Gresham College Lectures
Episodes
Engineering: Archimedes of Syracuse
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the 3rd century BCE, the Sicilian polymath Archimedes significantly advanced human understanding of mathematics, geometry and astronomy. By applyin...
Mental and Physical Wellness
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
Simple Laws, Spectacular Astrophysics
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Can Gender Equality Help Solve Climate Change?
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is gender equality a key factor in tackling climate change? Many think so, and in this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will explain w...
Arise, Sir Isaac! Newton's London career
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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, exer...
Thomas Becket and London
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'St Thomas has adorned…London by his rising and Canterbury by his setting'. This lecture will explore how the influence of Thomas Becket p...
The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820: A Study in Terrorism
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
The Ethics of Surgical Innovation
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientific knowledge is advancing at dizzying speed and each day brings new breakthroughs in medical understanding. Unprecedented advances are opening...
The Ballets Russes: Playing with the Past
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 suit...
A History of the Penis and the Clitoris
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 havi...
The Digital University and Other Mythical Creatures
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013 Sir Michael Barber declared that "An Avalanche is Coming" and that universities would be swept away by new digital technologies. Six...
Great Mathematical Myths
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mathematics is often thought of as being a dry and logical subject, and its conclusions free from the vagaries of fashion and misconception. However t...
Making New Plants: A History
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Unfinished Music
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 p...
How to Survive a Massacre in Europe's Wars of Religion
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Europe's Wars of Religion were fought against entire populations, and were punctuated by events remembered as atrocities: such as the siege of Le...
Webb Vs. Hubble: Battle of the Space Giants
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Homes Fit for Heroes: 100 Years of Council Housing
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What Has Einstein Ever Done For You?
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Albert Einstein's mind-boggling ideas revolutionized our view of the universe. From relativity to curved spacetime, from the Big Bang to black ho...
Can the Law Keep Up With Changes In Society?
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Wi...
Shapes of Free Fall
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 explai...
Prohibition: A Battle in America's Last Culture War
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Powell and Pressburger's Island Stories
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stories about islands punctuate the careers of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, from Powell's breakthrough with Edge of the World (1936) to...
Clara Schumann (1819-1896): The Unsung Heroine of Romanticism
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture-recital will explore the life of Clara Schumann (1819-1896) through her music and surroundings, her achievements and influencers. Deserve...
Public Speaking Without Fear
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Surveys about people's fears commonly feature public speaking at the very top of the list. Many people believe that public speaking is either som...
The Rite of Spring: A Failure and A Triumph
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Rite of Spring was the startling result of a collaboration between Stravinsky, Nijinsky (choreography) and Roerich (sets and costumes). In the imm...
Can Machines Be Conscious, and Would It Matter If They Were?
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 kn...
George IV: Radical or Reactionary?
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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-industr...
A History of the Breast
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 exp...
Prostate and Testicular Cancer
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Ending Our Consumer Addiction
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How can we end our intense consumer addiction and change our habits and values to be more sustainable? In this lecture Environment Professor Jacquelin...
The City of London - Culture, Creativity and the Culture Mile
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Improvising Medicine
08 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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. Th...
Can Maths Save The Whales and Cure Cancer?
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ta...
1928 - Annus Mirabilis of the Christmas Carol
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 Business of Santa Claus in Lapland
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 peopl...
The Man Who Invented Christmas: Film Adaptations of Dickens' A Christmas Carol
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A Christmas Carol (1843) is the most filmed and televised of Dickens' works. Many will warmly remember the 1951 Alastair Sim version, but how man...
Finding Purpose in Your Career
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Many influential leaders stress the importance of pursuing a purpose rather than choosing a career based on salary. While inspiring, such talks can so...
Gardens of Empire: The Role of Kew and Colonial Botanic Gardens
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sydney's botanic garden, founded in the early nineteenth century, was expected to ship new plants 'home' to the Royal Botanic Gardens, ...
100 Years of Women in Law
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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-em...
Physics: Its Birth in Greek Ionia
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 6...
Breast, Uterine and Ovarian Cancers
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture will