1930s:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/questions-and-answers-from-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism
Sir Roderick Floud leads a questions and answer session following the lectures by Professor Kevin Morgan and Dr Geoff Andrews. The topics raised pertain to the history of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/questions-and-answers-from-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A close examination of the James Klugman's life and work as a member of the Communist Party:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/james-klugman-a-case-study
An examination of the life of prominent intellectual and communist, James Klugman. Dr Geoff Andrews examines Klugman's recruitment and activities as a member of the communist to provide the seminar with a context for membership.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/james-klugman-a-case-study
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A brief history of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1930s:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-communist-party-of-great-britain-and-middle-class-recruits
Professor Morgan, of the University of Manchester, examines the wider context of the Communist Party in Great Britain. What we're its aims, how closely was it tied to the Communist Party of Russia, and what use dod it make of it Middle Class Recruits. This is a fascinating history of inter war Britain that charts the rise of the Communist Party in Britain.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-communist-party-of-great-britain-and-middle-class-recruits
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Nicholas Deakin discusses the progress of the previous seminars and outlines the progress that will be made in today's seminar. :
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/an-introduction-to-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism-seminar
Nicholas Deakin discusses the progress of the previous seminars and outlines the progress that will be made in today's seminar.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/an-introduction-to-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism-seminar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Welcome Address and first part of the Middle Class Recruits to Communism in the 1930s Seminar, 2014:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/welcome-address-for-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism-seminar
Professor Sir Roderick Floud, the Provost of Gresham College welcomes the audience to Barnard's Inn Hall for the third in a series of Seminars on Middle Class Recruits to Communism in the 1930. The Provost outlines the programme for the day, talks briefly about the speakers, as well as about the importance of this often overlooked aspect of Britain's history.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/welcome-address-for-the-middle-class-recruits-to-communism-seminar
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In his last lecture as Commerce Professor, Douglas McWilliams covers many topics; Scottish Indepenence, Economics and Sport and provides an overview of his tenure: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-it-really-the-case-that-economic-success-is-negatively-correlated-with
The lecture will look at the links between sporting success and economic progress. It will look in detail at the Ashes cricket context, just after two Ashes series have been completed. It will also look at rugby and soccer.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-it-really-the-case-that-economic-success-is-negatively-correlated-with
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A live performance of Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, D.956 Op. Posth.163
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-in-context-in-abstract-schubert
Performed by musicians from the Royal Academy of Music.
The musicians who will perform the piece are:
Kate Suthers (violin)
Theo Kung (violin)
Matthew Maguire (viola)
Antonio Novias (cello)
Alex Rolton (cello)
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Professor Hogwood is unable to deliver the lecture as originally planned.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-in-context-in-abstract-schubert
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/playing-catch-up-palaces-from-the-hundred-years-war-to-the-wars-of-the-roses
What was the difference between the fortress of a great magnate and the palace of a king? A lack of differentiation dogged the medieval monarchy. Yet royal buildings were deliberately distinct from their aristocratic imitators.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/playing-catch-up-palaces-from-the-hundred-years-war-to-the-wars-of-the-roses
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Homo sapiens evolved over the last million years during which time the climate fluctuated strongly. Ice accumulated and melted again, exposing and flooding the continental shelves - land which was colonised by plants and animals. About 3000 such prehistoric sites with archaeological remains have been found on the sea floor by divers.
Labour in opposition rejected entry on the terms negotiated by the Conservatives, but promised a renegotiation and referendum (plus a change!). This lecture analyses the reasons for Labour's stance and why it was that the referendum led to a two-to-one majority for staying in Europe, the greatest triumph that pro-Europeans in Britain have ever enjoyed.
Recent technological improvements have allowed further miniaturisation of electronic components.
This has allowed the implantation of devices that can replace the initial photoreception by rods and cones in patients with absence of these cells from disease.
Artificial vision is also needed for independently mobile machines.
Understanding the human visual system has also led to improvements of robot navigation. For instance programming robots with visual illusions improves their performance in complex environments.
Seeing robots and blind patients with artificial vision are already a reality. Truly amazing inventions are just steps away. What was thought impossible ten years ago is now commonplace. What will the next yen years reveal to us?
Does analysing a book 'spoil' its charm? Does understanding the workings of a writers' craft (rhetoric, grammar and syntax etc.) undermine the pleasure of their books? Can reading "as a critic" ever increase our pleasure of a poems and novels?
Professor Belinda Jack offers a new a model for reading, based on 'subliminal advertising.' This allows for a detailed explanation of how an understanding of the tools of writing can add to and enrich the reading experience.
Close reading of a selection of passages from a wide range of authors from Virginia Woolf to Charles Dickens will form the focus here.
A lecture on the importance of religion as an aspect of identity. Can religion be considered integral to a person's self?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religious-identity-and-freedom-of-expression
The last twenty years or so has seen the development of what has come to be called identity politics. This has led to the claim that a liberal society should recognise and protect various important aspects of identity including religious identity. This means that a liberal society and its laws and politics should seek to accommodate strong senses of identity whether these are ethnic, cultural, gender, sexual or religious. This moves liberalism in rather a communitarian direction. How does a liberal state identify, recognise and respect these various identities? What happens when they conflict as religious identities for example often conflict with sexual forms of identity as the debate about gay marriage shows.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religious-identity-and-freedom-of-expression
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What has been done, and what might we do about two of the world's most repressive states: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/burma-and-north-korea-avoid-the-law-unless-convenient
Conflicts in both these countries show the real limits of international law when there are powerful neighbours and geo-political interests to worry about. Both conflicts show how easy it is without international legal intervention for such conflicts to stay little known. In this lecture the history of these conflicts, and the atrocities known to have been committed in each, will be summarised and set beside legal actions that have been attempted but that failed.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/burma-and-north-korea-avoid-the-law-unless-convenient
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-the-earth-moves
Our spaceship Earth is in constant motion - rotating and revolving as it traverses through space. This is a story of our evolving understanding of the geography of Earth's position in space - a story of parallax, aberration and astrometry that stretches from the ancient Greeks to the most modern satellite, Gaia.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-the-earth-moves
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The final lecture by Professor Nead covers the quintessential traits of a fashionable young woman in the 19th Century: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fashion-and-visual-culture-in-the-19th-century-the-girl-of-the-period
By the second half of the nineteenth century it was believed that respectable young women of the middle classes were imitating the styles and manners of the demi-monde and were thus blurring the necessary visual distinctions between the pure and the fallen. Respectable women had been seduced by the discourse around fashion and had lost their subtle purity and become brash and vulgar. In France, James Tissot painted a series of pictures entitled The Women of Paris, depicting fashionable women in a number of different locations and settings and in England the worrying habits of 'The Girl of the Period' became one of the most pressing issues for social columnists and correspondence in the press.
This lecture will examine the representation of these new types of fashionable women and the social implications of the visual confusion of respectable and non-respectable women in the public spaces of Paris and London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fashion-and-visual-culture-in-the-19th-century-the-girl-of-the-period
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The second panel discussion from the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-fares-fair-offshore-a-panel-discussion
The Long Finance Spring Conference 2014 continues its examination of International Financial Centres. This Panel is comprised of politicians and business from Britain, Aldern and Switzerland, making them uniquely positioned to answer audience questions and to discuss the current climate in the industry.
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens ... will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly -- savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-fares-fair-offshore-a-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Nichaolas Shaxson and Richard Hay discuss the issues raised in their lectures: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-a-panel-discussion
The speakers of the Long Finance 2014 Spring Conference, Nicholas Shaxson and Richard Hay, discuss the issues that their lectures raised as well as answering questions from the audience. The Panel discussion is chaired by Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli.
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens ... will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly -- savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-a-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Richard Hay presents the case for the necessity of offshore centres: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-future-of-international-financial-centres
Richard Hay presents the case for the importance, and especially the trustworthiness, of International Financial Centres. Whilst looking at the specific functions and roles that these centres occupy, he posits exactly what the world at large has to learn from them, and what they stand to lose without them. This is the second lecture from the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014.
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens … will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly - savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-future-of-international-financial-centres
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli closes the 2014 Long Finance Spring Conference: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-closing-remarks
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli closes the 2014 Long Finance Spring Conference by thanking the contributors, the always excellent audience, and looks forward to future events.
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens … will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly - savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-closing-remarks
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The opening address from the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-an-introduction
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli welcomes the audience and the panel members to the Long Finance Spring Conference. The Emeritus Professor of Commerce examines why the issue of International Financial Centres, or Tax Havens depending on your world view, are a vital topic of discussion. Does the negative press surrounding many of these centres threaten their status, and thus the endanger a potentially fundamental tool in a globalized world?
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens ... will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly -- savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offshore-onshore-midshore-an-introduction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Author Nicholas Shaxson delivers a talk all about the dangerous fallacy of competing tax rates: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/saving-havens-offshore-onshore-or-mid-shore-financial-centres
Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure islands, ventures into the lions' den to deliver his lecture on why a 'competitive tax rate' is a term of economic illiteracy. Mr Shaxson shows how this term has been misused and perverted to apply the microeconomic tenets to the macroeconomic scale even as it ignores fundamentals of tax as part of a nation's economy. A challenging lecture that highlights many important issues in finance today.
With three nearby Crown Dependencies and six overseas territories promoting themselves as 'international financial centres', the UK seems to value offshore centres. Yet during current financial crises these havens are easy scapegoats. At the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes, President Nicolas Sarkozy stated, "We don't want any more tax havens. Our message is clear, countries that remain tax havens … will be shunned by the international community". But do these centres add value? And what of onshore havens such as Delaware, Monaco, Luxembourg ... London? This symposium will explore the good, the bad and the ugly - savings, crimes and tax. We will look at how offshore centres do add value, their dangers and how things might evolve to something, perhaps "mid-shore".
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/saving-havens-offshore-onshore-or-mid-shore-financial-centres
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Closing Remarks from the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/long-term-performance-management-in-finance-closing-remarks
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance.
The event ends at 5.30pm, a reception follows and lasts until 6.30pm.
This event is supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, City of London Corporation and Z/Yen Group. For more information about Long Finance see www.longfinance.net
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/long-term-performance-management-in-finance-closing-remarks
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Long Finance Spring Conference 2014 Panel Discussion: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-paradox-between-%E2%80%98long%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98measurement%E2%80%99
The Panel discusses the talks fromthe conference, as well as the implications that they might have on the Financial Services Industry. The panel also takes questions from the audience, and engage in spirited debates. The Panel is Charied by Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli.
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-paradox-between-%E2%80%98long%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98measurement%E2%80%99
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How has the financial world reacted to MArket Cap Benchmarks: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/market-cap-benchmarks-set-finance-in-a-spin
Dr Paul Woolly of London School of Economics and Politics discusses how the financial world has reacted to the impostion of Market Cap Benchmarks. Have they been a success, or is it another layer of red tape binding banks? Framing his thoughts in the context of the Long Finance Spring Conference, Dr Woolley provides a unique insight into the industry and its workings.
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/market-cap-benchmarks-set-finance-in-a-spin
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Anthony Hene examines some of the difficulties for clients and managers in gauging performance. What metrics can be helpful, what information is potentially damaging? By using the tools available with case examples, Mr Hene shows the benefits and dangers that a wise investor should be aware of.
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-long-is-a-piece-of-performance-management
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A detailed examination of tools that managers and investors can use to gauge performance: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-long-is-a-piece-of-performance-management
Anthony Hene examines some of the difficulties for clients and managers in gauging performance. What metrics can be helpful, what information is potentially damaging? By using the tools available with case examples, Mr Hene shows the benefits and dangers that a wise investor should be aware of.
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-long-is-a-piece-of-performance-management
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Keynote Speech from the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/steady-as-she-goes-long-term-performance-measurement-in-finance
The Keynote Lecture from the Long Finance Spring Conference is given By Lady Susan Rice CBE, of the Lloyds Banking Group. She cosiders the possibilties and practicalities of a professional code of conduct for bankers. Is it a necessity or a luxury in the modern banking sphere, and just how could it be implemented?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/steady-as-she-goes-long-term-performance-measurement-in-finance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Gresham College, this event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance with Lady Susan Rice (Lloyd's Banking Group), Anthony Hene (GMO), Professor Paul Woolley (LSE), Kelly Clark (Marmanie) and Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli (Z/Yen Group). 'Long' is not just another four letter adjective for 'good'. Most theorists believe strongly that the first stepa towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? Over long periods we repeatedly find that not measuring people leads to low standards, slack practices and corruption. If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term?
The Introduction to the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/long-term-performance-management-in-finance-a-introduction
Emeritus Gresham Professor of Commerce, Alderman Michael Mainelli opens the Long Finance Spring Conference 2014 and welcomes the audience to Bank of America Merril Lynch. The talk begins to explore the themes that will be discussed during the conference and illuminates the aims of the seminar.
Moving away from short-term performance measurement is regularly advocated in finance. However, 'long' does not necessarily mean 'good'. Most theorists believe that the first step towards governance, control and management, whether scientific or commercial or political, is measurement. If we adopt 'long' does that mean we need to drop 'measurement'? If we adopt 'measurement', are we excising the long term? This event will explore suggestions for reforms of long-term measures in finance.
The event ends at 5.30pm, a reception follows and lasts until 6.30pm.
This event is supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, City of London Corporation and Z/Yen Group. For more information about Long Finance see www.longfinance.net
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/long-term-performance-management-in-finance-a-introduction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The history of the old maid of Threadneedle street: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-museum-and-historical-collections-of-the-bank-of-england
The Museum provides information about the purposes of the Bank, the currency it issues and its social and architectural history. Illustrated by its collections, the lecture will cover the early foundation of the Bank, and the history of its building and its rebuilding. It will also take a look at the money in our pockets - and how constant efforts to outwit counterfeiters has shaped our banknotes today.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-museum-and-historical-collections-of-the-bank-of-england
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-work-of-the-defence-medical-rehabilitation-centre-headley-court
The DMRC (established in 1946) is the largest provider of rehabilitation services for military personnel. Its mission is to accelerate the return of injured or ill personnel to their optimal level of health and it has continually adapted to the changes injuries and illnesses that occur.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-work-of-the-defence-medical-rehabilitation-centre-headley-court
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Hon. Michael Kirby on creating and researching the United Nation's report on Human Rights Abuse in North Korea: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-proven
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-proven
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A panel discussion on the United Nations report into human rights abuses in North Korea:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-discussed
The Conference ends with a panel discussion of the report, the testimony received, what the international community can do to aid North Koreans and the work that lies ahead.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-discussed
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A conference to publicise the United Nations report on North Korea's Human rights abuses: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-revealed
The Gresham Professor of Law, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, opens a conference centred around the recently published United Nations investigtion into Human Rights abuse in North Korea. In this lecture, he introduces a video of the victims, witnesses and survivors of the atrocities. The video was created by Human Rights Watch.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/north-koreas-unspeakable-crimes-against-humanity-revealed
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A look at what the 2014 spring budget by one of the City of London's leading financial minds: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-far-down-the-road-to-recovery-is-the-uk
Charles Davis, Director of Cebr, offers an analysis of the UK Budget, which was announced by the Chancellor on the morning of the lecture.
The subjects covered by this lecture includes:
an update on the global economic outlook
an assessment of the UK forecast
a review the Chancellor's 2014 budget
an analysis of the outlook for public finances over the coming years
a forecast of the implications for policy over the coming five years
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/how-far-down-the-road-to-recovery-is-the-uk
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Globalisation has wreaked havoc on the diets of people across the globe, and none more than the Maya of Mexico: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/globalisation-and-childrens-diets-the-case-of-the-maya-of-mexico-and-central
Globalisation has resulted in powerful multinational corporations imposing their products as we are urged to consume industrially grown, processed and packaged foods. This brings about nutritional transitions, the most common being a shift from a locally-grown diet with minimally refined foods, to the modern diet of highly processed foods, high in saturated fat, animal products and sugar, and low in fibre. Maya health and culture has deteriorated as a result with highly processed foods affecting physical growth and health of Maya children and their families.
Are Psychological differences between believers ("sheep") and sceptics ("goats") affected by the season of birth? Do sunspots or the full moon affect human behaviour (lunacy or even 'werewolves')?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/globalisation-and-childrens-diets-the-case-of-the-maya-of-mexico-and-central
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Why do some people believe that celestial bodies affect their behavious? Is there any truth to their claims?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cosmic-influences-on-behaviour
Are human personality, health and vocational choice influenced by the position of the planets? If not, why do so many people read horoscopes and believe this to be the case? Terms such as jovial, martial, mercurial, venereal and saturnine are implanted in our psyche.
Are Psychological differences between believers ("sheep") and sceptics ("goats") affected by the season of birth? Do sunspots or the full moon affect human behaviour (lunacy or even 'werewolves')?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/cosmic-influences-on-behaviour
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Mapping the spread of disease is essential to preventing epidemics. The fascinating mathematics of infection is explained here: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modelling-the-spread-of-infectious-diseases
Mathematics has proved to be of considerable benefit in modelling the population biology of infectious diseases by examining the rate of change of the proportion of the population susceptible to, infected with and recovered from a particular infectious disease. In particular, if a vaccine is available, mathematics helps in understanding the impact of different vaccination strategies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modelling-the-spread-of-infectious-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How are random numbers used in computing and mathematics to give useful iinformation: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/might-as-well-toss-a-coin-how-random-numbers-help-us-find-exact-solutions
Randomness is clearly important in computer games and in the Premium Bond prize draw. But it is perhaps surprising that random numbers can also help us find the solution to well-defined business problems. This lecture looks at the role of randomness in computer algorithm, conducting a live experiment to use random numbers to calculate the mathematical constant - Random numbers can be a valuable problem-solving tool, used to help solve difficult industrial problems and determine the optimal choice of business strategies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/might-as-well-toss-a-coin-how-random-numbers-help-us-find-exact-solutions
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A History of the Armed Forces use of psychiatry to prevent and treat psychologial casualties: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-second-world-war-shellshock-to-psychiatry
Psychiatric casualties are acknowledged today as inevitable and important consequences of modern warfare. This lecture will discuss the extent to which advances were made during the Second World War in our understanding of war-related psychological stress.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-second-world-war-shellshock-to-psychiatry
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
With the rise of maritime commerce came the need for insurance. This lecture looks at the origins of insurance, and how it shaped the City and the Industry: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-and-defoe-underwriters-the-origins-of-london-marine-insurance
This lecture explores the astonishing history of marine insurance underwriting in London by reaching back to Lombard Street in the 1400s, revealing the underwriting activities of some well-known characters, explaining the origins of the Lloyd's market, and shedding light on this critical industry's 300 years of world leadership from London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-and-defoe-underwriters-the-origins-of-london-marine-insurance
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Early Royal residences have much to teach us about the role of British Kings. Simon Thurley reveals all the palace secrets here: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/war-halls-royal-houses-from-the-saxons-to-the-hundred-years-war
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/war-halls-royal-houses-from-the-saxons-to-the-hundred-years-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How would a Georgian Gentleman amuse himself and his friends. Mike Rendell discusses the possibilities: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/entertainment-in-london-in-the-18th-century
Using extracts from personal family collections, diaries, handbills and other records, the range of possibilities for entertainment available in London will be discussed. From sight-seeing to exhibitions, events which appealed either to the downright curious or to those with more cultured tastes will be covered, including public punishments, prostitution, sporting activities, gambling, the circus, playhouses and exhibitions. Travel and home entertainments (such as music and drinking and other pursuits) will also be covered.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/entertainment-in-london-in-the-18th-century
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The history, politics and personalities that led to entrering the European Community in 1973: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/entry-into-the-european-community-1971-73
This lecture analyses the reasons for the successful negotiations between Edward Heath's Conservative government and the European Community, which led to entry into 1973. It considers the parliamentary battles over entry and the problems they caused for both government and opposition
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/entry-into-the-european-community-1971-73
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The impact of disease has bee nentirely understated as a part of the First World War. The lecture examines its true role: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-world-war-disease-the-only-victor
The First World War was the first major conflict in which battlefield deaths exceeded those caused by diseases. Nevertheless, infectious diseases played significant roles in every front. This lecture will discuss the conditions necessary for starting epidemics and the spread of diseases and how these conditions were exploited by microorganisms not only during the war but also in its aftermath.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-world-war-disease-the-only-victor
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A detailed examination of the themes, motifs and secrets held with Michelagelo's masterpiece: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/michelangelo-copernicus-and-the-sistine-chapel
It is argued that Copernicus' theory of the sun-centred universe is a key underlying theme in Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgmentin the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's revolutionary design, depicting Christ as an Apollonian 'sun-god' positioned in the centre of a dramatic circular composition, seems relate to Copernicus's theory of the sun-centred universe - providing important evidence of papal support for Copernican heliocentricity as early as the 1530s.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/michelangelo-copernicus-and-the-sistine-chapel
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Is Advocacy an inate skill or can it be taught? How might we teach it:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/advocacy-as-if-the-person-represented-or-for-the-person-represented
UK lawyers used to think that advocacy was a God-given art. In the last 20 years - not more - they have discovered how to train advocacy, applying skills acquired from jurisdictions around the world. Analysis of how advocacy really works benefits from looking back at earlier periods, and then looking forward to today and beyond asking whether advocacy is for establishing the truth and whether the advocate is as if the person represented or simply advocating to win on the client's behalf at almost any cost. This lecture may include practical demonstrations of examples of advocacy and may involve active engagement with the audience - if willing!
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/advocacy-as-if-the-person-represented-or-for-the-person-represented
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
We revisit the remnant radiation of the Big Bang that pervades the sky as the cosmic microwave background in the light of the recent Planck telescope mapping. The most precise measurements of its properties to date have confirmed our understanding of cosmological models that attempt to account for the properties of the present-day Universe and its contents.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/echoes-of-the-big-bang
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Fashionable dress in the nineteenth century had a moral dimension. Introducing the theme of the morality and modernity of fashion, this lecture considers the visual representation of the fallen women, courtesan and prostitute in the arts of the period. It examines the symbolic language of clothes and the way that it was used to register a woman's fall from respectability to deviancy. Social and moral identities were of great importance in the new public spaces of the nineteenth-century city along with a need to be able to register identities immediately through visual signs. In this context visual images of women's dress and appearance were of great significance in embedding this moral language of clothing.
This lecture will draw on medical and religious texts, on literature and on paintings and engravings to set out the relationship between fashion, modernity, art and morality.
The vital and incredible work of Médecins Sans Frontières is explained by the Chairman of MSF UK: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-work-of-medecins-sans-frontieres
Médecins Sans Frontières/DoctorsWithout Borders (MSF) is an independent humanitarian organisation that provides impartial emergency medical aid to the victims of war, natural disasters and epidemics in more than 70 countries around the world.
Paul McMaster will talk about his work with MSF's emergency surgical team in conflict zones.
Part of the Mondays at One Spring Series
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-work-of-medecins-sans-frontieres
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture examines how the treatment of infecion , injury and disease will change as science progresses: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eye-on-the-future-how-can-modern-scientific-knowledge-help-to-prevent-blindness
Gene therapy, stem cells antibodies, RNA interference and nanotechnology have all been investigated as potential treatments for a variety of eye diseases.
Some of these have already entered clinical use whilst others remain in investigational stage.
These new exciting and exotic sounding technologies are likely to play an increasing role in eye-care. What they are, how they work and what they are likely to achieve will be discussed in this lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/eye-on-the-future-how-can-modern-scientific-knowledge-help-to-prevent-blindness
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How do we read 'in the age of distraction'? When did what we understand as modern reading begin to take shape: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modern-reading-in-historical-context-from-gutenberg-to-naked-women
Did the publication of Goethe's epistolary novel, 'The Sorrows of Young Werther' (1774) lead to an epidemic of suicides? Is there such a thing as the 'The Werther effect', as suicides apparently prompted by novels became known? Why did eighteenth-century women fear that their response to readings out loud in a group might reveal a lack of 'sensibility'? How do we read 'in the age of distraction'?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modern-reading-in-historical-context-from-gutenberg-to-naked-women
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An all encompassing examination of Religion's place in a liberal society: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-law-and-religion-in-a-liberal-society-lecture-two
There have been quite a few high profile legal cases relating to the extent of the recognition of the role of religion in a person's life and the need for a liberal society to accommodate such beliefs on the one hand whilst recognising the claim that religions should be regarded as private belief which should not give rise to any specific forms of recognition in the public realm. It is often argued that religion is a much weaker form of identity than, say, gender or sexual orientation because religion is chosen and is a self assumed form of identity whereas, so it is argued, this is not true of other forms of identity which should be protected because they are given rather than chosen forms. We need to look at these arguments and if they hold water and what follows for politics and the law in a liberal society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-law-and-religion-in-a-liberal-society-lecture-two
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
An investigation of Mozart's Quintet for piano and winds K.452, completed March 30, 1784 and premiered two days later at the Imperial and Royal National Court Theater in Vienna.
This lecture by Professor Christopher Hogwood will be followed by a live performance of the piece by Notus Winds.
Notus Winds
Eleanor Tinlin, oboe
Jordan Black, clarinet
Carys Evans, horn
Jonathan Davies, bassoon
Kei Ma, piano
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-in-context-for-self-promotion-mozart
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Matisse, Dali and even medieval monks all found beauty and allegory in Snails. Steve Jones examines their representation, and what science can tell us about them: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/snails-in-art-and-the-art-of-snails
Snails play a surprising part in art. Dali used them as images of impotence, while medieval painters included them in paintings of the Virgin Mary, due to the belief that their shells meant that their modesty was protected and they reproduced without sex. Gravestones are sometimes etched with snail images for they are seen as creatures that undergo resurrection when, after a long period of drought, it rains and thousands of snails that had been dried up start crawling around. Dutch flower paintings often include snails for the message behind those works was that, beautiful as the flowers are, they will soon be consumed, like human flesh, by worms, by insects - and by snails. Many other aspects of the biology of snails have an echo in art, and some art-works hint at the question why some species are so genetically variable in shell colour and pattern? Perhaps we can learn from the world of painting, as a hint that the two cultures may, at least in the world of molluscs, be uniting to form one.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/snails-in-art-and-the-art-of-snails
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Oedipus Complex has fascinated psychologists for decades, but what, if anything does it tell us about human nature?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-oedipus-effect
Many writers, from Sophocles to Freud, have seen profound significance in the story of Oedipus who killed his father and married his mother. What does this tell us about human nature? Is there any support for the theories of these complexes? Is there a natural inclination toward incest, or is incest avoidance the norm?
To what extent is our choice of partners influenced by early experience of our parents and our relationship with them?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-oedipus-effect
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Probability is the examination of uncertain processes, but it's useful for far more than games of chance: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/probability-and-its-limits
The modern theory of probability is considered to have begun in 1654 with an exchange of letters between Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat, and has developed since then into the discipline which examines uncertain processes. For example, although on tossing a coin you have no idea whether you will obtain heads or tails we know that if you keep doing it then in the long run it is very likely that the proportion of heads will be close to a half. The lecture will discuss this and other examples of random processes e.g. random walks and Brownian motion.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/finding-stable-matches-the-mathematics-of-computer-dating
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Can an algorithm find true love? Professor Mann looks at the mathematics that powers dating websiteshttp://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/finding-stable-matches-the-mathematics-of-computer-dating
Computer systems use mathematics to fly aircraft, carry out complex financial transactions and calculate the optimal design for racing cars. But mathematics helps solve many other problems: how to assign students to rooms in university halls of residence? how a computer dating agency can most effectively pair off its clients? Fascinating mathematical techniques have been developed for these problems and this lecture presents and discusses in simple terms, various non-numerical mathematical algorithms.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/finding-stable-matches-the-mathematics-of-computer-dating
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Globalisation is an economic force of nature that has taken many Institutions by surprise. Can the EU continue in a world it was not designed for? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-the-euro-survive-globalisation
The euro was set up as part of European integration and to provide an alternative currency to the dollar. But the financial and economic crisis has exposed serious flaws, and the rapidly internationalising renminbi now looks to be a better bet as the most likely alternative currency to the dollar. The lecture asks whether the euro can survive the economic impact of globalisation, which impinges differentially on the different European economies. The euro was set up as part of European integration and to provide an alternative currency to the dollar. But the financial and economic crisis has exposed serious flaws, and the rapidly internationalising renminbi now looks to be a better bet as the most likely alternative currency to the dollar. The lecture asks whether the euro can survive the economic impact of globalisation, which impinges differentially on the different European economies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/can-the-euro-survive-globalisation
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
When does some one have the right to die? Should it be the decision of the family, or should this be decided in court? http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-sanctity-of-life-law-has-gone-too-far
Professor Gillon would argue that the judgment in the case of a patient in prolonged and incurable 'minimally conscious state', that she must continue to be kept alive with artificial nutrition and hydration, despite the evidence from her loved ones that she would have rejected such treatment, manifests an excessive concern for the 'sanctity of life' and inadequate concern both for patients' prior views values and autonomy and about the use of scarce health service resources on patients whose loved ones reliably report that they would have rejected those resources had they been able to do so.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-sanctity-of-life-law-has-gone-too-far
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
If preventable error in hospitals was a disease, it would be our sixth biggest killer:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/designing-it-to-make-healthcare-safer
Errors in healthcare are a huge problem that is ften invisible. If it were a disease it would be the sixth most lethal, ahead of diabetes and ahead of road accidents. Often imagined as a cure to medical error, IT systems often make the situation worse. We have had so many problems with IT systems in hospitals that some have argued that healthcare has become an IT problem, and certainly it is one of the key barriers to improving healthcare. But need it be so? What might be the problem?
This lecture focuses on computer and IT systems in hospitals, including mobile devices, what's wrong with them and how they can be improved. Such problems are ubiquitous, and by no means limited to healthcare.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/designing-it-to-make-healthcare-safer
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Our perception of childhood is shaped by the common narratives. Hugh Cunningham exams the narratives, their formation and what we can learn from them: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/whats-happened-to-childhood
Our understanding of childhood is shaped by two narratives. The first describes how children underwent horrific experiences in the factories and mines of the Industrial Revolution, but were then rescued for an increasingly 'healthy and happy' childhood. The second, dominant since the 1970s, tells how childhood is getting worse, becoming 'toxic', the deaths of James Bulger, Victoria Climbie and Baby P evidence for it. How far do these narratives about childhood reflect the reality of the lives of children past and present?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/whats-happened-to-childhood
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Carolin Crawford answers every question you've ever had about the most romantic stellar bodies, the stars: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-lives-of-stars
Stars are an ubiquitous feature of our local Galactic environment. They do not last forever - but form, develop and evolve over timescales of millions or billions of years, eventually to expire in dramatic style. We look at the lifecycles of different kinds of stars, and in particular, what they reveal about our own origins.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-lives-of-stars
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The middle of the nineteenth century was the great age of the crinoline. Lynda Nead examines what this unique fashion meant to women, how it empowered and constrained: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-crinoline-cage
The middle of the nineteenth century was the great age of the crinoline. Dresses became bigger and more ornate; skirts grew wider and wider, devouring metres of fabric and decorated with flounces, fringes and ribbons. The style was facilitated by the development of the sewing machine and technological developments in textile production that introduced new machine-made light, gauzy fabrics, which supplemented the more established and expensive silks and taffetas and were suited to the purses of the middling classes. The key to this fashion, the frame for this confection of fabrics and ornament, was the hooped cage crinoline. Historians have been divided on whether the crinoline turned women into 'exquisite slaves' or was a sign of female assertiveness and subversion.
This lecture will examine the rich visual images from the nineteenth century, analysing cartoons from Punch, extracts from Dickens, letters from Victorian women and paintings by artists such as Franz Winterhalter, the painter of the Royal and Imperial Courts of Europe.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-crinoline-cage
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The panel discusses what the future of cities look like and how important it is that we understand the present: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/introduction-to-long-finance-symposium-measuring-up-cities
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli leads a panel of experts in discussion of the issues raised at the Long Finanace Measuring Up Cities Conference.
The panel includes physicist Dr Hyejin Youn, Professor Tony Travers of LSE and Martin Houghton, an economice research consultant .
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-lord-mayors-annual-gresham-lecture-tomorrows-cities-panel-discussion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli presents concluding remarks and closes the Long Finance Measuring Up Cities symposium: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/concluding-remarks-for-measuring-up-cities
The Lord Mayor's Annual Lecture, on 'Tomorrow's Cities', will form the opening keynote speech for the symposium on 'Measuring Cities'.
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli presents a conclusion to this year's Lord Mayor's Annual Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/concluding-remarks-for-measuring-up-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Martin Houghton looks at one key aspect of city measurment that throws new light on the growth or decline of a city: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/firm-migration-the-neglected-component-of-change
The Lord Mayor's Annual Lecture, on 'Tomorrow's Cities', will form the opening keynote speech for the symposium on 'Measuring Cities'.
In co-operation with Dr Laura Davison's lecture, this part of the symposium attempts to propose some practical techniques to identify and measure change within local economies and cities in particular.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/introduction-to-long-finance-symposium-measuring-up-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Dr Hyejin Youn discusses the many ways that natural sciences can inform and illuminate the study of cities: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/towards-the-scientific-theory-of-cities
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/towards-the-scientific-theory-of-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Dr Laura Davison examines the unique challenges of assessing the City of London's progress and growth: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/counting-what-counts-or-simply-measuring-the-measurable
In this part of the 'Measuring Up Cities' conference, focussing primarily on Greater London, Dr Davison explains the work of her department. How figures are collated and thus published to the public.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/counting-what-counts-or-simply-measuring-the-measurable
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Tony Travers of LSE reveals the basic data that we can use in measuring cities:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/competitive-cities-what-we-can-measure-and-what-we-cant
Professor Tony Travers is the Direstor of LSE London, the London School of Economics' reseach centre. There are very few people more intimately acquainted with the capital.
In this Lecture, part of the Long Finance Symposium 'Measuring Up Cities', Professor Travers looks at the history of competition between cities. He also introduces the forms of data that can be collected to compare cities, as well as the intangibles that might be essential for success in competitive cities.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/competitive-cities-what-we-can-measure-and-what-we-cant
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The introduction to the Long Finance Symposium 'Measuring Up Cities': http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/introduction-to-long-finance-symposium-measuring-up-cities
Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli welcomes the Gresham College, the Lord Mayor of the City of London and leading academics to the Long Finance Symposium 'Measuring Up Cities'.
This symposium will analyse what we know about cities, how we measure cities, why physics is increasingly useful and the Keynote speech is from the Lord Mayor of the city of London on the future of cities and the cities of the future.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/introduction-to-long-finance-symposium-measuring-up-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Lord Mayor of the City of Lonodn presents her Annual lecture on the Cities of the futur: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tomorrows-cities
It has been argued that economists mistakenly use nations as their unit of analysis when cities are the true generators of wealth. But many have struggled with the concept of cities as units of analysis.
This is the 2014 Annual Lord Mayor's Lecture, delivered as a part of the Long Finance conference on 'Measuring Up Cities'.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tomorrows-cities
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A number if infectious diseases cause blindness. After decades of improvement in treatment many were thought to be on the edge of extinction.
Whilst this was achieved with smallpox, the promise if eradication of trachoma and river blindness remains elusive.
Furthermore the increasing resistance if organisms to antibiotics is becoming and urgent challenge in all parts of the world. The resurgence if Tuberculosis is a particular problem.
How these organisms cause disease, blindness, how they are treated and how we may eradicate them concerns each and every one of us. The answer is becoming more difficult and more urgent to find.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/return-of-the-microbes-how-infections-are-once-more-taking-over
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Jack examines the prehistory of reading as well as the early attitudes to reading in the ancient world: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ancient-reading-in-an-historical-context
This lecture will explore the varying ways in which people have read across time. When the move to 'silent reading' - as opposed to reading out loud to oneself - took place is debated but the shift to the entirely private business of 'silent reading' is a crucial one. Did educated nuns or Byzantine princesses read differently from their male counterparts?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ancient-reading-in-an-historical-context
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Lord Plant examines the issue of identity and religion before the law in a liberal society: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-law-and-religion-in-a-liberal-society-lecture-one
There have been quite a few high profile legal cases relating to the extent of the recognition of the role of religion in a person's life and the need for a liberal society to accommodate such beliefs on the one hand whilst recognising the claim that religions should be regarded as private belief which should not give rise to any specific forms of recognition in the public realm. It is often argued that religion is a much weaker form of identity than, say, gender or sexual orientation because religion is chosen and is a self assumed form of identity whereas, so it is argued, this is not true of other forms of identity which should be protected because they are given rather than chosen forms. We need to look at these arguments and if they hold water and what follows for politics and the law in a liberal society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/rights-law-and-religion-in-a-liberal-society-lecture-one
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
While ideas are undoubtedly more important than mere notations, the power of a good notation cannot be over-stated: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/notation-patterns-and-new-discoveries
As an example of this, in the mid-1980's a notation was developed for juggling tricks. It was found when using this notation that there were hitherto unexpected connections between existing tricks, and emerging patterns in the notation suggested the existence of new, previously unknown tricks. These in turn led to new ways of thinking about, teaching, and learning existing tricks, as well as providing new material on which to build.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/notation-patterns-and-new-discoveries
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The rise of the New Atheism has stimulated a new interest in Christian apologetics: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/new-atheism-new-apologetics-the-use-of-science-in-recent-christian-apologetic
This interest has flourished in both in the academy and the churches. The appeal to science in the writings of leading 'New Atheists', such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, is reflected in two apologetic strategies.
In the first place, the use made of science to defend atheism by Dawkins and Dennett has been challenged as unrepresentative and improper. In the second, defences of the rationality of faith have been developed which reflect inductive or abductive approaches, paralleling those used in the natural sciences.
This lecture explores the ways in which the natural sciences have been used in recent Christian apologetics, and assesses their significance.
This is the 2014 Boyle Lecture.
The Boyle lectures address topics which explore the relationship between Christianity and our contemporary understanding of the natural world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/new-atheism-new-apologetics-the-use-of-science-in-recent-christian-apologetic
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What makes a criminal? Are they born or made? Professor Wilson examines the evidence: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/criminal-minds
How do personality, social deprivation and upbringing affect criminality? Is crime due to economic need, a failure of conscience or a need for excitement?
If genetic contributions or brain damage can be established should they be taken to reduce culpability? What is prison for and are there alternative punishments that are more effective? Can criminals be reformed, or simply contained?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/criminal-minds
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
If we count the number of vertices, v, on a cube, v = 8, number of edges e = 12, and number of faces f = 6, then v¬ - e + f = 2. The same is true for a tetrahedron where v¬ = 4, e = 6 and f = 4. In fact, the mathematician Leonhard Euler obtained the amazing result that v¬ - e + f = 2 for a wide class of polyhedrons. This theorem of Euler is a result in topology, a subject which tries to find those properties of geometrical objects that are invariant under continuous deformation - a tetrahedron can be changed in this way into a cube. Topology is sometimes called rubber sheet geometry.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/surfaces-and-topology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
We all make mistakes when we use computer systems - forgetting to save the last document version, neglecting to add the promised email attachment, texting the wrong person, or buying the wrong train ticket. Mistakes can be just irritating or have serious consequences. Exploration of how users can get the best from their systems will connect interaction design to magic and illusion as well as to mathematics. A propensity for blaming ourselves when something goes wrong can make life harder for designers.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/user-error-why-its-not-your-fault
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
One of the consequences of the move in the terms of trade against the UK is that we will have to export much more and to places much further away to pay for our essential imports. This lecture explains the likely scale of these shifts and puts them into international context. It also examines some of the consequences of a much higher ratio of traded exports to GDP than has traditionally been the case.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-changing-shape-of-uk-trade
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A consideration of classical music that has been created with advertising in mind. Dr Stephen Rose's lecture will be illustrated by live performances by a Royal Academy of Music chamber ensemble of Ravel's Introduction for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet (1905) and Saint-Saëns' Fantaisie for violin and harp Op. 124.
The musicians to perform at the event are as follows:
Klara Woskowiak (harp)
Luke O'Toole (flute)
Leonie Bluett (clarinet)
Flora Curzon (violin)
Salome Rateau (violin)
Marisol Lee (violin)
Anita Kurowska (viola)
Hannah Lewis (cello)
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-in-context-in-advertising-ravel-and-saint-saens
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture analyses the background to Harold Macmillan's decision in 1961 to join the European Community, a reversal of previous Conservative policy. Labour opposed entry, although, in office after 1964, it too sought to join the Community. But Britain's second application in 1967, under a Labour government, also met with a rebuff from President de Gaulle of France.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/was-karl-marx-always-wrong
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Stephen Rose in conversation with Florian Mitrea (piano). This event will include live musical performances of pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Bartók which were created for teaching and study.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/music-in-context-in-the-teaching-studio
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture looks at the impact of globalisation, the distribution of labour incomes and profits. It points out that the multiplication of the world's labour supply has tilted the balance in favour of the capitalist. It examines this in the context of Karl Marx's labour theory of value and looks at whether the Marxist solutions would be better or worse than the problem that has been identified.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/was-karl-marx-always-wrong
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Corn Returns, agricultural data from the 18th and 19th centuries, represent a key resource for historians trying to understand the emergence of modern agricultural markets and the effects of protective tariffs. This lecture explores how the Corn Returns furnished important support for the competing claims of 18th century moral philosophers and 19th century political economists, playing a key role in debates about the repeal of the Corn Laws.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scientists-must-protect-and-promote-human-rights-it-is-principled-and-in-their
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
National science academy members worldwide, concerned about dozens of unjustly imprisoned colleagues (none of whom advocates violence but many are tortured, some are murdered) use their high-level connections, cultural/political knowledge, and personal prestige, along with that of their academies, to defend the rights of such colleagues and to ameliorate their plight. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the cornerstone of their efforts and includes rights essential to scientists and scientific progress.
The speaker will describe selected science and human rights issues around the globe, individual cases, and how scientists and their academies help resolve them.
This lecture is a part of the 80th Anniversary Celebrations of CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics).
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/scientists-must-protect-and-promote-human-rights-it-is-principled-and-in-their
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The current threat of ash dieback and the devastation to the countryside caused by Dutch elm disease in the 1960's and 70's will be familiar to many. Other less well known diseases continue to threaten crops in the developed and developing countries. From ash dieback to cassava diseases in Africa and global threats to wheat, this lecture will examine disease spread and control strategies.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/imported-plant-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Law is everywhere providing answers to almost everything. Ever larger numbers of students want to be part of the legal mechanisms that control us, regulate us and take over from politicians when politicians sense their own incapability. It is almost a new religion. In this lecture - and in the discussion to follow - some of the issues dealt with in earlier years by Professor Bogdanor (such as in his lectures, Judges or Legislators: Who Should Rule?, The Judges and the Constitution and The Human Rights Act: Cornerstone of a New Constitution) will be reviewed as will the effect of Europe on our law.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/law-as-a-new-religion-and-other-topics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Is body weight due to a constitutional "set point" or to eating style? Do diets work or are they inevitably doomed to fail? Is self-monitoring (e.g., calorie counting, food diaries and regular weighing) useful or counterproductive. What accounts for eating disorders such as anorexia, binging and bulimia? How can they be managed?
Body dysmorphic disorder as a modern problem. To what extent does idealisation of thinness in the media contribute to dissatisfaction with body weight?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/feast-or-famine-the-psychology-of-eating
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Beginning with Walter Hussey at St Matthew's, Northampton, in the 1940's, churches have been much bolder than many earlier decades in commissioning modern art. Richard Harries looks specifically at modern works of art that have been placed in churches over the last 70 years and finds here an encouraging story.
His new book, based on his Gresham Lectures, The Image of Christ in Modern Art, will be available for sale.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modern-art-in-churches
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Blood has long been used as an aid to diagnosis but now more than ever it can be key to establishing the cause of disease. From glass bottles to complex plastic systems, the storage of blood has evolved and so too have the processes used to analyse the small blood sample given at your GP's surgery.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-story-of-your-blood
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
70% of the Earth's surface is not subject to sovereign administration and remains an anarchic space. New technologies pose serious challenges to the notion of High Seas Freedom. Is regulation inevitable and, if so, who will impose it and how?
This is the 2013 Peter Nailor Memorial Letcure on Defence.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-end-of-the-grotian-era-maintaining-order-and-good-governance-at-sea
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The first successful solid organ transplant was the cornea in Moravia in 1905. However both science and clinical tools then available were unable to allow further advances. The discovery of the natural barriers to transplantation enabled understanding of the biology of transplants and now livers, hearts, kidneys and corneas are routinely transplanted.
In ophthalmology the advances in microsurgery and microscopes have led to better visual outcomes and less loss of donor organs. Indeed it is now possible to transplant each individual layer of the cornea.
These breathtaking procedures have revolutionised the treatment of blinding diseases of the eye.
Attention is now turning to developing techniques for transplanting retinal tissues opening up potential hope for those suffering from macular degeneration, the commonest cause of loss if sight in the elderly population.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/transplantation-and-the-eye
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What do we mean by 'reading for pleasure'? How does reading for pleasure feel? Why has novel-reading by women long been associated with eroticism? This lecture, by Belinda Jack will be illustrated by images of readers from Ancient Rome to the present day.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reading-for-pleasure
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A liberal state will put ideas about rights and individual autonomy at the centre of the relationship between the individual and the state. However, it is sometimes argued that the liberal state should be neutral, not seeking to impose an overall conception of the good on society. Should individuals choose their own values, with the state providing a framework within which individuals can pursue their own conception of the good without interference from others?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/liberalism-a-challenge-to-religion
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A review of the more recent history and activities of The Honorable The Irish Society, the talk will focus on the Societies' activities in the 20th century, as it tried to find a viable role in the aftermath of the Irish Land Acts, the effect of partition in the 1920's and further legislation unfriendly to landlords, all of which steadily deprived it of much of its former property and historic raison d'??tre. The talk will also describe how the Society has moved steadily towards the centre ground over the past 50 years, adapting and modernising as befits a charity now entering its fifth century of existence. Edward Montgomery will try to assess the balance sheet after 400 years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-honourable-the-irish-society-in-the-modern-era
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/comets-visitors-from-the-frozen-edge-of-the-solar-system
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Following the lecture on 'A New Theory of Economic Growth' in the previous year, and with a new Governor of the Bank of England, this lecture looks at a different way of targeting economic policy to deal with the paradox that inflation has been consistently above its target for the past three years while growth has underperformed consistently. This lecture argues that the time has come to update the Monetary Policy Committee's target to use Money GDP instead of simple inflation targeting.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/should-the-uk-adopt-money-gdp-targets
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
One of the most important patterns that a mathematician looks for is whether or not an object has symmetries i.e. is left unchanged or invariant after some operation, for example reflection or rotation. A square has many symmetries under the operations of rotation and reflection whereas a rectangle has fewer symmetries. The concept of a group of symmetries measures and describes how much symmetry an object has. This concept of a group is one of the most important in mathematics and also helps to describe and explain the natural world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/symmetries-and-groups
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A lecture on Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 104, commonly known as the 'London' Symphony, illustrated with live musical extracts of the piece.
Music will be performed by the Baroque Ensemble from the Royal Academy of Music, including the following musicians:
Davina Clarke, Katie Stevens, violin
Jordan Bowron, viola
Lucia Cappellaro, cello
Rehana Browne, flute
Nathaniel Mander, forte-piano
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/at-an-amateur-domestic-evening-haydn-symphony-no-104-london
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many innocent Iranians suffered terrible atrocities and death in the regime of the Ayatollahs in the 1980s. The UN failed to record the crimes in a formal way at any court or tribunal. Groups from around the world established an informal tribunal that prepared a report in 2013, publicly condemning the Iranian regime of grave crimes. Work of this tribunal provides a further example of how citizens dissatisfied with the performance of international institutions can deal with difficult problems in faraway places.
At this lecture there were accounts of the nature of the torturing of individuals with a contribution from an imprisoned victim explaining how it was possible to maintain sanity and to survive in circumstances where many would succumb.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iran-tribunal
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture analyses early moves towards European unity in the early 1950s - the European Coal and Steel Community and the abortive proposal for a European Defence Community, a European Army. Britain was sceptical towards these initiatives. The lecture will then analyse the structural basis of the EEC and why it was that Britain was not one of the signatories in 1957 of the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Communities.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-the-european-coal-and-steel-community-to-the-common-market
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many people agree with Gilbert and Sullivan that Darwinian man, though well behaved is nothing but a monkey shaved. The recent discovery that we share around 95% of our DNA sequence with our closest relative suggests that there may be some truth in that statement. A closer look shows that almost all the physical changes that have taken place in our bodies since the split from our common ancestor seven million years ago involve loss - we are bald, with weak muscles, and lack characteristics found in our relatives. Most remarkable, we are the only creature unable to survive on raw food. Eatan uncooked diet and in the end you will die. Our guts have been so reduced and our digestive enzymes so enfeebled that we depend on an external stomach, a frying pan or microwave, to stay alive. In just one organ, the brain, we have gained in comparison to the chimpanzee; and its improvements are striking indeed.
This lecture will explore why mankind is much more than just another animal.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-man-just-another-animal
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In 1863 Charles Baudelaire, wrote about the 'Painter of Modern Life' depicting the uniformity of male dress codes with its black suits, top hats and patent leather boots as having created 'a cortege of undertakers'. Whereas women's dress was constantly moving with the seasons and responding to passing styles, men's dress appeared remarkably static and unadorned.
Drawing on the writings of Charles Baudelaire and Mallarmé and on the paintings of Constantin Guys and Edouard Manet, the lecture will examine the visual representation and cultural meanings of the habit noir. It will also consider the related British male types of the dandy and the swell. Were men in the nineteenth century really just a neutral backdrop to the ebb and flow of female fashion, or did men also engage in and explore sartorial style?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/le-habit-noir-men-in-black
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Humour depends upon a delicate balance of emotional arousal (a threat, hostility, taboo, sexual arousal) and technique (mechanisms rendering a joke safe and socially acceptable - "just in fun").
The origins of humour in non-humans and children will be considered, and the purposes it serves for the individual and for society. Effects of mirth in the brain, therapeutic applications of laughter and the role of comedians in society will also be examined.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/having-a-laugh-comedy-and-comedians
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A discussion of the core concepts of modern computing and their basis in history.
Dr Doron Swade offers a new analysis of the history of computing, suggesting that instead of a linear progression from one phase to the next, it is better understood as a series of separate computational functions diverging and converging.
Dr Swade goes beyond the analysis of the history of computing as moving from the Mechanical to the Electromechanical and then to the Electronic phase. Instead he argues that the history of computing is better understood as the diverging and merging of a series of streams which represent very separate computational functions or paradigms: Calculation, Automatic Computation, Information Management, Communication and the Electronic Information Age.
This is the 2013 Gresham-BSHM lecture, tracing the origins of the core concepts of modern computing.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-grand-narrative-of-the-history-of-computing
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Jonathan Bowen reflects on the brilliant work and tragic life of Alan Turing, the founder of computer science.
This is a part of the 2013 Gresham College / British Society of the History of Mathematics conference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/alan-turing-the-founder-of-computer-science
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Only looking at coloured imagery leads to new viewpoints and narratives for otherwise well-known histories, and the history of computing is no exception.
Martin Campbell-Kelly reconstructs a history of computing from surprisingly rarely-seen colour images.
This is a part of the 2013 Gresham College / British Society of the History of Mathematics conference.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-computing-in-colour
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This lecture is about an extraordinary set of English shipbuilding accounts dating from the 1290s, when the ports of London, Southampton, Ipswich, York, Newcastle and other places constructed eight war galleys for King Edward I. These accounts are the earliest-known significant English shipbuilding records, but they also have a wider historical importance, offering a unique 'snapshot' of late 13th-century England. The lecture will consider the maritime aspects of the project, but will also show what the material has to tell us about the nature of working life for 'ordinary' people, from shipwrights and blacksmiths to the women employed to clear the shipbuilding sites of wood chips. The City of London built two of the biggest galleys, so 'The Year of the Galleys' will have an added interest for Gresham audiences.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/1295-the-year-of-the-galleys
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Deliberately blinding opponents has always been part of warfare.
Sophisticated protective armour has ancient origins. With the incrementally rising incidence of eye injuries with each successive modern war, eye protection had to be re-invented with often bizarre results.
As the face and eye became a major site of injury; modern plastic surgery was created from the carnage of the trenches in WWI. Further advances occurred with the treatment of burned pilots in the Second World War. The co-operation of artists, sculptors and surgeons led to rehabilitation of many of these people and to a change in public perception of patients with such injuries.
An extraordinary story of extraordinary people reveals how the dedication and humanity of these surgeons led to much that we take for granted in our modern world.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-eye-at-war-preventing-and-treating-combat-injuries-a-2000-year-journey
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In recent years, the diary of the private citizen has emerged as a particularly fertile source for both academic and non-academic historians. But private diaries are inherently opaque texts, with a complex sense of audience, and this lecture will be about the uses and limitations of diaries in enhancing our understanding of the recent past. It will particularly focus on examples from the early to mid-twentieth century, a particularly productive period in the history of diary keeping.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-private-diary-and-public-history
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Fungal infections present major threats to the health of the world's most important crops - rice, wheat, maize, potatoes, soybean and sugarcane - and are responsible for massive economic losses throughout the world. Fungal diseases of trees, including Chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, Sudden oak death, Red band needle blight and Ash dieback (Chalara) are also increasing threats not only to our landscape but also to our timber industry.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fungal-threats-to-our-crops-and-trees
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In his lecture, Professor Miller will consider the concept of creativity in the context of his research into the history and philosophy of nineteenth and twentieth century science and technology, cognitive science, scientific creativity, and the relation between art and science.
Key questions to be discussed include the following:
Why are some people are more innately talented than others?
Can algorithms enable us to better understand the mind of a Bach or a Mondrian?
Can computers be genuinely creative?
Can discoveries be made while dreaming?
Professor Miller's books include Empire of the Stars and Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc, which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/creativity-in-art-creativity-in-science
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The events that led to the Londonderry Plantation had momentous consequences, not only for Ireland, but also for the political development of England. The far-reaching effects are still very much with us today. Professor Stevens Curl will consider the Londonderry Plantation from 1641 to the end of the nineteenth century, demonstrating how the behaviour of the King led to the alienation of the City of London and its support for Parliament, and explaining the long period of disillusion in the face of the Land Agitation and political ferment of the latter part of the 19th century.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-londonderry-plantation-from-1641-until-the-disengagement
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Quasars are among the most dramatic objects anywhere in the cosmos. They emit prodigious amounts of energy, all due to a supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy. Visible far across the Universe, quasars can be used to trace both the early life of galaxies, and the properties of the intervening space.
he transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/quasars-%E2%80%93-the-brightest-black-holes
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
For centuries massive intellectual effort has gone into methods of ensuring secure communication, because of its importance in diplomatic, commercial and military affairs. Up until recently these methods have relied on the exchange of a secret key or protocol between correspondents. Now, however, a new approach based on mathematics, called public key cryptography, is used and this underlies much of modern commerce and how you pay over the internet.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/public-key-cryptography-secrecy-in-public
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Studies on biological invasion generally focus upon non-urban environments, but areas of high density of human activity are often heavily impacted by non-native biodiversity. This talk will focus on current trends in London's flora and discuss avenues of research interest.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/non-native-plants-a-london-perspective
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In this the final lecture in his series on the history of English building Simon Thurley looks back. What can be concluded from a survey of 1,400 years of English architecture and social life? How English is English building and how are Saxon halls and modern skyscrapers intimately related?
Human dispersal around the world has been accompanied by a range of other species that have established themselves outside the limits of their natural distribution. These invaders, non-native, exotic or alien species, are changing the natural world as these species, when once established, are very difficult to eradicate.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unwelcome-guests-alien-animal-invaders
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
A lecture with live musical illustrations on Olivier Messiaen's 'Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps' ('Quartet for the End of Time'), which was composed whilst imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp, Stalag VIIIA, Silesia, in 1941.
The musicians to perform the piece are as follows:
Oliver Janes, clarinet
Tanya Sweiry, violin
Hannah Rose Innes, cello
Morta Grigaliunaite, piano
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/in-prison-camp-messiaen-quatuor-pour-la-fin-du-temps
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Combinatorial mathematics is concerned with selecting, arranging and counting objects of various kinds. Included under its wide umbrella are permutations and combinations, graphs and networks, certain geometrical problems, and sudoku puzzles. This lecture marks the publication of Combinatorics: Ancient and Modern, edited by Robin Wilson and John J. Watkins and written for a general audience by a galaxy of distinguished historians of science and practising mathematicians. The first ever history of the subject, it has chapters ranging from ancient India and China, via the Islamic world and the Renaissance, to recent topics.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mathematics-that-counts
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Lord Harries will speak about his new book, being launched this week. The book is based on his series of lectures on 'The Image of Christ in Art', which he delivered during this term as Gresham Professor of Divinity, and examines ways in which artists have responded to religious themes.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/modern-art-enemy-or-friend-of-religious-art
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Is depression a response to unfortunate life events, or an unfolding of constitutional predisposition? The "learned helplessness" conceptualisation. Chemical and brain changes observed in depression - are they the cause or a manifestation of the negative mood?
The relationship between negative thoughts and depressed mood - which takes priority? What can be done to reverse the downward spiral? How can we tell when someone is at risk of suicide?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-black-dog-causes-and-cures-for-depression
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
It is frequently argued that liberalism as a set of political ideas arose out of the 16th and 17th century wars of religion that culminated in the Peace of Westphalia. Does liberalism provide a way of dealing with contested doctrines and, if it does, is this bought at what from a religious point of view may be seen as too high a cost, that is by turning religion into a set of private beliefs which should have no place in the public realm. Many religious believers dispute this, insisting that their beliefs have an intrinsic social and public dimension. If this is so then such religious beliefs pose a central challenge to liberal political and legal thought.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/religion-a-challenge-to-liberalism
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Shakespeare wrote of island Britain as 'This fortress built by nature for herself against infection and the hand of war'. A look at Britain in the 21st century in an age of rapid travel, major migrations and emerging drug resistant infections will consider why Britain is no longer a 'fortress' and what the implications are for its inhabitants and health services.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unwelcome-guests-human-diseases
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Informal Tribunals dealing with armed conflicts include that established for the Vietnam war by Bertrand Russell. This - and other similar tribunals - showed how the citizen is not bound by the willingness of the great international organisations to intervene in known atrocities. The lecture will summarise the factual issues, show how international legal systems were unable to cope and focus on the work and findings of the informal tribunals.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-vietnam-informal-tribunal
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Neuroscience is beginning to explore what happens when we read by monitoring the areas of the brain that are stimulated while we read. Do these findings matter to the Humanities? Is there neurological evidence that the brain responds differently to 'good' and 'bad' writing? How we read clichés will be examined, as well as what the experience of re-reading tells us about reading first time round?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-is-reading
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The implicit 'currencies' behind managing real people will be discussed - how communities exchange things and in the process create their own form of currency. The currencies within organisational communities can be power, influence, status and career prospects, which employers and managers 'trade' with currencies that can be expressed more traditionally in financial terms, such as budgets and salaries. By looking at organisations as communities that trade, insights can be gained into risks comparable to those of central banks, such as inflation, devaluation or capital flight, as well as what this means for managers in terms of good governance, risk assessment and management of finances. This lecture will give you an insight into your role within your organisation.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-currency-of-management-what-managing-money-teaches-us-about-managing-people
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Many robotic spacecraft have been sent to explore the cold, dry and dusty surface of Mars. They reveal a world not so dissimilar to Earth, shaped by meteor impacts, volcanic activity, weather and flash flooding. In addition, recent discoveries inform us about the possibilities for life on Mars - both in the past and the present.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-red-planet
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Martin Lloyd traces passports back over three thousand years, using illustrations from his collection of historic passports to discover how passport design was influenced by a desire to confound the forger, how it developed from the handwritten paper to the technically complex document we use today and how forgers have responded to the challenge presented by secret safeguards.
You will never look at your passport in the same light again.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fighting-the-forger-the-secrets-of-your-passport
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Looking at globalisation and its impact on the world's distribution of income, it is argued that, while in individual countries it may raise inequality, the overall impact of transferring incomes from richer countries to poorer ones means that for the world as a whole, the process actually reduces inequality. Paradoxically, globalisation can reduce global inequality through the transfer of income from rich to poor countries, and inequality may rise as richer members of societies cope better with the massive change.
The first lecture seeks to contrast Britain and the Continent in terms of history and institutions, contrasts emphasised by the Second World War. The effect of these contrasts was that Britain would be required to undergo a greater degree of adjustment than any of the countries of the Continent were she to seek to join the European enterprise.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-and-the-continent
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
In 1972 the meteorologist, Edward Lorenz, delivered a lecture with the title Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas? In this he showed that dynamical systems can exhibit chaotic, seemingly random, behaviour. Many scientists think that this ranks as one of the main scientific advances of the twentieth century together with relativity and quantum theory. I will also talk about how the butterfly effect links chaos and the beautiful geometric objects, fractals.
David Weaver, who has worked in various capacities on Wall Street since 1982, will examine current public perceptions of investment banking by deconstructing just exactly what is, in fact, the definition of the term, and how it has evolved. His goal is to help people appreciate the various components of investment banking and make decisions (personal career, regulatory, business) based on a richer understanding of the overall business of wholesale bankers.
This is the 2013 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/Images-and-Illusions-of-Investment-Banking
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Spence will explore the impact of the Treaty of Utrecht - 300 years after its creation - and other major treaties, and of the role of diplomacy.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/treaty-making-and-international-relations
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Professor Cross examines the themes of metamorphosis and other classical myths in music.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stravinsky-britten-and-the-lure-of-the-classical-past
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Illuminating one of the City of London Festival's main themes, the Bishop of London will explore trees as spiritual, mystical and religious symbols of faith and life.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-tree-of-life
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This is the 2013 Gray's Inn Reading.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-privatisation-of-law-has-a-world-court-finally-been-created-by-modern
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
This is the third in a series of three talks and performances marking the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten. The Badke Quartet will perform Britten's String Quartet No 3 in G major (1975).
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britten-and-the-string-quartet-a-classical-impulse-string-quartet-no3
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How did the City of London come to be involved in the Irish plantation? How well did the City discharge its obligations as colonial entrepreneurs on behalf of the English crown? Why did Charles I seek to confiscate the City's holdings in the 1630s?
In this lecture Dr Ian Archer, a historian of early modern London, explores the early years of the Londonderry plantation, showing the reluctance with which the Londoners took it on, but suggesting that they made the best of a difficult job. It brings out the challenges of colonial development and shows how the project soured relations between the City and the Stuart crown, the confiscation proving to be a major element in the breakdown of the regime in the 1640s.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london-derry-connections-the-early-years-1613-1640
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Poet Gillian Clarke has responded through her writing to many of the world's wars and troubles - for this special event she will read from her own work and that of war poets such as Wilfred Owen.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/poetry-of-war
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The City of London actively seeks to make the most of its green spaces and plant trees wherever possible. But does it plant the right sort of trees? What are the right sort of trees?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-plane-forest-does-the-city-have-the-right-trees
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
What use are rights we do not exercise? Peter Bradley calls for a reinvigoration of our commitment to free expression and argues that association between citizens and the free, face-to-face exchange of ideas, information and opinions is a key not just to rebuilding trust and participation in our democracy but also to creating a more successful, a more robust and indeed a happier society.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/free-speech-idiocy-and-the-challenge-of-citizenship
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Roger Gifford, will make the case for investment in excellence in Arts and Music, building on London's tradition of philanthropy - precursor to the important connection between commerce and community in the present day.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-lord-mayors-annual-gresham-lecture-why-give
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Britain's great gardens are among the glories of our countryside. But how much did they cost to build and maintain, who supplied their plants and equipment and what was involved in maintaining, managing and staffing them? This lecture, based on original records, is a further contribution by the Provost to the economic history of British gardening.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-and-running-great-gardens-1700-1900
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Development is a key term in the modernising global world. It is a target for many of the world's economically poorer nations. It is widely considered that history self-evidently demonstrates that sustained economic growth and development is a realistic aspiration for today's poorer countries, their leaders and their citizens. However, there is accompanying concern that the global development policies of the last seven decades have achieved a very mixed set of outcomes and that many countries and people remain poor.
This lecture argues that history can provide a surprisingly fresh approach to this problem, indicating the importance of policies which have not previously found many champions in the development literature. It is argued that we can learn a lot about development policies by paying careful attention to the first ever episode of successful economic development in the world - that of England. But to see the important lessons we need to adopt the right temporal perspective, examining the history of English society and economy from c. 1550 onwards, fully two centuries before the conventional dating of the start of the industrial revolution.
The 'Battle' of Cable Street which took place on the 4 October,1936 has become the defining myth of the East End of London and of the left,memorialised thereafter as the defeat of Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts amid the cries of 'They shall not pass!'
How did this enduring mythology arise, what was the nature of East End radicalism, what role did the police play, what were the origins of fascism and what happened after the events?
Professor Emeritus, Clive Bloom will investigate the British radical tradition between the wars and set Cable Street in the context of contemporary ideological conflict.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-mosley-riots
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
"Money just isn't what it used to be", my grandmother used to observe with a sigh... We could add today, and soon it won't be any longer what it now is! Money (and its relatives) are evolving, fast, in response to the revolution in information and communications and this evolution is certainly causing problems. But it is also opening opportunities for really significant changes in the economy.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/taking-modern-money-apart
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The historic collections have undergone some interesting developments in recent years. We will learn of new insights that have been revealed, and the roles of the library, architectural archive and object collection in the Cathedral's life.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-historic-collections-of-st-pauls-cathedral
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
It is hard to imagine an area of policy more future-orientated than environmental policy. Whether deciding the destiny of forests, nature reserves, protecting species, or seeking to arrest climate change, the policies we set now are shaping the world for generations to come.
At the heart of much of our policy-making is a concern for how to value the needs and aspirations of our descendants. This future-orientation has been built into the concepts of 'environment' and 'sustainability'. The short history of these terms only stretches back a few decades. However, we do find that most environmental problems of today were already known about in the 1940s and 50s. Looking back to see how the past thought we might value things in their future back then is a lesson for our assumptions about what the future will truly value.
But this isn't just a case of history repeating itself. The 'nature' we value is itself historical, the product of the interaction of humans and their environment over millennia. Species and landscapes we value and want to preserve are there because of what our ancestors did and the way past societies lived. The choices we make about conserving nature are choices about valuing the environments that our ancestors created; if we fail to understand this, we will not be able to devise conservation policies that work.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/choosing-a-past-for-the-future-why-todays-environment-policy-is-also-history-but
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The women in the suffrage movement were modern day experts on public campaigning, infiltrating hearts and homes with messages for 'the cause'. Antonia Byatt, who was the first director of The Women's Library, looks at some of the techniques they used to get the women's vote into the public mind. From public marches across the country (with all the associated press coverage) to badges, teacups and cook books, they were highly skilled at taking the campaign into people's everyday lives.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-soap-boxes-to-tea-sets-how-the-suffragette-movement-got-into-people%E2%80%99s
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
How will the Eurozone crisis impact on the UK's relationship with the EU?
In the past, the UK has always insisted on keeping a seat at the heart of the system. But it now suggests that it would be happy for Eurozone members to integrate more closely in order to withstand the crisis, without joining in itself.
In this new world, will there be a two tier or even a three tier Europe - the ins, the pre-ins and the outs (of which the UK would be by far the biggest member)? How sustainable would such a structure be over time? What are the benefits of the UK's EU membership, and could they be put at risk by domestic and European political pressures? If there is going to be a referendum on Britain's position in Europe, what are the main arguments for continuing a strong relationship with our European partners?
This is the 2013 Gresham Special Lecture.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-uk-and-the-new-face-of-europe
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
It is not easy to see how matters could be worsened by a parley at the summit.'
Winston Churchill coined the term 'summit' in 1950, during some of the darkest days of the Cold War. In the second half of the twentieth century summit meetings became a central element of international diplomacy -- among them dramatic encounters such as Kennedy and Khrushchev at Vienna in 1961 and Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik in 1986. Today summits are in the headlines all the time -- for meetings of the EU, G8 and G20 -- and the word is often used in other walks of life, especially in business. But there is relatively little reflection about what summit meetings are supposed to achieve or about their costs as well as benefits.
We need to take a long view of summitry, exploring why, for most of history, leaders deliberately avoided face-to-face meetings. We should look more closely at some of the classic Cold War meetings, asking why some worked and others did not. And we also need to understand how summitry has changed since the Cold War. 'Lessons' from the past are always tentative but this lecture suggests what twenty-first century statesmen might learn from history, if they have the time and inclination.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/summit-diplomacy-some-lessons-from-history-for-21st-century-leaders
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
From the broadsides of the sixteenth century to the broadsheets of the 19th century, taking in the Civil War newsbooks, the gutter press of the 18th century, the rise of the Sunday papers full of sex, sport and sensationalism, and the birth of the popular press, Bob Clarke describes the journey of the English newspaper from Grub Street to Fleet Street. The lecture will vividly portray the way the news was reported, providing a colourful, if often gruesome, picture of the social history of the past.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/from-grub-street-to-fleet-street-the-development-of-the-early-english-newspaper
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Basic economic accounting suggests that economic growth depends on productivity gains and changes to the workforce. With service sector productivity gains diminishing and baby boomers across Europe approaching retirement, businesses face crucial questions on how they will fare. What can be done to maintain levels of prosperity in the UK? Will business embrace older workers? Is Europe's best strategy to supply capital to emerging markets and hope to live off the proceeds? What can we learn from contrasts with Japan, China, India? We will explore how most economic decisions we face are driven by our rate of reproduction.
Vision is the dominant sense through which sighted people have developed our culture. It requires enormous computational power: over half of the human brain is assigned to create vision from the electrical impulses generated by light. Since ancient times, the beauty of the visual world has fascinated us. People born blind have learned extraordinary strategies. Integration of this information will allow robots to function more efficiently and give blind people new insights on their environment.
A panel discussion on the future of the internet, both for the individual and for the state.
The panel includes Ben Hammersley, Alexander Carter-Silk and Professor M. Angela Sasse. It is chaired by Professor Tim Connell
The states' right to retaliate against attack is a central pole of international law and politics. But how are we to understand this in the age of the internet. Would China, Russia or the USA be right to retaliate against a cyber-attack from another state? Where would that leave the world today? ...We are a lot closer to international cyber-warfare than you might think.
The Video and audio versions of thsi file can be found at:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/armageddon-and-the-cyberghost-cyber-attacks-as-acts-of-war
The full series 'Armageddon in Cyberspace can be found here:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/armageddon-in-cyberspace
The internet is a great opportunity, but also a great threat. Whose responsibility is it to protect internet users? Can we trust corporate or state bodies to take sufficient care? Can we trust ourselves to know the threats?
"The future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed"... Three essential truths about the connected world that we live today, and what they mean for how we should live our lives.
An introduction to the questions surrounding the internet today: What risk do we face as individuals, businesses and nations? Can we protect ourselves from the ghost of connectivity?
Founded in 1969, Keston Institute was the "voice of the voiceless" and regularly reported on the situation of persecuted believers in the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe. From its foundation, to ensure the reliability of its reporting, Keston Institute built up an archive of documentation from all the countries it studied. Today Keston's archive is unique and the main source for the history of religion in East and Central Europe as well as the former USSR.
A talk and performance to mark the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten. The Badke Quartet will perform Britten's String Quartet No 2 in C major (1945) after a short lecture by Professor Roger Parker FBA.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britten-and-the-string-quartet-a-classical-impulse-string-quartet-no2
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently nearly 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gresham-College/14011689941
The fascinating history of gardening and horticulture in Britain. Brent Elliott will take us through some of the library's unique collection of manuscripts, scrapbooks, archives of designers, photographs, portraits of gardeners, magazines, nursery catalogues
Sir Keith Joseph was the most articulate and powerful of the postwar exponents of the market economy at a time when it was distinctly unfashionable. He it was who provided the ideological dynamic for what came to be called Thatcherism. Indeed, Margaret Thatcher dedicated a volume of her autobiography to him, and declared that her reforms could never have been achieved without him. But he has also been an important influence on Tony Blair's New Labour. We still inhabit a world largely created by Keith Joseph, and we will probably continue to do so for a long time to come.
This is a part of the lecture series, Making the Weather: Six politicians who shaped our age.
Winston Churchill wrote of Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary at the beginning of the 20th century, that, even though he never became Prime Minister, he 'made the weather', meaning that he played a crucial role in shaping the political agenda of his day. These lectures discuss six postwar politicians, none of whom became Prime Minister, but who, like Joseph Chamberlain, also made the weather and so helped to shape the age in which we live.
Novelists reflected contemporary attitudes and influenced the way the City was seen both by the wider public at the time and then by later generations. Could long dead novelists have been far more powerful than long dead economists? Consider the fact that our view of Victorian society is so influenced by the negative images of Dickens when, at the time, Britain was the richest and most advanced country in the world!
An investigation into the performance style required by Corelli in his Op 5 solo violin sonatas and their arrangements as concertos by his pupil Geminiani.
To be performed by a Royal Academy of Music historical performance ensemble.
This is a part of the series of lectures and concerts, European Capitals of Music.
Famous musical capitals provide the framework for this series of lectures with live music. The first three concentrate not only on 19th century Vienna, but on Schubert in Vienna and writing chamber music. Why did this music happen then, where was it played, who provoked, preformed and paid for it. And was it considered successful?
The final three ask similar questions of other capital cities: 20th century chamber music in Paris, baroque music in London under the shadow of Handel, and virtuoso violin playing in Rome focused on Corelli, the 300th anniversary of whose death is being celebrated this season.
The works in each programme are played by present members of the Royal Academy of Music.
London has some major disadvantages that would make any transport policy difficult. However, even given the constraints, the current policy mix is so far away from ideal that it could be costing each household about £1,000 more than it should if transport were to be organised rationally. The lecture will give some suggestions about what could be done.
The first in a series of three talks and performances to mark the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten.
The Badke Quartet performs Britten's String Quartet No 1 in D major (1941).
William Hartley (1862-1937) was an early Fleet Street photographer whose fame was achieved from his court room sketches from the Old Bailey, Bow Street and other famous courts. Six volumes of his original sketches were donated to the world famous Crime Museum at New Scotland Yard, covering the period from 1893 to 1918, when many classic murder cases took place including Dr Crippen.
There is a perception that the recent financial crisis has led to a breakdown in trust between members of the public and the business and professional communities in the UK. To discuss the matter in more detail and to explore how the professional community can restore this 'lost' trust, Professions for Good convened a series a roundtables to examine trust in relation to three areas of life: who can you trust as an individual; who can you trust in business; and who can you trust in society/your community? Consumer bodies, leaders of key institutions and public figures also contributed to the debates.
How is public interest determined and monitored; do professional bodies and professionals walk the talk? Is the changing nature of professional partnerships likely to have an impact on the public interest role of the professions? Professional service firms and professionals - success criteria: is it all about profit per partner and ruthless commercialism? Community and society contributions - is pro bono work on an admirable scale or a token gesture for annual reports? How do we inculcate the right attitudes, behaviour and sense of responsibility from the outset in professionals? How best to regulate professionals; how is this evolving?
A panel discussion, with Gavin Ingham Brooke, Richard Chaplin, Hilary Lindsay and chaired by Professor Michael Mainelli.
Richard Chaplin looks in detail at professional networks and highlights recurrent pitfalls.
Michael Parker offers a 'provocative' analysis of just what makes a good professional so good (and so irritating!).
What features and competencies make a good professional? What common competencies do professionals need in different sectors? What are the cost and feasibility implications of a quality professional? How does the form of regulation interact with being professional?
A panel discussion with...
Music takes many forms and for a majority of listeners the highest levels of emotional satisfaction from music are derived from the organic relationship between dissonance (harmonic tension, disruption or conflict) and consonance (harmonic resolution). Music is a basic human impulse which...
Ian Ritchie, Simon Keyes and Sir Geoffrey Nice discuss issues raised during the afternoon. Professor Tim Connell chairs the panel and provides concluding remarks.
If a failure of disagreement is usually some form of polarisation or conflict, what does successful disagreement look like? It's not agreement. It may be some form of recognition that the different interests of antagonists in a dispute require some kind of mutuality. A successful...
Domestic criminal justice systems have objectives of retribution and deterrence. It is no part of such systems to bring peace and harmony to individuals whose divisions, of whatever kind, have taken shape in a crime. In contrast, international criminal justice systems typically have objectives...
Professor Tim Connell introduces the symposium and outlines the key issues at stake in conflict resolution.
The discipline of Ophthalmology is recognised both as an early adopter of new technology and a developer of novel techniques. Soon after lasers were invented, they were being used to treat diabetic eyes and new lasers developed into exquisite tools for reshaping the cornea in refractive...
There is a whole Universe of different shapes, sizes and colours of galaxies. We shall look at some of the 'ordinary' galaxies and then move on to consider the more peculiar systems, discussing quite how and why they came to morph into such strange shapes.
Tony Benn has been the most prominent modern spokesman of the movement for participatory democracy. It was he who secured the right of hereditary peers to renounce their titles, the right of the people to vote on membership of the Common Market in the referendum of 1975, and the right of Labour...
The idea of a proof as a simple, easily-checked method of establishing truth has undergone modification in the age of computers. But the specialisation of the mathematical world has resulted in difficulties with even entirely human-made proofs. Many major recent results of mathematics have proofs so specialised that there are very few people in the world who can understand them, while some proofs depend on computers to do calculations no human could perform. Where does pure mathematics stand in the digital age?
International war crimes courts deal only with the responsibility of individuals for crimes they committed. In order to avoid over-simplification of understanding what may have happened by the necessary concentration on individual criminal responsibility, it is vital...
The concluding lecture takes the example of HIV/AIDS and discusses how reactions to the epidemic mirrored those found in the social and cultural perception of earlier epidemics. As in earlier epidemics, sufferers have been ostracized, persecuted or blamed for their own misfortune. In...
A review of the past ten years' of the Boyle Lecture and their contribution to the dialogue between Christianity and our contemporary understanding of the natural world.
This is the fourth in a series of four 'Mondays at One' lectures, From Gin Lane to the Band of Hope.
A look at the world in 2020 and, more speculatively, 2050. Which countries are the likely beneficiaries of the changes? We will examine key major economies: China, India, Russia and Brazil, and key regions such as the Middle East and Africa, as well as the prospects for resource...
Lambeth Palace Library, founded in 1610, is the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the principal repository of the documentary history of the Church of England. This lecture outlines the foundation of the library and its collections, with...
It has been claimed that economics is just a branch of psychology. Certainly movements on the stock market reflect human greed and fears. The desire to acquire wealth is a major driving force in human behaviour and our relationship with money says much about who we are. If...
An area of which 19th century British mathematics could be uniformly proud was applied mathematics where new techniques were used on a wide range of problems. Figures such as William Thompson (later Lord Kelvin), Peter Guthrie Tait, George Stokes and James Clerk Maxwell succeeded in...
In 1800 cannabis preparations were almost entirely unknown in Britain as only the medical men of the period had any interest in them and few had access to samples of the plant. However, by the 1840s cannabis was being touted as one of the wonder-drugs of the age, as doctors out in the Empire...
For centuries of western history, the beauty of art was conceived as a response to, and a reflection of, the cosmic artistry of a good God, who patterned all things well. Aesthetic order was therefore a manifestation of cosmic order, and beauty an expression of the...
A panel discussion between Professor Richard Templer, Chris Hewett and Jan-Peter Onstwedder, chaired by Professor Michael Mainelli.
The panellists start by examining the role of different sectors in green investment, and looking at the problems caused by political instability, a short-termist and excessively complex financial system, and difficulties in scaling up from prototypes to more widely available technology. Questions are taken from the floor, with topics raised including the lack of clarity over what 'green' means, the possible use of quantitative easing and bond markets to support sustainable investment, and the need for systemic approaches rather than small-picture problem solving.
Professor Thorsten Beck is joined by John Authers and Barbara Ridpath for a panel discussion on Financial Innovation. The panellists first share their thoughts on financial innovation (such as human behaviour and the role of structured investment vehicles in the crash), before moving on to answer questions from the floor. Topics covered included payday lenders, the sources of demand for financial innovation, and the role of central banks in innovation.
The discussion is chaired by Professor Michael Mainelli.
Enoch Powell was the most powerful postwar exponent of the idea of the sovereignty of Parliament and indeed of English nationalism, opposing the coming of a multiracial society, devolution, and entry into the Common Market, as the European Union used to be called. His ideas proved unacceptable...
In June 1780 the most destructive urban riots in English history erupted onto the streets of London. Sparked by resistance to the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, the riots soon escalated into a sustained assault on government properties and institutions. Fuelled by popular resentment against the...
Why did some idealistic young people join the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1930s? What was the attraction of Communism and which beliefs, events or material circumstances prompted them to join? How did the Party respond to this predominantly university-educated group of recruits? These and related issues will be explored through case studies which trace their trajectories as members from recruitment through engagement and often to withdrawal.
Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp is contrasted with Ravel's very different Sonatine for the same combination.
Rehana Browne flute
George White viola
Mary Reid harp
This is a part of the series of lectures and...
The Second World War intensified and magnified debates that had been current amongst architects since 1914. It also marks a fault line in English architectural history. Architects, supported by politicians, decisively moved away from tradition and sought to create a new language...
Each week new observations add to the tally of 'hot-Jupiters' and 'super-Earths' found in orbit around nearby stars. Other planetary systems appear commonplace in our Milky Way, but how closely do they resemble our own Solar System, and what are the implications for life elsewhere?
The Holy Grail conjures up images of a romantic and heroic past, of magical journeys and brave knights.
What do we really know of its origin and meaning? It has entered the language as a phrase that embodies an infinitely desirable but attainable goal.
Is there any truth behind this intriguing object, or is it just one of the many myths of the Middle Ages?
This talk will consider why the symbol of the Holy Grail has proved so durable. It will follow the transformations of the medieval Grail through history, art, literature and theology.
The journey will take us across Europe and the Near East, and even to America as we unravel the cultural impact of Tennyson's Phantom Cup..
When lives depend on calculations, human error can kill. From the early days of computing, one problem has been that they generally work with a fixed number of digits, creating rounding errors. Chaos Theory has shown new ways in which computer arithmetic can give misleading results...
Addiction is a familiar feature of contemporary society. Not only do we have access to numerous substances linked to dependency, but we apply the term 'addiction' to an increasing array of other activities: shopping, eating, gambling and so forth. However, there remains deep uncertainty as to what addiction is, how it develops and how it should be tackled. Most strikingly, the question of whether addiction is a kind of disease remains unresolved - something which has significant implications for how addiction and addicts are viewed.
Dr Nicholls explores some of the ways in which thinking about addiction developed from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. He discusses how doctors, clerics and social commentators first began to work through the problem, moving uneasily between moral condemnation and quasi-clinical diagnosis. In following the evolution of these ideas, he considers in particular how changing approaches to addiction (which, until the 20th century, most often meant habitual drinking) reflected wider social and cultural developments.
This is the first in a series of four 'Mondays at One' lectures, From Gin Lane to the Band of Hope.
This lecture will look at the world surplus of savings as incomes gradually shift proportionally towards those who traditionally save a high proportion of their earnings and away from those who traditionally spend most of what they earn. In theory, the excess savings should be matched by...
There are many kinds of pattern in mathematics and many ways to think about them. But when it comes to visual patterns, one viewpoint stands out; symmetry.
This talk explores some basic ideas about symmetry, and shows how it helps us to understand patterns in nature - such as the markings...
How does my dog see? Do eagles have better vision than humans? This homocentric view of vision with its associated mythology is explored in this review of survival strategies used by various animals in their environments. The way we see is predicated by what we need to see....
Typhus, the subject of the fifth lecture in the series, was caused by a bacterium hosted by the human body louse, and has thus always been associated with dirty and overcrowded conditions and spread above all by armies marching across the countryside and living in filthy and unhygienic conditions. In 18th-century England it was known as 'gaol fever'. The 'hyginenic revolution' of the Victorian era reduced its incidence. Preventive measures taken on the Western Front reduced casualties, but it recurred during the Second World War, especially at Stalingrad and in Nazi concentration camps. The Nazis carried out numerous experiments on involuntary human subjects to try and develop preventive measures; in Nazi propaganda, the spread of typhus was attributed to the Jews, who were likened to bacilli or lice in order to make their mass murder at Auschwitz and elsewhere acceptable.
This lecture is part of the series, The Great Plagues: Epidemics in History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day.
It might be thought that if I own anything then I own my body and this idea has been crucial in justifying rights to private property through the exercise of my intellectual and physical capacities. In addition if I own my body it might be thought that I should be in a position to determine what I should do with it for example in selling organs and bodily products such as blood, stem cells or gene lines. In this lecture we shall look in detail at the issue of self ownership and its relationship to property rights and the idea of the body as a commodity.
This is a part of the lecture series, Religion and Values in a Liberal State.
'In the history of art late works are the catastrophes,' proposed Theodor Adorno. In this illustrated lecture Paul Kildea, author of the first major biography of Benjamin Britten in twenty years, disputes the narrative of decline that has engulfed Britten's music since the early 1970s.
The 'catastrophe' in Britten's music was not its quality, but how little traction it has had in the past forty years. Kildea unpicks Britten's precarious health and shows how it made him more determined than ever to write down the music that was on his mind. He discusses key late works - including Death in Venice, Phaedre, the String Quartet No. 3 - and how Britten saw them as a way of finishing old business and charting new territory. In this lecture, as in the previous two, Kildea looks at the personal and emotional insecurities that helped shape the twentieth century's consummate musician.
This is the third in a series of three lectures in which conductor Paul Kildea, author of a major new biography of composer Benjamin Britten, explores the life and music of this colossal twentieth-century artist.
This lecture analyses the crisis of trust and confidence which produced the Leveson Inquiry into the press and looks ahead to the likely outcomes.
There are many circumstances in which it is important to detect deception. Whether people are evaluating a partner's account of their activities involved in police investigations, jury duty, high-level diplomacy or simply deciding who to vote for at an election, sincerity is a major issue. How to tell whether someone is lying by verbal and body language clues is discussed, as well as the use of polygraphs, infrared cameras and computerised systems.
Not necessarily, for example the average person has fewer than two legs! This is because some people have fewer than two legs but nobody has more than two, so dividing the total number of legs by the total number of people to get the average gives a number less than two. Average does not mean typical! The lecture will examine how the work in the 19th century of such mathematicians as Florence Nightingale, Adolphe Queteller and Karl Pearson on describing and quantifying variation and uncertainty laid the foundations for the theory of statistics as a mathematical discipline.
The success of Peter Grimes caught Britten by surprise. It gave him enormous capital, but for the most part he chose to spend it outside London, away from the emerging music institutions the new Labour government was determined would establish the sort of cultural infrastructure Britain...
Trials at the ICTY concerned political violence and criminality that resulted from disintegration of a federation from which seven new successors states were formed. That process has been defined as a 'clash of state projects', where violence happened in areas claimed by two or more parties, or an aspiring state. The war crimes trials at the ICTY that resulted from overlapping territorial claims in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo produced a huge record of trial evidence. Problems in the very small state of Kosovo may be seen as the beginning of the violent process of disintegration, now known loosely as the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The conflict in Kosovo of 1998-9 may be seen as the end of those wars. Kosovo now seeks global recognition as an independent state but faces opposition both as to its international legal entitlements and as to how its history in the conflict should be viewed.
The fascinating story of eighteenth century haberdasher who recorded what he ate, what he purchased, how he slept and what the weather was like in obsessive detail. He also kept newspaper cuttings and admission tickets, he copied sermons, and collected coins, shells, fossils and books.
On the day Penguin publishes Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, the first major biography of Britten in twenty years, author Paul Kildea traces the emergence of the greatest English musician of the last century.
In this illustrated lecture Kildea explores the...
The First World War brought far reaching changes to England. These included a huge expansion of the suburbs, the massive growth of motoring and a debate about how England should look in the future. This was not a simple battle between conservationists and developers; it was a search for the soul of England.
This is a part of the lecture series, English Architecture: Into the Modern World.
Simon Thurley's four lectures complete his survey of English building from the Saxons to the present day. The theme is modernity and tradition. This is the story of how British architects struggled to find an architectural language that met the needs and aspirations of a society in a state of rapid change while negotiating deep and popular traditions and beliefs. Two World Wars shook the nation producing the seemingly contradictory emotions of nostalgia and progress. Out of this has come the world in which we live.
Detailed observations of galaxies, clusters, and the fine structures in the cosmic microwave background have refined the age of the Universe to 13.75 billion years. But they have also revealed the unexpected presence of dark energy, causing a huge paradigm shift in modern cosmology.
An economist's view of two million years of human history, covering milestones such as fire, trade, private property, agriculture, towns - and writing, accounting and finance. In particular Professor Schaffer examines why living standards for the average human being changed so little...
Long multiplication, long division and logarithms are, for many, dim-remembered memories, and few now use these skills. We will examine some of the tools that help us, from the abacus to calculators. Computers are the ultimate arithmetic tool but their method is one of the oldest, used by ancient Egyptians. We will demonstrate ways to impress friends with quick calculations and also show the link between ancient Egyptian arithmetic and today's computers.
Visual disorders affect the way we see, and therefore would be expected to influence how we depict the world in drawings and paintings. This fascinating subject is explored using images created by artists with known defects. We examine how possible defects in the vision of artists...
'Asiatic cholera', which arrived in Europe in the early nineteenth century, was widely seen as Asia's revenge on Europe for the extension of European empires in the East. During the nineteenth century governments reacted first by trying to establish quarantines, then when these did not work, the 'miasmatic' theory of disease communication became dominant. Some have argued this won favour because it furthered the interests of free trade and conformed to the beliefs of liberalism. Later in the century, with the discovery of the cholera bacillus, more effective preventive measures were introduced. Cholera was spread by armies (Crimean War) and trade. It hit the urban poor hardest, and epidemics often produced popular protest, with medical officials in Russia being lynched during the epidemic of 1892. Later outbreaks have almost always been associated with the breakdown of the state through civil war (Peru) or natural disaster (Haiti).
This lecture is part of the series, The Great Plagues: Epidemics in History from the MIddle Ages to the Present Day.
This lecture focuses on the question of whether justice in relation to markets is entirely to be seen as being procedural - that justice is a matter of securing the conditions of non-coercive economic exchange between free individuals. Or is justice also about social justice- that is to say about the proper distribution of resources and a concern about the outcomes of markets? If justice is about social as well as procedural justice how can we arrive at criteria for distributive justice if all moral values are seen as subjective? Should we not rather see market outcomes, in the words of the economist Fred Hirsch as being "in principle unprincipled"?
This is a part of the lecture series, Religion and Values in a Liberal State.
We will examine the practical implications of the new economic growth theory. With competitiveness and inflation as the main constraints on economic growth in the West, economic policy needs to be targeted at bringing down inflationary pressures and improving cost competitiveness.
...
Since the seventeenth century, members of the Religious Society of Friends - also known as Quakers - have often suffered for their beliefs and activities. In the early days, many were sent to prison. In later times they were prominent in the campaign against the...
Why do humans sleep? How much do we need to function effectively? How are our sleep patterns affected by artificial light? What, if anything, is accomplished by dreams? Do they have important personal meaning and provide portents, or are they just random activity of a brain left to its own devices. Why are they so hard to remember? Can we control the course of our dreams? Where do nightmares come from? New insights are emerging into the meaning of sleep and dreams.
Carl Friedrich Gauss one of the greatest mathematicians, is said to have claimed: "Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics." The properties of primes play a crucial part in number theory. An intriguing question is how they are...
How closely are we related to each other, and how recently do we all share an ancestor? The answer to those questions is: closer and more recently than you might think.
Professor Jones discusses patterns of relatedness in ancient and modern populations and how they can be...
In Rudyard Kipling's Just So story, the Leopard got its spots when the Ethiopian painted them on with his fingers. In the real world, the answer to the question of where patterns come from is not so simple. While the processes of natural selection provide us with a mechanism by which...
Roy Jenkins was Home Secretary from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1974 to 1976. He sponsored homosexual law reform and the legalisation of abortion as well as legislation outlawing racial discrimination. He helped create what its supporters called the civilised society but its enemies labelled the permissive society. During the 1970s, Jenkins's support for European unity put him at odds with many in the Labour Party; and in 1981, he helped found the new but short-lived Social Democratic Party. Meanwhile, as President of the European Commission, he had played a fundamental part in launching the idea of European monetary union.
This is a part of the lecture series, Making the Weather: Six politicians who shaped our age.
Winston Churchill wrote of Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary at the beginning of the 20th century, that, even though he never became Prime Minister, he 'made the weather', meaning that he played a crucial role in shaping the political agenda of his day. These lectures discuss six postwar politicians, none of whom became Prime Minister, but who, like Joseph Chamberlain, also made the weather and so helped to shape the age in which we live.
Schubert String Quartet no.14 in D minor, 'Death and the Maiden'
Jubilee Quartet:
Tereza Privratska and Alanna Tonetti-Tieppo violin
Stephanie Edmundson viola
Lauren Steel cello
This is a part of the series of lectures and concerts, European Capitals of Music.
Famous musical capitals provide the framework for this series of lectures with live music. The first three concentrate not only on 19th century Vienna, but on Schubert in Vienna and writing chamber music. Why did this music happen then, where was it played, who provoked, performed and paid for it. And was it considered successful?
The final three ask similar questions of other capital cities: 20th century chamber music in Paris, baroque music in London under the shadow of Handel, and virtuoso violin playing in Rome focused on Corelli, the 300th anniversary of whose death is being commemorated this season.
The works in each programme are played by present members of the Royal Academy of Music.
The litany of great financial scandals is long, and sadly unending. Dickens himself covers scandals we would recognise today in Little Dorrit and Nicholas Nickleby. Beyond Dickens, the South Sea Bubble (of course), railway shares, bonds in newly independent countries (Kingdom of Poyais), never again... IOS, Saavundra, Rolls Razor, Bank of Gibraltar, BCCI, never again... endowment mortgages, Barlow Clowes, Equitable Life, Maxwell, Lloyd's names, Lehman Brothers, payment protection insurance, never again... This symposium seeks, through the ghosts of scandals past, present and future, to see what lessons we can learn and to assess which is rosier, the future of finance or of financial scandals.
The litany of great financial scandals is long, and sadly unending. Dickens himself covers scandals we would recognise today in Little Dorrit and Nicholas Nickleby. Beyond Dickens, the South Sea Bubble (of course), railway shares, bonds in newly independent countries (Kingdom of Poyais), never again... IOS, Saavundra, Rolls Razor, Bank of Gibraltar, BCCI, never again... endowment mortgages, Barlow Clowes, Equitable Life, Maxwell, Lloyd's names, Lehman Brothers, payment protection insurance, never again... This symposium seeks, through the ghosts of scandals past, present and future, to see what lessons we can learn and to assess which is rosier, the future of finance or of financial scandals.
The litany of great financial scandals is long, and sadly unending. Dickens himself covers scandals we would recognise today in Little Dorrit and Nicholas Nickleby. Beyond Dickens, the South Sea Bubble (of course), railway shares, bonds in newly independent countries (Kingdom of Poyais), never again... IOS, Saavundra, Rolls Razor, Bank of Gibraltar, BCCI, never again... endowment mortgages, Barlow Clowes, Equitable Life, Maxwell, Lloyd's names, Lehman Brothers, payment protection insurance, never again... This symposium seeks, through the ghosts of scandals past, present and future, to see what lessons we can learn and to assess which is rosier, the future of finance or of financial scandals.
The litany of great financial scandals is long, and sadly unending. Dickens himself covers scandals we would recognise today in Little Dorrit and Nicholas Nickleby. Beyond Dickens, the South Sea Bubble (of course), railway shares, bonds in newly independent countries (Kingdom of Poyais), never again... IOS, Saavundra, Rolls Razor, Bank of Gibraltar, BCCI, never again... endowment mortgages, Barlow Clowes, Equitable Life, Maxwell, Lloyd's names, Lehman Brothers, payment protection insurance, never again... This symposium seeks, through the ghosts of scandals past, present and future, to see what lessons we can learn and to assess which is rosier, the future of finance or of financial scandals.
The litany of great financial scandals is long, and sadly unending. Dickens himself covers scandals we would recognise today in Little Dorrit and Nicholas Nickleby. Beyond Dickens, the South Sea Bubble (of course), railway shares, bonds in newly independent countries (Kingdom of Poyais), never again... IOS, Saavundra, Rolls Razor, Bank of Gibraltar, BCCI, never again... endowment mortgages, Barlow Clowes, Equitable Life, Maxwell, Lloyd's names, Lehman Brothers, payment protection insurance, never again... This symposium seeks, through the ghosts of scandals past, present and future, to see what lessons we can learn and to assess which is rosier, the future of finance or of financial scandals.
The London Underground today is one of the world's largest and busiest urban metros. Exactly 150 years ago, on 9 January 1863, when the inaugural train left Paddington for Farringdon with invited guests, the Metropolitan Railway was hailed as an amazing pioneer. A public service began on...
Charlatan "cures" and "alternative" treatments are widespread and popular. Despite lacking any credible rationale, people often seem to benefit from them. The power of suggestion and "placebos" is impressive. What accounts for miracle cures and phenomena like stigmata?
For 100 years up to the end of the 19th century the study of geometry was completely changed with the development of non-Euclidean geometries and the use of techniques to think of geometries in higher dimensions - a development essential to Einstein in his development of the theory of General...
Schubert Quintet in A, D.667 "Trout"
Eleanor Corr violin
Xin Xin Liu viola
Hannah Rose Innes cello
Jack Maran Hewetson double bass
Morta Grigaliunaite piano
When light from the Sun and the Moon enters our atmosphere, it is sometimes reflected, refracted and dispersed by tiny ice crystals, water droplets and dust to produce a whole host of fantastic atmospheric visions. Some are even more common than you realise...
Adrift and barely floating amidst financial crises, governments claim that they cannot afford to deliver on all their promises. Necessity has brought forth new views on government finance and how it can be used to achieve social ends. Many of these views are redressed mutton. Some...
The symposium concludes with a panel discussion where representatives from the Government Actuary's Department and the Office of National Statistics speak on how changing mortality patterns interact with contemporary policy and planning issues. The final word is given to Professor Jim Vaupel, whose keynote speech considers mortality and population health.
Speakers present the current 'state-of-the-art' of mortality studies in the UK, Europe and beyond, with consideration to the influence of Graunt.
Speakers present the current 'state-of-the-art' of mortality studies in the UK, Europe and beyond, with consideration to the influence of Graunt.
Speakers present the current 'state-of-the-art' of mortality studies in the UK, Europe and beyond, with consideration to the influence of Graunt.
Speakers open the symposium with an historical approach, examining mortality patterns in London.
The symposium concludes with a panel discussion where representatives from the Government Actuary's Department and the Office of National Statistics speak on how changing mortality patterns interact with contemporary policy and planning issues. The final word is given to Professor Jim Vaupel, whose keynote speech considers mortality and population health.
Speakers open the symposium with an historical approach, examining mortality patterns in London.
Speakers open the symposium with an historical approach, examining mortality patterns in London.
An introduction to the conference marking the 350th anniversary of the publication of John Graunt's London Bills of Mortality in 1662.
The British Architectural Library at the RIBA is the largest and most comprehensive resource in the United Kingdom for research and information on all aspects of architecture. Its collections are one of the top three in the world and the finest in Europe.
A wealth of subjects in...
The third lecture in the series deals with tuberculosis, of all diseases the most widely represented in literature, opera and drama. The disease has been present in humans since prehistory and hence has a particularly long pedigree of representation in myth and culture, being one of the sources of vampire stories on the one hand, and playing a key role in novels of slow deathbed decline on the other. Though many characters in the fictional representation of tuberculosis are well-off, most famously of course in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, it was in fact a disease of the poor, and reached new levels in the industrial revolution. Correspondingly the slow decline of its incidence owed more to housing reform, slum clearance and increasing prosperity than to medical intervention. The discovery of the vector of the disease in the late nineteenth century led to effective prevention through the BCG vaccine from the 1920s, and after 1945 the arrival of antibiotics promised its complete eradication. Since the 1980s however resistant strains of the disease have been spreading, and it has once more become associated with poverty, poor state management and control of disease, and wretched housing conditions, above all in India.
This lecture is part of the series, The Great Plagues: Epidemics in History from the Middle Ages to the Present Day.
This lecture focuses on the relationship between markets and freedom and the extent to which freedom should be seen as being entirely a matter of freedom of choice and the number of choices which an individual has available. Markets have often been seen as the embodiment of individual choice....
An exploration of the remarkable consequences of using Boltzmann's 1870s probability theory and cutting-edge 20th Century mathematics in economic settings. An understanding of risk, market stability and economic inequality emerges.
The lecture presents two problems from economics: the...
Did the eye evolve and, if so, how? Creationists and evolutionary biologists have argued over this controversy since Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. About 830 million years ago, in the Cambrian period, an explosion of the number of species occurred, and the possession of vision was a major survival advantage. Did these diverse eyes evolve separately many different times? Recent genetic research on eyes in insects and mammals reveals that they are more closely related than suspected.
The Survey of London is the closest thing we have to an 'official' history of London, providing a fascinating insight into some of the City's most famous and characteristic districts and buildings.
Traditional economic growth theory is based on a view that economic capacity is fully utilised. But with huge changes in relative advantage, it is possible for a part of the world to be faced with such a huge loss of economic competitiveness that it is unlikely that it can price itself back to...
The First World War had a devastating effect on Britain. Human and economic loss was accompanied by a loss of confidence and direction. This lecture looks at both the cultural effects of the War and its architectural impact. Both saw a struggle to reconcile a rejection of the pre-...
Iain Macleod was, with Joseph Chamberlain, one of two great Colonial Secretaries of the 20th century. In the early 1960s, he ensured the rapid ending of Britain's African empire. This allowed Britain to avoid the imperial traumas which afflicted France and Portugal. If the African ex-colonies choose to remain in the multi-racial Commonwealth, that in large part is due to Iain Macleod.
This is a part of the lecture series, Making the Weather: Six politicians who shaped our age.
Philanthropy has always been a feature of public life from faith and good works in medieval times to charitable giving today. This symposium looks at philanthropy in its historical context, reviews the work of the great philanthropists of the nineteenth century in particular, and asks what it has to offer in the world today.
Philanthropy has always been a feature of public life from faith and good works in medieval times to charitable giving today. This symposium looks at philanthropy in its historical context, reviews the work of the great philanthropists of the nineteenth century in particular, and asks what it has to offer in the world today.
Philanthropy has always been a feature of public life from faith and good works in medieval times to charitable giving today. This symposium looks at philanthropy in its historical context, reviews the work of the great philanthropists of the nineteenth century in particular, and asks what it has to offer in the world today.
Philanthropy has always been a feature of public life from faith and good works in medieval times to charitable giving today. This symposium looks at philanthropy in its historical context, reviews the work of the great philanthropists of the nineteenth century in particular, and asks what it has to offer in the world today.
"The Enlightenment" has been regarded as a turning point in the intellectual history of the West. The principles of religious tolerance, optimism about human progress and a demand for rational debate are often thought to be a powerful legacy of the ideas of Locke, Newton, Voltaire and Diderot. There was however a radical Enlightenment, indebted to the materialism of Hobbes and Spinoza, which posed an even greater challenge to traditional religious and political values. Given the 'return of religion' and the challenges of potential environmental catastrophe, Professor Champion argues to the contrary in this lecture on why we would be wise to go back to explore some of the more radical insights of Enlightenment freethinkers.
This is the 2012 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture.
X-radiation is only emitted by the hottest and most energetic parts of the Universe - sites of gigantic explosions, plasma heated to millions of degrees, and where there are intense magnetic or gravitational fields.
"Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide" (Dryden). There often seems to be a link between creativity and mental illness. Many great poets, playwrights, artists and composers suffered from depression, alcoholism, obsessionality, bipolar or psychotic disorders at some time in their lives. How strong is the link and what might account for it? Are these disorders beneficial to the creative process or a drawback that must be overcome?
We are familiar with the formula for solving a quadratic equation where the highest power of the unknown is a square. The quest for a similar formula for equations where the highest power is three, four five or more led to dramatic changes in how this question was regarded. Powerful...
Tony Stoller, Chair of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, considers the relationship between popular discourse and policy-making. Drawing upon recent examples from a wide range of sectors, including adult social care, welfare reform, housing and broadcasting,...
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was one of the most important mathematical physicists of all time, after only Newton and Einstein. Within a relatively short lifetime he made enormous contributions to science which this lecture will survey. Foremost among these was the formulation of the theory of electromagnetism with light, electricity and magnetism all shown to be manifestations of the electromagnetic field. He also made major contributions to the theory of colour vision and optics, the kinetic theory of gases and thermodynamics, and the understanding of the dynamics and stability of Saturn's rings.
Peter Guthrie Tait (1831 - 1901) was significantly less famous than his friends Maxwell and Kelvin, but unfairly so because he was an important and prolific mathematical physicist. He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1859, narrowly beating Maxwell to the post, and worked on a variety of topics including thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases. In a fantastic experiment involving smoke rings, Tait and Kelvin came up with a new atomic theory based around the idea of knots and links. This took on a mathematical life on its own, with Tait becoming one of the world's first topologists and inventing conjectures which remained unproven for over a hundred years.
Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1846 to 1899. An FRS, FRSE, knighted in 1866, awarded the Order of Merit in 1902, and in death buried beside Newton at Westminster Abbey, Kelvin was in his lifetime considered the pre-eminent natural philosopher of the Victorian Age. But the passage of time, and the supplanting of classical physics, have eroded his reputation. This talk will survey Kelvin's life and work, and seek to show why the assessment of Kelvin's importance by his contemporaries was not misplaced.
The permanent International criminal Court - the ICC - was long in planning and finally came into existence after the ad hoc Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals (the ICTY and the ICTR) were seen to have had some success. However, problems facing the permanent court that involves itself in continuing conflicts have been seen to be different from those of the ad hoc tribunals that deal with conflicts that had been largely concluded when the tribunals first sat. African countries whose citizens have been brought before the ICC complain of unfairness and bias and that the ICC has become a court for Africa, nowhere else. May they be right? Has the court dealt evenly with different countries or has it shown itself to be vulnerable to political influences? When the ICC becomes involved in continuing conflicts - as it has done in Africa - does it inevitably become involved in the politics of regime change and even in the conflicts themselves? Does the tension between the universal jurisdiction claimed by international criminal courts and the immunity of heads of state from pursuit in courts help or harm when the tension leads to some heads of state remaining in office simply to maintain their immunity from pursuit? Sir Geoffrey Nice's involvement in the Sudan, Kenya and Libya cases may provide insight and indicate how a venture some think doomed could yet be saved.
The sexually transmitted disease syphilis is generally thought to have been imported into Europe from the Americas in the late fifteenth century as part of the 'Columban exchange', in which other diseases, notably smallpox, travelled in the other direction, with terrible consequences for Native American society. It spread rapidly through Europe, spread above all by armies moving across the continent in the many wars of the time. Painters from Dürer to Rembrandt represented the ravage it wrought, while the threat it posed gave rise to numerous treatments in literature and drama (notably Ibsen' Ghosts) and strongly affected attitudes to sexuality and prostitution, both explored in this lecture. It remained common well into the twentieth century and still kills millions worldwide every year; reasonably effective treatment only became possible just before the First World War, and the search for a complete cure led to dangerous medical experiments on involuntary human subjects later in the twentieth century, raising major issues of medical ethics.
A panel discussion on issues of leadership, with Dr Douglas Board, Simon Caulkin and Dr Liz Mellon, chaired by Professor Michael Mainelli.
How to spot an exceptional leader (or not), according to a top UK board-level headhunter.
http://gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/science-politics-and-intuition-in-executive-selection
An HR manager, a politician and a business executive walk into a bar to choose the next CEO of Barclays, Archbishop of Canterbury or head of your kids' school... take your pick. The last forty years have seen major changes in the way people are chosen to fill front-line or middle management jobs. We now have job descriptions, person specifications and competencies. Interviews sit alongside ability tests, psychometric profiles, job simulations or '360 feedback'. But how people get selected for jobs at the top of organisations has changed very little. Why? Are we choosing leaders badly, and if so, could we do better. Douglas Board argues 'yes'.
This lecture is based on the author's doctoral research into his experience as a board-level headhunter. Over 18 years he recruited leaders for a diversity of organisations - household-name retailers and NHS trusts, banks and universities, government departments and charities. A way of understanding our skills, our thinking and our acting (and our science) is proposed based on the concept of 'practice' as developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930 - 2002). Seeing differently the place of science, politics and intuition in our lives and our society, clarifies why leadership selection is stuck and how it could change. It also offers insights into ourselves.
http://gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/science-politics-and-intuition-in-executive-selection
This was a part of a symposium explores leadership from a number of angles, focusing on recent contributions to aspects of leadership at the most senior levels which management literature tends to neglect. Speakers assess the correct balance between public leadership, the roles of power and politics in effective leadership and the limited treatment of this subject in much conventional thinking. They also consider who we would want to lead us, and ask whether we should offer ourselves for such roles?
http://gresham.ac.uk/leading-at-the-top-power-and-politics
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/science-politics-and-intuition-in-executive-selection
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Academics have spent decades studying leaders, trying to decode the DNA that can be passed on, in order to develop leaders at all levels. As a result, we have a whole industry dedicated to describing, observing and measuring the behaviours that leaders exhibit. In this pursuit, we have lost sight of how leaders think - and this is what really drives them. If leaders get their thinking right, Liz Mellon argues, they will do the right thing.
Professor Michael Mainelli introduces the symposium and outlines what he sees as the four major themes of leadership: vision, popularity, integrity and power.
http://gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leading-at-the-top-power-and-politics-an-introduction
The symposium explores leadership from a number of angles, focusing on recent contributions to aspects of leadership at the most senior levels which management literature tends to neglect. Speakers assess the correct balance between public leadership, the roles of power and politics in effective leadership and the limited treatment of this subject in much conventional thinking. They also consider who we would want to lead us, and ask whether we should offer ourselves for such roles?
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/leading-at-the-top-power-and-politics-an-introduction
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
As the eye ages, profound structural changes occur, leading to visual impairment and even blindness. Exciting discoveries in biological science and surgery are opening up possible new treatments for these common conditions. The economic impact on society as populations become older...
Originally founded in the 1420s under the terms of the will of Richard Whittington, Guildhall Library now specialises in the history of London, but amongst its many other collections of national and international importance is the largest collection of food, cookery and drink related books in...
John Maynard Keynes was asked how he saw the future and replied "The future is not seen, it is made". However, you cannot make the future when dealing with something conceived out of passion. Thus, the future of London Theatre - whether buildings or productions - cannot be planned because they represent the substance of faith.
So let us examine why drama has never been destroyed and, since early Greek and Roman times, has outlived the very civilisations that produced it...
This is the fourth in a series of four 'Mondays at One' lectures on The Theatre in London.
John Powell is an experienced medical advisor on a range of television dramas including Casualty 1909 and Downton Abbey. In this lecture he will explain how research in hospital archives and in medical journals has informed drama storylines, and how the television medical...
Professor Kealey argues the case for world-class universities being established in the UK as charitable bodies independent of the state for teaching, alongside the benefits of access to state funding for research.
The lecture is delivered by Professor Terence Kealey, Vice-Chancellor,...
Aneurin Bevan was the leading postwar representative in Britain of the socialist ideal. He is best remembered for the creation of the National Health Service which he regarded as a symbol of applied socialism, a national service free at the point of use and available to all. But, even before he...
In June 2011 the first ever Mandarin language production of a first class musical opened in Shanghai to an ecstatic reaction from audiences, the Press and some might say most importantly, the Government. The Chinese version of Mamma Mia! has broken new ground, bringing London's West End to the Chinese population in their own language. As the newest world market for West End theatre what does the success of Mamma Mia! say about opportunities in China for British theatre and what does an appetite for West End productions say about modern China?
This is the third in a series of four 'Mondays at One' lectures on The Theatre in London.
Speakers look at the limits to world economic growth from an environmental and economic perspective. Will inflation caused by rising primary product prices be likely to be the key constraint on economic growth? Douglas McWilliams, Thras Moraitis and Mike McWilliams consider whether...
By 1900 Britain had produced the world's largest cities and the first industrial cities. These phenomena led to vast technical, social and architectural challenges. Victorian architects and engineers met these with some of the most impressive feats of construction since the...
Our only natural satellite has been an object of fascination for humankind since prehistory. Despite being the only other place in the Solar System we have visited in person, we are still making startling discoveries about the Moon - and what it reveals about our planet.
Personality is partly inborn and mediated by brain structures, hormones and neurotransmitters. It influences social behaviours such as gambling, sexual behaviour, extreme sports, impulse control disorders and criminality. Is there an additive personality? Do men and women differ in personality? Modern research on the connections between neural presences and personality is presented and evolutionary reasons offered for some of the variations.
The aim of this lecture is to be both self contained but also an introduction to the other lectures. Market based orders are usually thought of as embodying a sense of individualism and moral subjectivism. At the same time there is unease about both the moral basis of markets as well as their limits. How are we to understand the moral basis of markets - for example of property rights since markets are essentially exchanges of property rights, the role of trust in economic exchange and questions of justice in relation to markets? Throughout these lectures we shall consider what place if any religious thinking about such matters can play in a liberal pluralistic society.
This is a part of the lecture series, Religion and Values in a Liberal State.
Theatre can be seen as yesterday's art form. The Greeks did it. Shakespeare did it best. We have just lived through the century of film and television. Now we are in the new digital age. Is the survival of the theatre now really threatened? If so, how should the challenge be met?
...
Florian Mitrea and Alexandra Vaduva, piano duet.
This is a part of the series of lectures and concerts, European Capitals of Music.
As Head of The Society of London Theatre (SOLT), the organisation which represents all theatre owners and producers in the West End, both commercial and subsidised, Julian Bird will be talking about the history of London theatre and its relative strengths in the world today. He will also be covering the important economic impact of London theatre around the world and will talking about some of the opportunities and challenges which lie ahead.
What lessons might the financial sector learn from Darwin's theory of evolution?
This is the 2012 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
Some of our hospitals - notably St Bartholomew's - house unique museums including not only works of art and documents but surgical and medical equipment and fascinating anatomy collections. Professor Ayliffe will tell us about some of the treasures to be found and discuss their value...
Bubonic plague first swept Europe in the age of Justinian, in the sixth century, killing an estimated 25 million people in the Byzantine Empire and spreading further west. Its most devastating outbreak was in mid-fourteenth-century Europe, when it destroyed perhaps a third of the continent's population. Italian city-states pioneered the policies of quarantine and isolation that remained standard preventive measures for many centuries; religious revival and popular disturbances, crime and conflict may have spread as life was cheapened by the mass impact of the plague. The economic effects of the drastic reduction in population were severe, though not necessarily negative. Later outbreaks of the plague culminated in outbreaks in Seville (1647), London (1665), Vienna (1679) and Marseilles (1720) and then it disappeared from Europe while recurring in Asia through the nineteenth century. The plague set the template for many later confrontations with epidemic disease, discussed in the following lectures.
In 1734 Bishop Berkeley published a witty and effective attack on the foundations of the calculus as developed by Newton and Leibniz. But it took nearly 90 years for the calculus to be given a rigorous foundation through the work of the prolific mathematician, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, who...
Architect Keith James Clarke experiences the Austrian landscape and scenery that inspired Mahler. He travels by foot and bicycle to rediscover Mahler's much-loved haunts.
Are we sleepwalking into the most serious economic challenge that we have ever faced without any serious thinking about its scale and implications? We will examine the industrialisation of two thirds of the world in its historical context, make comparisons with previous major economic...
In the last twenty years several international courts have been established to try crimes committed in armed conflicts. Public expectation of what these courts may achieve is high; but are the courts living up to that expectation? Is the public expectation realistic and part of a...
The cities of Northern Europe developed their trading links with our own City of London. An important by product of their economic success was the flowering of culture in all these cities and their attraction of talent from other places.
In this talk Dr Robin Probert explains why human livelihoods depend so much on wild plant diversity. He outlines the current threats to wild plants across the globe and how Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership works to conserve plants and make seeds available for habitat repair, re-...
In this lecture, Dominic Sandbrook, the acclaimed historian of Sixties Britain, marks the 50th anniversary of the City of London Festival by looking back at Britain in 1962. Fifty years on, the Britain of Harold Macmillan, Acker Bilk, Jimmy Greaves and James Hanratty feels like a vanished world. But was life back then really so different?
This is a part of the series of lectures held in partnership with the 2012 City of London Festival.
How might the arts help 'reset' the direction of the human compass in our difficult times? Is an instrumentalist approach to the arts and culture ever a good thing? Knighted for his services to literature and Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, Sir Andrew Motion proposes answers to these questions, with reference to his own education as well as poems by Alice Oswald, Seamus Heaney and William Wordsworth.
Policy-makers are considering large-scale early intervention programs to enhance children's self-control, with the aim of reducing crime and improving citizens' health and wealth.
Experimental studies and economic analyses are suggesting that such programs could reap benefits for a...
From the impressions of his first youthful visit, to his mature years when all doors opened for him, London was an important backdrop to much of Conan Doyle's life and work. From the Sherlock Holmes stories to The Lost World (in this, the 100th anniversary year of...
There is general agreement among non-family lawyers that family procedures should be more transparent. But exactly what role should the media play in matters of family justice?
This is the 2012 annual Gray's Inn Reading.
David Cairns delivers this lecture ahead of the City of London Festival performance of Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts Op. 5 (Requiem) by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Colin Davis, which took place at St. Paul's Cathedral.
This is a part of the series of...
London is a city of secrets, a shifting, seething mass of intrigue, venality and violence, in constant cultural flux. The perfect setting for crime fiction - but how does the modern writer decode this centuries' old conurbation?
Cathi Unsworth investigates those authors who haunt certain...
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman David Wootton, examines the role, contribution and connections of the City and business - fundamental elements of our community.
This is the 2012 Lord Mayor's Annual Gresham Lecture.
The other Lord Mayor's Annual Gresham Lectures are as...
How can the House of Commons engage more effectively with the public which it serves? Can modern technology assist this enterprise?
This is the 2012 Gresham Special Lecture.
The urban detective has traditionally been a figure supremely able to penetrate the mysteries of the city, yet set apart from the populace he protects. Have recent London crime stories abandoned their confidence in the interpretative abilities of the detective? Can we still believe in omniscient...
Interstellar space is not truly a vacuum devoid of matter. Mixed into vast diffuse clouds of atomic gas are minute grains of silicate and carbonate materials known as 'dust', alongside complex molecules deep in the cold hearts of nebulae. We shall look at how we can detect and observe this tenuous material, through the processes by which dust scatters and absorbs visible light, and emits its own infrared glow. This interstellar matter is of fundamental importance to us all, as it is the reservoir from which all planets form... and any lifeforms living on those planets.
From his childhood acquaintance with London, when he feared he might become 'a little robber or a little vagabond', Charles Dickens was fascinated by crime. His novels all include criminal activity of some kind as he investigates criminal psychology and the causes of crime. Dickens lived through a period of considerable development in society's treatment of criminals: the foundation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829, the Detective Force in 1842, the same year as the New Model Prison opened at Pentonville; the ending of transportation and of public executions; the word 'penology' was first used in 1838, the year he began to publish Nicholas Nickleby. Dickens engages with these issues very fully, both in his fiction and in his journalism, as this talk will explore.
This is the first lecture as part of the "Literary London Crime" Mondays at One series.
To millions of moviegoers around the world Cary Grant epitomises the glamour and style of Hollywood in its golden years. With his luminous dark hair and mischievous smile he was one of its greatest stars. This lecture is an attempt to look behind the mask he presented to the world.
Innovation is seen as the key to economic growth. But is this true of innovation in services, which now employ 75% of us, as well as in manufacturing industry? This lecture explores innovation in the "knowledge industries" through the development of the subject of economic history over the past 50 years.
Psalters containing the 150 Psalms were immensely popular medieval manuscripts, used by a wide array of patrons for liturgical, scholastic and devotional purposes. This lecture explores how the Psalms inspired a rich tradition of literal, historical and interpretative illustration, from the 9th to the 14th centuries, across Europe.
One of the Coalition Government's first actions was to attempt a bonfire of the quangos. In order that the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater, one has to consider what areas of life do and do not need regulation. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is highly regarded and is a good example of inexpensive necessary regulation in the interests of patients and children. It has however been under consideration for abolition. There are good and bad quangos. What general principles should govern regulation and who should do the regulating?
This is part of Baroness Deech' series Regulation, Regulation, Regulation.
The fall of Margaret Thatcher left a legacy that was both contested and divisive. During the 1990s, the Conservative Party, under the impact of divisions on Europe and on economic policy, began to fragment. But, after four election defeats, Labour, under Tony Blair, who relabeled the party New Labour, seemed to be adopting some of the main tenets of Thatcherism. To what extent was there a new consensus in the 1990s, and were the policies of the New Labour government, elected in 1997, an extension of Thatcherism or a repudiation of it?
This is a part of the lecture series Britain in the Twentieth Century: Progress and Decline.
It was lovely last weekend. Warm enough to wear shorts and sandals taking the dog for a walk in the park. How can this nasty red rash on my ankle have anything to do with it? Don't remember being bitten. There was a little black thing on my ankle, but just...
Most people fear giving speeches, almost as much as the rest of us dread listening to them. The lectern has a cruel capacity to render even the mighty vulnerable. Fortunately there is a science to the art of public speaking and it dates back to Ancient Greece. Simon Lancaster will open up a veritable treasure trove of ancient rhetorical devices and help you discover how to become a master in the language of leadership.
Medieval drawings are frequently viewed as the poor cousins of fully-painted miniatures. But in England, an appreciation of drawing persisted throughout the Middle Ages. Based within the late 10th and early 11th centuries, this lecture proves that drawing was more than an expedient alternative to full paint.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/drawings-in-anglo-saxon-manuscripts
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
The Chief Scientific Adviser is the head of Home Office Science, which provides scientific advice and support to the whole range of the Home Office's work as the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, counter-terrorism and police. Many aspects of our scientific work involve mathematics, and in this talk a selection will be presented. These show not only how mathematics is used by one particular government department, but also how wide is the range of topics where mathematical thinking and methods are important.
This is the 2012 joint London Mathematical Society / Gresham College lecture.
Pavlo Beznosiuk, one of the world's leading baroque violinists, explains and demonstrates the challenge of music for solo violin; works by Nicola Matteis and Heinrich Biber lead to a discussion and performance of the famous Chaconne from Bach's Solo Partita in D minor. Can such a work be satisfactorily analysed or does "music begin where words leave off"?
Changes in the Sun's output can endanger health, power supplies and satellite systems. To prepare adequately for such events and to make judicious use of solar energy we need to investigate the Sun's 4.7 billion year history.
Britain's legal profession is renowned the world over for its skill and independence. The cab rank rule governs barristers, ie they are obliged to accept the next case that presents itself, thereby ensuring that even the most unpopular of defendants has a representative, and that the barrister...
Beyond the Solar System, all astronomers have to work with is the light that falls to the Earth from distant cosmic objects. Newer, larger telescopes are always needed to boost scientific progress, and the next generation of facilities - whether the 42m diameter optical-infrared Extremely Large...
Illuminated manuscripts are some of the most beautiful artefacts to survive from the Middle Ages. Their production involved transforming animal skins into parchment; copying texts; painting and gilding minatures; and binding folios between boards, a process that reveals much about medieval scribal and artistic practice.
From 2007 the Governors were replaced by Trustees; but there was still disquiet about the best method of regulating the BBC. BBC regulation is fragmented: some regulatory functions rest with OFCOM, and the National Audit Office investigates some financial matters. It is said that the Trust cannot be both a champion of the licence fee payers and of the BBC management. Should regulation of the BBC be wholly external to it? Is OFCOM any better placed to defend public service broadcasting than the Trust? The BBC World Service is a vital accurate news source for many parts of the world: is it better placed under the control of the BBC or the Foreign Office?
This is part of Baroness Deech' series Regulation, Regulation, Regulation.
Margaret Thatcher sought to solve the deep-seated problems of the British state outside the parameters of the postwar settlement. The main ideological victims of the collapse of the postwar settlement were One Nation Conservatism, the paternalistic ethos of Churchill and Macmillan, and the...
Why are there so many different scoring systems in operation in sport? We look at how structuring matches into a series of sets affects the relative roles of luck and skill in determining the winner of the contest. Did table tennis make a significant change to the game when it changed its...
In 1955, the World Health Organization announced an ambitious plan to eradicate malaria from the face of the earth. Now, nearly sixty years later, malaria still afflicts some 250 million people of whom over a million, mostly children, die each year. What went wrong?
In this lecture,...
How close are we to true brain reconstruction? Professor Jack Price details the latest advances in this field of neuroscience, as well as covering the conceptual and regulatory obstacles that researchers face.
This is part of a special series of lectures in collaboration with the...
It is time for the banking and financial sectors to stop apologising and start changing. But how?
Professor Costa outlines three key themes for change needed in order to estable a "New Normal" for how we operate in the commerical and financial world: a re-ordering of our...
For 80 years the BBC Governors were charged with regulating the BBC and representing the interests of the licence fee payers. The Governors appointed the Director-General, approved strategy, oversaw complaints and were accountable to Parliament. Did they fail in their task when, in the wake of...
A look at the way the Roman Empire has sometimes been used as an historical precedent for the European Union, and specifically the way that the integration of the Roman monetary system has been seen as a (sometimes justifying) precedent for modern European monetary union.
This lecture outlines the challenges of modern-day society and how they affect a charity's ability to deliver its purpose, and discusses how a 'Good Society' could be built through the individual, community, market and state.
Sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree...
All universities are anxious to raise funds and some have come under criticism for accepting funds from despotic regimes which are seeking credibility and influence. What are the limits of fundraising? British universities have also acquired a reputation for hosting extremist speakers and...
European empires, re-divided after the defeat of Germany in 1918, continued to expand after the First World War, reaching their greatest extent in the early 1940s. The imperial ambitions of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany created new empires that turned out to be very short-lived. With the...
What can maths tells us about the best way to rig a rowing eight? Does a cox help or hinder a racing boat? How does the speed of a kayak or a canoe depend on the number of paddlers? And what if you fall in - can maths tell us anything about the best way to swim?
This lecture is a part of the series Twenty-First Century Threats. Other lectures in this series include the following:
HIV/AIDS
...
The extraordinary story of this neglected quarter of London that in the late 19th century boasted seven major hospitals, of which only one survives today.
This is part of 'The Lost Hospitals of London' Mondays at One Series.
Studying the history of spectacles brings together the twin themes of technological development and mankind's increasing understanding of physical optics, but it is as much about charting different historical attitudes to the face and one's appearance before others. Only if we attempt to...
Contrary to much opinion, the current scene of faith-related art is very much alive. There are new commissions for churches and cathedrals, a number of artists pursue their work on the basis of a deeply convinced faith, and other artists often resonate with traditional Christian themes, albeit...
How do the real Crackers operate and how successful are they? Intuitive approaches to criminal profiling capture the imagination but actuarial methods are often more effective. The new science of geographical profiling is described and how it has helped to "crack" certain famous cases.
Robbert Dijkgraaf's focus is on string theory, quantum gravity, and the interface between mathematics and particle physics, bringing them together in an accessible way, looking at sciences, the arts and other matters.
Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 No.1
With the Wilhelm Quartet
How to be revolutionary without scaring away your public? How to announce yourself as a new broom without alienating the more stalwart connoisseurs? Beethoven faced these problems when...
Bethlem Hospital was an integral part of London's charitable provision for the poor in medieval and early modern times. Hand in hand with public benevolence went great public interest in the objects of charity. Until 1770, the Hospital was open (at specified times of the week) to any member of...
A lecture to mark the publication of Professor Barrow's latest book, 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport.
The book asks the question, "What can maths tell us about sports?"...
A century ago, British universities started to receive government funds. Since then, the universities have increasingly been called on to assist in meeting national objectives, as defined by successive governments, in return for decreasing amounts of financial support. Their independence is threatened and their status is arguably on the decline. How and why has this come about? Have universities failed to attract students from all backgrounds and, if so, what is the cause? How can their vitality and autonomy be restored?
he 1960s saw a new course in British politics - the commitment of both major parties to entry into the European Community, as the European Union was then known, and a conversion to the doctrine of planning. This involved a greater degree of state intervention in the economy, together with the control of incomes and a recasting of the system of industrial relations. This caused problems which put the authority of government in question. In the February 1974 general election, voters were asked to resolve the issue of 'Who Governs?' Both Labour and Conservative administrations sought to assert themselves against the trade unions. When, in the 'winter of discontent' of 1979, it seemed that government had become too weak to do so, the postwar settlement collapsed.
This is a part of the lecture series Britain in the Twentieth Century: Progress and Decline.
In 1739, Captain Thomas Coram was dismayed at the sight of children dying on the dung heaps of London. These children, mostly foundlings and orphans, were products of a poverty-stricken society where the attitude towards babies born outside of wedlock meant a life of rejection and inferiority....
Sir Thomas Gresham said that "bad money drives out good". In Economics, bad theory has driven out good. This fact shaped the decisions of bankers and regulators and thus serves partly to explain the crisis that broke in 2007 and whose shadow extends to this day. This lecture will explore key...
Economic dominance brings cultural dominance and the architecture of Empire was, in part, a template for the world. But as the century turned there were already signs of big changes which were to go on to shape the England we now live in.
This is a part of the lecture series From...
Clusters of galaxies are the largest organised structures in the Universe that appear gravitationally bound, containing thousands of galaxies all confined to a volume of space only tens of millions of light years across. They are laboratories for extreme galaxy evolution, as many of the...
Lord Green will speak about issues related to his recent book Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World. The description for this book is as follows:
How should we create wealth in societies, and why is it necessary to do...
Today, any mention of the medieval leper conjures up alarming images of exclusion, ostracism and fear, but such ideas are largely the product of the Victorian age, and have only limited basis in reality. By focusing upon the institutional provision made available for victims of leprosy in London between 1100 and 1500, we can explore the complexity of reactions to a disease that might be regarded as either a punishment for sin or a mark of divine favour. We will also trace the gradual impact of medical concepts of contagion and segregation, which developed alongside long-established religious teaching about the vital importance of providing proper care for men and women whose sufferings were widely identified with those of Christ.
Fair Play is at the heart of sports ethics, and of Olympic ethics. But what does it mean, and how does it work?
This lecture looks at the impact of empire on the colonizers and the colonized. In Europe, ideologies of imperialism emerged, increasingly mingled with racism. These had a material effect on the attitudes of political elites that helped push Europe towards war in 1914. Critics of imperialism...
Over the last decades, HIV/AIDS has emerged as a major new disease, reversing gains in life expectancy that had been won over many decades in numerous countries, and becoming a leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, the disease has triggered an...
The lecture will cover a description of how we diagnose and treat Motor Neuron Disease, why motor neurons degenerate and the genetic basis of disease. It will also cover new cellular and animal models of disease that are informing us about disease mechanisms and will advance drug discovery.
From the 1960s to our own time artists who have wished to express Christian themes have explored a number of very different artistic ways of doing so. Amongst those considered in this lecture are Albert Herbert, Norman Adams, John Reilly and Craigie Aitchison.
This lecture is part of Lord Harries' series on Christian Faith and Modern Art.
The last century has seen changes in artistic style that have been both rapid and radical. This has presented a particular problem to artists who have wished to express Christian themes. These illustrated lectures will look at how different artists have responded to this challenge whilst retaining their artistic integrity.
How do sexual fantasies vary and how do they arise? How do they relate to unusual sexual practices such as fetishism, transvestism and sadomasochism? Are these predilections just harmless variations or is there a sinister side?
This is part of Professor Wilson's series of lectures. The...
Throwing things, and jumping up and down or along, lies at the root of many Olympic events. In the gymnasium, the velodrome, and the diving pool we also see the key role of rotation in dramatic displays of strength and speed. What light does simple maths shed on these movements and the stress...
Education through sport is seen as the cornerstone of Olympic ideology. How has this key aim been implemented by London 2012?
Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, k.370
With Mea Wade and players from the Royal Academy of Music
Harnessing virtuosity to good taste and fireworks to fine craftsmanship is a permanent challenge for the composer. Purely technical show will have...
England's take off as the first industrial nation created a whole new language of building underpinned by technology and by an emerging view of the rest of the world.
This is a part of the lecture series From Architectural Periphery to the World's Engine House: English...
The first of a series of three lectures, in the run-up to the London Olympic Games 2012, that will consider the ethical and political values of the Olympic Movement, and their significance for education in schools and universities.
Other lectures in this series are as follows:...
Rotation is a fundamental physical process throughout the Universe. So much is spinning, from planets and stars revolving on their axes, to whole spiral galaxies rotating around their centre. We shall start by looking at the fundamentals of rotational motion, including the concept of angular...
Perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity compared with other religious traditions is belief in God incarnate in Christ, the Word made flesh. But what might this mean in the context of modern evolutionary understanding of the human as ultimately emergent from simplest life forms...
The prospect of an apprenticeship attracted thousands of youths to the guild masters of early modern London. Where did apprentices come from, what became of them in the city, and how did this system impact shape the development of Europe's largest city? The presenters will draw on their recent...
From the 1880s through to the First World War, European empires slowly imposed their control on the territories that in many cases existed merely on paper. This lecture asks how and why European powers embarked on this trajectory. Often, occupation became effective through a long series of...
Despite the onslaught of legislative initiatives surrounding AML/CTF, it is difficult to make any conclusive remarks on the effectiveness of the broader system that attempts to control money laundering and terrorist financing. Based on his new book on 'Technology and Anti-Money Laundering', the speaker will unravel much of the complexity surrounding AML and offer practical advice for financial institutions.
After World War II, without forgetting the terrible suffering earlier in the century, there was a new confidence expressed in the artistic commissions of the time. Older artists who had been active before World War I such as Epstein and Matisse received commissions as well as younger artists...
Personality disorders are a contentious issue in psychiatry. How many are there and how reliable is their diagnosis? Are we just medicalising bad behaviour and social inadequacy. How should medical and criminal justice sectors divide responsibility?
We examine the striking patterns between world record performances in different sports and ask what events an ambitious nation should target as the 'easiest' in which to win Olympic medals. How does Olympic success correlate with a nation's GNP? How does the location of the Olympics affect the chance of record breaking? And how can simple statistics help us understand the likelihood of winning streaks and the chance that an innocent athlete will fail a drugs test?
This is part of Professor Barrow's Maths in Sport series.
In the period under consideration a fair number of the artists considered have been Roman Catholics, but at one time there was a particular symbiosis between two of them, Eric Gill and David Jones, who will be discussed along with others who shared their faith.
This lecture is part of...
The Conservatives recovered remarkably rapidly from the debacle of 1945. Their narrow election victory in 1951 led to 13 years of Conservative rule. How was the party able to reassert itself so quickly and what did it do with its period in power? Winston Churchill hoped to roll back the tide of...
Top athletes seem to get bigger and bigger. How does size affect performance? Why do some sports have weight categories while others don't? What types of lever are employed in sports events like gymnastics and wrestling and how much force does a karate blow need to exert to break a brick? These...
Memorability is sometimes achieved by the simple technique of repetition, in addition to more high-flown inspiration. Some of the simplest sustaining devices of great music are ground bass, ostinato or chaconne; this lecture shows that a canon can be more than simply "Three Blind Mice".
This is a part of Professor Hogwood's 2011-12 series of lectures, The Making of a Masterpiece, in which he examines a number of acknowledged masterpieces, but each from a select angle only - their scoring, compactness, virtuosity, accessibility, momorability or other flavour.
Trade and craft associations have flourished all over Europe for many centuries, but the City of London companies, now collectively known as the Livery, are unique in their survival, number and diversity. The social and economic conditions which gave birth to the original guilds have long since...
Political affiliations reflect social class and upbringing but personality factors also contribute, including genetically determined traits like fear of uncertainty and novelty-seeking. Extreme positions may stem from dogmatism, hostility and intolerance of ambiguity.
This is part of...
Evolution has provided a new understanding of reality, with revolutionary consequences for traditional Christian beliefs. This will be explored in this lecture to mark Jack Mahoney's new book.
A continuation of the story of St Paul's...
2011 is the 300th anniversary of the completion of Christopher Wren's Cathedral. This coincides with the completion of an historic £40 million programme of cleaning and repair, in which the building has been comprehensively...
Professor Kenneth Costa is joined by Matthew Hancock MP to discuss vision and values in a volatile world.
Matthew Hancock is the author of Masters of Nothing: The Crash and how it will happen again unless we understand human nature. The book advances the following ideas:...
This lecture considers moments of US and UK sexual citizenship situating these in terms of LGBT campaigning groups' actions, institutional reactions and broader public relations evident in the course of claiming and lamenting citizenship, community and diversity.
This lecture is...
2011 is the 300th anniversary of the completion of Christopher Wren's Cathedral. This coincides with the completion of an historic £40 million programme of cleaning and repair, in which the building has been comprehensively restored inside and out. Now that the final scaffolding has been removed, the two million visitors and worshippers who come to St Paul's each year can witness Gresham Professor Christopher Wren's original vision, see his cathedral as fresh as the day it was completed and understand something of the changes it has undergone in its first 300 years. In a serious of two lectures (23 and 30 November) Architect Martin Stancliffe will describe this exciting project.
In space no-one can hear you scream... but it is still a noisy Universe. We are familiar with the many stunning images of space, but these are only part of the whole human experience. This lecture takes a new approach to appreciating the Universe, through the vehicle of sound. Once we understand...
In the early 1880s, informal imperial expansion gave way to formal imperial acquisitions. Between this point and the outbreak of the First World War, more colonial territory was acquired by European states than in the previous three-quarters of a century. New states entered...
After the largest financial crisis in the history of the capital markets, what changes do we need to promote liquidity recovery? As authorities world-wide seek a safe framework within which we can behave as entrepreneurs, what insights can Equities offer Over-The-Counter markets and vice-...
The Price of Fish addresses issues related to 'real' (as opposed to 'transactional') commerce: the complex ways in which people, organisations and societies communicate and deal with each other. The book argues that real commerce drives society, politics, the economy and our future,...
The Census of April 1881 revealed an England which was a firmly urban and industrial nation. Although the number of 'urban' dwellers had exceeded the rural for the first time thirty years earlier it was not until the 1870s and 1880s that the population was firmly urban and living in large and mostly 'modern' towns. We do not know in any detail what the Census of April 2011 will reveal but what is certain is the England remains an urban, although no longer an industrial nation. However the proportion of the population living in rural areas is now greater than at any time since 1911. These simple facts chart the great demographic changes in England in the last 150 years. However, as many observers have noted, the English imagination has never lost its enthusiasm for the rural. This lecture will look at that enthusiasm not as one simple unchanging set of ideas but as a complex web of the popular and the elite; the political right and left and the culturally the progressive and the reactionary. By bringing some of these aspects into relationship with one another the lecture will explore the continuing fascination with the rural as a central part of the popular ideas of the past.
This is the 2011 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture.
As at the end of the 18th century William Blake developed a highly individual style that did not fit easily into the categories of the age, so in our time artists like Marc Chagall, Stanley Spencer and Cecil Collins, in their very different ways, have sought to express an intense...
To the surprise of many, the 1945 general election led to the return of Britain's first Labour majority government. Labour's 1945 election manifesto declared that it was a socialist party and proud of it. The Attlee government created the modern welfare state and the National Health Service, and...
How can Usain Bolt improve his world 100 metres sprint record significantly without improving his speed? How fast should he be able to run? We will also examine the mechanics of sprinting and the effects of wind assistance, timing accuracy, and altitude on sprint times and look at the status of...
Patience is a virtue. But does it have value? Andrew Haldane will discuss the importance of patience to growth and stability, its recent evolution and its implications for financial markets and systems. There is evidence that capital market myopia - short-termism - may be mounting. If so, what if anything should be done about it? Andy Haldane delivers this year's Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands lecture. The event is chaired by Professor Michael Mainelli.
This is the 2011 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
Bevis Marks Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in the UK (consecrated 1701), and is the 'cathedral synagogue' of a community which arrived in England in 1656 with the blessing of Oliver Cromwell, thus ending over three-and-a-half centuries of Jewish exile from this country. For the last 350 years...
One of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in existence today is the granting of the Freedom of the City of London. It is believed that the first Freedom was presented in 1237. The medieval term 'freeman' meant someone who was not the property of a feudal lord, but...
Strauss: Sextet from Capriccio
Brahms: String Sextet Op.18
With players from the Royal Academy
The choice of instrumental grouping can make or break a composition; the string sextet, a notoriously difficult combination, takes on a forward-looking...
Évariste Galois was born 200 years ago and died aged 20, shot in a mysterious early-morning duel in 1832. He left contributions to the theory of equations that changed the direction of mathematics and led directly to what is now broadly described as 'modern' or 'abstract' algebra. In this lecture, designed for a general audience, Dr Peter Neumann will explain Galois' discoveries and place them in their historical context. Little knowledge of mathematics is assumed - the only prerequisite is sympathy for mathematics and its history.
This lecture was jointly held with the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
Opened up to the world once more England drank in influences and ideas from abroad which were to infuse? English building with widely held ideas and values.
This is a part of the lecture series From Architectural Periphery to the World's Engine House: English Building from the Reformation to the First World War.
Saturn is the most beautiful planet in our Solar System. Famous for its bright yet ethereal rings, the gas giant has over sixty natural satellites in orbit around it - and one artificial satellite: NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which provides many of the results and images that will be showcased in this talk. We shall explore the weather observed in the atmosphere of Saturn, the curious structures that develop within the rings, and its wide variety of moons - from smog-shrouded Titan, two-sided Iapetus, to busy Prometheus, and the icy plumes erupting from frozen Enceladus.
What makes us happy? Is it a genetic trait that we are stuck with, or a product of events unfolding in our living? Does it help to be rich? What can be done to overcome set-backs and improve our sense of well being?
This is part of Professor Wilson's series of lectures. The other...
Notions of national security past and present. How Whitehall has dealt with it. How we might do it better in the future.
This is the 2011 Peter Nailor Memorial Lecture on Defence. Other Peter Nailor Memorial...
Thousands of people are estimated to be working as slaves within the UK, in highly exploitative conditions, with no rights, and under threat of violence. This lecture will discuss some of the issues.
This lecture was sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The full-rigged ship was the essential technology that enabled the trans-Atlantic slave trade to flourish. Between 1698 and 1807 around 11,000 ships were fitted out in England for the slave trade, transporting around three million Africans. But the trade also employed other vessels, from in-...
A lecture to mark the publication of Robin Wilson and Raymond Flood's new book. Mathematics pervades our daily lives. Our credit cards and the nation's defence are kept secure largely due to the properties of prime numbers, and mathematics is intimately involved whenever we fly in an aeroplane, predict the weather or analyse data. But what mathematics is involved, and who first introduced it? Raymond Flood and Robin Wilson describe some interesting mathematicians' contributions.
The period before World War 1 saw an extraordinary burst of creativity in all the arts which has decisively effected all subsequent developments. This lecture will look at the emergence of expressionism and amongst other artists will consider in detail the work of Nolde, Jacob Epstein and Roualt.
This lecture is part of Lord Harries' series on Christian Faith and Modern Art.
From the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the 1880s, British industrial might and British command of the oceans underpinned the 'imperialism of free trade', in which economic interests of various kinds were paramount. In the industrial era, the major non-European empires, notably the Chinese, Japanese and Mughal states, failed to keep pace with this expansion of European influence, and the lecture discusses the reasons for this failure. New European empires emerged following the collapse of the old, and gradually European states found themselves intentionally or otherwise involved in converting economic and trading interests into imperial administration. Existing centres of European settlement and economic penetration, from Canada and South Africa to India and Algeria, generated a further impetus towards imperial expansion, driven by settlers' interests in trade, labour exploitation or security.
This is a part of the lecture series The Rise and Fall of European Empires from the 16th to the 20th Century.
J S Bach Magnificat
The art of being succinct is not one always associated with the works of Bach; in his compact setting of the Magnificat he employs economy and symbolism to illustrate each verse in a few minutes of music which challenge the reader of "de-...
The history behind the great Victorian Town Halls of Northern England, created on the back of new Industrial wealth and great civic aspirations.
A lecture to mark the 600th anniversary of the City of London's Guildhall.
One of the main advantages of talking about Cutty Sark is being able to say this is a ship which needs no introduction. Richard Doughty, Chief Executive of Cutty Sark Trust, considers why this merchant sailing ship is so highly regarded around the world and why, despite the damage done by the...
The contrasting, but interconnected, experiences of two writers: Sir Walter Raleigh and John Milton.
Ralegh was a prisoner in the Tower of London between 1603 and 1616, where he wrote a number of works including the monumental (and unfinished) The History of the World.
Milton spent most of his working life in the City of London, whether as a prolific writer of political pamphlets or hiding in fear of his life at the Restoration of Charles II.
The lecture will illuminate the London communities that radicalised each man and reveal the networks that enabled their political thinking to reach its audience, set against the backdrop of a wider transformation in political culture; the move from manuscript to print and the explosion of publications when censorship was relaxed in 1640.
What can we learn from this interplay between politics and print as we experience our own internet revolution?
The Lord Mayor's Show is one of the longest established and best known annual events in the City of London, dating back to 1215. This lecture will reveal the fascinating history of the show.
This is part of the Square Mile series. The other lecture in the series is...
The post war years, by contrast with the first 45 years of the 20th century, were marked by peace and stability. For much of the period, ideological conflict gave way to consensus and the convergence of political creeds. Yet, by the end of the century, Britain seemed a markedly less...
The Reformation and the Civil War, two events a century apart, created an astonishing originality and independence in English Building.
This is a part of the lecture series From Architectural Periphery to the World's Engine House: English Building from the Reformation to the First...
Britain's history has been shaped by its relationship with the sea. The possibilities and profits offered by maritime trade were particularly important in defining the country's development as a global power in the Age of Sail. Richly illustrated with images and objects from the collection of the National Maritime Museum and beyond, this lecture explores how British overseas trade went hand in hand with Britain's global empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Britain's commercial success was built on complex and multifaceted foundations. Trade with colonies in the Atlantic Ocean, initially conducted through chartered companies, was increasingly financed, organised and operated by private merchants. Meanwhile, the East India Company, based in the City of London, jealously protected its monopoly on British trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. And all of this commercial activity relied on the protection offered by the Royal Navy. The systems of global connections and international trade created by these circumstances laid the basis for Britain's global empire and continue to affect our world today.
Often described as the ultimate Renaissance Man, Mervyn Peake was just eight when his father, a medical doctor, arranged for a Mandarin expert in calligraphy, to teach him the art. Soon he was able to form many of the six hundred plus characters that make up the language. At the age of twelve, Mervyn left the Orient for his boarding school in England, where his talent at drawing was noticed by his art master, and frequently in demand from fellow pupils. The Royal Academy followed a short period at Croydon School of Art, and from his early twenties onwards was producing illustrations for magazines and other publications. The decade that followed the end of the war, was perhaps the greatest period of artistic power, and while living on Sark in the Channel Islands from 1946 until 1949 produced a non-ending stream of illustrations to many of the classics. These included: Treasure Island, The Hunting of the Snark, The Ancient Mariner, Grimm's Household Tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. As well as these commissions he was also writing and illustrating his own books at the same time. From 1950, an interest in the theatre developed with several plays being written some of which were staged, but mostly not. It is only now that this less well-known area of his eclecticism is gaining audiences, in staged productions. His painting and drawings can be seen at many institutions across Britain, including the National Portrait Gallery, the British Library, Imperial War Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery, the Wordsworth Trust (Dove Cottage) Cumbria, the Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, and several others. Mervyn Peake died near Oxford after a long illness in November 1968 and is buried in the graveyard of the 11th century St Mary the Virgin church at Burpham, near Arundel in Sussex.
Can music heal? For centuries its therapeutic virtues have been extolled. The various uses to which it is put are described and the scientific studies that evaluate its benefits. The possibility of music having socially damaging effects is also considered.
This is part of Professor Wilson...
From 1750 to the early 20th century, fleets of Greenlanders specially strengthened sailing ships headed north each spring from Britain to the ice-filled Arctic seas between Canada, Greenland and Spitsbergen. Their business was whaling, their purpose to bring home oil and whalebone - raw materials for Britain's growing industries. Arctic whaling involved more than 9000 voyages from 35 British ports: Rotherhith's 'Greenland Dock' is a reminder that London was a prominent whaling port. Each voyage involved dangers unique to the trade, demanding extraordinary measures of skills and seamanship. Dr Stonehouse tells of the ships, the men, and the profits and losses of a long-forgotten industry.
In 1998 a medical furore broke out when The Lancet published an article by Andrew Wakefield questioning the benefits of the MMR vaccination which was being given unquestioningly to children throughout the UK.
Coming 202 years after the first vaccination by Edward Jenner, which led to the...
We live in volatile times, as the Arab Spring and August riots have demonstrated. Professor Costa outlines an ethics of business best suited to dealing with this situation, an approach based on a morality of visions and values. This lecture was delivered by Professor Michael Mainelli, Emeritus Gresham Professor of Commerce.
Known to many as "the father of immunology", Edward Jenner changed the path of world history on the 14th of May 1796 when he inoculated his gardener's 8-year-old son with cow pox, subsequently demonstrating that this induced immunity to smallpox by challenging him with smallpox infected material. This was the scientific birth of vaccination. It was the product of a long gestation but that was not the end of Jenner's endeavour. He had to battle to have his ground-breaking medical discovery recognised and implemented so that lives were saved. He was so successful that vaccination was in use world-wide in his life time and although it was almost two centuries before smallpox was finally eradicated millions of lives were saved and the principles established that led to the discovery of vaccines to other infectious diseases.
Dr Wallington describes the life and legacy of one of the most important figures in medical history focusing on the key ingredients of his success. The roots of his discovery of vaccination lay in Jenner's own experience of variolation (inoculation of smallpox to prevent latter natural infection) as a schoolboy, astute observation of patients who had caught cow pox in rural medical practice in the Gloucestershire countryside, and induction into the scientific method by John Hunter while his student at St George's Hospital. His discovery might have gone unnoticed if it had not been published and promoted and in particular adopted by people with influence. Much opposition had to be overcome and without his personal networks and belief in what could be achieved the world might have waited much longer for this simple, life saving treatment. Remarkably, Jenner's curiosity and scientific success was much broader than vaccination, bird migration, cuckoo nesting, hibernation, fossil hunting, patent medicines and ballooning to name a few. You will be meeting a polymath for whom the scientific method was the key and his drive to understand nature as he observed it around him the source of his singular success.
The first lecture in the series looks at the initial expansion of Europe, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. It explores the great empires established by the British, Dutch, French, Ottomans, Portuguese, Russians and Spanish, and looks at their origins, their growth, and their mutual rivalries. It examines how these empires were ruled, the role of slavery in their establishment and administration, and their impact on the peoples they colonized. To a degree these were 'mercantilist empires', extending European patterns of control to overseas territories and confining them to a particular, limited role as recipients of European manufactures and providers of raw materials on which to base it. Trade restrictions imposed by the colonizing powers were increasingly resented by emerging colonial elites. Most of the pre-industrial European empires collapsed with startling suddenness in the half-century from the mid-1770s to the mid-1820s, and the lecture concludes with a discussion of why this happened, and what remained afterwards.
This is a part of the lecture series The Rise and Fall of European Empires from the 16th to the 20th Century.
The Lord Mayor's Annual Gresham Lecture
The Lord Mayor of London, Michael Bear, speaks about the regeneration and development of Spitalfields Market and Bishop's Square. This project illustrates the means of connecting communities and creating opportunities, through the development of urban space.
This is the 2011 Lord Mayor's Annual Gresham Lecture.
In his solo presentation of traditional instruments (taonga puoro), Richard Nunns introduces his audience to the ancient sound world of the Mäori of Aotearoa New Zealand. For each presentation he chooses from among fifty different instruments - mainly percussion or flutes and trumpets. Made from materials such as wood, bone, stone and shell, many of the instruments are carved in exquisite detail.
The voices of the traditional instruments had rarely been heard since the early nineteenth century. Nunns's musicality and facility in playing the instruments are underpinned by his extensive scholarship and research. In a report of a recent workshop, Tewe Eru (Tuwharetoa) said "It's sad that so much of this traditional knowledge has been lost to us, so I'm here to learn. Richard is an encyclopaedia and I can't get enough of it!"
This presentation is interwoven with stories about the instruments and their functions within the rituals and ceremonies of a traditional community.
'Richard Nunns, who has dedicated a lifetime to understanding, playing, making and recording Maori instruments… must surely be named a national treasure' Music in New Zealand 1998
This is a part of the 2011 City of London Festival.
We can think of world-leading Australians in sport (Don Bradman), media ownership (Rupert Murdoch) and film (Nicole Kidman). In music, some great performers come to mind, especially female singers (Nellie Melba, Joan Sutherland). But how many people can even name an Australian composer? In his...
This lecture considers the economic impact of climate change on and by the largest "emerging markets" of the G20, such as China, India and Brazil. Simply stabilising emissions in these countries would make a greater contribution to reducing warming as an 80% emissions reduction in Western countries. The carbon intensity of economic development in the emerging markets are also first-order determinants of the likelihood of dangerous climate change in the coming century. The lecture addresses how the economic structure of the problem leads to particular strategic dynamics within the international negotiations, explaining the current impasse and also exploring the possibility for a "low-carbon race" between nations to develop cleaner technology.
This is a part of the 2011 City of London Festival.
Many composers have been influenced by birdsong. Mozart treasured the songs of his pet starling, even giving the bird a ceremonial funeral. David Matthews, one of Britain's leading composers, has always been interested in the incorporation of the natural world into his music, recently even...
BOOK LAUNCH
At the end of the eighteenth century, the average British man was around 168cm tall by the time he reached maturity. By the end of the twentieth century, the average height of mature British...
This lecture looks at the place occupied by indigenous cultures in today's globalised world.
At a time when the world is confronted with economic insecurity, ecological instability and endemic cultural dilution, Michael Walling points towards alternative approaches to living which embody...
The pervasive scope of the European Convention of Human Rights has been demonstrated by the furore over the voting rights of prisoners. Is the ECHR a vital cornerstone necessary to protect individual liberties against an encroaching state and the rule of the mob, should it be replaced with a...
Half a million people in the UK are on the autistic spectrum, all finding it hard to make sense of the world around them. The disorder impacts both the highly intelligent (some employed in the City) and the profoundly learning disabled (like my late son).
Eighty years ago, three enterprising sons of Russian immigrants realised their ambition, to build a palace of dreams on the Old Kent Road. Three years later they followed their dream with another magnificent picture palace, the...
There is an ever increasing tendency to imagine ourselves living somehow 'beyond history', to bask in what Francis Fukuyama termed 'the end of history'. In this lecture, Sir Adam Roberts presents a compelling case for the reintroduction of history to the centre of international...
Mahler's legacy, vision and philosophy, and his influence on subsequent composers.
Concert: Mahler arr. Klaus Simon, Symphony No.4 - Bedächtig, nicht eilen and Ruhevoll; Mark Anthony Turnage, Grazioso! for Piccolo, Bass Clarinet, Piano, Viola and Cello; Henryk Górecki, Valentines Piece for Solo Flute and Bell; Dai Fujikura, Eternal Escape for Solo Cello.
Architect Keith James Clarke describes Mahler's one and only visit to this great city during the summer of 1892. This lecture outlines Mahler's impressions of London, where he lived and worked and the impact he had on the music-loving public of the day.
This lecture looks at how 'retirement' has developed across the planet as a concept, how it is funded currently, and how it might be supported in future. Malcolm Small examines increases in longevity together with the policy conundrums thrown up in consequence.
What are the limits of proof, and what follows? - A timely look at the life and mathematical work of Alan Turing. As we approach the centenary of his birth, this lecture offers a chance to learn more about perhaps Britain's most famous modern mathematician.
Among the thousands of books and periodicals on gardening, none considers gardening as an economic activity - the labour and time it consumes, the trades that provide for it, the output of flowers and vegetables. Gardening has been big business since the 17th century, but how can we...
Science is a perpetual search for new ideas, but this says nothing of how correct it is. Professor Angell argues that no matter how elaborate, sophisticated or subtle a scientific description may appear, it always generates paradox. Science, the formal enterprise for probing the nature of...
Is love a kind of obsession? Is it a positive or an unhealthy phenomenon? How can we recover from the loss of a partner or deal with the pain of separation and divorce? Healthy and unhealthy modes of conflict resolution will be discussed as well as pathological forms of love,...
When so much in music education is formulated on the principle of imitation, and the passing down of received 'traditions' from teacher to pupil, it is important to readdress the significance of original and informed opinion in performance.
Dame Emma Kirkby, who has done more than any...
Professor Bogdanor analyses the significance of coalition government for Britain and of the momentous constitutional reforms which the coalition is proposing, penetrating the cloud of polemic and partisanship to provide an objective analysis. The inter-party agreement between the coalition partners proposes a wide ranging series of constitutional reforms, the most important of which are fixed-term parliaments and a referendum on the alternative vote electoral system, to be held in May 2011. The coalition is also proposing measures to reduce the size of the House of Commons, to elect directly the House of Lords and to strengthen localism. These reforms, if implemented, could permanently alter the way we are governed.
Against a background of political instability architectural initiative was captured by a new class of patrons who built in a style that expressed confidence in their worldly position and fear of the afterlife. On the very...
An overview of the development of cosmology over the last 100 years from the Big Bang models of the Universe to the astounding revelation of recent years in that we have no real understanding of 96% of its content! Or even that our Universe could just be one small part of a Multiverse that...
Science and religion came together to help shape the attitudes of the British and Europeans towards the rest of the world, whose inhabitants were increasingly regarded as socially inferior and spiritually ignorant. This lecture looks at how these ideas framed the growth of overseas Empire in the latter part of the nineteenth century, how Britain and those European states that possessed colonies governed them and what were the consequences for politics and ideology at home, above all in the growth of the Social Darwinism, racism and extreme nationalism that led to the end of the 'Victorian' era in the First World War.
This lecture is part of the series The Victorians: Culture and Experience in Britain, Europe and the World 1815-1914
This course of lectures looks at the Victorians not just in Britain but in Europe and the wider world. 'Victorian' has come to stand for a particular set of values, perceptions and experiences, many of which were shared by people in a variety of different countries, from Russia to America, Spain to Scandinavia and reflected in the literature and culture of the nineteenth century, up to the outbreak of the First World War. The focus of the lectures will be on identifying and analysing six key areas of the Victorian experience, looking at them in international perspective. The lectures will be illustrated and the visual material will form a key element in the presentations. Throughout the series, we will be asking how far, in an age of growing nationalism and class conflict, the experiences of the Victorian era were common to different classes and countries across Europe and how far the political dominance of Britain, the world superpower of the day, was reflected in the spread of British culture and values to other parts of the world.
Both Mahler and Strauss proclaimed the thirteen year old Korngold a genius. This lecture will explore how Mahler influenced a generation of émigrés who wrote for films. Concert: Korngold, Cello Concereto, Op.37; Mahler, Urlicht, Korngold, Piano Trio, Op.1.
Founded in 1882, the Royal College of Music holds research collections of international significance, early printed music, manuscripts and more modern repertoire and literature. Dr Pearson uses some of the rich holdings of the RCM to shed light on works from the immediate and distant past,...
"Where is the moral basis of leadership, where is its moral spirit, in the age of globalisation and the digital revolution?"
The final part in a series of lectures and discussions to examine the challenges of leadership at a time of financial and geo-political dislocation.
Evolving in a silent, dark world, organisms developed receptors that could detect and differentiate components of the electromagnetic spectrum from the sun. Computation of the proportions of different wavelengths emitted from objects is used to form the perception of colour by the visual system...
How hormones, phermones and bonding chemicals connect with the experiences of sexual arousal and romantic love. To what extent are we victims of our brain chemistry and neural processes? What are the evolutionary origins and adaptive values of "falling in love"?
This...
The Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields explains the work of, and the challenges for, a central London church at night.
This is a part of the Mondays at One series of lectures on 'London After Dark'. The other lectures in this series are:
...
England's economic success peaked in 1300 amidst a riot of architectural excess and was followed by a series of disasters which lasted much of the fourteenth century. Yet against a catastrophic background English...
After the seeming success of the Munich Conference of 1938 it was hoped that war could be avoided. However, it gradually became clear that the territorial ambitions of Hitler could not be sated as he invaded Czechoslovakia and...
Musical notation is both inexact and changeable; the assumptions of one period may be lost on following generations, and the greater part of written music still remains unpublished at the present day. The challenges of editing and presenting a text, either of a well-known classic or of an...
Every year thousands of people across London phone up a student-run listening service in order to talk about the problems and issues that they are facing, or simply to just have someone to talk to....
Just how near are we to using our brains routinely to control machines for work or leisure purposes? Will we be able to improve the performance of our existing brains? Have advances in neuroscience, neural network modelling and the physical sciences led us to the point where it could soon...
The reputation of Stanley Spencer continues to grow. All his life he painted Christian themes with his fresh and distinctive vision. For him art was the product not so much of talent as love, and this love enables us...
If there was any single belief that characterized the Victorian era it was Christian belief. Religion pervaded social and political life to an extent almost unimaginable today. Yet this was also an age of major scientific progress and discovery. Ranging from Darwin's Origin of Species to Strauss's Life of Jesus, new techniques and approaches undermined faith in the literal truth of the Bible. This lecture looks at the relationship between science and religion and attempts to explain the growth towards the end of the century of 'secularization' and 'dechristianization' in the mass of the urban population.
This lecture is part of the series The Victorians: Culture and Experience in Britain, Europe and the World 1815-1914
This course of lectures looks at the Victorians not just in Britain but in Europe and the wider world. 'Victorian' has come to stand for a particular set of values, perceptions and experiences, many of which were shared by people in a variety of different countries, from Russia to America, Spain to Scandinavia and reflected in the literature and culture of the nineteenth century, up to the outbreak of the First World War. The focus of the lectures will be on identifying and analysing six key areas of the Victorian experience, looking at them in international perspective. The lectures will be illustrated and the visual material will form a key element in the presentations. Throughout the series, we will be asking how far, in an age of growing nationalism and class conflict, the experiences of the Victorian era were common to different classes and countries across Europe and how far the political dominance of Britain, the world superpower of the day, was reflected in the spread of British culture and values to other parts of the world.
Proofs are important not just for developing critical reasoning, and not simply for avoiding errors, but for progress in mathematics itself. This talk will explain why, and Mark Ronan will present a fascinating array of mathematical examples. The moral of the lecture is two-fold. We need to question our proofs, however good they look, and we must question our assumptions. If we don't, we may miss something vitally important, and non-Euclidean geometry is a glorious example. It has become extremely useful to modern mathematics, in areas surprisingly far removed from geometry.
This lecture will explore the 'celebrification' of contemporary popular culture. In particular how the idea of celebrity is intrinsic to the making and marketing of popular newspapers. We will also examine how the so...
Professor Costa conducts a conversation/discussion with Peter Sutherland, Chairman of Goldman Sachs International, to examine the challenges of leadership at a time of financial and geo-political dislocation.
The Ambulance Service has been the first point of emergency medical care in London for over 100 years. Formed over 50 years before the NHS, the 5,000 staff of the London Ambulance Service touches the lives of over seven million Londoners across the capital each year, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, gives this free public lecture to explain what the Service does for Londoners during the night when most of us are sound asleep.
These are those challenges, particularly in development and global health, for which we have identified proven solutions but have failed to act on them sufficiently. This lecture will discuss the phenomenon, why it exists, and suggests some examples and solutions, in a hope for more...
A special event to mark the publication of Professor Barrow's new book, 'The Book of Universes', available from The Bodley Head publishers: http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1847920985 This is a book about universes, a story that revolves around a single unusual...
Imagine that interstellar trade is possible at speeds close to the speed of light. It must incorporate the insights of Einstein's special theory of relativity, which teaches us that clocks on board a spaceship moving at high velocity will ensure time at different rates relative to clocks at the...
The lecture will consider the legacy of both Edwin Hubble and the Space Telescope that bears his name - from Hubble's discovery of the expanding universe to the observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope that have, over the last two decades, given us new insights into our Universe.
How the "selfish genes" of men and women sometimes create conflict. How monogamy, polygamy and infidelity stack up in terms of adaptive value. Is sex addiction a real disease or just an excuse for bad behaviour? The distinction between explanation and moral justification. Reconciling the discrepancy between male and female instincts.
The visual system has developed to allow us to navigate in a complex and dangerous world in order to find food and to avoid danger. This survival system works by building a complex three-dimensional model based on two-...
This is the most difficult of all Christian themes to convey in visible form and the early church approached it with proper reticence. Whilst the Western Church developed an over-literalistic image, the Orthodox Church gave it a powerful symbolic rendering. The 20th century, with its massive suffering, found this hopeful theme particularly problematic.
The Conservative-dominated 'National' Government failed to discover a viable foreign policy or to avoid war. The failure will be for ever symbolised by the image of Neville Chamberlain and his umbrella. Critics accused the government of weakness and of not preparing Britain adequately for war. Can the foreign policy of the National Government be defended?
This lecture is part of the series Britain in the 20th Century: Progress and Decline.
Although Mozart is the usual example of genius that springs to mind (a combination of youth and perfection), in this lecture Felix Mendelssohn is proposed as a more precocious example of the same qualities, with an even greater range of abilities (painting and languages in addition to both...
Victorian' came in the twentieth century to stand for sexual repression and social convention. Personal life was governed by complex and rigid rules of behaviour. Like other aspects of Victorian culture this began to break down in the fin-de-siécle. Yet recent research, discussed in this lecture, has undermined this rather simplistic picture and begun to explore some of the contradictions and complexities of Victorian attitudes to marriage and sexuality. The place of women in Victorian culture was by no means as passive or subordinate as conventional images of the era suggest.
The historian Daniel Boorstin famously defined a celebrity as "a person who is well-known for his well-knownness."
A person who is famous for...
Taking off from a 2007 Gresham lecture "Stealing the Silver: How We Take From The Dispossessed, The Poor and Our Own Children", Michael intends to further explore equitable inter-generational economics. Starting with...
Mahler and Strauss were two of the greatest conductors of their day. This lecture will look at their influence and legacy as performing musicians and will explore the origins of their stylistic development - expanding the ideas of Wagner and moving away from them in different directions.
This lecture will examine the impact of parental mental illness on children. There are 175,000 young carers of parents with mental illness in the UK but maybe as many as 1,000,000 children affected by an adult's mental illness. They worry about their parents and perhaps be blame...
Professor Costa conducts a conversation/discussion with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Former Chief of the General Staff, to examine the challenges of leadership at a time of financial and geo-political dislocation.
General Sir Richard Dannatt KCB CBE MC ADC professional roles include: Former Chief of the General Staff; Constable of the Tower of London and Chairman of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
The first digits of randomly chosen numbers arising naturally or in human affairs display surprising statistical regularities. We will see why this distribution of digits, first found by Simon Newcomb and Frank Benford, is so ubiquitous and how it has been used to check for fraudulent...
Loss of sensory or behavioural functions as a result of brain damage or dysfunction can clearly have a significant negative impact on quality of life. What progress are we making towards repairing damaged brains and sense organs and treating mental disorders?
This lecture will consider what therapeutic promise is currently offered by pharamacological, brain stimulation, brain training, neuroprosthetic (connecting artificial sensors to the brain or using brain to control itself or artificial limbs etc), stem cell and gene therapy approaches.
Although Mozart's unfinished Requiem is the most publicised composition requiring a helping-hand, there are many similar incomplete may-be masterpieces which have been assisted in some way, plus a number of well-loved classics which have very little connection with their supposed author ('...
A look at the most violent events that occur in our Universe, from supernovae and hypernovae to the cause of gamma ray bursts and what was the biggest explosion of all - the Big Bang origin of the Universe itself.
Fears about the fiscal deficit and the possibility of a run on sterling caused MacDonald and Snowdon to take drastic action in the economic crisis of 1931. However, they could not win the support of the trade unions and the cabinet, so headed up a 'National' Government of Conservatives and Liberals. Labour was decimated in the elections of 1931 and 1935 - not returning to power until Churchill's war-time coalition.
This lecture is part of the series Britain in the 20th Century: Progress and Decline.
The phenomenon of Chaplin's mythical status not only in film, but in world cultural history. This lecture will trace the creation of the myth to Chaplin's British origins; as a child of the poorest streets of Victorian London and as an alumnus of the British music hall at its zenith.
Professor Clare Gilbert, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
It is not only a personal tragedy to be born or to acquire...
There are no surviving depictions of Jesus on the cross in the catacombs, but by the middle ages it had become the definitive and defining image of Christianity. Yet there have been, and continue to be, major shifts in what this...
The second part in a series of conversations/discussions with distinguished leaders who will examine the challenges of leadership at a time of financial and geo-political dislocation.
Is there anything mathematically interesting about the paper sizes we use? We will see that their range of sizes has special features that facilitates their use in Xerox machines. The standard US Letter system of sizes is different and creates problems when you want to reduce copies in size....
Mahler was a huge inspiration for Schoenberg and an early champion of his music. We will explore the influence Mahler had on Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, and the arrangements of Mahler for the Private Music Society, at the cutting edge of music from 1918-21.
Concert: Mahler, Kindertontenlieder: Webern, Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op.24; Berg, Piano Sonata Op.1; Schoenberg, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op.16.
There are many things that we do not understand about our Universe. This lecture will discuss some of the most perplexing of these and survey the instruments that are now being built and planned to help us fathom its mysteries.
A reflection on press coverage of mental health issues and suicide in the US and UK over a 25-year period and, in some cases, much earlier - as far back as 1900. International journalist and Fulbright Scholar Mary O'Hara's...
The nineteenth century, above all in Europe, was the age of the 'demographic transition', from high birth and death-rates to low ones; people's health improved, they lived longer, the devastating visitations of epidemics like...
This is one of the richest themes in art, showing an amazing development of associated ideas and images right up to the 21st century.
The transparent tissues of the eye allow light to reach the retina. This highly metabolic tissue requires oxygen delivered by the blood vessels, which are damaged by disease. Diabetic retinopathy is the commonest cause of blindness in the working-age population and in later life hypertension adds to this toll. The eyes maybe the mirror of the soul, but they certainly are a window into our general health. This lecture traces the story from the development of the ophthalmoscope to modern treatments.
The commercially available 'Superball' of hard rough rubber displays many counterintuitive properties which seem to violate Newton's laws of motion. We will see that the Superball can be understood but its behaviour is completely different to a billiard ball when it undergoes collisions with a...
The war saw a transformation of politics at both elite and popular level. This led to the Liberals being replaced by Labour as the main party of the Left. The last purely Liberal government came to an end in 1915. The inter-war leaders, Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay MacDonald,...
During the thirteenth century Jerusalem surplanted Rome as the inspiration for English architecture. Huge national wealth led to an outburst of building of great creativity and individuality. The new gothic style which emerged by the 1220s was a national style for England creating some of the most remarkable buildings in European history.
This is a part if the series of lectures, God, Caesar and Robin Hood: How the Middle Ages were Built. The English Middle Ages saw the construction of some of the world's greatest buildings, structures that still shape our towns, cities and countryside and mould our national identity. These four lectures give a controversial new view of how medieval England was built starting with the departure of the Romans and ending with the Reformation.
Dr Gibson-Smith will assess the challenges that Europe faces in competing with the New Economies, and identifies four key areas in which the European economy must be strengthened to meet the challenges of the post-crisis world...
The Voyager spacecraft that toured through the giant planets of the Solar System, Jupiter's Galileo orbiter and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan have given us wonderful views of these most beautiful planets and...
The first part in a series of conversations/discussions with distinguished leaders who will examine the challenges of leadership at a time of financial and geo-political dislocation. For the other parts in this series, please follow this link.
Why does music require a 'patron saint'? What are the qualifications of such a person, and how has the praise of a non-musical heroine contributed so much to our poetic and musical heritage: music ranging from Purcell and Handel to Benjamin Britten provides partial evidence, but the social and...
How billions of interconnected cells in the brain can interpret and regulate all our bodily functions as well as mediate our experiences of interactions with and responses to the world around us is a huge and fascinating...
The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig is perhaps the finest account of Mahler's Vienna. Written as an autobiography and ending with his suicide note from 1942, this eyewitness account details the unique cultural life of Vienna before the First World War and the extraordinary developments in architecture, music, literature and painting. The lecture explores the cultural environment and the background to Mahler's music and his role as the Music Director of the Vienna State Opera. It also provides an account of the tumultuous events that shaped Mahler's posthumous reception.
Early Christian carvings depict Jesus as a beardless Roman youth. Yet the image with which we are familiar is very different. This lecture will explore the dominant imagery...
Despite sophisticated techniques; Laser, intraocular surgery and contact lenses; spectacles remain the most popular method for correcting optical defects of the eye. Roger Bacon (1266) proposed that convex lenses could be...
What are continued fractions? How can they tell us what is the most irrational number? What are they good for and what unexpected properties do they possess? How did Ramanujan make good use of their odd features to make striking discoveries? We will look at how they have played a role in the study of numbers, chaos, gears and astronomical motions.
In a world where technologies enable our communities to be at once local and global, the very essence of money is changing. We are living longer, yet our financial infrastructures are inherently short term. Young people seeking responsibly to plan their futures and their retirements find the conventional world of finance baffling and mostly inappropriate. This lecture explores these trends and looks to the future of money as a unit of account, a medium of exchange and as a store of longer-term value.
Mental health legislation in most jurisdictions (including England and Wales) discriminates against people with a mental illness. When it comes to involuntary treatment, it fails to respect - without adequate justification - the...
Such is the gloom that surrounds settling down today and the glamour that attaches to mature bachelor freedom, it is hard to imagine that there was a time when marriage represented the summit of a young man's hopes.
Forty years after the sexual liberalization of the 1970s, it is...
It was during these years that British statesmen first came to appreciate that her international and economic position was under threat. The growth of German and American economic power exposed the fragility of Britain...
In its passage from manuscript composition to audible performance, a musical work passes through the hands of editors, teachers, interpreters, recording engineers and many others, all of whom make decisions, often based on personal choices, and have to satisfy the tastes and needs of a changing...
And first, the fair PARABOLA behold, Her timid arms with virgin blush unfold!...
Mathematical poetry may seem an unlikely form of satire, but 'The Loves of the Triangles' (1798) was not only a clever parody of Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) but also a powerful political...
When the English nation rose out of the ruins of the Roman Province of Britannia, people remained obsessed with their Roman past. Seismic social and political change in 1066 barely upset the vision of patrons and architects and Rome remained England's cultural capital driving the imagination of its architects.
This is a part if the series of lectures, God, Caesar and Robin Hood: How the Middle Ages were Built: The English Middle Ages saw the construction of some of the world's greatest buildings, structures that still shape our towns, cities and countryside and mould our national identity. These four lectures give a controversial new view of how medieval England was built starting with the departure of the Romans and ending with the Reformation.
The 2010 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture
From the unique position as Europe's oldest continuous democracy, Anne Craine, Treasury Minister of the Isle of Man, will explore what the future holds for offshore centres; how they can survive, even prosper; how they need to adapt and why they serve a valid, even useful role in international finance.
Black Holes seem to have a bad press that is largely undeserved. The lecture will explain what Black Holes are, how we can discover them even through they cannot be seen and how Stephen Hawking has shown that they...
This beautifully illustrated lecture explores the connections and interactions between British writers and artists.
As children, learning to read, we...
The earliest surviving Christian art is in the catacombs in Rome. This lecture will look at how this developed, survived two centuries of iconoclasm and established itself with a distinctive rationale. This is a part of the 2010/2011 series of Divinity lectures by Lord Harries. For other...
Psychoanalytic theory illuminates the polarised nature of the asylum debate and the powerful feelings for and against refugees. Historic, literary and clinical examples reveal migration as part of human nature and the unconscious forces revolving around the concept of exile.
The final and 'most indispensable' founding principle of the Pre-Raphaelites was: "to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues". Derided by the establishment (including Charles Dickens) for producing art which was ugly and backward, the work of John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
Visual illusions entertain and astonish us. How and why they occur is due to the way our visual system processes information. The study of visual illusions leads to many surprising and counterintuitive conclusions...
This lecture tells the story of visual satire in London, a city in which caricature flourished like no other. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the people of London have been both amused and outraged by the thousands...
Pedalling ahead with Mendelssohn: The German revolution in English organ technology
Robert Quinney, Sub-Organist, Westminster...
How pictures have been used in mathematics. The use of illustrations in ancient mathematics books, the invention of the first graphs and the representation of probabilities, sets and formulae by pictures. We look at the role played by computers in exploring and displaying the behaviour of extremely large and complicated problems. This has changed the culture of applied mathematics and science and influences the way research is done and the forms in which it is presented.
The Victorian age began as an age of realism, in literature and art, and of nationalism and romanticism in music and culture. By the end of the century, however, the high noon of Victorian culture was starting to give way to more disturbing developments - the disintegration of musical tonality, the emergence of abstract art, the eruption of the 'primitive' into cultural styles and the arrival of modernism onto the artistic scene. This lecture examines the characteristics of Victorian culture and the reasons for its decline.
This lecture is part of the series The Victorians: Culture and Experience in Britain, Europe and the World 1815-1914
Political, satirical, comic and incendiary: from Hogarth's images of London life, through the Golden Age of Punch Magazine, to the present day; the eclectic and vibrant tradition of representing ones life and times in cartoons...
Bill Bryson discusses the history of science and its importance in our world today. This lecture was delivered in the Great Hall at the Guildhall in the City of London in honour of the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, founded in Gresham College in 1660....
Assumptions of a return to the normality of the last decades are unfounded - this lecture considers the global economic and social evidence and draws out some scenarios for the next decade. It then goes on to review the...
Since Northern Ireland's sectarian politics turned to power-sharing in 1998, the country has struggled to define itself within its "peace process". The media serves as a barometer of this progress as it re-defines its own purpose within the newly formed society. Caroline Porter will look specifically at the role of different media outlets, with particular emphasis on the most popular radio shows, to see how the media becomes a player in the contemporary peace process of Northern Ireland.
What is it about Gilbert and Sullivan that has made their works so enormously popular for so many generations? It is, among other things, their perfect marriage between words and music that gives endless pleasure to singers and audiences alike. Gilbert's wonderful wit and Sullivan's irresistible tunefulness magically combine to provide entertainment on the highest level, of the sort which has so magnificently stood the test of time and will surely continue to do so. Professor Wilson's lecture could well provide an opportunity for audience participation!
During the 20th century, Britain underwent a major transformation. A country in which a law-abiding individual would hardly notice the existence of the state had become one in which, from the cradle to the grave, no one...
The Long Finance initiative to establish a World Centre of Thinking on Long-Term Finance began in 2007 with a question, "When would we know our financial system is working?" which challenges a system that can't provide today's 20 year olds with a reliable financial retirement structure. The aim of the Long Finance Institute is "to improve society's understanding and use of finance over the long-term." The research project proposals range from theory versus practice or fiscal versus monetary to sustainability versus robustness. The iconic project for Long Finance is the Eternal Coin, with the objective of starting a global debate about society's values over the long-term.
The Long Finance initiative to establish a World Centre of Thinking on Long-Term Finance began in 2007 with a question, "When would we know our financial system is working?" which challenges a system that can't provide today's 20 year olds with a reliable financial retirement structure. The aim of the Long Finance Institute is "to improve society's understanding and use of finance over the long-term." The research project proposals range from theory versus practice or fiscal versus monetary to sustainability versus robustness. The iconic project for Long Finance is the Eternal Coin, with the objective of starting a global debate about society's values over the long-term.
The Long Finance initiative to establish a World Centre of Thinking on Long-Term Finance began in 2007 with a question, "When would we know our financial system is working?" which challenges a system that can't provide today's 20 year olds with a reliable financial retirement structure. The aim of the Long Finance Institute is "to improve society's understanding and use of finance over the long-term." The research project proposals range from theory versus practice or fiscal versus monetary to sustainability versus robustness. The iconic project for Long Finance is the Eternal Coin, with the objective of starting a global debate about society's values over the long-term.
When Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the church of St Margaret in Lothbury after the Great Fire, it had no organ. The George Pike organ was completed in 1801 and its pipe work, standing in its original case, forms the basis...
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, communication was slow, even relatively short journeys were uncertain and time-consuming, and people were dependant on the forces of nature for energy; this lecture charts the...
THE LORD MAYOR'S ANNUAL GRESHAM LECTURE
The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of London, Nicholas Anstee, President of Gresham College Generously sponsored by the City of London Corporation.
The other Lord Mayor's Annual Gresham Lectures are as follows:
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A contribution to the City of London Festival and its celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity.
The Promised Land in the book of Exodus is described as 'flowing with milk and honey'. After a brief reflection on the ancient context of the phrase including the significant, recent archaeological discoveries at Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley, the Bishop's talk looks ahead to the City of the future. Every City needs to ensure the supply of everyday nourishing milk. In consequence many of the planning documents produced in recent years have a rather narrow focus on the needs of London and its City as a financial centre. But milk and honey belong together and honey stands for delight in life which makes a vital contribution to the liveability of a City. The talk will deal with the availability of honey in the cultural, artistic and spiritual life of the City and what can be done to promote quantitative and qualitative easing in the supplies from the Honey Bank.
The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres is the Bishop of London and is an Emeritus Gresham Professor of Divinity
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This is a part of the series of events which were held in collaboration with the 2010 City of London Festival.
Portugal and England, 1386-2010: A complex web of political, economic and intellectual relations.
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A programme of specially commissioned new poetry about bees, featuring new work from the distinguished poets David Harsent, Luke Heeley, Fiona Sampson, Jo Shapcott and Matthew Welton. Poems commissioned by the Festival,...
This quartet, which was composed in 1810 or 1811 and is his last before the so-called "late" quartets that crowned his final years. It is sometime nicknamed the "Serioso" (a strange, invented word which makes up part of the...
An overview of the history of botanical collecting: the characters and their stories; the motivations and disagreements; the current situation and what the future might hold. Dr Robert Huxley is Head of Collections in Botany at the Natural History Museum
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This...
Ancient music' enjoyed a vogue in eighteenth-century London, with professional and amateur music societies, including the Academy of Ancient Music and the Madrigal Society, meeting regularly to perform sixteenth- and seventeenth-century polyphony. This lecture explores a striking aspect of London's cultural life, and reveals how the music of a Portuguese composer - Duarte Lobo - made its way into the favoured repertory of the City's musical antiquarians.
Dr Owen Rees, Queen's College Oxford
Throughout May and June the British Isles resonate to some of the strangest and most beautiful sounds on earth; the voices; rhythms and music of our wildlife. In an acoustic journey from the vast seabird cliffs in the far...
Richard Sorabji throws new light on the life of the extraordinary woman who was his aunt as well as India's first woman lawyer. With the special insight and knowledge he possesses as Cornelia's nephew, and through scrupulous research in her unpublished papers, he explains her involvement with Katherine Mayo, her disagreements with Gandhi, her disappointments in her career and other crucial aspects of her life. Moving between Britain (Oxford and London in particular), and India, Professor Sorabji gives us a vivid larger picture of the influential worlds Cornelia inhabited which is interesting on many levels. Richard Sorabji does not just tell the story of a woman who will wake up historians; he provides a startling example of biography through history and history through biography.
Lessons from the history of English banking and the evolution of the industry.
What bearing do they have on the present?
This lecture was...
The Rt Hon the Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, President of the Supreme Court
This is the 2010 Gresham Special Lecture.
Other...
Professor Kenneth Costa, Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce, with
Professor Niall Ferguson...
Franz Anton Hoffmeister was in Vienna during Mozart's time in the city, and was a personal friend of the composer; hence the attachment of his name to this quartet, which comes directly after the six "Haydn" quartets and was composed in 1786. Mozart's quartet vision was ever-expanding, in particular into further explorations of counterpoint (in the second, minuet movement) and into the detailed filigree of the Haydn-influenced slow movement.
How antipsychotics work - from receptors to response.
Using brain imaging and animal models can help us to understand more about the biology of psychosis and how antipsychotic medication acts on the brain. In this way we can combine psychological theories, computational models and patients...
Felix Klein, one of the great nineteenth-century geometers, discovered in mathematics an idea prefigured in a Buddhist myth: the heaven of Indra contained a net of pearls, each of which was reflected in its neighbour, so that the whole Universe was mirrored in each pearl. Klein studied...
This is one of Mozart's six so-called "Haydn" quartets, dedicated to his famous predecessor and, as Mozart admitted in the dedication, the fruit of "langer und mühsamer Arbeit" (long and arduous work). The D minor quartet was probably completed in 1783 and its minor key first movement shows much evidence of that "Arbeit" in its strange reversals of usual quartet practice, with a lyrical, song-like opening that then breaks down into instability as the movement progresses.
This is a part of a series of lectures in which Professor Roger Parker resumes his collaboration with the award-winning Badke Quartet. Each of the six lectures is dedicated to a major work in the string quartet repertory. The focus this year will be on works written in Vienna in the years around 1800; three by Joseph Haydn, two by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and one by Beethoven. Each session will begin with a lecture introducing the historical background and discussing the special nature of the quartet in question, and conclude with a complete performance of the work by the Badke Quartet.
This lecture explores in broad terms the origins, of the First World War, both in terms of the aims and purposes of the main combatants, and by examining the influence of Social Darwinism and militarism, which led to a growing willingness of European states to engage in military conflict. Technological changes in warfare - notably the invention of barbed wire and the machine gun - gave the advantage to defence over attack.
The First World War became far more destructive than almost anyone had imagined, and destroyed the Europe created at the Congress of Vienna for ever.
This is part of the series of lectures, War and Peace in Europe from Napoleon to the Kaiser, which looks at the conflicts that tore Europe apart at various times during the 19th century. It examines the origins, course and impact of six wars, or international conflicts, looking not just at their military aspects but also at how soldiers and civilians experienced them, the ideological influences that underlay them, and the social and cultural changes to which they gave rise.
We live in exponential times. The availability of and speed of access to financial information is daunting. The intellectual terms of trade have been skewed in favour of the knowledge economy which though it has brought huge benefits to global commerce, has also drawn the fault lines. Rapid...
Are our sexual preferences acquired through social learning or are some people literally born gay? What are the genetic and prenatal hormone contributions of sexual orientation? How do 'gay genes' survive extermination by non-...
TUDY DAY IN COLLABORATION WITH THE INSTITUTE OF MUSICAL RESEARCH, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON AND KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
In addition to his music, Satie left a remarkable set of writings, including Le Piégede Méduse (1913) featuring music for prepared piano. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. He was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.
This study day will include material on French cinema, lecture/recitals and a performance.
This part of the study day included the following talks:
Composers' Forum: The Impact of Satie on music today by Howard Skempton, Michael Parsons and James Nye. Chaired by Paul Archbold
Satie in performance by Grace Cheung
Erik Satie and Visual Art by Simon Shaw-Miller
TUDY DAY IN COLLABORATION WITH THE INSTITUTE OF MUSICAL RESEARCH, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON AND KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
Robert Orledge, Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool and a panel of experts
In addition to his music, Satie left a remarkable set of writings, including Le Piégede Méduse (1913) featuring music for prepared piano. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. He was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.
This study day will include material on French cinema, lecture/recitals and a performance.
This part of the study day included the following talks:
Satie's musical and personal logic by Robert Orlege
Satie as poet, playwright and composer by Caroline Potter
Astronomers have learnt about the early universe from the discovery in 1965 and subsequent observations of the radiation left over from the Big Bang. Jodrell Bank receivers are aboard the Planck spacecraft now observing this afterglow with unequalled clarity. What might it tell us about the past and future of our universe?
In the Spring of 1910, Mahler went for a consultation with Sigmund Freud giving him an account of his strange states of mind and his anxieties. Mahlers complex life and family background and the extraordinary creative environment in Vienna in the early 20th Century led to groundbreaking artistic achievement. Freud was not a music lover he only enjoyed Mozarts opera, The Magic Flute - but his ideas were revolutionary and had a profound philosophical effect on music.
The lecture will explore the creative environment in Vienna at the beginning of the Twentieth Century and look at the ways Mahlers personality and beliefs are expressed in the music.
The concert will be a performance of the Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde.
This event is a part of the series Creative Inspiration.
Inflammatory eye disease is the commonest cause of acquired visual disability in the young working age population. From infection to autoimmunity the consequences of inflammation blind eyes and ruin lives. The adoption of steroid therapy in the 1950's was a start but consequences of steroid therapy can be severe. From pioneering use of immunomodulation in the 20th century to biological therapies in the 21st, Professor Foster will comprehensively describe the current and future status of managing these terrible diseases.
Prohibited in some states, but very common in the Middle East and Asian communities, cousin marriages result in a small increase in the number of babies with genetic problems. How serious is the problem, and how should it...
Between 1975 and 1989, the Polish-born expressionist artist, Feliks Topolski, worked on a 600ft mural in the railway arches in Waterloo. This masterpiece came to depict the 20th Century as he saw it, featuring the important events and people that forged the modern world that we now live in.
Topolski was born in Poland in 1907 and came to London from France in 1935. He soon established himself in the intellectual life of London and eagerly took up a position as an official war artist during WWII. In 1947 he gained his British Citizenship and he went on to make portraits of the likes of H.G. Wells, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Harold Macmillan. His 600ft mural in the railway arches of Waterloo is now open to the public as the Topolski Century gallery.
Haydn was always an experimenter, and this quartet is one of his most unusual, in that the customary balance between the first two movements is reversed. The first movement is light and undemanding in character (a theme and...
Since 2004 two men or two women may enter a legally recognised union that carries many, but not all, of the legal rights and responsibilities of marriage. This is a trend throughout the Western World. How has civil partnership become established, and should it be recognised as marriage?
This is a part of the lecture series, Family Relationships and the Law since the 1960's.
Claude Monet visited London numerous times between 1870 and 1901, painting some of his most important works in the city.
Why was he repeatedly attracted back to the foggy and overpopulated urban capital when his impressionist work was otherwise so concerned with light and nature? What was the city like when he visited it in the 1870s and 80s? How was he received by the London art establishment at that time?
Professor John House is the Walter H Annenberg Professor at the Courtauld Institute of Art
How London developed differently from the other great capitals of Europe, thanks to our constitutional monarchy.
In a multi-cultural, multi-religious world identity has become a key issue, one with the potential for tension and conflict. Christians find their identity 'In Christ'. How does this affect and shape the modern debate?
Maths can tell us unexpected things about sporting movement and performance. We look at some of the things that we can learn about running, jumping, throwing, swimming and systems of point-scoring by using simple maths and mechanics. Whether you are a coach, a competitor, or just a spectator,...
In 1746 the great Venetian artist, Canaletto, moved to London following the market and wealth for his work. Nine years later, he left the city attacked by the critics as repetitive and a fake.What was 18th Century London like to be the centre of such hope and disappointment? How did...
This is the least-known of the wars discussed in this series of lectures, yet it was of crucial importance for Europe. The decay of the Ottoman Empire was accelerated by the conflict and proved a major factor behind the outbreak of war in 1914. The war broke down the barriers erected in...
Our understanding of child mental health has changed over the years as attitudes towards children changed. Children are not solely immature adults who need protection and care; they have increasingly been seen as active, responsive agents who can develop mental illnesses from inside themselves.
Correspondingly, diagnoses such as depression, autism, dyslexia and ADHD have shown dramatic increases in the last few years. Is society creating more disorders? What has happened to parenting? Are diagnoses such as ADHD and autism really increasing? Are they real conditions or misattributions of ills in the schools and the families of modern societies? What can be done?
The 16th Century was a great period for foreign artists in London. The capital saw such great artists as the German, Hans Holbein, and Netherlandish artists such as Hans Eworth and William Scrouts.
From cloning and embryo research, to multiple births and the taking of sperm from dead husbands - the field of reproductive technologies is always going to be notoriously difficult. When controversial scientific advances and...
This is the first truly global financial crisis. We will try to find the parameters for a debate, which would recognise the extraordinary achievements of globlisation for example in the fight against poverty and, on the other hand, the view that globalisation is but tolerated exploitation by...
What are men and women looking for in a partner? What accounts for the different 'shopping lists' of men and women? Genetic similarity theory vs the quest for 'hybrid vigour'. The games and strategies adopted in securing a...
We know that some 3 to 4 thousand million years ago conditions on Mars could have supported life. We will chart our exploration of the red planet and how we have learnt of its past climate. Could simple life forms have evolved there and, if so, might they still exist beneath the surface?
The eye, although a critical component of sight, is not where vision occurs. The ability to interpret the signals generated in the eye by the brain allows for the perception of vision. Sight is a complex sense requiring co-ordinated interaction amongst many regions and pathways of the brain. The untangling of these processes from the age of enlightenment through psychological experiments with optical illusions, to modern neural imaging, has revealed fundamental mechanisms of how the brain works.
The revival of the Boyle Lectures in recent years has focused attention, as Boyle would have wished, on the relations between a culture of science and the plausibility of religious claims. Much of course has changed since Boyle in his Will endowed the original lecture series, but there remain certain parallels between his own time and ours. In the Preface to his book The Christian Virtuoso, Boyle observed the 'great and deplorable growth of irreligion, especially among those that aspired to pass for wits and several of them too for philosophers.' On the other side were their opponents, who by virtue of 'well-meaning but ill-informed zeal, had brought many good men to think that religion and philosophy were incompatible.'
The consequence, in Boyle's words, was that libertines thought a scientific virtuoso ought not to be a Christian and the others that he could not be a true one. My intention in this lecture is to introduce and revisit Boyle himself, who sought to mend this situation. Known to many only as the originator of a 'law' governing the behaviour of gases, Boyle repays closer study as one who thought deeply about the meaning of the word 'nature' and the reality of a spirit world.
I shall suggest that while many of the assumptions underpinning his natural theology would have to be regarded as obsolete, some of his arguments for the compatibility of theism with the sciences had a depth that enabled them to survive in subsequent religious rhetoric. After noting the longevity and diversity of appeals to 'design' in nature, I shall consider what remains valuable in Boyle's legacy today.
This is the 2010 Boyle Lecture.
How the Tudor and Stuart monarchs used the buildings of London to boost their power and influence.
The middle ages had a wonderful vision of law originating in the wisdom of God and being expressed both in nature and human society. Law as understood in modern society has had this foundation undermined, and is now understood in very functional terms. Can we recover a moral vision for the...
This quartet is sometimes known as the "Quinten" or "Fifths" Quartet, because of the opening descending intervals in its first movement. This movement is tightly structured around the "fifths" motive, and shows Haydn at his most...
Simple maths can reveal how energy efficient different forms of transport are. We will look at how to drive as fuel efficiently as possible. When does buying a small car help? Does car-pooling always save energy? Simple estimates can also tell us about the relative efficiencies of travelling...
In three short, sharp military conflicts, the Kingdom of Prussia, led by Otto von Bismarck, defeated Denmark, Austria and France to create the new German Empire in 1871. This lecture analyses these wars, their origins and...
"Lloyd's is the McDonald's of the Insurance Industry" London is still considered as the world's insurance and reinsurance centre. But no professional reinsurance company is owned by UK shareholders - the Germans, Swiss, Americans and French dominate. Lloyd's has ceased to be a members-only...
In England, interpersonal rights and duties of support have traditionally only attached themselves to couples united by law, sex and children. Why should there not be family obligations to support siblings and parents?...
Haydn's Op. 76, the last set of six quartets he composed, are generally recognised as the pinnacle of his writing in the genre. They were completed in 1796-7 and published a couple of years later. No. 1 in G major, as befits the...
In 1936, Britten and Auden established a friendship and creative partnership whilst working at the GPO film unit in Blackheath, London, producing iconic films such as "Night Mail." With war looming, Auden - a pacifist - left for America to be shortly followed by Britten and Peter Pears in 1939. 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights was to become their home and an extraordinary melting part of creativity. Gypsy Rose Lee, Carson McCullers, George Davis, Chester Kallman were fellow lodgers and regular visitors included Thomas Mann, Aaron Copland, Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill, Virgil Thomson, Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein. When Salvador Dali met Auden at one of the infamous house parties he famously asked him "Do you speak English?"
Did the boom in the 'leadership market' (books, courses and organisational practice) help cause the global financial crisis? Is a simplistic focus on remuneration/incentives - with some attention displaced onto 'governance' and 'regulation' (second- and third- order...
What constitutes human facial beauty and bodily attractiveness? How do these traits connect with health, fertility, and parental fitness? Differences across time and culture in the attributes that are attractive will be outlined...
Some of the most beautiful parts of the heavens are hidden from us here in the United Kingdom. The lecture will take us on a visual journey to the most beautiful and interesting objects of the southern skies including a star that could explode any time, a cluster containing 'singing' stars, the...
The commonest operation in the world is responsible for restoring sight to millions of blind and visually disabled people every year. From humble beginnings in India over 2,000 years ago it was refined by French surgeons...
The central tenet of democratic capitalism has always been to allow the market to operate with minimal interference from elected governments. This underlying assumption is now being challenged. With the public's distrust of Government growing, will they entrust major financial decisions to...
The movement to establish an international legal basis for human rights after World War II has been one of the great achievements of our time. But do human rights have a sound theological basis? Sometimes it seems religions give the impression that God is indifferent to them. This challenge...
A lecture to investigate the problems of eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, by Professor Janet Treasure of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.
This lecture includes a ...
Everything we buy, from books to baked beans, has a product code printed on it. More sophisticated check-digit codes exist on official documents, bank notes and air tickets. What are they for and what do they mean? We take a look at the mathematical structure of these codes and explain their...
There is simple evidence that, even in recent times, the Earth has suffered major impacts from asteroids and comets. What dangers do they hold for our civilisation? Major efforts now being made to detect those that might harm us and strategies are being developed to prevent their impacts. But we...
Les Mardistes was a group of intellectuals who met every Tuesday to discuss philosophy, art and literature. Instigated by the poet Stephane Mallarme, its habitués included W B Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Verlaine,...
The market economy is a good servant and a bad master. How did finance become not a means to a end but an end in itself? The City's roots lie in serving the growth in commerce and trade. Did we put on the wrong trade to become masters? Are incentives, bonus or malus, carrot or stick? Were...
From the 12-note music of Schoenberg, via the stochastic procedures of Xenakis, to Carter's use of set theory, composers of the 20th and 21st centuries have engaged with number in fascinating ways, resulting in a rich and...
The politics of heritage and preservation over the last ten years, with special reference to London.
Democracy is usually thought of as an achievement of the secular enlightenment. But the best defence of democracy is one based on a Christian understanding of what it is to be a human being in society, well described in words of Reinhold Niebuht, "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy...
The Crimean War is remembered in Britain mainly for its military incompetence and for the pioneering nursing activities of Florence Nightingale. In a wider European context, however, it was the first major international...
In the 1990s, the advanced economics appeared no longer self-sufficient in labour supplies. Without permanent mechanisms to recruit workers (or students) from the rest of the world, economic growth could be threatened - or the labour force would be overwhelmed by foreign workers working...
Geometers study shapes and how they transform into one other. Musicians create shapes and transform them. We illustrate with some examples that are interesting to both geometers and musicians.
...
This lecture coincides with the 400th anniversary of the first use of a telescope to observe the heavens by Galileo Galilei in 1609.
It will...
How have our ideas of national security changed since 9/11 and the terrorist attacks on London? Are we doing enough to secure ourselves against national threats? How should we view the danger and how can governments help prepare...
What is the best way to pack? Some examples of different packing strategies will lead us to the best way of packing many things of different sizes. We look at the different strategies that can be used to board passengers on to aircraft and discover that the standard load-from-the-back model is...
A lecture to mark the publication of Vernon Bogdanor's book based on the series of lectures delivered at Gresham College during 2006 and 2007, ...
The number of couples living together has risen to a record level. Why do they avoid marriage and civil partnership? How can former cohabitants resolve their legal issues when the relationship ends? Should...
Ovarian cancer, the most lethal gynaecologic malignancy in both the US and UK, provides an excellent model of analysis for recent developments in novel therapies in oncology....
The Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture for the Public Understanding of History
Dr Charles Saumarez Smith CBE Royal Academy of Arts
This was the 2009 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture. The other joint lectures can be...
This lecture explores various ideas of tuning and temperament from the time of Pythagoras, via Isaac Newton and J.S. Bach, to the present day.
This is a...
The international settlement reached at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was built on the suppression of liberal, nationalist and popular revolutionary movements in an attempt to prevent the re-emergence of the kind of...
Since the 18th century the three great political values have been liberty, equality and human community. They are sometimes thought of only in secular terms. In fact they have deep Christian roots and there is a distinctive Christian...
Brendan May, Planet 2050
Barely a day passes without a major company or brand unveiling some new ethical or green initiative...
If the capitalist system is to be the friend of society and not its enemy it needs to recover both its moral and human spirit. This lecture will try to determine how ethics can once again be restored seamlessly to its place in commercial life. It will also look at the human and behavioural aspect of decision making.
Identifying people is a fundamental skill and special areas of the brain are hard wired for recognising faces. Non-subjective artificial recognition of individuals has become increasingly important. The recent advent of...
The reality of the Earth's motion, as proclaimed by Copernicus, quickly proved contentious. Accepted by Kepler, disputed by theologians (Lutheran and Catholic alike), veiled in suggestions of mere convenience, adopted and explained by Newton as a consequence of universal gravitation, parent...
In previous ages bankers have sometimes pecked lower in the order of society than lepers. Jesus declared their usurous ways immoral. Amazingly, from this disadvantaged position in...
Simple mathematics revealed how to cut diamonds so as to create the most brilliant effect through the refraction, reflection and dispersion of light. We look also at some of the unusual effects of reflection and refraction that have been used to create illusions, and reveal why your right hand...
Deportation in the modern context.
This is a part of the Crime and Retribution Mondays at One lecture series.
This lecture will examine how heritage protection began and went on to shape out attitudes to our history and the past. Simon Thurley is Visiting Gresham Professor of the Built Environment.
The lecture will describe the nearly 200-year-long detective story of the search for planets in the outer reaches of the Solar System. It led first to the discovery of Neptune and Pluto and, recently, to Pluto's downgrading to a 'Dwarf Planet'. We already know of a second dwarf planet beyond...
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille. He became blind soon after an accidental injury aged three and despite the odds went on to develop a tactile system of reading that has...
This lecture offers an overview of the convict transportation to Australia that existed between 1787 and 1868.
It offers a path through this huge topic by briefly summarising the background before moving on to explore the impact that transportation had on the families of convicts, how convicts coped with the voyage from Britain to Australia, the arrival of convicts in Australia and the ending of the system.
People say we live in a secular society, but do we? If by secular society is meant a set of political arrangements that are neutral as far as religion is concerned, is this desirable? If it is, how should Christians seek to address it?
Financial centres have existed since antiquity, from the legendary entrepôts of Babylon, Samarkand, Constantinople, Marrakech or Timbuktu through to London and New York City vying for today's top spot. But competition is hot. Is financial centre competition a zero-sum game or can everybody win? We'll examine today's financial centres to see what matters for success.
When it comes to the division of assets and income after divorce, England and Wales have sweeping laws. London is called the divorce capital of Europe, and English judges have transformed parliamentary law on maintenance to...
Government solutions for the Arctic Ocean involve the integration of science diplomacy tools (notably ecosystem-based management) with recognition of international space and common interests for the lasting benefit of all...
There have been more prisons in London than in any other European city. Of these, Newgate was the largest, most notorious and worst. Built during the twelfth century, it became a legendary place - the inspiration of more poems,...
In 1810 Napoleon's France ruled or controlled the greater part of Europe. Five years later, his Empire had crumbled into ruins. This lecture explores the reasons for his victories and later defeat, assesses his impact on Europe, and addresses the question of why decades of warfare...
From 1910-1913, Stravinsky blazed a trail with his stunning ballet scores The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. Written for Diaghilev's legendary Ballet Russes, these ballets were groundbreaking events not only for their innovative, iconoclastic music but also for the bold set designs and revolutionary choreography. Diaghilev had assembled some of the finest creative artists of the day around him and the impact of these and subsequent productions is with us today. The pre-concert talk explores their relationship and examine what makes Stravinsky's music so special.
Igor Stravinsky - Suite - L'Histoire du Soldat
Marche du Soldat
Musique de la Première Scène (Petits airs au bord du ruisseau)
Musique de la Deuxième Scène (Pastorale)
Marche Royale
Petit Concert
Trois Danses (Tango-Vals-Ragtime)
Danse du Diable
Grand Chorale
Marche Triomphale du Diable
Performers: Thomas Kemp (Conductor)
Thomas Norris (Violin)
Graham Lee (Trombone)
Alice Lee (Bassoon)
Bruce Nockles (Cornet)
Duncan Prescott (Clarinet)
Alex Neal (Percussion)
Stacey Watton (Double Bass)
This event is a part of the series Creative Inspirations.
Why do tightrope walkers always carry long poles? What is the difference between weight and inertia? We take a look at balance and stability, from gymnastics and spinning racquets to the rescue of the International Space Station set spinning by a potentially disastrous collision with its docking vehicle.
Wergeld is the payment demanded of a person who has killed someone. That is, until the 9th century when it was replaced by capital punishment. The history of 'compensation culture' is older than some might think....
The context of royal portraiture in its early evolution, and the many different portraits produced of Henry in his lifetime. This lecture will look at the context of royal portraiture in its early evolution, and the many...
This introduction to the series covers the structure and function of the human eye. The historical concept of the eye as a simple image-forming device has been transformed to the modern view of the eye as a sophisticated...
Elizabeth's galleons and other warships have attracted much attention, but a strong and diverse shipbuilding capability and merchant fleet were the foundations of Tudor seapower. This lecture not only covers the technological, organisational, economic and operational side of ships and...
One of the reasons why people make mistakes is that the systems they use are badly designed, and this is perhaps nowhere more alarming than in hospital errors involving drug delivery systems. This talk reviews a well-documented, but otherwise typical, fatality and shows that many causes could be...
Sustainable investing has come of age, demonstrating a combination of compelling returns and the ability to anticipate new systemic risks, such as climate change. But the financial crisis has generated a flight from risk,...
How is mental illness portrayed in Bollywood films, and what are its implications and effects on Indian society within its broader historical, cultural and social contexts?...
Divorce law was last reformed in 1969. Since that date, the UK divorce rate has climbed to one of the highest in the world. One-third of children experience their parents' divorce before they reach 16. The...
Charlie McCreevy is the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services.
Charlie McCreevy is a qualified chartered accountant. In 1977 he was first elected to Dáil Eireann (Irish Parliament) for the constituency where he was born - County Kildare, Ireland. From 1992 he held various cabinet posts in Fianna Fail-led governments including: Minister for Social Welfare, Minister for Tourism and Trade and latterly (1997) Minister for Finance. Since 2005 he has been the EU's Commissioner for Internal Market and Services.
This is the 2009 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
Freemasonry is a relatively obscure subject with many myths surrounding the organization. This lecture attempts to provide some insight into the past and present background of freemasonry as a fraternal organization, highlight the main myths associated with freemasonry as well as to shatter these myths or illusions hovering over its membership.
Why was Burns so important to Robert Schumann? Why did they love him in 19th century Russia, but not in France? What is the wider musical legacy of Scotland's greatest poet.
...
What can we expect from our artists, and what should we demand of them? The independence of artists from society has become an effectively archaic notion, but what stance can an artist hope to take up on issues such as the...
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and Emeritus Gresham Professor of Divinity, is a prominent campaigner in the fight against global warming and for conserving natural resources, and is one of the international signatories to the Upsala Interfaith Climate Manifesto 2008. Here he addresses the hard facts and statistics of waste against the poetic London backdrop of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and offers a holistic vision for a sustainable future.
People change the planet in beautiful and terrifying ways, from high art to base waste. Never before have we had such power to transform our planet and ourselves. Never before have we so risked losing everything. Robust economies and environments are essential to mankind's future. This performance combines music inspired by Ovid's works with selections from modern political and economic thinking in order to envision how society might metamorphose towards sustainable commerce with nature.
Iain Sinclair takes a look at the rivers of London which have either faded out of the minds of Londoners or else disappeared completely. He considers what relationship these 'lost' rivers have with the idea of 'northness' within London and beyond.
The idea of the North lies at the intersection of poetry, myth, art and the myriad ways in which artists, poets and explorers have filtered the north's stark natural splendour through their imaginations. The author, Peter...
We have, since 1997, been undergoing a process unique in the democratic world of transforming an uncodified constitution into a codified one, piecemeal, there being neither the political will nor the consensus to do more....
What can the study of height, health and welfare teach us about our past? Can it tell us about our cognitive development or changing lifespans?
...
Current plans by both NASA and ESA's Aurora project propose manned flights to the Moon, but this will actually be a return to the Moon, around 40 years after the last man stood on its surface. Here is a chance to see how it was done originally, with contemporary video, images and artists' impressions - plus a Moon globe on which you can feel the craters, and a four-foot Saturn V rocket!
Professor Niall Ferguson offers an evolutionary approach to financial history: he questions the impeding of 'natural selection' by keeping the financial dinosaurs alive through the life support of monetary injections: "without creative destruction, our economic system cannot be a...
There are two types of people in the world - those who believe in markets and those who don't. Debate on the role of markets in society has taken on religious attributes. Saints or crooks? Public sector versus private sector? Rawls or Nozick: liberty or distribution? Regulated versus unregulated...
The position of the Lord Mayor of London has existed since 1189 and has always been one of the most important roles in maintaining London as the prime international financial capital in the world....
This event marks the publication of John D Barrow's latest book. 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know answers one hundred essential questions of existence. From winning the lottery, placing bets at the races and escaping from bears to sports, Shakespeare, Google, game theory, drunks, divorce settlements and dodgy accounting; from chaos to infinity and everything in between.
Issues of British human rights and European law affecting, for example, the rights of a prisoner to artificial insemination, and the rights to treatment of single persons and same sex couples. What attention should be paid to traditional family forms in considering the welfare of babies who may...
David Lean's 1945 film, Brief Encounter, is a classic example of the way film can use music to drive the emotions of the audience. The film repeatedly returns to Eileen Joyce's recording of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, each time further entwining the viewer's emotions within the narrative. But how can this extravagant, extrovert music seem so perfectly adapted to the repression and guilt that surrounds the protagonists?
250 years ago Daniel Bernoulli used mathematics and statistics to try to weigh the risks and benefits of inoculation against smallpox. The arguments of Bernoulli and his critics still remain relevant today.
This is the 2009 joint London Mathematical Society / Gresham College lecture....
Traditional economics is founded on a mistake: that income can be equated for happiness as the ultimate aim of government. It is long overdue that we start rethinking how governments and economists should work, because the aim of public policy should be to make people happier. In this lecture,...
The Presidency of the younger Bush will be forever marked by the trauma of Iraq.
The war in Iraq was, however, a product of the Bush Doctrine developed after...
From Malthus to the Club of Rome, predictions about maximum population size have been too conservative. We now live with 6-7 billion others and the "population bomb" is yet to explode. So what really is the upper limit for healthy coexistence?
Part of the series of psychiatry lectures presented in association with the Mental Health Knowledge Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London (http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/).
This concert looks at Haydn's posthumous reception and his influences on the other composers. Haydn taught Beethoven briefly on his return from London in 1795 and both Mozart and Beethoven dedicated works to him....
Clinton was the first Democratic president since Roosevelt to serve two full terms in the White House. He sought to modernise the Democratic party in somewhat similar fashion to Blair's 'New Labour'....
Homo sapiens have been around for 250,000 years - surely long enough to have become fully evolved?
It was thought that the dramatic extension of life spans during the 20th century eliminated natural selection, but new evidence shows that to be false.
Will selection always be natural, or could postmodern also mean posthuman?
This talk gives an overview of the causes and cures of performance anxiety. Under what circumstances is it most likely to occur? When is emotional arousal beneficial to performance and when destructive? The pros and cons of various approaches to treatment of stagefright (beta-blockers, cognitive...
From online dictionaries to Wikipedia: the World Wide Web presents a domain where words are invented, refined and defined on an immediate and ongoing basis. What is the future of printed dictionaries and professional lexicographers when the world is increasingly turning to online dictionaries...
Time is one of the most mysterious concepts in our Universe. It is easy to describe how we define its passage and how we can make exceedingly accurate clocks but questions as to what determines the arrow of time and whether time travel is possible can tax the most brilliant minds!
In the Sixteenth Century London developed as a major trading centre. What role did the livery companies play in this and how powerful were they in practice? Did they ultimately help or hinder the growth of the City?
This is a part of the Tudor Ports of London series celebrating the centenary of the Port of London Authority (PLA).
How does music exert such extraordinary effects on our emotions? To what extent does it depend upon our nature (biological rhythms, instinctive reactions to certain sound patterns) and to what extent experience (e.g. conditioned associations, nostalgia)? Particular attention is given to the...
How are we to allocate the power between the law makers and the law enforcers? How are we to mark the differentiation between legislators and the members of the judiciary?
Professor Bogdanor (of the University of Oxford) and Professor Rodriguez (of New York University) offer us a pan-...
The first thesaurus was created by Dr Peter Mark Roget in 1805.
What was his story? What inspired him to create this monumental work? How did he go about classifying and assorting the synonyms and antonyms?
Roget's...
This part of the symposium includes the following panel discussion:
Domain versus Process Expertise: Audit Perspectives
This event will explore the question "What makes a good auditor?" from a number of angles including financial auditors, social and ethical auditors, environmental auditors, internal auditors and management system auditors.
Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano, with music by Michael Nyman, was one of the most acclaimed films of the early 1990s, but it quickly became controversial because of its depiction of the mute heroine Ada (played by Holly Hunter). Ada is a pianist, and mostly expresses herself through music: Nyman's score thus becomes a central feature of the film's narrative, although perhaps not always in ways that Campion may have intended.
How have judges treated the new issues and what oversight have they over the HFEA? There are issues here of general legal interest concerning regulation and discretion. The case of Diane Blood, who used gametes taken from her deceased husband, will be re-examined, along with the effect of media...
What benefits do we derive from theatre (including film and TV)? It is excitement, vicarious experience, education, catharsis, or all of these things? Does our enjoyment depend upon the ability of the playwright to...
The legendary Oxford English Dictionary today contains over 600,000 words and a staggering 2,500,000 illustrative quotations. A glorious, bursting treasure-house, the OED serves as a guardian of the literary jewels of the past,...
R S Thomas had a reputation for writing verse expressing a very bleak view of life, and being a dour and unsociable man. In fact some of his poems have a remarkable tender, lyrical quality and new evidence about his life reveals a man of great wit and warmth. The lecture will explore these...
Sir David Brewer CMG LL, is the Chairman of the China-Britain Business Council and is the former Lord Mayor of London.
How does maths shed light on the fixing of horse races? Why disabling the favourite is the best strategy to ensure a winning return. We will find the simple condition that the odds must obey in order that you can always have a winning return no matter what the outcome of the race. How this...
Political ideas in Britain at the start of the twenty-first century. The deaths of socialism and conservatism? Prophecies and predictions about the end of history or a clash of civilisations? New issues in political ideology: identity, culture, religion. The search for new ways forward. What, if...
Johnson's early life was beset by ill health; his eyesight and hearing were poor throughout his life. Poverty obliged him to leave Oxford without a degree. Johnson travelled to London with his friend, the actor David Garrick, and supported himself through journalism. He was commissioned to write...
All markets are based on trust. Confidence is everything. Yet investors must take risks, new products and services must be explored, sometimes one needs to trade with strangers. This lecture will explore the role of trust in commerce and power while setting out some early thoughts on the Theory of Influence.
Daily news bulletins threaten devastation from climate change, with dire consequences for health. Just how inconvenient is the truth about global warming? Is this the most pressing health problem facing humanity, or are there more important things to worry about?
2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the Mary Rose, the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world. She was a revolutionary build, and one of the first ships able to fire a broadside. After a long and...
The older Bush, like Carter, was a one-term president. Yet his presidency saw momentous changes in world politics - the end of the Cold War, a resolution of the German question and the successful outcome of the first...
Though a beautiful sight in our heavens, comets were once thought to be evil vapours burning up in our atmosphere. However, we now know that they have brought organic material and water to our planet Earth so helping to lay the foundations of life. But, equally, one could bring about the end of...
Psychiatrists have for many years regarded conditions such as anxiety or depression as being at the extreme end of a normal distribution of the characteristic. In contrast, traditional psychiatric classification considers...
Has IVF increased women's control over their fertility and careers? Freezing their eggs may give women the opportunity to be fertile for as long a timespan as men: is this an advantage and what should the law be where two partners disagree over the future use of embryos that they stored with...
What happens when opera meets film? From its earliest days, film has flirted with opera: initially (and perhaps even to the present day) in periodic attempts to gain elite prestige for a medium that has always been associated...
The Orkneys produced two remarkable 20th century poets, for both of whom the Christian faith became central in the course of their adult lives. This lecture looks at the special features of their faith as it is reflected in their poetry.
Scientists sometimes complain about the introduction of religious ideas into science. But many scientists, especially evolutionary biologists, blatantly introduce materialism into science. In fact neither theism nor materialism are entailed by science. They are philosophical views, and materialism is a highly disputed and problematic philosophical theory, not supported by any major classical philosopher. Many eminent scientists confuse science and philosophy, commit themselves to materialism without seriously considering its problems, and make ill-considered remarks about religion, largely based on the anti-scientific beliefs of a minority of extremist Christians. Creationism should not be taught as science; but neither should materialism. It is time for some scientists to see that their allegedly purely scientific views are often founded on blind prejudice and culpable misunderstanding.
Professor Ward's lecture will be followed by a response by The Revd Dr John Polkinghorne ScD KBE DRS
New rights and new lefts in Britain as both the chronological and the short twentieth centuries draw to a close. How new is new, how left is left, and how right is right? Is there genuine innovation, or just a rearrangement of old arguments?
Hanging chains and shapes of suspension bridges. The designs of some of the world's greatest bridges. The shapes of arches and domes. The shapes of the Eiffel Tower and the Swiss Re Tower (the 'Gherkin'). The design and efficiency of windmills. Why do the wind turbines have an odd number of...
Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) is famous for his Principal Navigations, intended both to record past maritime achievement and to inspire new endeavours. Hakluyt was supported by the Clothworkers' Company and by his cousin (also Richard), a Middle Temple lawyer connected to City overseas trading interests. This lecture will explore Hakluyt's enterprise in the context of these London associations.
Ronald Reagan saw it as his task to restore American self-confidence following the policy failures of the 1970's. Charismatic, and a master of the media, he was the first president since the 1920's to come to power...
Should we prefer the brittle resilience of a very nervous central system to being nervous about robust but decentralised economic systems? From fear of a decentralised National Health Service to uncertainties over global Sovereign Wealth Funds affecting local economies or doubts about the limits...
One of the hottest topics in astronomy is that of detecting other solar systems. The methods by which this has been achieved so far have yet to detect an earth-like planet, but already a miniature version of our solar system has been discovered. How do these discoveries affect the prospects for...
This concert will explore Haydn's visit to London and recreate the type of programme what would have been heard at the legendary Salomon Concerts in Hanover Square. Salomon was instrumental in persuading Haydn to visit...
Auden was arguably the most prodigiously talented of the great 20th century poets. When he recovered his Christian faith as an adult about 1940 this suffused all his later poetry. But it has been virtually ignored by critics. This lecture will explore the subtle ways in which Auden's faith...
Not all political thinking is about either individual liberty and as little government as possible, or a responsible, or leadership, or housekeeping style of government. Alternative forms of government, society and politics: small groups, communities, localities, and voluntary associations. The varied forms of pluralism: socialist, communist, conservative and liberal.
Some mathematics of straight lines. Why are electricity pylons made of triangular patterns of struts? Rigid shapes and flexible shapes. What is the smallest number of attendants you need to watch all the paintings on the wall of an art gallery of any shape with straight walls, and any number of...
This concert looks at 18th century music making and the demand for chamber music to be performed in the home. The talk will look at the Tavern Concert and will consider the evolving musical language and the dialogue...
Considered thinkers from Mandelbrot ('fractals') or Keillor ('Lake Wobegon Days') to Taleb ('Black Swans') point out the absurdity of more than half of us being 'above average'. Yet financial service salesfolk presume that the financial world is full of geniuses who perform, on average, 'above...
The final lecture in this series asks why Germans kept on fighting when the war was so clearly lost. The worse the situation became, the more the regime used terror and coercion to impose its will. Some hoped for rescue by '...
The difference between series that are finite and infinite. Simple proofs by pictures. The ubiquity of the harmonic series. The Painter's Paradox. Going to infinity very slowly. How often should there be a record year of rainfall? The Problem of the Pile of Books, the Jeep Refueling Problem, and...
Stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness is common and severe wherever it has been studied. One surprising aspect of this is that many consumers report that they feel discriminated against by health...
Why was it argued that the poor could not vote, and conversely why has it been argued that democracy cannot allow its citizens to stay poor? The debate in Britain over the distribution of property: conservative, liberal, socialist, feminist and anarchist answers to the problems of property and politics.
6 December 2008 is the 75th birthday of Polish composer Henryk Görecki. Chamber Domaine have been working with Professor Adrian Thomas and will be producing a new CD to mark the occasion.
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Some works of literature today are written from a consciously atheistic point of view. What might a person of faith learn from them? What critique might faith offer?
Consumers are increasingly concerned not only about the safety and quality of their food but also about its origin together with the related issues of animal welfare, organic or non-organic, fair trade and environmental impact as well as the effect diet has on their well-being. This lecture will...
With scientific knowledge ever-progressing, is there space left for God? Is there going to be a time when science will have uncovered all the secrets of the universe and proven that there is no Divinity? As science progresses, is the belief in God becoming ever-more irrational and ridiculous?
Ian Morison explains why God will never be ruled out by scientific progress.
We believe that 96% of the mass and energy content of our Universe is invisible. Some is in the form of Dark Matter whose presence we can only detect by its gravitational influence. The majority, called Dark Energy, appears to be ripping our Universe apart.
The 16th-century instruments in the Museum of the History of Science in Florence provide one of the most attractive records of contemporary mathematics, significant for having been formed in the period, rather than assembled later by a museum or a collector. This lecture presents the results of cataloguing these instruments.
This lecture was jointly held with the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
The Western is a genre closely associated with film from that medium's earliest days, and in particular during the 1950s and 1960s some of the most innovative Westerns were made newly complex by their use of music. This lecture...
Sir William Paulet (c.1483-1572) is perhaps unique in his long public career at a time of great political and religious turmoil. He held positions under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, notably as one of...
Jimmy Carter saw himself as the antithesis to Nixon - he wanted to be the president who would restore morality to American life. An outsider in Washington, he sought to base his policies on human rights rather than on...
The maths of surfaces and boundaries. Queen Dido's problem. The importance of shape. Examples from the natural world where it pays to minimise your surface and others where it pays to maximise it. Animal behaviour: the shapes and huddles of herds. Tactics of Atlantic convoys. Shoals of fish and...
One of the puzzles of the 2007/8 credit crunch is how a relatively small loss of capital in a tiny market segment was transformed into a global financial crisis costing close to $1trn and sending the world economy into slowdown. Key players in this tragedy are a set of legal and accounting...
What processes govern whether health in populations gets better or worse on a time scale of a few decades? Have healthy populations reached that state through luck, good leadership, or because people have the freedom to respond to incentives?
How IVF and embryology have developed to enable would-be parents to use embryo diagnosis to select an embryo free of an inherited disease. We will question whether this has an adverse effect on attitudes towards the disabled. How do we draw the line between eugenics and doing the best for the...
The highly-acclaimed lecture/performance combines the knowledge of science and the wisdom of poetry. Between them actress Lisa Harrow and Roger Payne have numerous honours, fellowships, lifetime awards and even a...
In the mid-twentieth century the Southern Ocean whaling industry was the world's biggest fishery. Since then, most whale species have been depleted to near extinction, most fisheries have declined and the ocean's living resources are in crisis. Marine biologist Sidney Holt will examine causes of...
What is it about happiness that makes it so elusive for most of us and yet seemingly so simple for some? Is it a matter of how we approach our lives, or is it just luck in how we find the world? Psychiatrist, Dr Raj Persaud, investigates the elements that contribute or conflict with the pursuit...
In some countries people haggle incessantly, in others to haggle is insulting. In many cities transportation costs are based on time rather than distance. On Alderney house buyers and house sellers both put up a deposit. This lecture examines how people use different commercial structures around...
By December 1941 the Third Reich had reached the apogee of its success.
But Germany's economic and manpower resources proved insufficient to defeat the...
Sir Michael Snyder is the Senior Partner of Kingston Smith firm of accountants, the Deputy Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London, and a Governor of both the London Metropolitan University and the City of London School for Girls. He has been a member of the Court of...
There are inherent paradoxes in commercial ethics. Rigid tendering processes should make it hard to corrupt procurement exercises, but often also drive out innovation and thought. Innovation, such as new technology, can help make the world a better place; but technology can also be deployed by the unscrupulous for ill. This lecture explores the philosophy behind commercial ethics with examples of real world commercial ethical issues.
The enormous suffering experienced during the 20th century, combined with the insights of that master of suspicion, Sigmund Freud, has made us deeply sceptical about the possibility of happy endings, popular though they are amongst readers. This is an issue for novelists and presses in a...
The tercentenary in 2003 of Hooke's death saw a flurry of publications, media interest and discussions related to his life and work. Have those events changed our understanding of Hooke? If so, how and why? Some answers are proposed.
Faced with the problem of justifying what they want to achieve or preserve, ideologists have appealed to the past and the future, to home and to abroad. The different ways of solving this problem amongst conservatives, socialists, liberals, feminists and anarchists.
Infamous rake (and Chancellor of the Exchequer), Sir Francis Dashwood was the founder of the Hellfire Club whose avowed flouting of all moral and sexual decency and the deliberate offending of religion brought about...
A lovely name for galaxies - if a little inaccurate. We will learn how the size and spiral structure of our own Milky Way has been determined, how it relates to others within our local group of galaxies and how the gravitational pull of groups and clusters has determined the large scale...
Richard Nixon, tainted by Watergate, is widely seen as the villain amongst post-war presidents. But are we in danger of neglecting his positive achievements - the creation of a new Republican Majority, the development...
An explanation of the ethical issues. We will examine attitudes towards the embryo, the retrieval and storage of gametes, mixed animal-human embryos, informed consent, safety, welfare and the lifesaving possibilities of embryo research. Are ethical choices made by legislators, scientists,...
1666 saw the Medieval centre of London destroyed by the Great Fire. How did London and England survive this blow? How was it able to pick itself up and rebuilt? What lessons were learnt, and how do they show themselves in today's modern London?...
Public health campaigns have dramatically reduced exposure to infection but the effects have not been uniformly beneficial; one consequence has been the rise of cancers, allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases.
A panel of acclaimed experts will discuss the issues related to the American Presidential Election, which is to take place on the 4th of November.
The Marine Support Unit plays a major part in keeping London safe and secure. Dating back to 1839 with a small collection of rowing boats, it is considered the first preventative police force in England. Today it controls 35 miles of the Thames, between Hampton Court and Dartford Creek, as well...
The second lecture in this series describes the astonishing and crushing military victories of the first two years of the war that brought Nazi Germany to a position of supreme power in the European continent. Following Italy's...
Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece is inextricably tied up with its difficult, modernist score written by Bernard Herrmann. For example, it is almost impossible to imagine the famous 'shower scene' without Herrmann's...
Political ideologies in Britain from the Russian Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the 'short' Twentieth Century. With the end of this 'short' twentieth century the ideological certainties fell away, and an ideological map of clear and comprehensive packages - left, right,...
An overview of different types of mathematics and its applications. What is mathematics and why does it 'work'? A look at the way mathematics can tell you things about the world that you cannot learn any other way: how computers have extended the reach of humans, the simple nature of many 'hard...
The relationship between literature and religion has sometimes been one of hostility, sometimes one in which they have occupied separate worlds. Today the relationship is at once more intimate and more complex. This lecture will explore the various ways in which literature enriches and deepens a religious view of life. At the same time it will suggest that literature itself might be open to a critique from the outside.
Haydn was the most famous composer of his day. By the time he visited London in 1791-95, he was a celebrity courted by the monarchy and his music was widely performed at concerts and in the home. This concert will look...
The latter days in the lives of stars are by far the most interesting; they synthesise the elements from which planets like our Earth are formed, and die in cataclysmic explosions to form Planetary Nebulae, White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars and Black Holes.
Private Harry Farr was a British soldier executed for alleged cowardice during the Battle of the Somme. His fate was particularly tragic because he had a history of "shell shock". Last year, after many years, Harry and all the others executed for military offences during the First World War were finally granted a posthumous pardon. But what exactly had happened to Harry on that fateful day when he refused to go into the trenches? The vast majority of those sentenced to death by British Court Martials were reprieved - why wasn't Harry? What did shell shock really mean in 1916? Finally, is it acceptable to judge history by our own contemporary standards?
We will examine why infertility and its treatment are problematic, and why there should be regulation of this field. An explanation will be given of the technology, from 'simple' IVF to cloning. We will look at choices of treatment, and trace the history of regulation in this country, the passage of the 1990 Act, its effect on other countries, and the 2008 HFE Bill.
Few human deaths are caused by inherited genetic defects, and yet all diseases have a genetic basis. How do we resolve that paradox, and what have race, ethnicity and longevity got to do with it?
For the first time in history, Asia has three great powers simultaneously, all of which are treating the continent as a single economic, strategic and diplomatic space. Such integration raises the prospect that Asian growth could help support the world economy. But tension between the three, protectionism in Europe and America, and the challenge in Asia of coping with inflation, social unrest and environmental damage, make such a soothing outcome look increasingly unlikely.
Sir Thomas Gresham founded his College in 1597 in order to promote the New Learning of Elizabethan times. What was this, and what relevance does it have to training and education today?
Nearly half a century ago, the historian A. J. P. Taylor brought about a startling rethinking of our understanding of the origins of World War II.
...
Music has always been closely associated with film. From Saint-Saëns in 1908 to John Williams in the present day, the history of music and film is a long and interesting story intricately connected with the plight of art in the modern world.
It raises a multitude of interesting questions: How is music created for film? What factors must it take into consideration? What should one look for in film music? How does it relate to the mainstream of 'concert hall' composition?
Sustainable economics implies development without depleting natural resources or harming the environment. Can economies grow forever or are there limits to growth? Can capitalism handle zero-growth, or should we expect a catastrophic explosion? Will China, India and other developing countries...
The Architect, Keith James Clarke, is to deliver this pre-concert talk on the building, its surroundings and associations where Mahler created his 8th Symphony in E flat major (the Symphony of a Thousand)....
Best-selling novellist, historian and travel writer William Dalrymple will fly from India to London to deliver a lecture as part of the College's contribution to the City of London Festival programme. William Dalrymple wrote and presented the award-winning TV documentaries Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, and his Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting, being described by the judges as "thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio."
Robin Wilson's new book (published by Penguin) is a celebration of one of the nineteenth century's most gifted minds, whose writings have inspired and entertained generations of readers. Yet only now are the less well-known achievements of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll...
A lecture on philanthropy from the point of view of the donor and of the fundraiser.
Dame Stephanie Shirley arrived at Liverpool Street Station in 1939 as one of 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees saved from the Nazis. She is now an ardent philanthropist with charitable gifts totaling £50m including £5m to the IT livery company.
The East India Company and its relation to modern multinational organisations. Nick Robins is Head of the Climate Change Centre of Excellence, HSBC Bank. This lecture is a part of the City of London Festival.
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
Alain de Botton, writer, broadcaster and producer, ponders the question of beauty and its application to architecture.
Germany's greatest poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), seemed to have perfectly attuned artistic sensibilities, and yet it was him who utterly failed to recognise the brilliance of the songs Franz Schubert made from his poems.
Professor Guido Marnef, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Antwerp, will situate the great Elizabethan merchant and founder of the Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham, within the context of the...
Part of the Craftsman's Art and Music's Measure lecture series in commemoration of the tercentenary of the topping out ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral when the last stone was put in place.
St Paul's is the masterpiece of Britain's most admired architect, Gresham Professor Sir Christopher Wren, who worked with Gresham Professor Robert Hooke to build one of the world's best-loved buildings. Work commenced in 1675 and the final stone was laid on 20 October 1708, Sir Christopher's 76th birthday. Information about the 300th anniversary restoration programme can be found at www.stpauls.co.uk.
Sir Arthur Sullivan, the musical half of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, was buried in the crypt of St Paul's by order of Queen Victoria. The most important musician of his day, he composed a symphony, a concerto...
What was a merchant in 16th Century Europe, and what position did he hold? Joanna Woodall, of the Courtauld Institute of Art, looks at three portraits by Mor, depicting English merchants in 16th Century Antwerp and asks what we can learn from them. At the centre of this story is Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange and founder of Gresham College.
The Most Reverend and Right Honorable the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury discusses and dissolves the assumptions and accusations that the early Christian Church sometimes has to face. In doing so, the position of Christianity and religion in the modern world is brought into a new light and the...
Lucie Skeaping, Broadcaster, Performer and Director of The City Waites
An exploration of the social context of the ballads, their appearance, language, selling methods and the origins of the tunes to which they were sung. The lecture will combine history, projected images and musical...
An exploration of the environment in which art was produced in Tudor Britain, and an investigation of what lessons we may learn about the period through this art.
Dr Tarnya Cooper, 16th Century Curator, The National Portrait Gallery.
The Deans of St. Paul's include a significant number of literary figures among their ranks. Apart from famous names such as John Colet and John Donne, there is a founder member of the Royal Society, a friend of Izaak Walton and the Gloomy Dean himself. And how many Deans have pubs named after them? Part of the Craftsman's Art and Music's Measure lecture series in commemoration of the tercentenary of the topping out ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral when the last stone was put in place. St Paul's is the masterpiece of Britain's most admired architect, Gresham Professor Sir Cristopher Wren, who worked with Gresham Professor Robert Hooke to build one of the world's best-loved buildings. Work commenced in 1675 and the final stone was laid on 20 October 1708, Sir Christopher's 76th birthday.
400 years of geometry at Gresham College given by Henry Briggs (1561 - 1631) Henry Briggs was the first Gresham Professor of Geometry. In this lecture he describes the College's early days, and surveys the history of the Geometry Chair over the succeeding 400 years.
Cinemagoers will be familiar with the thrill of giant waves. But what most people don't know is that the film The Poseidon Adventure is based on an incident involving the Queen Mary in WWII. The famous liner was hit by a giant 'wall of water' while she was carrying 15,000 American troops to Britain in 1942. The ship listed to an astonishing 52 degrees and almos capsized. More recently, The Perfect Storm will be familiar to most, providing an account of the sinking of the Andrea Gail south of Newfoundland in 1991.
Such giant waves are rare, and seldom recorded by reliable oceanograophic instruments. However, on 1 January 1995 a sensor on a platform in the central North Sea recorded a giant 60ft high wave crest, so 'freak' waves are not just tall tails. Giant waves can have disastrious consequences even for the largest ships and offshore structures.
Such waves are thought to be very rare but just how rare? What physics drives such waves? Is a 'wall of water' plausible? How hould engineers design structures to survive rare but potentially catastrophic events?
The UK's two principal rolling news channels are Sky News and BBC News 24. They place a premium on reporting 'breaking news' but little news really breaks in any twenty-four hours, which encourages this kind of newscasting to 'create' the impression of 'breaking news'. How is this done?
...
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
The UK's two principal rolling news channels are Sky News and BBC News 24. They place a premium on reporting 'breaking news' but little news really breaks in any twenty-four hours, which encourages this kind of...
Verbal reasoning alone cannot be used to understand the outcome of the complex interactions that typically comprise biological function, so more and more researchers are turning to mathematical and computational modelling to gain insights on experimental results. Some approaches and advances...
We live in a visual age - an age of images - iconic, instant and influential. In his remarkable new book, John Barrow traces their history and influence in order to tell the story of modern science.
Certain key images have created our conception of the large, the small, and the complex -...
There are a tremendous number of global risks ranging from energy shortages to climate change, influenza, malaria and earthquakes. We shall explore how commerce plays the key role in helping us manage these global risks. We shall also explore how creative thinking around tried economic concepts...
Choice is a marker of freedom, but also a consequence of limited resources. Because choices about health follow from evaluation, we now inhabit a world of DALYs and discounts, where the interval between birth and death is a "statistical life". Does this fixation about measurement lead to the...
The decades over which St. Paul's was re-built after the Great Fire were some of the most brilliant in scientific history. The Royal Society not only had Wren within its Fellowship but also Robert Hooke and John...
This lecture looks at the way in which hospitals operate in modern day London. Such questions which are discussed are the conflicts between having a really good service for some conditions that are time critical, and...
New York University in London jointly with Gresham College
An opportunity to discuss in depth some issues raised at the public lecture on 16 Aril 2008. This event will be aimed at academics, legal practitioners and law students.
Those attending this lecture are expected to have...
Britain, as is well known, has an unwritten constitution. The United States has the world's oldest written constitution. How has this affected their constitutional development? Many in Britain are calling for a constitution.
What does American experience have to tell us about the likely...
Prior to the performance of contemporary British avant garde music, one of Britain's leading composers, David Horne, gave a talk. This included an interview with Jane Manning, who is at the forefront of British contemporary music. Pieces performed: Nicola LeFanu - But stars remaining, for...
This lecture looks at the origins of the NHS; there have been many historical debates about the NHS and its origins. Such questions which are discussed are the debate about conflict or consensus. Did the NHS come...
The way in which the three major nightly television newscasts give a different visual look to the same story. Blending bought-in and pooled news footage and specially-shot footage, each broadcast will inevitably have...
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
The way in which the three major nightly television newscasts give a different visual look to the same story. Blending bought-in and pooled news footage and specially-shot footage, each broadcast will inevitably have...
This lecture looks at the birth of hospitals in London in the Medieval period. Considered are such questions as how hospitals came out of - and at one point competed with - the church, what they offered, who they...
The lecture will describe our attempts to detect the presence of other advanced civilisations, explain why we should not be too disheartened by our failure so far and how a giant radio telescope, due for completion in 2020, would give us a realistic chance of searching the whole Galaxy.
Religion and Philosophy The problem of verification and the nature of religious language. The problem of consciousness, and the unexpected revival of Platonism in mathematical physics. Is consciousness an illusion? Or is matter a myth? Is God philosophically respectable again?
The modern obsession with 'empty' celebrity and the behaviour of obsessive fans (e.g. stalking). The downside of fame will be explored, including media intrusion, the likely slide towards self-absorption, links with...
Religion and Philosophy There are some misunderstandings which are unthinkingly accepted by most who study Immanuel Kant, the great Idealist and towering figure of Western Philosophy. This lecture is a response to this, and will focus on the three main ideas of Kant's philosophy which effect...
Among 29 countries where human life expectancy is still 50 years or less, 28 are in Africa (the other one is...). An ABC of Africa's woes might begin with AIDS, biogeography and colonialism. But does Africa have peculiarly many problems, or are there just a few, major causes of persistent and...
The roots of performance in ritual and shamanism, including extremes of dissociation such as 'possession syndrome'. This lecture will examine the personality and stresses of actors (issues such as exhibitionism, charisma and identity confusion). The two main approaches to actor training (imaginative and technical) will be compared as to their strengths and weaknesses.
This is the second part of the series of lectures, The Psychology of Performance.
The measurement and origins of musical expertise - the extent to which it is due to an unfolding of innate potential versus training and application. We will also look at questions such as the role of teachers, what...
An exploration of current theories of news production paying particular attention to how audiences have been encouraged to believe that television news should be led by pictures. Who are the news 'gatekeepers', does...
An exploration of current theories of news production paying particular attention to how audiences have been encouraged to believe that television news should be led by pictures. Who are the news 'gatekeepers', does broadcast news set a benign agenda for the citizen viewer or is news just one strategy by which the ruling elite maintains power?
Seminar: Editing the News
Panel include:
- Christopher Cook
- Cristina Nicolotti Squires, ITN
- Simon Bucks, Sky News
- Kevin Bakhurst, BBC News
Part of the Visual Imagery in the Mass Media lecture series exploring the nature of imagery in the media and the strategies employed by broadcasters and journalists to restrict, and often simultaneously exploit, the multiple meanings of those images.
Is human co-operation possible without external threats? What are the possibilities of co-existence and collaboration at the start of the twenty-first century?
In 1900 the German mathematician David Hilbert presented the mathematical community with 23 unsolved problems. What were they, and how successful were attempts to solve them? 100 years later the mathematical world was presented with seven 'millennium problems'. What are they, and where is maths...
A discussion of works by El Greco and Picasso, and what they can tell us about faith and the human condition.
One school of thought says that markets are just casinos. Another school says that hard work and intelligent thought will pay rewards. The smartest school says don't work, just own the casino. So what are the guaranteed ways to make money, what are the successful habits of money-makers, and what...
A gentle introduction to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity discussing gravitational waves and the curvature of space and how, since 1915, experiments have been undertaken to test its accuracy. Recent observations by Jodrell Bank astronomers have shown that Einstein's theory must be at...
On 30 May 1832 a young Frenchman named Évariste Galois lay dying in a field outside Paris, fatally wounded in a duel. The previous night, he wrote a letter he knew would be his last, summarizing his mathematical work. Galois was just twenty, but his use of symmetry to study equations has made him immortal. He started something that led eventually to the basic building blocks of symmetry. The quest to find them all produced a beautiful and mysterious object that lives in 196,884 dimensions, and may be connected with the very fabric of our universe. It is called the Monster.
Religion and Philosophy Hume and the grounding of knowledge in human experience. The conflict of reason and common sense. Hume was wrong about science - was he wrong about religion too?
London: a microcosm of global health... or life and death on the Piccadilly line. While some people feel "overtasked, overstrained and overlived in this close London life", others thrive in the metropolis. From Uxbridge to Cockfosters, what makes the difference?
Allen and Overy Lecture The earliest gains in life expectancy were made by understanding infectious diseases, first through epidemiology and then through microbiology. So what process govern the spread of infections in populations? Why do some pathogens come and go while others are very...
Three of the most beautiful sights that we can observe in the sky are the Aurora Borealis and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. This lecture explains how such phenomena arise, describes what we can see and gives details of upcoming eclipses.
In the 8th century Alcuin of York described the wolf, goat and cabbage problem - so did Lewis Carroll over 1000 years later. This lecture looks at a wide variety of mathematical puzzles that entertained people of all ages over the intervening period.
Part of the Made in Britain series of four lectures exploring British instrumental chamber music and song ranging from Bliss through to the music of today, giving a rare opportunity to experience chamber music in an intimate setting. Each concert will be preceded by a talk by Thomas Kemp, Director of Chamber Domaine.
Theories, explanations and justifications of enmity, from Adam Ferguson in the Eighteenth Century to Carl Schmitt in the Twentieth.
The London Accord is the largest cooperative project in the world on the investment opportunities in avoiding climate change. With an estimated effort of some £7 million and support from Gresham College, the City of London Corporation, BP, Z/Yen and Forum for the Future, this project is donating high quality research from investment research houses free to the world in order to improve the quality of financial thinking and policy formation - the first 'open source' investment research project ever. The financial institutions involved include leading lights such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Barclays. At this event some of the highlights will be presented and the discussion will cover some of the policy implications of the work.
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
At the heart of commerce is the notion that perfect markets aren't predictable, yet great efforts are expended on proving this notion wrong. This contradiction perplexes us as cyberspace's automated and not-so-virtual economies mirror our world, companies deploy innovative incipient trend...
The original Boyle Lectures took place annually between 1692 and 1732. Funded by a bequest in the Will of the Hon Robert Boyle, the lectures featured distinguished preachers who were asked to consider the relationship between the new natural philosophy and the Christian religion. Revived in 2004...
Sustainability combines the principles of economic growth, environmental stewardship, governance and social accountability. 'Sustainable' business, commerce and finance are the buzzwords in an age of social and environmental concern. But does 'sustainability' matter or is it just...
WE ALL HAVE OUR PROBLEMS Mathematicians can be divided into theory-builders and problem-solvers. In these lectures, we look at some problems that have fascinated mathematicians for 2000 years, concluding with a discussion of the future. Squaring the circle and other impossibilities The three...
The origins, character and life of political and religious witch hunts, and the relation between what people say, what they believe and what they do.
Religion and Philosophy Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. The division between mind and matter. Philosophy declares its independence. Is Cartesian dualism a dead horse?
We all know that celebrities, sports stars, estate agents, banks, lawyers and airlines, along with CEO fat cats, are overpaid. Or do we? Are we paying for the price of failure or failing to price? In a world where so many people seem to be short-term managers of nothing, yet earners of...
How the media reports medical advances, and why it does scientific advance a disservice.
The ways in which enemies are described and portrayed, and the extent to which this functions to sustain social cohesion and justify the powers of government.
A topical lecture about an icon of British science and technology as it passes its 50th anniversary. The lecture also gives an introduction to the art of radio astronomy and how it enables us to observe parts of the universe that optical telescopes cannot reach.
Religion and Philosophy Aquinas and Aristotle. The Christain Rationalists - Anselm and Abelard. The cradle of autonomous reason and the rise of science. Was Christian faith the midwife of science? __________ WARNING: We regret to announce that the sound quality of this lecture is of a very poor...
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
Does the spread of multiply-resistant microbes signal the end of the antibiotic era? Were antibiotics a unique, chance discovery? Will investment in RandD produce new drugs to win the evolutionary arms race, or is drug science just too difficult? Does Pharma have the right incentives to make...
Religion and Philosophy Appearance and Reality. The One and the Good. The Alexandrian Neo-Platonists. Is Christian theology a 'series of footnotes to Plato'?
Allen and Overy Lecture
Societal demand for products and services that generate or enhance the pleasure of the individual are growing constantly and there are high expectations that science and the pharmaceutical, entertainment and leisure industries will meet, or perhaps even exceed,...
The wonderful colour images that we now have - many from the Hubble Space telescope - of nebulae, stars and galaxies can tell us much about the Universe. The lecture will present some of the very best and show what we can learn from them.
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WARNING: We regret to...
The First World War was the first time that war was fought in the air. Aircraft technology was in its infancy and mathematicians not only helped with the development of reconnaissance, fighter and bomber planes but also dealt with problems of anti-aircraft gunnery. But not all mathematicians felt the same way about the war and in Cambridge a surprising number adopted a pacifist stance.
This lecture will describe some activities of British mathematicians during the war, at the Royal Aircraft Factory, the firing ground of HMS Excellent and in Cambridge, and consider the overall effect of the conflict on British mathematics.
Robert Fox, Journalist and broadcaster, Defence Correspondent for The Evening Standard and Senior Associate Fellow, Centre for Defence Studies, King's College London.
This is the 2009 Peter Nailor Memorial Lecture on Defence.
There are numerous cases where well-meaning people find themselves defending amoral, or perhaps even immoral, economics. Regressive taxes, the BBC licence fee, pollution, the Common Agricultural Policy, postcode lotteries and pensions appropriations are all examples where wealth or risk are...
How did numbers arise? How were they written down? What does it mean to say that numbers are rational, complex, or transcendental? What is a number, anyway, and why did it take thousands of years to provide an answer?
Part of the Made in Britain series of four lectures exploring British instrumental chamber music and song ranging from Bliss through to the music of today, giving a rare opportunity to experience chamber music in an intimate setting. Each concert will be preceded by a talk by Thomas Kemp,...
Hostility and demonisation in party political rhetoric in Britain. The differences between opponents, enemies, and 'threats to life as we know it'. What has happened to the two major parties?
The Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture for the Public Understanding of Heritage
by Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive, English Heritage
This is the 2007 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture.
Part of the Visual Impressions of London lecture series at 1pm on Mondays.
Malcolm Crowthers is a professional photographer.
How our knowledge and understanding of the universe has increased over the centuries so that we now have a surprisingly accurate idea of its size, age and makeup - much of it unseen in the form of dark matter and dark energy!
The rapid growth in world trade in the 19th century depended heavily on advance in maritime technology, most specifically on the increasing efficiency of the steam engine. The relationship between trade and technology was a two-way process. On the one hand, new trading opportunities stimulated...
A recent best-seller claims that rapid communication across the world is equalizing economic opportunities for industrialized and emerging market economies. Is it true, and what does "Globalization 3.0" mean for world health?
Part of the Visual Impressions of London lecture series at 1pm on Mondays.
Ulrike Smalley, Curator of the Department of Art, The Imperial War Museum.
From the writers of Mesopotamian tablets, via treachery in 16th-century Italy, to a famous duel fought in Paris, the history of algebra is full of fascinating characters. Who were they, and what did they do?
Part of the Visual Impressions of London lecture series at 1pm on Mondays.
Peter Barber is the Head of Map Collections at The British Library.
One of six lectures devoted to a major work in the string repertory. Each will end with a complete live performance of the work by the Badke Quartet. The lectures will discuss both the historical and musical background of the work in question, and examine any particular performance problems that...
Across Europe a number of companies have invested in the pursuit of quality and excellence as a core of their business strategy. Many more have not. Who is right? This lecture, building upon previous work in North America, explains the evidence from the latest European-wide study.
Part of the Visual Impressions of London lecture series at 1pm on Mondays.
Robin Simon is the editor of The British Art Journal.
Allen and Overy Lecture
Deep economic truths from the mouths of Washington DC taxi drivers. Trust is crucial to markets, never more so than in situations where corruption rules. In some places it's so bad that 'I trust you to cheat'. Yet corruption may serve a purpose; perhaps it is a...
From the Egyptian pyramids to modern sculpture, geometry has been at the heart of our culture. Central to this story has been 'Euclidean geometry' which seems to describe the world we live in. But does it? Can there be other types of geometry?
"You may tell a lady by the company she keeps." But you may tell political leaders by the company they shun. Their descriptions of enemies are a way of telling stories about themselves. The use of accounts of enemies from the Reformation to the 'war on terror'.
Dramatic increases in life span over the past 300 years went hand in hand with economic growth in the now-rich world. But is economic growth necessary and sufficient for good health? Or does good health provide the foundations for a strong economy? How much healthy life can money buy anyway?
This concert focuses on composers who saw active service. It includes the Bliss Piano Quartet Op 5 which he wrote during the Battle of the Somme, as well an Ivor Gurney the premiere:
Sir Edward Elgar - Violin Sonata in E, Op. 82 (1918)
Allegro
Romance
Allegro non Troppo...
Professor Peter Marsh, Honorary Professor of History at the University of Birmingham, and Mr Paul Vonberg, Architect.
Lecture followed by Reception.
A special lecture to mark the centenary of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The mission of the Society is to promote and advance the study, control, prevention and treatment of tropical diseases, to facilitate discussion, exchange of information and promotion of the health of...
The true story of a phenominally powerful solar explosion that hit the Earth in 1859. Stuart Clark paints the picture of the Victorians who witnessed this awesome event.
House prices stuck? Not enough liquidity. Inflation rising? Too much liquidity. Whenever global economic trends fail to flow with the theory, economists and financial observers invoke liquidity, in the same way that physicists invoke dark matter and dark energy to explain problems with the origins of the universe. This lecture explores the various definitions and explanations of liquidity, concluding with some thoughts on why this watery concept is so important.
David Cairns is a British journalist, non-fiction writer and musician. He is a leading authority on the life of Berlioz. David Cairns' work in journalism has spanned a number of high profile newspapers and magazines. He was chief music critic of the Sunday Times from 1983 to 1992, having earlier been Music Critic and ArtsEditor of The Spectator. Other publications for which he has been a music critic include The Evening Standard, The Financial Times and The New Statesman. He is best known for his monumental two-volume biography of Berlioz: "Berlioz: The Making of an Artist 1803-1832" and "Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness 1832-1869". The books won a number of major awards, including The Royal Philharmonic Society's Music award, The Yorkshire Post "Book of the Year" award, The British Academy's Derek Allen prize, The Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction and Biography of the year in the Whitbread Book Awards.
Each year the City of London festival has a theme 'Trading Places' which celebrates the links between the City of London and other trading centres around the world. This year's theme is London and Paris, and this...
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower, the son of an Abyssinian slave, was hailed as a musical prodigy in the eighteenth century. Taught by Haydn, his appearance at the court in Windsor to play in front of George III led to his subsequent 'adoption' by the Prince Regent. Friends with...
Broadcaster and author of an illustrated biography of Elgar, Simon Mundy discusses the composer's life and work as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. Part of the City of London Festival.
The City's fabled 'square mile' contains many of London's oldest surviving buildings, and also many of its newest. So it is appropriate to the City of London Festival's ongoing theme of 'Trading Places' that this concert celebrates the twin cultural strands of architecture and music, presenting the fruits of a project that has brought them together.
The architect/mathematician turned composer, Iannis Xenakis, was Gresham Professor of Music between 1975 to 1978, and died in 2001. Professor Xenakis was the 20th century's best example of a creator who linked these disciplines at the highest level. This lecture will be about Xenakis and the...
Continuing last year's series of lectures, delivered by distinguished guest speakers, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the War, looking at change in Britain through the eyes of the UK's Prime Ministers.
With a response by Professor Geoffrey Warner.
This is a...
The rediscovery of the gigantic "Mass in Forty Parts" by Alessandro Striggio, lost since 1726, sheds important light on the connections between music and politics in the sixteenth century. Dating from 1566-7, it is one of the most extravagant pieces ever composed in the history of music.
...
These lectures cover the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century.
Continuing last year's series of lectures, delivered by distinguished guest speakers, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the War, looking at change in Britain through the eyes of the UK's Prime Ministers.
...
It is time to draw the threads together. The years since 1997 have seen massive, if largely unnoticed, constitutional change. It has been a revolution, but a quiet revolution. Has there been any pattern of change, or has it been unco-ordinated and incoherent? What will our constitution look like...
Past Gresham Professor, The Rev Jack Mahoney, will draw from his new book, The Challenge of Human Rights - Origin, Development and Significance in which he considers the charges against human rights of Western ethical imperialism and the counterclaims of cultural relativism, before concluding that human rights are an invaluable moral resource which culminate in a cosmopolitan recognition of the whole human race as a single moral family.
Professor Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor in Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, where he is Deputy Director of the Social Genetic and Develoopment Psychiatry Centre.
Professor Plomin is currently conducting a study of all twins born in...
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Rt Hon Lord Ashdown KBE, recently stood down as the International Communities' High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his time there, Lord Ashdown earned the respect of all parties.
Lord Ashdown is coming to Gresham as the guest of the Liberty Network of the Liberal Democrats, and the lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Courtyard. The Gresham lecture coincides with the publication of his new book 'Swords and Ploughshares: Building Peace in the 21st Century'.
These lectures cover the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century.
Each lecture will concentrate on one operatic composer and his relationship to the social and musical scene of a...
Continuing last year's series of lectures, delivered by distinguished guest speakers, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the War, looking at change in Britain through the eyes of the UK's Prime Ministers.
With a response by Professor Geoffrey Warner.
This is a...
Leönhard Euler (born 15 April 1707), the 'Mozart of mathematics', was probably the most prolific mathematician of all time. He contributed to many areas, both theoretical and practical, yet remains largely unknown except to mathematicians. Who was he, what did he do, and why do mathematicians regard him so highly?
Our health and longevity are affected by a multitude of things: environment, economy, education, social status, genes, technology, public services, and the rest. Among all of these factors, what are the main barriers to better health in the world today, and how do they differ from one country to...
Placing Schumann and Brahms into their historical context. The programme includes:
Schumann: Five pieces "im Volkston", OP. 102
Brahms: Sonata in A major for...
This seminar is a continuation from the 1pm lecture investigating jazz in Britain today.
British Jazz has been transformed in the past 20 years - now representing a vibrant and distinctive British cultural form, presenting many opportunities for young and established artists to thrive economically and artistically.
Using musical examples from Jamie Cullum to Soweto Kinch, Professor York traces this exciting journey, exploring how the careers and art of young British jazz musicians present positive role models for other - especially the classical - music scenes that are still searching for a modern and culturally diverse identity.
Human autonomy and obedience to God. Is religious law repressive and archaic? Is there a secular basis for justice? Must religious law (Torah/Shariah) and secular rules of justice inevitably clash?
Avinash Persaud, former Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce at Gresham College.
These lectures cover the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century.
Each lecture will concentrate on one operatic composer and his relationship to the social and musical scene of a...
Sir Robert Moray brought together members of Gresham College, rich Royalists and struggling Republicans to found the world's first scientific society. This is his swashbuckling story.
Scientist and author Dr Robert Lomas has a keen interest in history. His best-selling work The Invisible...
Why has it proved so difficult to resolve the problems of Northern Ireland? Will the current arrangements, an outcome of the Belfast or Good Friday agreement of 1998, provide a solution? This agreement seeks to revive old ideas first put forward by W.E.Gladstone, the 19th century Liberal Prime...
Paul Nugent, Professor of Comparative African History, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh.
Worried about your pension? Worried about the nation's poor savings habits or failing pension funds? In his next Gresham Lecture on Wednesday 21 March at 6pm, Professor Avinash Persaud will consider pensions and propose 'Redesigning Financial Regulation' to better suit pensioners, savers and investors.
One of the reasons why people feel more insecure today, despite generally rising incomes and near full employment, is that the idea of long employment with a single employer, followed by a decent pension, has been lost to the past. Employment and pensions have become portable and disconnected. Picking the right retirement, pension and savings arrangements have become critical decisions.
In this new world the appropriate regulation of pensions is important. However, it is Persaud's contention that the regulation has been misguided and has led to individuals bearing more risks in mechanisms that encourage the wrong management of risks.
Today, regulation is leading companies to push employees off old-fashioned defined benefit pension plans that clearly defined the retirement benefit they would receive, on to defined contribution plans which merely define how much money they put in every year.
In a defined contribution pension scheme, a 60 year old teacher looking to his or her 'low risk, tracker fund' could end up with an income for the rest of their life that is 20% higher or lower than expected just a year previously. Today a young pension scheme investing in a host of investments that give a superior return if held for a long time can be forced out early, with return penalties, by rules on how pension funds value their assets on a daily basis.
In this Gresham Lecture, Persaud considers where we have reached in pension fund arrangements and regulation today, and proposes where we should be instead.
Irene Gilchrist, Archivist, The Guildhall Library
The original Library at Guildhall was founded in the 1420s under the terms of the will of Richard Whittington. Today it is a major public reference library which specialises in the history of London, especially the City, as well as having...
We would all like a riskless life, right? The Precautionary Principle embodies the idea that if the consequences of an action are unknown, but are judged to have potential for major or irreversible negative consequences, then it is better for society to avoid that action. Yet society's adherence to the Precautionary Principle and knee-jerk responses to avoid future disasters can worsen our risks as we all fall prey to the Illusion of Control.
An investigation of the City often called the 'capital of the slave trade': What does the dubious accolade mean? How accurate is it? - By understanding the detailed operation of the trade we can also see how Liverpool became so important as a slaving port and what it meant for the...
Take exercise, wear seatbelts, eat the right food, stay off alcohol, and stop smoking. Is there a simple recipe for good health and Methuselan longevity? With luck and judgment, how many years of healthy life can we hope to enjoy? How much control over our health do we now have? Is living to be...
Glenn D Wilson is a reader in Personality at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry and one of Britain's best-known psychologists. He is the co-author of Fame - The Psychology of Stardom, The Science of Love and CQ - Learn the Secret of Lasting Love.
Dr Wilson is a regular on TV...
Schools and politics do not mix. They are, as Woody Allen would say, "at two." The sad consequences are there to see over the last half-century. Can they be disentangled? Yes!
Mark Twain commented that anyone who actively sought to become President was clearly thereby morally disqualified from holding the office. Why do people seek to govern, why do they do what they do when they govern, and how are we to explain and describe what they are doing?
What do we mean by exponential growth? How quickly does your bank balance grow? How quickly does a cup of tea cool, or radium decay? What shape is a washing line and what is the link with Gresham College?
Where are the sources of innovation? How much fat do we need in the system? What kills new businesses? Why do we have so many lawyers? How are firms evolving in the 21st century? These questions are linked. This lecture will explore innovation and creativity in economies, examine the changing...
Following on from the public lecture on 21 February 2007, Professor Joseph E LeDoux, New York University, Professor Keith Kendrick, Head of Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge and former Gresham Professor of Physic and Professor Raj Persaud lead an academic...
Professor Joseph E LeDoux, New York University, Professor Keith Kendrick, Head of Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge and former Gresham Professor of Physic and Professor Raj Persaud, Visiting Gresham Professor of Psychiatry.
Are we alone? The universe is very big. Why do we not see evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe? We will look at a large number of possible explanations for this surprising state of affairs and ask whether we should expect things to change in the future.
The improving survival rates of children, and the freedom to plan family size, have dramatically changed patterns of health and disease around the world. In wealthy countries, health is better for longer than ever, and as many people now die from injuries as from infections. But there are costs...
A rare opportunity to hear compositions by Joachim and Clara Schumann. This event looked at 19th century performing life, and explored the influence Joachim and Clara had on Brahms and Schumann and their reception.
Delivered by Professor John D Barrow FRS, FRS, Gresham Professor of Astronomy, with response by Professor the Lord Rees, PRS, Master of Trinity College Cambridge, Astronomer Royal, President of the Royal Society and former Gresham Professor of Astronomy
The original Boyle Lectures took...
Should we engineer the human genome? The ethics of stem cell research. Will humans be superseded? The Christian Natural Law tradition in morals.
What is meant by the square root of minus 1? why is it 'imaginary'? what are complex numbers, and why are they useful? how can we represent them geometrically? and can we find numbers that are 'even more imaginary'?
The oddity of democracy is that government by the people means that the same group who are the rulers are, at the same time, subjects. There is a continuing tension between democracy as workers' control, and democracy as consumer sovereignty.
Much has been written about devolution and the problems of Scotland and Wales. Yet, London contains a larger population than either Scotland or Wales, and it is a great international capital, a world city. In 1999, following a referendum, new arrangements were put in place and a London-wide...
Who invented the constellations? The constellations that we use to group stars into visually associated groups have ancient origins and have been hugely influential throughout human history. This lecture looked at the appearance of the ancient constellations and show how it is possible to deduce...
The American political scientist Samuel Huntington has warned of a future 'clash of civilisations' between Islam, the West and China. Concentrating on Europe, this lecture asked to what extent Islam and secular/Christian Europe are involved in a possibly destructive clash of cultures, and what...
Taxation is arguably, the greatest intervention of government in the economy. There is much tinkering, but little reform. This lecture explored how abolishing corporation tax or implementing consumption tax, along with other radical suggestions, might increase the economy, the tax take and...
Is religion a cause of intolerance and violence? Can there be a holy war? When, if ever, is violence justified?
Hobbes declared that 'covenants, without the sword, are but words'. But the reverse it true as well. Even the most oppressive regimes avoid relying on mere force, and constantly seek justification for their actions.
The most durable dictators in twentieth-century Europe were Communists dictators. The final lecture in the series shows how Stalin established the pattern of Communist dictatorship, and asks how far the 'cult of personality' survived the process of 'destalinization' that followed his death in 1953.
Is there an 'echo' of the big bang? The story of the prediction, serendipitous discovery and interpretation of the microwave radiation left over from the hot early beginnings of the universe. This radiation contains a wealth of information about the history and structure of the universe. It...
This event explored the relationship between the two artists and will include rarely performed lieder and chamber music written by Clara Schumann and Brahms: the Cello Sonata in F and Brahms' Violin Sonata in G. Guest performer: Christopher Lemmings.
Many argue that Britain has become too centralized, that Whitehall has usurped the town hall. Yet few of us turn out to vote in local elections, and we complain about the 'postcode lottery' when facilities in a neighbouring area are better than those in our own. Some politicians are seeking to...
Professor Simon Wessely, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
This was the first of a series of three lectures promoting public understanding of psychiatry.
The other two lectures took place on Wednesday 14 March and Wednesday 16 May 2007
Avinash Persaud, former Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce at Gresham College.
Next lecture in the series was Redesigning financial regulation of pensions and other retail products
Laughter may not be the most obviously fearsome weapon in the hands of governments or citizens, but it is one which political leaders seem to dislike to a surprising degree. Why are public figures so sensitive to satire, and are there public figures who are not?
Einstein predicted that gravitational waves exist. What are they, how are they produced, and what is the evidence for their existence? We looked at ways in which colliding black holes and other violent events in the universe produce gravitational waves which eventually reach the Earth. Huge new...
The third lecture in the series asked why so many European states fell victim to dictators in the interwar years. It looked at a variety of dictators for an answer, including Metaxas in Greece, Franco in Spain, Dollfuss and Schuschnigg in Austria, and the dictators of a number of countries in...
Some people seem to be 'simply irresistible' - the title of Professor Persaud's new book on attraction - but is attractiveness something you are either born with or not? Can you learn how to become more attractive? Is attraction even the key cement that will keep us together until we are 64 -...
Valerie Browne Lester brought Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz') to life in an illustrated lecture which revealed his London origins. She also discussed sites that he and Dickens frequented together, and explained how artists and author reinvented them for London scenes in the novels on which they...
These lectures covered the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century.
Each lecture concentrated on one operatic composer and his relationship to the social and musical scene of a...
Can morality survive without religion? Sociobiology and evolutionary explanations of morality. The Selfish Gene and the possibility of altruism.
Better sanitation and hygiene, coupled with immunization, have dramatically reduced illness caused by exposure to microbes. For those who do fall ill, a galaxy of drugs and medical procedures have been invented to treat conditions of all kinds. Among all these means of prevention and cure, which...
Power is wielded against us all the time. It is not just our bosses or work colleagues who seem to inveigle upon us - but politicians and the local council. We don't like to think of intimate relationships in this way but power is at play even in our marriages - and our children have been known...
The expanding third sector is trendy, but is its growth good for society? At a national level Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) try to fill the cracks in society, or so Anglo-American society believes. At a global level, NGOs have a problematic relationship with markets and governments. What...
What is the Mandelbrot set? how can prime numbers protect your bank balance? and why is mathematics incomplete? More new mathematics arose in the 20th century than was known up to that time - including the long-awaited proofs of Fermat's last theorem and the four-colour theorem.
What was the universe like during its early history? Described were the sequence of events that cosmologists believe unfolded during the first quarter of a million years of the universes's expansion: the lightest chemical elements were formed, the imbalance between matter and antimatter was established, and the small irregularities that eventually formed galaxies were seeded and began to grow. The first few minutes of the universe's history leave traces that we can detect today.
Hector Munro was a journalist better known for his satire and biting wit, written under the pen name Saki. He foresaw the outbreak of war and wrote about it in 1913 with When William Came. Although over-age, he volunteered for service at the outbreak of war with the Royal Fusiliers (a City regiment) and died on the Somme. But why did he refuse a commison, why did he not join the Intelligence battalion to stay out of the trenches - and why did he choose the pen-name Saki? A 100-year literary mystery is about to be solved.
The age in which Dickens lived saw enormous changes in travel and transport: his writing reflects their impact on people's lives. He was a great traveller, visiting the United States twice and Europe regularly. His writing, both in fiction and journalism, constantly takes its 'impress from the moving age'.
The World Wide Web has evolved into a universe of information at our finger tips. But this was not an idea born with the Internet. This lecture recounts earlier attempts to disseminate information that influenced the Web - such as the French Encyclopédists in the 18th century, H. G. Wells' World Brain in the 1930s, and Vannevar Bush's Memex in the 1940s.
This lecture was jointly held with the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
Using Robert Schumann as an example - a composer thought by some authorities to have suffered from bipolar disorder or manic-depression - why psychological dysfunction appears to so frequently accompany extreme ability, particularly in the arts is explored. Can a biographical and psychological...
Dickens had no love for lawyers. He had been trained briefly at Gray's Inn and later worked as a law-reporter. Both experiences seem to have left him jaded as the long line of distasteful lawyers in his novels - from Dodson and Fogg onwards - clearly indicates. At the same time he was well aware that close to the 'nest of lawyers' (as he called the Inns) lay some of London's worst slums and criminal haunts. The lecture will consider such juxtapositions as those of Fagin's Den and Newgate in Oliver Twist and Tom All Alone's and Lincoln's Inn in Bleak House both in terms of their literary function and their physical presence in Victorian London.
The Colin Matthew lecture for the public understanding of history.
This is the 2006 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture.
Tom Paine criticised Edmund Burke's account of the French Revolution by saying that he pitied the plumage but forgot the dying bird. But it is often the plumage which defines the bird. The rituals and theatre of public life are a valuable indicator of the character of a political system.''
The second lecture in the series turned to Germany, where the economic depression that began in 1929 destroyed the Weimar Republic and ushered Hitler and his Nazi Party to power. Hitler's dictatorship combined intensive political repression with comprehensive propaganda, racial engineering and preparation for European conquest.
How did Einstein's theory of general relativity improve on Newton's 17th century theory of gravity? We give a simple explanation of Einstein's general theory of relativity and show how well it does in explaining many unusual features where Newton's theory fails. Expanding universes, black holes...
What is a number? can you solve a quintic equation? is Euclid true? and is the calculus correct? The 19th century witnessed major breakthroughs in geometry, algebra and calculus, and a move 'back to basics'. But were these the results of continual change, or did they indicate a revolution in the...
In 1975, we held our first, and - so far - our only nationwide referendum. It was on whether we should remain in the European Community, as it then was. Until then, the referendum was widely regarded as unconstitutional. Yet, a number of sub-national referendums have been held since 1997 -...
The earliest gains in life expectancy were made by understanding infectious diseases, first through epidemiology and then through microbiology. So what processes govern the spread of infections in populations? Why do some pathogens come and go while others are very persistent? Why are we facing...
We are living in an age of remarkable intellectual property appropriation - copyright, trademarks, patents and commercial secrets grow at an unprecedented rate. However, is this right or appropriate? Do the new owners deserve these rights, what might it mean for society, are there alternative...
Michael Mainelli, Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce with Paul Stennett, Chief Executive, UK Accreditation Service. Many societal goals for markets can be achieved with more innovative regulation using standards markets that seem to bridge the market-government divide. Standards...
Political leaders invest time and energy in cultivating their public images and their identity as rulers, but the cultivation is as much for themselves as for subjects and voters. What are the consequences, good and bad, of this for ordinary citizens?
These lectures covered the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century. Each lecture will concentrated on one operatic composer and his relationship to the social and musical scene of a...
Avinash Persaud, former Mercers' School Memorial Professor of Commerce at Gresham College.
Next lecture in the series was A simple solution to global imbalance that is easy to implement and is unlikely to make matters worse
What shape is the Earth? how do strings vibrate? can you construct a 65,537-sided polygon? and can you cross the seven bridges of Konigsberg? While British mathematics drowned in Newtonianism, major bridges were being crossed on the Continent ...
Notwithstanding bible stories, the average human lifespan has reached "three score years and ten" only through spectacular increases in the past two centuries, and only in the richer half of the world. Among the 60 million people who die each year, 10 million are children under five, mostly in poor countries. What do they die of, and why? Where in the world is health getting better, and where is it getting worse?
The first lecture set the scene by analysing the devastating effects of the First World War on Europe, and goes on to focus on Italy, where a recently introduced democratic political system disintegrated, giving way to the Fascist dictatorship of Mussolini in the 1920's.
Stop some particle physicists in the street and they will probably try to persuade you that the world is simple and governed by a single Theory of Everything. But stop a biologist, an economist or a social scientist, and they will tell you quite the opposite: the world is a higgledy-piggledy...
Professor Vernon Bogdanor and Lord Butler (formerly Sir Robin Butler, Head of the Civil Service) Over fifty years ago, the head of the Home Civil Service declared that civil servants would always remain good material for jokes, like mothers-in-law and Wigan pier. But of course the civil service...
It has often been said that greed and fear drive the markets. This lecture explored behavioural finance, including how human choices can have adverse economic effects, why bubbles grow and how the Nobel prize-winning Prospect Theory can help you make money from 'regression to the mean'.
Professor Seifert intends to explore the relationship between productivity and the capital markets. He will argue that while it is essential to have an integrated perspective of all factors that determine the wealth of nations, only if its capital markets unfold their full potential will Europe not fall further behind its global competitors.
These lectures covered the history of Italian opera from its beginnings in the early seventeenth century to what might be thought its climax at the end of the nineteenth century. Each lecture concentrated on one operatic composer and his relationship to the social and musical scene of a great...
An exploration of the influence of Schumann on Brahms. The programme included Brahms/Schumann Variations for Piano Op 9, the FAE Sonata for which Schumann and Brahms both wrote movements and the Brahms Piano Quartet in C Minor.
Dr Alan Smith, Associate Director of the UK Government's Micro Nanotechnology Network
After the initial hype, which heralded the prospects for nanotechnology, the excitement continues. The expenditure of many governments is at an unprecedented level in the race for new markets that are...
Composer Judith Bingham and Photographer Malcolm Crowthers debated the unique relationship between music and architecture within the Square Mile, with particular reference to the Hidden City project.
David Hughes introduces the basic features of Japanese music - instruments, context, scales and rhythms - with particular reference to the various genres that was heard during the City of London Festival.
Hisashi Nakamura and Ria Ulleri introduced the poetic world of Tanka - an ancient form of Japanese poetry - together with slides of pieces of art which have been designed to reflect the poetry.
...
We find the achievement of an inner state of happiness elusive, yet the standard of living in the developed world improves. Politics, industry, science, art, the media and religion all attempt to make our lives happier. All seem to have diminishing levels of success. Lifestyle gurus and counselling are boom industries. We seem destined to embrace the pharmaceutical dream of a happiness pill. Such an easy option is deliverable: drugs are consumed in vast quantities and make huge profits. Are recreational drugs the only option?
An event to mark the launch of Keith Ward's new publication, in which he draws on his past lectures delivered at Gresham College.
In 1945, the imperial possessions of Great Britain circled the globe; in 2005, there was virtually nothing left of the Empire. Why? Was Great Britain forced out by the colonial peoples themselves, was she encouraged to leave by the United States or the United Nations, did economic decline make...
Our membership of the European Union, together with the Human Rights act and devolution, have all increased the influence of judges and, so some would argue, brought them into the political arena. Some indeed have suggested that non-elected judges have begun to usurp the role of politicians. How...
Professor The Lord Giddens
Response by Professor Vernon Bogdanor CBE FBA
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World. The other lectures in this series are as follows:
Winston Churchill
Clement Attlee
Anthony Eden...
Work with different animal species has shown that a mutation in a single gene can convert an asocial species into a social one. With a prevalence of human developmental and psychiatric conditions whose primary symptoms are social dysfunction, depression caused by problems with social...
Anxiety is a common experience that can be a useful motivator or even life-saver in situations that are objectively dangerous. However, when the anxiety is out of proportion to the danger inherent in a given situation, is persistent and is markedly disabling, an anxiety disorder is likely to be diagnosed.
Social Anxiety Disorder is the most common anxiety disorder. It often starts in adolescence or earlier and affects around 1 in 10 individuals at some time during their life. Sufferers fear, and whenever possible, avoid social and performance situations (i.e. meeting strangers, talking to authority figures, working while being observed, public speaking). The fears often lead affected individuals to under-perform at school and work and can make forming close relationships difficult. Complications include markedly increased risks of alcohol or drug abuse, depression and suicide. Thankfully treatment trials have shown that several medications (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as prozac and monoamine-oxidase inhibitors) and psychological treatments (exposure therapy and group cognitive-behaviour therapy) are effective but a substantial proportion of people continue to have significant social fears after a well-conducted course of either type of treatment.
In an attempt to further improve treatment effectiveness, we adopted a particular research strategy. First, a psychological model that attempted to explain why social fears persist was developed. Second, the maintaining factors specified in the model were tested in experimental studies. Third, specialized psychological treatment procedures that focused on the maintaining factors were developed and refined in clinical case series. Finally, the resulting treatment programme (a form of cognitive therapy) was evaluated in randomized controlled trials in our clinic and elsewhere.
The lecture covered the main features of social anxiety disorder, explained why it persists, described the cognitive therapy approach to treatment and summarized the evidence for the effectiveness of this approach. Future developments in the field are anticipated.
Choice is good, right? Consumer choice or voter choice - we will see how increasing choice can, paradoxically, narrow the range of possible outcomes. We will celebrate complexity in decision-making and examine some new approaches emerging to help make better choices.
2006 marks the sesquicentenary of William Perkin's discovery of mauveine. New research on his life and hundreds of accounts of his discovery have revealed hitherto unrecognised medical motivation for his work, together with a need for better ways of encouraging young and old to share Perkin's...
It is often said that mathematics and music go together, but what does this mean? This illustrated lecture features a small choir and instrumentalists who perform music ranging from Tallis and Bach to Bartok and Hindermith, and answers such questions as: why are pianos always out of tune? Can...
Professor Robin Cormack, The Getty Research Institute and Courtauld Institute of Art The development of icons from late antiquity to the period of El Greco. Icons flourished in Constantinople as both aesthetic and functional objects serving the whole range of Byzantine society. As Christian art...
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World.
In the age of Handel, Haydn and Mozart, what was happening in Poland? In changing political and cultural circumstances, and in an age when composers like Bach and Telemann appropriated polonaises for their own use, how did Polish composers understand their national and European role? And what...
This lecture and concert explored the ways in which music imitates real life - often with humorous results. The concert programme included works by Biber, Scarlatti, Debussy and Strauss - Till Eulenspiegl's Merry Pranks.
But are modern children growing up too fast? There is increasing pressure to grow up faster as a result of our work orientated culture, educational systems, celebrity icons, entertainment and the media. Even dietary habits contribute to accelerating puberty. We are seeing increases in teenage...
Is there a battle between traditional and radical interpretations of Christianity? Is Christianity about political liberation? How can Christian faith be interpreted in a scientific and pluralist age?
John Averns, Port Health Director, London Port Health Authority. The series ended with a lecture bringing us up-to-date with the current work carried out by the Corporation of London's Port Health Authority in the prevention of disease entering the country.
Mathematical techinques lie at the heart of modern forensic methods for investigating crime and bringing the criminal to justice. Across all fields of crime detection and analysis, we encounter a rich range of applications of mathematical, statistical and probabilistic methods. This talk showed...
Professor Vernon Bogdanor argued that 'Too high a proportion of the money funding British political parties is tainted' that 'The finance of our great political parties should not have to depend upon the vagaries of the rich' and that 'Democracy cannot be sustained by...
This lecture examined the spread of diseases that accompanied European expansion overseas from the fifteenth century, paying particular attention to their demographic impact in Americas.
The High Renaissance and Early Baroque periods are regarded by Poles as among the most glorious in their country's cultural history. The range of instrumental and vocal music is astonishing. So what do works by Marcin Leopolita, Adam Jarz?bski or Marcin Mielczewski add to our understanding of...
British interest in Egypt, still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, became intense during the 1880s, with the acquisition of direct control over the Suez Canal. Late in the nineteenth century, she competed with Germany for influence in the Persian Gulf and with Russia in Persia, whilst her success in the First World War enabled her influence to include Mesopotamia, which she divided with France. This lecture looked at the reasons for British interest in the Middle East, and at the limited duration and strength of her influence.
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World.
Dr Stephen Halliday is the author of many books based on Victorian London including "The Great Stink" which has featured in several radio and TV programmes and "Underground to Everywhere: London's Underground Railway in the life of the Capital". Dr Halliday lectures at Buckinghamshire Business...
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Professor Mary L. Phillips was unable to give this lecture. Dr Essi Viding kindly gave this lecture on her behalf.
What was the Enlightenment, and how did the church respond to it? Is it possible to have a rational religion? Can faith survive historical criticism and philosophical scepticism?
With increasing emphasis on the social and ethical obligations of corporations, what do companies have to gain from lower profits? We will look at how more sophisticated firms incorporate volatility reduction as a key measure and how it changes their behaviour towards society and profit.
The Lokahi Foundation carries out multi-faith research in religion and outreach projects for the community, public servants and other professionals. A group of distinguished speakers, including Professor Tariq Ramadam, spoke at the event.
The Lokahi...
This second lecture will focus on the VOC's second hundred years and will explain hows it slowly lost out on almost everything it had gained, to become bankrupt by the end of the 18th century - ending a remarkable period in...
Professor Michael Cooper, City University and Professor Michael Hunter, Birkbeck, University of London An event to mark the publication of the papers delivered at the Robert Hooke tercentennial conference covering a wide range of aspects of Hooke's life and work.
It could be said that risk taking, combined with a capacity for being motivated by failure, has allowed the human race to advance at such speed. These characteristics have made major contributions to the success of human artistic, scientific and commercial endeavours. But when we lose control of...
A series of two lectures.
Dr Thomas Crump moved to Amsterdam in 1972 to take up an appointment in the University's Social Sciences Faculty, which...
An exploration of the connections between Laurence Sterne, the 18th century novelist and Joseph Haydn. There are a lot of parallels in their work - especially towards subverting expectation through unexpected twists of form, language and style, and this was to have a huge impact on the course of music and literature. The concert programme included works by Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart.
Kraków was one of Europe 's main cultural and commercial centres during the Renaissance. Who were its major musical figures and what were their roles in society? How did composers like Wacław of Szamotuły and Jan of Lublin connect to the cultural developments of Western and Southern Europe?
Block designs are used in agriculture in connection with the planting of wheat. But earlier they arose in the so-called 'schoolgirls problem'. What are block designs, what is the schoolgirls problem, and what is their connection with geometry and music?
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World.
What do physicists mean by a 'Theory of Everything'? And what do they mean by 'Everything'? Ever since 1982 there has been a focus of attention upon 'string theories' as possible Theories of Everything. What are these theories like and what remarkable things do they predict about our Universe?...
Why did the Western church divide in the sixteenth century? Was this a tragedy or a new opportunity for Christian belief? Has the Reformation split the church for ever?
The auditing profession claims to have been through tremendous turmoil as a result of a spate of scandals and professionals being caught off-guard, yet a few years on the profession looks remarkably similar to what it was and...
Tree diagrams arise in many contexts, from family trees to chemical molecules, electrical networks, the design of canals and the bracing of frameworks. We describe these examples and others from the allied subject of graph theory, and show you how you can cope with instant insanity.
Are there limits to science? We will look first at the questions which 19th-century commentators claimed would never be answered. Then we will explore the different types of limits - practical, computational, and fundamental - that constrain what we can know about the universe. Some of these limits are consequences of our nature, some are consequences of the universe's nature, while others are consequences of the nature of knowledge itself.
Simon Wessely is professor of psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and director of the King's Centre for MIlitary Health Research. He is co-author of a new book, From Shell Shock to PTSD, Psychology Press, 2005.
Professor Simon Wessely joined the IoP...
We are all familiar with patterned wallpaper, but how many regular patterns are there? Can you tile your bathroom floor with square, hexagonal and octagonal tiles? Footballs are made up of pentagons and hexagons, but how many pentagons are there? What are buckyballs, and what have they to do...
During the nineteenth century, Great Britain fought two wars, the Opium Wars, to force China to open her doors to trade and foreign influence. She was not the only foreign power who wished to acquire trade and influence there: Germany, Russia, France, America and Japan also wanted their share....
Markets are one of the greatest tools to emerge from society, yet a host of critics ranging from the opponents of globalisation through government officials and NGOs believe that markets need stricter regulation. We will examine why governments have awkward dealings with markets and what might...
This year is the centenary of the birth of the great logician Kurt Gödel. One of his greatest discoveries had nothing to do with mathematical logic. It was that Einstein's theory of relativity allows universes in which time travel is possible. We will describe Gödel's strange universe and discuss the history of the idea of time travel to the future and to the past in science fiction and science fact. In particular we will look at the traditional story line of 'back to the future' and show how it is possible to be part of the past but not to change the past, and what physicists think about time travel in the light of quantum theory.
Arguably, the artistic achievements of humans are the most significant single feature that distinguishes us qualitatively from other species. Even Chimpanzee art is a pale imitation of what a human child can produce without significant external motivation. While we are often more predisposed to...
Is the medieval church a child of the Roman Empire? Why did sin and atonement come to play so large a part in medieval theology? How did secular power change the church?
The garret at No 17 Gough Square was the nerve centre of the house during Samuel Johnson's residence, and here the greatest work of reference of the 18th century took shape.
Johnson's Dictionary (1755) gives the room its historic resonance, but what became of the room once its famous occupant had left?
Raj Persaud suggests that sustained happiness at the personal level is not going to be achieved by many solutions proposed by social scientists, the media and politicians, instead happiness has more to do with personal adjustment and attitude - in other words we have to take personal responsibility for our own well-being. He warns that attempts to manufacture happiness through various state and personal mechanisms in the past have been doomed to failure, because of a fundamental failure to appreciate the elusive and personal nature of sustained long term well-being.
How were the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity formed? Are such doctrines a takeover of the primitive faith by Greek philosophy? Or are they part of the original teachings of the church?
The tradition of the East-Central European carol is long and distinguished, if barely appreciated elsewhere. What are its characteristics, its relationships to different religious denominations, folk cultures and poetry?
Simon Chaplin, Senior Curator, Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
The late 18th century has been characterised as an age of body-...
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World.
Many regard the un elected House of Lords as an anachronism, and there has been much talk of reform. In 1999, all but 92 of the hereditary peers were removed from the lords, which now consists primarily of nominated peers. Since then, it has been a thorn in the government's side. It has ,...
During the nineteenth century, Great Britain and Russia engaged in what was termed the 'Great Game', which were confrontations in Central Asia and particularly on the north-west frontier of India. At the same time, they confronted each other over the 'Eastern Question' in the Mediterranean...
Charles Dickens was drawn, painted and photographed more than most of his contemporaries. Great Victorian artist's such as William Powell Frith RA and even the famous US photographers Gurney and Son captured his famous...
Professor Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, University College London Professor Raj Persaud Chaired by Professor Frank Cox, The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, past Gresham Professor of Physic
William Palin, Assistant Curator, Sir John Soane's Museum
An exploration of the long and fascinating tradition of...
The development of the calculus brought together two seemingly unrelated problems: how do things change, and how large are they? We develop the story from the early days of logarithms in Gresham College, to Newton's work on gravitation and the calculus, and ask: Did the apple really fall on...
Can we know what Jesus was really like? What did the apostles believe? What does modern historical research reveal about Jesus?
Why do we seem to face 1 in 300 year events every three years? Unlike many physical systems, markets exhibit strange, non-normal statistical distributions. We will consider the complex inter-relationships between perceived risk and society's decisions, the importance of 'feed-forward' and the...
Babies only a few months old already spend more time looking at attractive faces compared to the unattractive, suggesting we could be genetically or biologically programmed to appreciate beauty and respond to it. But why should this be if, as many argue, beauty is 'in the eye of the beholder' or...
This lecture concert explored how irony was used in music as a subversive commentary about the Soviet state. This is a complex subject and can be observed on many levels in the music including ones which are purely musical. The concert programme included works by Shostakovich, Part and Prokoviev...
In recent decades, archaeologists working on sites such as the Mary Rose have recovered a range of simple mathematical instruments.
Compared to typical museum artefacts, they are relatively humble wooden devices. Yet they shed important light on the distribution and variety of mathematical skills in early modern England.
This lecture was jointly held with the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
Exploring the repertoire and historical context of Polish music from the establishment of Christianity in Poland in 996 up to the close of the 15th century.
THE COLIN MATTHEW LECTURE FOR THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY
This is the 2005 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture. The other joint lectures can be accessed here:
2012 -...
Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT FBA - Provost of Gresham College On 1 November 1755 Lisbon was devastated by a massive earthquake. The reverberations went far beyond the loss of thirty thousand lives, and the religious doubts and counter-affirmations which followed have crucial relevance to...
The sound on this lecture is of a very low quality.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
The two sides of our brain are not functionally equivalent and although this has often been considered to be a human evolutionary trait associated with the development of language, it is clear that this asymmetrical nature of brain function can be traced back even to the most primitive species....
With the invention of printing, mathematical writings became widely available for the first time. What influence did this have? We discuss this question in the context of 16th-century navigation and astronomy, the solving of equations, and some breakthroughs in geometry and algebra, and ask: is this a record?
The House of Commons is, as the popularly elected chamber, by far the stronger of the two houses of Parliament. Yet many argue that the Commons has become ineffective as a check upon government. What has been the impact of recent reforms of the Commons? How can the Commons be made more effective...
Whether or not Londoners will be watching the next Olympic Games on TV or in a stadium just a few Tube stops away, what is going on in sports of speed, balance, strength, and rotational movement? Why do different sports use such strange scoring systems, and are results in the Premier Football...
This lecture was a part of the SeaBritrain2005 series of events, which celebrated the ways in which the sea touches all of our lives.
Sir David Omand KCB, Former Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, The Cabinet Office
Chairman: Jack Wigglesworth, Chairman, The Gresham Society.
...
In 1915 Albert Einstein produced a theory of gravity that allows us to describe whole universes. What is that theory, how does it work, why do we take it seriously, and what are these universes that it predicts can exist? We will look at some of the unusual universes that have been found to be...
Between 1795 and 1815, the British Government spent an amazing £110,575 on thirty-three marble monuments to the heroes of the wars against Napoleonic France. These now people the aisles, crypt and walls of St Paul¹s Cathedral, and visitors pass them by, pausing only to stare with incomprehension, or to giggle. These tributes in stone, many of them fully life-sized, are worth more than that; they form a history book, provide a gallery of early nineteenth-century English sculpture, and repay time spent in examination and contemplation.
Can any market be said to fail? Without clear measures for buyers, sellers or investors, markets function poorly. Markets are made to measure. Through an examination of measurement failures, we will explore the importance of defining the 'correct' market.
Visit www.seabritain2005.com for information on festivities and events throughout 2005 and beyond. SeaBritrain2005 celebrates the ways in which the sea touches all of our lives.
The loss of the American colonies in 1783 deprived Great Britain of what was seen as the jewel of the Empire, and heralded the end of the First British Empire. But India soon came to replace North America as the jewel. This lecture will look at the first inroads by the East India Company, at the...
Visit www.seabritain2005.com for information on festivities and events throughout 2005 and beyond. SeaBritrain2005 celebrates the ways in which the sea touches all of our lives.
How well served is music in general and cultural histories, especially in those publications devoted to particular periods or countries? Are historians more wary of music than of other art forms? If so, what strategies can interested parties develop to accord music a more significant role in...
Raj Persaud uses examples of extraordinary success to discuss what forces are at work to help the apparent lucky few attain what the rest of us desire. Theories around luck, internal or external forces beyond or within our control and the relative roles of intelligence or motivation are considered. Using some real footage of a high stakes poker game in which the Professor takes part, the audience is invited to judge for themselves what is more important - forces you control or those beyond yourself.
Arabic mathematicians embraced the mathematics of Ancient Greece and India. What did they do, and how did their achievements influence Europe in the Middle Ages? We trace the story up to the establishment of universities, the development of perspective in art, and Fibonacci's problem of the...
A first-hand account of a harrowing voyage from the south-west coast of Ireland across the North Atlantic in a small open boat skinned with ox hides. Tim Severin and his companions set out to test whether the legendary voyage of...
A special event marking the launch of a book containing Professor Susskind's interviews at Gresham College with eminent legal figures, including the Lord Chief Justice, three Lord Chancellors and the Senior Law Lord.
This is a part of the series Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World.
Professor Sir David Tweedie
Chairman, International Accounting Standards Board
Introduction by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT FBA
Provost of...
The pre-concert talk provides an overview to the series and show what the different parameters of music are - pitch, rhythm, structure, texture, harmony, dynamics and how they can be used in a humorous way. The concert programme includes pieces by Haydn, Satie, Stravinsky, Debussy and a...
In 1918, one commentator claimed that there were over 300 alternative electoral systems in existence. Human ingenuity being what it is, there are probably many more today. What are the main types? What would be the likely consequences of changing the electoral system for the House of Commons?...
What are markets and why do they matter? What would a grand unified theory of markets look like? Given intense criticism of liberal capitalism, we will consider how to frame a theory of commerce and ask, "who is wearing the Emperor's new clothes?"
This event celebrated the publication of Professor Griffith-Dickson's new book, 'Philosophy of Religion'
Dava Sobel is the author of 'Longitude', a prize-winning international bestseller, and 'Galileo's Daughter', which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
...
As societies shift from government ownership of major services, such as transport and health, to government regulation, they can swap one failure for another. Regulators, for example, risk being captured by those they are supposed to be regulating. We show how regulatory capture is rife and...
The idea for a lecture about the history of sport in London came about with the news that London was making a bid to hold the Olympic Games in 2012. It has always been believed that the only city in this country to have a chance of hosting the games is London. The lecture will look at London's...
The 2005 Gresham Special Lecture was given at The Great Hall, Guildhall, delivered by Professor The Lord Winston.
Introduced by: Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT, Provost, Gresham College
Research units of investment banks could be forgiven for thinking the world is an unfriendly place! First there was Elliot Spitzer, the reputational crisis and legal fines. Now there is an inexorable drift to unbundling. Even the SEC Chairman, William Donaldson, has weighed in about the short-...
Understanding how the brain functions may well qualify as the most difficult single problem that mankind will ever encounter. Some would consider that it is a logical impossibility for a brain to understand its own workings.
However, the huge technological advances in the last decade to...
Roderick Swanston, Writer and Broadcaster An introduction to the furious world of opera reform in the 18th century. Were Mozart and Gluck on the same side?
With English emerging as the main world language, studying foreign languages might seem to be less important today. However, 60% of trade is with non-English speaking countries and other languages, such as Spanish, are catching up on the Internet. We will look at why learn a language, how to...
Micro-credit - the commercial lending of small amounts of money to those who would otherwise not have access to credit - seems such a worthy idea and the oft-cited example of the Grameen Bank excites many. However, there are precious few other examples of success. * Is micro-credit a concept...
As France was the traditional enemy, Germany was the traditional ally, a relationship tightened by royal links. Then, in the late nineteenth century, Germany demanded 'a place in the sun'?, which required colonies and a navy larger than Britain's. The resulting diplomatic revolution at the turn...
The means and modes, by which religion can reflect culture, and culture religion, are myriad and multifarious. It is never easy to say at what point culture has appropriated religion, and at what point religion has consumed culture, and then begun to sacralise it. In this paper the exploration is centred on the churches and Christianity, but with specific attention being paid to the contribution that religious studies can make to the analysis of the religion-culture debate.
Some of the most nefarious anti-Semitic stereotypes are deeply embedded in English culture with Shakespeare's Shylock and Dickens' Fagin two of the best known. There exists, however, a wide spectrum of "Jewish types" associated with business in London, from the villainous to the nearly-saintly, which often resurface in public discourse. This lecture shall focus on the relationships between perception and 'reality' the interplay between stereotypes and expectations good, bad, and indifferent, as pertain to Jews 'doing business' in London, and Anglo-Jewry generally. Among the topics to be considered shall be: the legacy of the Norwich blood libel; the expulsion; crypto-Jews; pick-pockets and brokers; the South Sea Bubble; charges of 'industrial' conspiracy; boxers and the underworld; Disraeli and the Rothschilds; labour unrest; 'White Slavery'; 'Jewish gangs'; the Guinness-Distillers' affair; and John LeCarré's (masked) Jewish crooks.
Has modern science rendered body/mind dualism obsolete? Is there any place for speaking of the soul? How do modern views of the brain impinge on the religious beliefs about the unique dignity of human persons and the religious hope for immortality?
Ali Kazimi is the Head of Investment Tax Services, Barclays Global Investors
The next lecture in the series is 'Gods of Commerce and...
My lectures have shown that while most human behaviours are similar to those of other species our superior capacities for consciousness and self awareness have given us the intellect and power to exert dominion over them.
For many humans, relationships with other animals are important for...
The British relationship with Europe was not solely about war: it was also about culture, and social polish. In the period before the invention of the railways, travel for pleasure was largely the province of the wealthy. Most people travelled to Italy to see the ruins and to France for the...
Religion in the City: Christian Philanthropy and the City 1830-1850 Revd Dr Stephen Orchard, Principal, Westminster College, Cambridge Next lecture in the series is Islam and Acceptable Trading
The influence of Schoenberg * Strauss - Schatzwalzer "Zigeunerbaron" arr. Webern * Strauss - Wein, Weib und Gesang arr. Berg * Strauss - Rosen aus dem Suden arr. Schoenberg * Strauss - Lagunenwalzer arr. Schoenberg
Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and premiered in London by Rostropovich in 1970. This lecture explores the compositional process and performance history through the sketches, concepts of musical drama, and the cultural and political contexts of...
Psychology is becoming increasingly popular as a course of study for A-level. Raj Persaud, a practising psychologist and psychiatrist, as well as a well-known journalist and radio and TV broadcaster, examined some of the facts.
Both Louis XIV in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and Napoleon in the nineteenth made France the most powerful country on the Continent. Indeed, Napoleon can be considered the first man since Charlemagne in the ninth century to have unified Europe. In both cases, Britain played an...
Does quantum physics offer confirmation of some religious or spiritual views? Or is this a misuse of quantum theory?
How can we distinguish between 'easy problems' and 'hard problems'? In this lecture I shall explain what is meant by an 'algorithm', and present some celebrated algorithms that can be used to solve a range of practical problems. I then investigate the efficiency of these algorithms and describe...
- We look at the different conceptions of 'infinity' that exist in mathematics, science and philosophy. * We ask whether it is possible for physical infinities to arise in the universe and whether a machine could ever complete an infinite number of tasks in a finite time. * And if so, what would...
What are the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) that governments all over the world are parading as solutions to the troubles of financing public services? * Is PPP a solution to the London Underground? * Are they just financial gimmicks that earn the banks...
Edward Hughes and artists from The Opera Group and I Fagiolini The creative team behind The Birds gave an entertaining introduction to developing an opera for the City London Festival - from the initial draft to the singers' struggle to learn the music. Composer Ed Hughes and artists from The...
GRESHAM IN THE CITY' LECTURE London has been a magnet for scientists and inventors since the seventeenth century. Adam Hart-Davis tells the tales of a few of his favourites, both famous and forgotten, with the help of lantern slides and perhaps a few demonstrations.
A discussion with the Janácek scholar Professor John Tyrrell (Cardiff University).
In the last eight years of his life, Janácek wrote four operas and other major works in a seemingly effortless manner. This fecundity, however, disguises many stops and starts that shed a revealing light on the nature of his creativity.
Does evolutionary psychology (socio-biology) explain the basis of morality, or undermine it? This lecture considered altruism and the 'selfish gene', and looked at competing theories of natural selection and of 'directionality' in evolution.
- Modern music and performance practice * Berg - Lyric Suite (Perle) with Soprano * Schoenberg - Second String Quartet with Soprano
On Valentine's Day it is appropriate to consider whether humans, and perhaps at least some other species, are so addicted to love that they cannot exist without it. * Is love really like an addictive drug? * What are the features that define perception of beauty and attraction to co-exist exclusively with others? * Is sex without love simply a distraction from failure to get involved in the main event, or an admission that the main event is not primarily about sex?
During his 46 years as Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed elevated the mapping of the heavens to an entirely new level. His practical geometry, and his development of mathematical instruments that worked to a new standard of accuracy, meant that his Catalogue remained in use well into the 18th...
At the outset, the English Crown ruled over tracts of territory in what is now France. By means of the Hundred Years' War from 1337 to 1453, the French essentially expelled Britain from the Continent.
Two of the most famous battles were Crécy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, the latter...
Prime numbers form the building blocks of arithmetic. But if we make a list of them, many questions arise. Pairs of primes differing by 2 (such as 5 and 7, or 101 and 103) seem to occur 'all the way up', but there can also be huge gaps between successive primes. So how are the prime numbers...
The conception of 'nothing' has played a crucial role in the development of logic, mathematics, physics, philosophy and theology. This lecture looked at how these currents have led to the modern picture of the 'vacuum' in quantum physics and how its non-uniqueness and changeability lie at the...
The Human Rights Act of 1998 gives us, in effect, a Bill of Rights.
* But what is a Bill of Rights and how is it likely to operate in practice?
* Is it likely to lead to a conflict between the judges interpreting our rights and Parliament which legislates on rights?
An exploration of the ways in which the Universe's structure is connected to the evolution of life within it. * We will look at the unusual properties of the Earth and the solar system that have been important factors in the evolution of terrestrial life. * We see how the appearance of the night...
At the heart of the recent spate of financial scandals from Enron to Parmalat lies a yawning deficit in the ethical behaviour of bankers - so say some. Others argue that there is no role for ethics in finance beyond the requirements of the law. * Which view is right? * If ethics are important, is there a question bankers could ask themselves, before they consider a transaction, in order to judge the appropriateness of their behaviour?
Aggression lies at the heart of biological competition but its consequence in both human and animal societies can be self-destructive and a threat to social stability.
Do other social species declare war on each other and can we learn anything from them about how to live together in peace...
As an island people, the inhabitants of Britain were repeatedly subject to invasions from the Continent, at least until they had a powerful navy of their own. Although most historians consider that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was also a successful invasion, this time by the Dutch, the...
Are there any limits to scientific explanation? Are there irreducibly different forms of explanation?
A look at art and science in which we explore the aesthetics of fractals, the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock, musical appreciation, the biological basis of landscape appreciation and some contrasts between art and science.
One year on from the launch of Beagle 2, former Gresham Professor Colin Pillinger talks about the developments that have taken place.
Many countries are vulnerable to external shocks such as a spike in oil prices, a drop in a competitor's currency or a collapse in world-wide tourism following a terrorist attack somewhere else. * Can governments hedge their economies against these risks using financial instruments in the same...
- How has our membership of the European Union affected our constitution? * The European Union has been drawing up its own constitution and the Prime Minister has promised to call a referendum on it before ratifying it. * What is the relationship between this European Union constitution and our...
To be or not to be, that is the question. The world's number one suicide spot is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where, since its building, debate has raged as to whether an anti-suicide fence should be put up to restrain jumpers. The debate is an analogue for the wider controversy over...
Daniel Hodson, former Gresham Professor of Commerce with Anthony Hilton, Financial Editor, London Evening Standard and Philip Williamson, Chief Executive, Nationwide Building Society. Why did mutuals occur and what purposes did/do they serve? Some of Britain's...
A discussion with Professor Jim Samson (Royal Holloway, University of London), author of the award-winning Virtuosity and the Musical Work. Why did Liszt compose three different versions of this monumental piano work, and what can we learn about 19th-century virtuosity, musical thought and practice from its pages?
The concept of zero developed in many cultures over thousands of years. Why did such a 'natural' idea take so long? This lecture illustrated the wide-ranging mathematical achievements of China, India and Central America over a thousand-year period - some not to be rediscovered in Europe for a...
Has quantum cosmology made God redundant? Does religion have anything to add to scientific cosmology?
This talk gave an insight into how the mathematics we learn at school and college is applied in a practical way in careers, especially in the world of finance, and looked at some of the opportunities open to mathematics students.
Obesity has shifted from being a rare symbol of decadence and riches to a widespread problem of ignorance, poverty and economic exploitation. New prospective wonder diets are today's front-page news. How much of the problem is down to genetic predisposition, how much to education and experience...
The fascinating story of all the bridges that have been London Bridge through the last two thousand years, from the Roman Bridge, and Peter de Colechurch's famous bridge with the houses, through Sir John Rennie's nineteenth century bridge, now in Arizona, and right up to the present day bridge...
Dr Gareth Griffiths, Director of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.
This is the 2004 Joint Royal Historical Society/Gresham College Annual Lecture.
- What is the long-term future of the universe? * Will it continue for ever or come to an end? * What is the fate of all the planets and stars that it contains? * Will the universe undergo a 'heat death' that nothing can survive? * And what is the long-range forecast for planet Earth and its...
Composers and their compositions are prey to all manner of treatment once they have become public property. Taking Chopin as a particular example, this lecture explores the role of published editions and performance practice from Godowsky to the Jagodzinski Jazz Trio.
It is often argued that mathematics as we know it today originated in Greece, and names such as Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes are certainly part of our culture. But Archimedes did much more than run naked through the streets shouting Eureka! So what specific contributions did the Greeks make, what types of mathematical problems interested them, and why do we now consider them so important?
The years since 1997 have seen very radical constitutional reforms - for example
devolution
freedom of information legislation
the Human Rights Act. Why has this been so and what are likely to be the effects of the reforms?
Dr Stephen Inwood lectures at New York University in London. His books include A History of London and The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Inventive Life of Robert Hooke 1635 - 1703.
Coffee shops were the intellectual hub of Stuart and Hanoverian London, where entrepreneurs and philosophers rubbed shoulders with Gulliver's ?projectors?, and luminaries from the Royal Exchange met Fellows of the Royal Society. How did the coffee shops develop and what ideas did they spawn?
Three simple principles enable us to understand the whole range of structures that we see in the universe. 1. We will consider the importance of 'size' in determining what can happen to a piece of matter in the universe and whether it can come alive. 2. We look at the problem of determining what...
The nature of belief and how we lost contact with reality Modern psychiatry has defined delusion as the insistent belief in the palpably untrue - this definition is essential to the whole mental health industry as it underpins our notion of what it is to be sane. Yet it could be that, as what is true and what isn't is frequently up for debate, the key focus of modern psychology and psychiatry has been misplaced. Perhaps instead it is our incessant journey to belief - our voyage to a conclusion - which is where the real action lies in terms of defining mental health. After all, when was the last time you checked your belief system for error?
Is there a 'scientific world view'? At what points might such a thing have implications for religious believing?
The musical and cultural background to the Second Viennese School: * Berg - Piano Sonata Op 1 * Webern - Two Pieces for Cello and Piano * Berg - Seven Early Songs * Webern- Four Pieces Op 7 for Violin and Piano * Schoenberg- Verklaerte Nacht for Piano Trio
A specialist in British and European History, Maureen Waller's books includeUngrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown and1700: Scenes from London Life.
What is the Big Bang, who came up with idea and why do we believe in it? Simon Singh told the story of the Big Bang theory, from its birth in the 1920s to the observational evidence that backed it and then clinched it. As well as discovering the development of the Big Bang theory, Simon also...
An expert in the history of science, Allan Chapman is a past Visiting Gresham Professor and has appeared in numerous television programmes. His books include Gods in the Sky: Astronomy from the Ancients to the Enlightenment and The Victorian Amateur Astronomer.
Throughout financial history, there has been a tendency for one currency standard to dominate the world. * What will bring about the end of the dollar's current hegemony in finance? * What will the consequences be for the US and the rest of the world? * Which new financial empire will rise from...
These are powerful forces for promoting positive adaptive behavioural changes which have important survival benefits and cannot be ignored. However, when change is not an option they become self-destructive, reducing quality of life and social cohesion; promoting disease and shortening life...
Many thousands of surviving mathematical clay tablets provide much information about Mesopotamian mathematics - but what mathematics did they do, and why is it relevant to us today? In contrast, although the Egyptian pyramids provide us with an impressive primary source, only a handful of...
This talk was given by Dr Ann Saunders, a leading London historian. Publications include John Bacon RA and Regent's Park. Dr Saunders is Honorary Editor to the London Topographical Society.
Modern police forces and governments frequently claim victories in the war against terrorism when a bomb plot is supposedly averted. But this belies a mistaken belief that terrorism is aimed at killing or mutilating indiscriminately. Actually the primary target is the psyche of a population, so...
The Sir Thomas Gresham City Lecture
Introduction by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood KT FBA PRSE, Provost of Gresham College
Chairman: Professor Avinash Persaud
Lecture delivered by Callum McCarthy, Chairman, The Financial Services Authority
Response by Sir Peter Middleton GCB, Chairman, Barclays plc
This is the 2004 Sir Thomas Gresham Docklands Lecture.
Chinky Mahoe is one of Hawaii's leading 'Kumu' or 'sources' (teacher, leader) in dance, music and culture. Discussions on his perspectives on religious faith and Hawaiian culture, with particular reference to relations between Christianity and Hawaiian spirituality.
Ian Page takes us through the opening act of Pierre Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro and explores the character of 'Figaro'.
This series of Geometry Lectures looked at all aspects of computer science, from how it works, how we can teach it better, what the exciting issues are, and what the future research questions should be. We've explored some very exciting areas, and we have covered some of the areas that are...
Indian philosopher Professor Arindam Chakrabarti and Gwen Griffith-Dickson in creative dialogue, jumping across differences in religion, culture, philosophical upbringing, race, gender...
Richard Suskind continues his conversations with some of the greatest legak minds in the country. This lecture he meets his successor as Greshma Professor of Law, and they talk about recent developments in law like the Freedom of Information Act, the new Supreme Court and recent human rights legislation.
Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE is Research Professor at King's College London, a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Prior to 2010, Professor Bogdanor Fellow of Brasenose College, is Professor of Government at Oxford University.
He has been an adviser to a number of governments, including those of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Israel and Slovakia. His books include The People and the Party System, Multi-Party Politics and the Constitution, Power and the People, and Devolution in the United Kingdom. He is a frequent contributor to TV, radio and the press and is a sometime special advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities (1982-83), and the House of Commons Public Service Committee. Most recently he was awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the Political Studies Association.
Gresham Professor of law, Richard Susskind welcomes some of the finest legal minds to Barnards Inn Hall for an intimate discussionon a wide variety of topics. Each lecture is a unique insight into the mechanincs and philosophy that run underneath British Law.
Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, PC, QC (born 19 November 1951) is a British Labour politician and barrister.
Falconer became the Lord Chancellor and the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs in 2003 under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and would go on to become the first Secretary of State for Justice in a 2007 reorganization and enlargement of the portfolio of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
In this lecture I will outline some of the explanations of why we age, what effects the ageing process has on our mental and physical functions and where we might find some solutions to either ageing less perceptibly or with increased grace!
Gresham Professor of Music Adrian Thomas explores the relationship between music and religion in Eastern Europe between the late 1940's and today.
Professor Keith Kendrick dicusses the relationship between human and animal biological clocks.
The history of the black hole from the eighteenth century onwards. What is a black hole? Is it a solid body? Why black holes are the simplest objects in the universe. Black holes are black bodies: they obey the laws of aerodynamics. Do black holes exist? What is the evidence? How many are there...
Professor Adrian Thomas looks into how the culture of a society can influence its politics.
Sleep seems to be a universal imperative for all animal species, a fact that has been accepted by mankind for two and a half thousand years!
Whether in academic writing or broadsheet journalism, we tend to see two different stances taken on the question of multicultural or multifaith understanding. One is the universalist tendency, that says that people are the same all over the world, and differences between cultures are no barrier...
The Victorian period was a time of massive change for London, not least in the development and availability for university-level mathematics. This talk investigates the changes that took place, highlighting some of the famous mathematicians involved, and comparing their teaching styles and the...
How, in the few years from 1763 to 1775, did many American colonists go from feeling themselves to be free-born Englishmen to declaring independence? Why did the Americans win?
Innovations in the financial world have led to the slicing up, repackaging and selling of risks. Does this spread risks better, or just move then around? When companies go bust, it is not the bankers who suffer, but the pensioners. Is this a better place for risks to end up? What determines...
A panel discussion of representatives from different faiths will tease out the implications of tragic events for God's goodness and God's power.
An overview of the early history of colonial North America: from French Canada to Spanish Florida, and everything in between.
Part of the Mondays at One lecture series, 'London: A Nation not a City' - Four Contemporary Views of London.
A re-evaluation of a pantomine scene printed in the first vocal score but later dropped. New material has revealed its subject: a comic scene which parodies various characteristics typical of an ageing Englishman. A recording of the scene will be examined in relation to newly-discovered...
Part of the Mondays at One lecture series, 'London: A Nation not a City' - Four Contemporary Views of London.
The Great War' shaped the 20th century, led directly to the Second World War, and continues to fascinate and intrigue successive generations.
But why did so much poetry derive from it, unlike successive conflicts? This talk, aimed at students of English literature in Sixth Forms, as well...
Part of the Mondays at One lecture series, 'London: A Nation not a City' - Four Contemporary Views of London.
Part of the Mondays at One lecture series, 'London: A Nation not a City' - Four Contemporary Views of London.
Professor Harold Thimbleby looks at the way images can be distorted or altered by the way our brain interprets them.
The infinite shows up everywhere: not just in the counting numbers and the riddle of the primes, but in plane and geometric shapes not to mention figures in higher dimensions. Robert and Ellen Kaplan unlock the daunting mysteries of maths, showing how it is just as much a part of our everyday...
The development of language could be conveniently postulated as being responsible for driving both our significant increase in brain size (three times larger than that of our nearest current relatives the chimpanzees and bonobos) and with it all the other higher mental faculties where humans are so predominant over other animal species.
In November 2003, at the newly restored Hackney Empire, the Classical Opera Company presented the world premiere of its new completed version of Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide.
In this seminar, the company's conductor and artistic director, Ian Page,and the librettist Michael Symmons...
If not, how has it gone through one infinity of years and another of days? What prevented it from beginning sooner? If it had a sufficient cause, how could that cause delay its effect?
Professor Frank Close attempts to answer your questions on everything cosmic from whether time travel is possible in the future? to simply asking what is time itself?
Professor Frank Close attempts to answer your questions on everything cosmic from whether time travel is possible in the future? to simply asking what is time itself?
Symmetric things are often more attractive. Symmetry is also a geometric idea: things may have reflection symmetry or rotational symmetry, and so on. What better way to end this series of Geometry lectures on design than by showing how the design of interactive devices, like mobile phones,...
Success in achieving a true sense of identity of self in relation to the world might engender feelings of individual worth and purpose in humans but is this true of other species? Establishing that other species have self-awareness has proved a difficult task but this lecture will endeavour to summarise what such studies have shown and whether the "ugly duckling" syndrome of the animal that "knows" it is a misfit is a human anthropomorphism or a reality.
Will the growth of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) support capital flows to emerging markets or hinder them?
Mr Chris Humphries CBE is the Director General of the City and Guilds Institute.
This lecture is a part of the 'Job changes in the 21st century' series. This series of lectures will look at major changes likely to take place in the workplace in the future, from a variety of different...
Inside every complex gadget is a programming language. How are programming languages designed, and how should they be designed? What are the common design problems? A look at a range of programming languages: the language of Lego, the extraordinarily popular general purpose language Java, and the specialised mathematics programming language Mathematica.
Julie Hope is from the Career Resource Centre at City University Business School.
This lecture is a part of the 'Job changes for the 21st century' series. This series of lectures will look at major changes likely to take place in the workplace in the future, from a variety of different...
Not only are the conceptions of divine knowledge and wisdom diverse; they have a wide ranging impact on how we view humanity, especially human freedom in relation to our future. If God knows in advance what I will do, does that mean that I am no longer free to change my mind?
John C Carrington is the Deputy Master of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. This lecture is a part of the 'Job changes in the 21st century' series. This series of lectures will look at major changes likely to take place in the workplace in the future, from a variety of...
In the end, will there be a single global financial market? Where will it be, who will regulate it and what will be the wider consequences for investment, capital flows and economic growth?
For social animals one of the major skills that must be learned is how to recognise important individuals in their social environment. An examination of the capacities for different species to recognise each other by scent, sound or sight, with focus on the evolution of face-recognition. We will also consider what key factors determine social and sexual attraction and prevent incest.
Previous lectures looked at the inside of gadgets, but this is less than half the story. When we use complex systems we often fall into traps; we acquire beliefs about what is achievable and act on them. Often we don't know we have these beliefs...
If a divine being exists, is it all-powerful? Does this mean it can do everything? We will explore differing conceptions of power within as well as across religions.
Richard Susskind welcomes Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom. Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed. She stood down from that task with effect from that date, and the inquest was conducted by Lord Justice Scott Baker.
Professor Susskind and Baroness Butler-Slosstalks through her work within family law, which touches on everything from divorce to competnecy hearing in medical cases.
A look at initiatives to develop the art music and performance of the next generation. A discussion on the work of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (spnm) will be followed by live performance by school groups participating in CHAMBER MUSIC 2000.
The Schubert Ensemble is known for classic piano/string and modern British works, the latter a repertoire that the Ensemble has done much to create through commission-ing in its distinguished history. The Ensemble pioneered the unique project CHAMBER MUSIC 2000 which has commissioned more than...
In his book Art Matters, John Tusa has outlined a go-ahead vision of the future concert, enlivened by video and other attributes of the entertainment world. This session will explore this and other models of our concert-hall future if it has a future. Guest speaker: John Tusa.
The way the world is perceived by any species is dependent upon how sense organs and the nervous system interpret cues. The same world can appear very differently to other species. We will consider how the world is experienced by other animal species, and how and why the visual and auditory...
Does God act in our world or is that too anthropo-morphic and simplistic an idea? Is the deepest reality something that acts and intervenes in human affairs?
The Maastricht convergence criteria and the Growth and Stability Pack were designed to win the support of Germany for European Monetary Union. Now EMU has arrived, these institutions are an obstacle to its success. How should they be reformed and which new institutions are needed?
Some of the ideas coming from modern science sound more like science fiction than science fact. This talk will present some examples and discuss which are more or less likely to be true.
How did the matter in the universe first emerge? And why does it have the form that it does? This talk will describe some of the fortunate circumstances that have enabled life to emerge.
The three great Semitic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - all maintain that God created the universe. The great Indic religions, which hold a more ambivalent view of the material world, take a different stance on the relationship between ultimate reality and the material world.
Is having a good parent more important than having good genes? Raising offspring is normally far more demanding than producing them. We will examine factors that control parental behaviours in animals and how parents can have profound influences on almost every aspect of their offspring's...
The spread of the Value-At-Risk approach to risk management to banks, fund managers and insurance companies is creating financial risk.
Pressing buttons on a mobile phone chooses various functions, as if the phone's functions are controlled by a code. Mobile phones are difficult to use almost entirely because their code is difficult to use. We can design a new code systematically, and using Huffman codes we can find one that is...
Are the Indian views incomparable with Western ones? Can we aspire to recognise that the only true self is very different from anything we supposed?
Professor Sorabji will discuss these issues with Dr Ram Prasad, University of Lancaster.
Professor Richard Susskind, Gresham Professor of Law, welcomes Britain's top lawyers, judges and politicians into Barnards Inn Hall. Together they examine the current legal climate, the future of the legal profession and the unique insights they have gained from a legal life.
Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC, QC (born 5 January 1950), is a former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped down. Goldsmith was the longest serving Labour Attorney General. He currently works for US law firm Debevoise and Plimpton as head of its European litigation practice.
Edmond Halley presents a lecture about his friend, Sir Isaac Newton.
This is a part of the 1,000 Years of Mathematics Study day. Other lectures include...
Thomas Hirst (1830-1892) recounts the period of mathematical history through which he lived.
The Bull Unam Sanctam, issued on 18 November 1302 by Boniface VIII, subjected temporal to spiritual power and declared the Pope's authority over the world. Leo XIII, who died one hundred years ago, issued the Bull Apostolicae Curae (13 September 1896) determining the relationship between the...
Banks have repackaged and sold on their risks - who has them now? Who will be the victims of the next financial crisis?
The study of justice in war is ancient in India, Judaism, Greece, Rome, Christianity and Islam, and it is important to bear those traditions in mind at the present time. Tracing the influence of Genesis, of Aristotle, the Stoics, Cicero and the Roman jurists, we shall find an unexpected response...
Today's festival director has gone from administrator to creator; impresarii are as involved as their artistes in developing individual events. A leading festival director will discuss what is wrong, and what is right, with the modern concert premiere.
In many species that have adopted promiscuous repro-ductive strategies, competition between male and female to promote specific genes has led to remarkable adaptive processes with each sex battling to gain ascendancy. To what extent have such conflicts been reduced in species that have adopted a...
The second most crucial - and divisive - question across faiths is whether divinity is a personal entity or an impersonal reality. Is God a personal reality with whom we can form a relationship? Or is ultimate reality something which transcends the concept of personhood, not so much 'a being' as...
This talk addresses the related question of what constitutes a work's identity. Does music reside within score or performance - in its body or its soul? If in the score, as modern 'authenticity' traditions suggest, is interpretation defunct? It is hoped to introduce a leading thinker who argues...
This year's keynote talk explores the distinction between music itself and its surface vocabulary. Is there such a thing as music? Are some musical styles more, and some less, substantial? If so, is contemporary music any more than an amalgam of stylistic practices? The public's rejection of...
Children can use gadgets faster than adults. What does this say about the design of gadgets? This lecture looks at microwave cookers. Instead of children helping us design better gadgets, we could use animal testings, perhaps monkeys pressing buttons all day. Rather than pay monkeys, it's...
How many colours are needed to colour a map so that neighbouring countries are coloured differently? At first it seems that for very complicated maps, many colours are needed, but surprisingly four colours suffice for all maps - a fact that took over a hundred years to prove. In this lecture we...
How many colours are needed to colour a map? What was the 15 schoolgirl's problem? How many alcohols and paraffins are there? This talk visits the fascinating world of Victorian mathematics and the contributions to it by eccentric lawyers, academics and clergymen.
Moore's Law predicts substantial, sustained improvement in computing power. Yet while the technology gets better and better, the usability of 'everyday things' is low (video recorders being a notorious example). Obsolescence, a symptom of Moore's Law, hides flawed design: poor products are...
Are quarks the ultimate seeds of matter or is there a deeper layer of the Cosmic Onion? If there is, HERA, the most powerful electron microscope in the world, may be the first to know.
This lecture will consider different patterns of male and female sexual behaviours, how hormones act to control them, and how and why the rigid link between sex and reproduction has been relaxed during evolution to include maintenance of social relationships. We will also consider whether other animals have problems with impotence and if diversity in sexual orientation is unique to humans.
Neutrinos from the sun and the galaxy are being detected under the ice of Antartica and at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Canada. For the first time we know how the sun shines.
This talk will show some of the visual beauty revealed by particles - a world remote from our immediate senses but one that is real and visible.
This lecture will explore the diversity of traditions about God or ultimate reality. Is the Deity one with, or present in, the universe - or beyond all, transcendent, 'Wholly Other'?
This illustrated lecture extends a theme of last year's series, that the severity of European modernism is just one strand in modern music, a diversity of which audiences tend to be unaware. This talk strips off the surface labels and seeks less superficial links between apparently contrasted works of art.
Bryson Gore has made the demonstrations for the Royal Institution Christmas lectures for many years. This talk makes electrons visible, recreating the events that led to their discovery and showing some of the bizarre things that they can do.
Why were video recorders so difficult to use? Is there any hope for new gadgets like DVD players? What can we do about gadget complexity, and what can be learnt by approaching the design of gadgets mathematically? This lecture will show how video recorders, aircraft, the world wide web and user...
Were the inventors the ancient Stoics, the Roman lawyers, the 17th century Dutch, the authors of the American Revolution? Can there be universal justice without such an idea, and what does it add?
In this lecture Professor Hellawell introduces his own work Inside Story, premiered at the 1999 Proms to wide acclaim. The composer gives a background talk to the shape of the work, which pairs violin and viola solists with orchestra in the manner of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante...
We continue the anitmatter theme: Antimatter would be a wonder fuel, but for the fact that the universe appears to be lacking in antimatter reserves. The first steps are being taken this year at CERN to make thousands of atoms of antihydrogen every hour. While this will never be enough to fuel...
The four lectures (Hooke as Speculative Philosopher, Hooke's Life, Diary and Medicine Taking; Hooke as Employee; Hooke as a Designer, Maker and User of Intruments) will be expanded and published by Oxford University Press early in 2003 as "London's Leonardo".
Dr Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
We are aware of 3D space and the fourth dimension of time. But why is it like this? Why would one or two not have been enough? Why not more? Experiments at CERN will seriously be looking for evidence of a fifth dimension. Science fiction or science fact?
Every so often there is a panic when computers succumb to viruses. The theory behind viruses is rather fun, and shows how bugs can disappear and become impossible to find. In principle it's possible to construct viruses that cannot be detected; equally it's possible to avoid getting them in the...
The stakeholders are clearly different and require different prioritisation, but is governance any different in the not-for-profit sector? How can boards and their individual members (or their equivalent) in the not-for-profit sector better discharge their function? Are management skills and...
It is 70 years since the birth of particle accelerators. This talk shows how they have been used and become ever more powerful. As we step into unknown territory with the new accelerators in the USA and at CERN, some media have suggested that the experiments could destroy the universe. Do we need to be concerned?
As you read this, millions of neutrinos are passing through you, unseen (and harmless!). Produced in the Sun and stars, they corkscrew through space at hear to the speed of light. They may hold the answer to some of the mysteries of Creation and to the mirror asymmetries of life. CUrrent...
Four fundamental forces rule the universe: gravity, the electromagnetic force and then two that act in and around the atomic nucleus, known as strong and weak. The latter pair act over distances smaller than atoms and so are less familiar to our macroscopic senses than are the effects of gravity...
Euler, 'the Mozart of mathematics', was probably the most prolific mathematician of all time, having contributed to many areas, both theoretical and practical, both serious and recreational - yet he remains largely unknown except to mathematicians. Who was he, what did he do, and why do mathematicians regard him so highly?
Computers need not just automate what is already being done, but can do completely new things. In the 1970s a new form of cryptography was invented, which is usually presented as an esoteric application of number theory. This new cryptography is asymmetric, meaning that the coding and decoding...
Professor Susskind and The Rt Hon Lord Justice Auld discuss reform of the criminal courts and the criminal justice system (including the role of juries and magistrates) and outline the work of the Court of Appeal. They draw comparisons between the British and American legal systems, and expose...
Keeping secrets is one of the earliest inventions of civilisation, and has become the science of cryptography. The World War II Enigma machine was just lots of scrambling, done in ways that could be understood in principle by a school child though it took daring and powerful computing to crack...
Technology is changing everything. How will it affect financial markets, exchange and over the counter banking and other financial services in the future? Will exchanges be no more than cheap, commoditised high volume transaction engines? How will intermediaries add value in the new age, or will...
The Human Genetics Commission was set up in order to advise the government on how current and prospective developments in human genetics should be regulated in the broader social and political interest. For instance, should insurance companies or employers have access to an individual's genetic...
One of the deepest questions hidden in the question of inter-faith study and inter-faith dialogue is the notion of the Self and of the Other. Different pictures of selfhood are given in different philosophical and religious systems. But arguably the question of identity and difference are...
Most people know the story of Newton and the apple, but why was it so important? What sort of person was Newton? What was his major work Principia Mathematica about, what difficulties did it raise, and how were they resolved? Was Newton really the first to discover the calculus, and why did it...
Today's computers don't understand us. In the future we will wear them and they will be inside us, as implants - so we had better get them sorted out while we have a chance. This lecture looks at how common problems with today's computers may be solved, and what sorts of new problems will arise...
How have business communications, internal and external, changed over the years and how will they change in the 21st century? What has been the impact of technology? How important are effective staff communications? Does concern and activity on the external communications front occupy too much...
Euclid's Elements has been the best-selling mathematics book of all time, being used continuously for over 2000 years. Who was Euclid, and why did his writings have such influence? What does the Elements contain, and why did it create so much controversy over the years?
Professor Richard Susskind and David Pannick QC discuss the impact of human rights legislation in the UK, offering a unique look behind the scenes of specific cases. Their conversation covers freedom of expression, fair hearings, privacy, rights over property and the formal trappings of English...
How do we know that what we believe is true? This question is made more difficult whenever we find someone of good faith who disagrees with us. Can all religions be telling the truth? One of the most important issues in inter-faith reflection is the question of religious 'truth'. What is it?...
What duty do companies owe to their employees and vice versa? Is the current mobility of City executives, alone or in teams, good for the City or an unfortunate consequence of today's professional employment markets? What sort of relationship should companies seek and have with their various stakeholders? Is there any such thing as a permanent relationship with a bank or other financial service provider? Are suppliers always second fiddle to customers? What relationships should boards and directors encourage and which should they eschew?
Professor Bohumil Drassar, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Author of Cholera in the Wellcome History of Tropical Diseases.
Professor Richard Susskind and The Rt Hon Lord Woolf of Barnes discuss the Access to Justice Inquiry and reforms to the civil justice system; the structure of the court system; the process of judging; modernisation of the Judiciary; major challenges facing the justice system and the...
Stephen Porter, Assistant Editor, Survey of London Section, English Heritage. Author of The Great Plague.
Is the City a more honest place than it was forty years ago? Is my word still my bond? Has prescriptive regulation improved matters? Are victimless business offences really reprehensible? Have professional bodies made any contribution? How have businessmen's view of their ethical...
Animals are different from humans, but there is no one difference and only some differences are morally relevant. Too many moral theories say "only one thing is relevant to how we treat others" and affirm that animals meet, or fail to meet, the relevant requiriement.
But life is more...
Professor Abdullah Ibrahim, Visiting Gresham Professor of Music, talks to Peter Conway, arts administrator and journalist, about his return to South Africa and his role in establishing a new music academy for young black students.
Professor Richard Susskind explains how the UK courts and the process of law has been influenced by the emergence of Information Technology. How has it been used to reform the current system of law in the UK?
We take a voyage into matter and back to the start of time to see how the basic pieces were created, how they have been cooked in stars to make elements of life and how critical their separate identities have been to enavble is to be here some 12 billion years after the Big Bang.
What is the true role of the Finance Director/Chief Financial Officer - chief beancounter, chief administrative officer, corporate financier, conscience of the organisation, head of regulation and compliance, main contact with investors and the City, or all of the above? Why are US CFO's usually...
Why do mirros reverse left and right and not up and down (or do they!)? Why is mirror Asymmetry so important for life? Any why do some atomic processes seem to distinguish left from right? In this lecture Professor Close explores symmetry and asymmetry in the universe at large, from living...
Do financial institutions require special forms of governance, having regard to their risk, complexity, and regulatory and compliance structures? How well has existing governance worked, and what governance lessons have been learned from recent collapses and financial crises? How should the...
What is the proper function of a NED? Is there a distinction between an 'independent' and 'non-independent' NED? How can an appointee of a major shareholder or special interest remain independent, and should he/she? How much should a NED get involved in the detail of the business, and what is an...
By what measure should a Board judge its own performance, and what should it do if found wanting? Is there an optimum size and balance, and is there a size beyond which it is very difficult or impossible to manage? What is the responsibility of of Boards to shareholders? How should boards be...
A time machine has been at work at CERN Geneva for the last ten years. This month it made its final experiments. In this lecture, we travel to the first split second after the Big Bang at the start of the universe and see how matter was born.
Is City governance effective and how ought it to be reformed? Does it represent a competative advantage or a competative burden? The relevant importance and future roles of the Lord Mayor, the City Corporation, the Financial Services Authority, the Bank of England, the Treasury and the various...
There is a pervasive idea in the world outside banks that banking and financial services should really be a riskless business, providing riskless products. In this lecture, Sir Peter Middleton explores how modern banks promote themselves as 'safe havens', while simultaneously making money -...
Speaking as part of a series on 'City Institutions', George Webber looks back on the rich and colourful history of London's livery companies.
The Reverend Professor Richard Chartres concludes his history of Archbishop Matthew Parker.
The other lectures in this series are:
Early Life and Education...
Archbishop Matthew Parker lived through the most tumultuous decades of the sixteenth century for the Anglican Church, beset by forces that gave the modern Church much of its recognisable shape.
Matthew Parker (1504-1575) was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be chosen by Queen Elizabeth I and was a contemporary of Sir Thomas Gresham. The Reverend Professor Chartres considers the early life of a man who spanned a vital and seminal period in the formation of Anglican identity....
Both science and theology explore aspects of one world: they complement rather than contradict each other. The Revd Dr John Polkinghorne explores the possibility of fruitful relationships between the two.
This is the 1991 Gresham Special Lecture.
What can we do as individuals to be better custodians of our own health? Professor Stuart locates preventative action in four main modifications to our lifestyles: smoking, alcohol, diet and exercise.
Professor Stuart argues for a harmonious relationship between medical advance and its integration into the daily practices of everyday life. The health of a society and of science itself must ultimately depend on non-scientific values. This can only be achieved if scientific and technological advances are passed through the grid of social acceptance and creative community judgement.
Over the course of the twentieth century, international thrusts towards better healthcare have tended towards adaptations rather than revisions of existing models. As a result, the same inequalities in distribution and access persist. Looking ahead to the nineties, Professor Stuart outlines the most likely avenues of change if efficient and effective national systems of healthcare are to be established.
The relationship between the universal nature of medical problems and the infinite variety of social groups offering solutions to them creates one of the most persistent legal and ethical dilemmas facing medicine today. How can we better facilitate interdisciplinary discussions and ensure that the wide range of societies are represented?
In some ways, Britain is very much like a 'developing' country in the way its education system wastes a lot of its talent at age 16, by not providing adequate opportunities for development past this point. Professor Rae considers the effects of this situation and possible ways to rectify...
The human impact of any given medical advance must be fully integrated with relevant social conditions. How might this be achieved?
In the wake of the Education Reform Act the private sector has a golden opportunity to play a positive part in the overall future of education in this country. Or does it? Private schools know about financial management and are equally well versed on issues such as alcohol abuse and sixth form...
As Rector of St Marylebone, The Reverend Christopher Hamel Cooke established the innovative Healing and Counselling Centre in the church's crypt. In this lecture he reviews the important work of the Centre and considers possibilities for collaboration between religion and medicine....
Dr Roger Taylor explains how, as a scientist, he walks a tightrope between reductionism and holism. What is the place of complementary or homeopathic healing in medical science?
This series of lectures included the following talks:
Is it enough to be legal?
7th March 1990
Business and the Role of the Law
14th March 1990
...
Do we suffer because of a 'compartmental' way of living? In this lecture, The Revd Professor Richard Chartres advocates a broader and multi-disciplinary approach to healing, based on the complementary healing styles of the Ancient World.
The Reverend Professor Richard Chartres continues to outline the history of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, in light of recent archaeological evidence and the Gresham Jerusalem photogrammetic survey. What impact did the arrival of Islam in the city in the seventh century have on the Temple?
In the fourth century AD, the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, gave his consent for excavation beneath the Temple of Aphrodite in Jerusalem. They were looking for the Tomb of Christ - but what did they find?
The Reverend Professor Richard Chartres outlines the...
In October 1988, the Cardinal Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Balestero announced the results of scientific tests done to date the Turin Shroud: it was almost certainly created between 1260 and 1390.
But is this use of science the end of the religious and human story? What are we now to think of the apparent face of Christ on the shroud that has so caught the imagination of Christians for over 600 years?
A hundred years ago it was almost unanimously accepted that parents should be the ones to 'bring up' their children, but this reposnsibility has been transferred in recent times to the school. Teachers are now required to cover certain 'cross-curricular' themes in their lessons: health and sex...
Do musical competitions necessarily have to be damaging? Can they be used in a responsible way, thereby presenting a creative challenge to young musicians? In this lecture, Professor Renshaw critically compares two competition models: the 'marketing-commercail competition' (product-orientated) and the 'artistic-educational competition' (process- and context-orientated).
The best laid plans of a government come to nothing if the schools themselves are not 'good' enough to deliver their policies. But what constitutes the difference between a good and a bad school?
This lecture is part of Professor Rae's series, 'The Education Reform Act...
Richard Chartres considers the most important religious figures and dilemmas to gain prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I.
While not known or celebrated as a religious thinker, Thomas Gresham lived through a turbulent period in the history of the Church of England. How does his career reflect or illuminate the religious contradictions and difficulties of that time?
The worldwide decline of socialism has been more total and pervasive than that of liberalism. A dominant system of politics and economics has been abandoned - because it has failed. What are the repercussions of this decline, on the first world and developing countries? Can we imagine or predict...
The aim of the British school system should be to produce a well-educated population and not a well-educated elite. How might the Education Reform Act of 1988 impact on our ability to realise this objective?
Professor Zeeman is one of the foremost scholars in the field of 'catastrophe theory'. In this introduction to the subject, he considers how the theory might relate to matters as diverse as electromagnetism, the 'fight or flight' mechanism and animal nests.
The National Curriculum is the single most important reform to British education. In this lecture, Professor Rae explains why the central government should be deciding what is taught in schools and outlines his own ideal curriculum.
This lecture is part of Professor Rae's series...
Professor Chartres offers an overview of the history and culture of the Armenian nation, including the genocide of 1915.
In June 1988, the Russian Orthdox Church celebrated the millennium of the Christianisation of Russia and the baptism of St Vladimir. In this lecture, Richard Chartres explores the significance of St Vladimir, a figure considered equal to the apostles, and looks forward to a change in state...
What should the aims of education be? Does Britain have a clear idea of what its education system is trying to do?
This lecture is part of Professor Rae's series, 'The Education Reform Act 1988 in its Historical and International Context'. The other lectures in this series are...
In 1984, Prince Charles described Richard Rogers' proposed extension to London's National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend". The term has since been used by many critics to condemn the perceived "ugliness" of modern architecture. How can we,...
In 1944, the Butler Act introduced the 'Tripartite System' to schools in England and Wales and made secondary education free for all pupils. But what promises did this Act leave unfulfilled?
This lecture is part of Professor Rae's series, 'The Education Reform Act 1988 in...
Gambling is an activity as old as human social life itself, sometimes carried out alone but, more often than not, by crowds or whole nations. Lottery systems have historically been used as a means of allowing 'Fate' to decide upon the distribution of materials (unequally...
Professor John Pick outlines an 'industry' of relics, religious or otherwise, and the influence of these objects on mass behaviour and belief.
This lecture is part of Professor Pick's series, Rumour, Disease and the Madness of Crowds. The other lectures...
At the beginning of 1720, almost the whole of England thought that investing money in the South Sea Company was an admirable idea; by the end of 1720, they were equally convinced that the company was made up of nothing but rogues and vagabonds. What was the South Sea Bubble and how can we...
Was English success against the Spanish Armada an instance of divine 'deliverance'? Reverend Professor Richard Chartres examines the evidence.
In his final lecture on nineteenth-century values, Richard Chartres looks at Archbishop Benson, who stood in great contrast to his predecessors. He was apathetic towards both sport and politics, uncomfortable speaking to laypeople and intolerant of those who did not share his concerns. What can...
The subject of Richard Chartres' second lecture on Victorian morality is Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury between 1868 and 1882. Tait was a champion of tolerance and demonstrated great faith and optimism towards the times he lived in. Was his profound sense of accountability, of a...
What were the rumours surrounding the grisly murders of 1888 and how do they compare to the rumours attached to later serial killers?
This lecture is part of Professor Pick's series, Rumour, Disease and the Madness of Crowds.
The Revd Professor Richard Chartres begins his series on Victorian morality by considering Charles Thomas Longley (1794-1868), perhaps the most critically neglected Archbishop of Canterbury of the nineteenth-century.
Pollsters and percentages have, to a degree, done away with that species of political rumour that precedes and predicts revolutions. Professor Pick outlines how this type of rumour operated in the context of a feared Chartist revolution in Victorian Britain.
This lecture is...
By the end of 1664, talk of plague in Europe was beginning to spread throughout England. What rumours occurred and how did rumour operate before and during the time of the Great Plague in London? How did the Government attempt to silence the 'rumour machine'?
This...
There have been far greater advances made in medicine over the last twenty years than in the past four centuries. What are the implications for society?
The popularisation of science has never been very popular - particularly amongst scientists, who equate it with a lowering of standards. Nevertheless, while pure and applied science have transformed the world we live in beyond recognition over the last few decades, Britain's overly specialised...
Much debate and dispute surrounds the exploration and exploitation of deep ocean polymetallic nodules. In the second of two lectures, Professor Kenneth Simmonds untangles the complicated political and legal issues of seabed mining.
Much debate and dispute surrounds the exploration and exploitation of deep ocean polymetallic nodules. In the first of two lectures, Professor Kenneth Simmonds untangles the complicated political and legal issues of seabed mining.
The second lecture in this series can be found...
Richard Chartres looks in detail at a number of contemporary developments concerning the Soviet Union's Council for Religious Affairs. He considers the resurgence of Islam in Central Asian republics, Baptist advances in the Ukraine, and the sense of a religious 'Renaissance' among...
Professor John Griffiths charts the history of the National Health Service and its precursors. What have been its major benefits and drawbacks? How might it improve?
Peter Renshaw outlines the work of a project committed to integrating musical performance into the wider community. He explores how workshops within social institutions such as schools, hospitals and prisons might increase the accessibility and relevance of music today.
This is the second...
Peter Renshaw looks ahead to musical performance in the 21st century, highlighting opprtunities for change: the physical context of a performance space, the social backgrounds of an audience and attitudes towards communicating knowledge.
This is the first lecture in the series 'The...
Ever since the Revolution of 1917, Russia has considered atheism to be a precondition for social progress. Religion is dismissed as "an opiate for the people" (Marx) or as "moonshine" (Lenin). How has the Russian Orthodox Church, the main Christian body within the Soviet...
There are older Christian Churches existing within the Soviet Union, but none can compare with the Russian Orthodox Church in terms of its impact on Russian culture. Richard Chartres guides us through its long history, from the tenth-century to the Revolution of 1917.
The comedian today is in crisis. The ways of making us laugh have become fewer and blander, and there are less opportunities for comics to learn the tricks of the trade. Television, and the media more generally, should be uniting the nation in laughter, but more often than not it achieves...
Professor Pick traces the evolution of the modern stand-up comic, a figure that emerged out of the music halls and American vaudeville circuits at the end of the nineteenth-century.
This lecture is part of Professor Pick's 'Comedy and Laughter' series. The other...
What makes the British laugh? Professor Pick looks in detail at the role of comedy on BBC radio, particularly between the years of 1930 to 1950, arguing that comedians should be seen as some of the greatest artists of the twentieth-century.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot was first discovered in 1664 by former Gresham Professor Robert Hooke, but thanks to images captured by the Voyager space probe, it has attained a new popularity in the twentieth-century. Professor Hide outlines its importance for both astronomers and meteorologists.
Professor Kilmister considers the impact of the advent of computers on graphical representation in mathematics.
Historically, how did people make calculations and solve equations without using a slide rule? Professor Kilmister considers in detail one possible method: the nomogram.
What has been the role of pictorial representation in geometry? Is it now little more than a lost art? Professor Kilmister begins his series by examining the history and uses of the slide rule.
Professor Griffiths is joined by Dr Siân Griffiths and Robin Rusher, acupuncturist, to explore the links between Elizabethan medicine and contemporary alternative therapies.
Simon Crow provides an overview of the Japanese service industry. Why should the Western financial sector bother with Japan and how might it do so?
The Professorship of Geometry established by Sir Thomas Gresham is the oldest Chair of mathematics in Britain, predating the Savilian Professorship at Oxford by 23 years and the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge by 67 years. What induced Thomas Gresham to create the role and has it been a success? What precisely did he mean to include under the term 'geometry'?
Professor Hide compares contemporary science with science as it was at the time of the foundation of Gresham College in 1597.
How can a country be democratic when it has been ruled without interruption by a conservative party for over thirty years? Is parliamentary democracy as practiced in Japan a mere façade for oligarchic rule by the Japanese establishment? Sir Hugh Cortazzi considers these issues with reference to Japanese political and constitutional history.
Professor Jan Kott, author of the highly influential study, Shakespeare Our Contemporary, explores the continued importance of the Bard in our lives. He considers the impact of twentieth-century theatre, including the works of Brecht and Beckett, on modern stagings of Shakespeare's...
In this lecture, Dr Malcolm Trevor looks at Japanese companies in the UK in the light of quality control, and the problematic relations between local component manufacturers and the main Japanese assemblers they supply. What are the implications of these issues for British managers?
The entrepreneur is an innovator, a promoter, often a risk-taker, someone with a desire to create and a willingness to take full responsibility for his or her actions. In this lecture, The Rt Hon The Lord Young of Graffham charts the changing role of the entrepreneur over the last two centuries...
Determinist biology, collectivist psychology and relativist morality: these three ideologies summarise the unspoken assumptions and values that shape the people we are and the world we live in - but not for the better. In this lecture, Dr Jules Goddard explains why these three trends are...
At the turn of the twentieth century, the greater part of the world was ruled by hereditary monarchies. The next fifty years, however, saw the fall of the Hapsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, the Romanovs, the House of Savoy and the Qing Dynasty. As such, the British Crown stands as the most important...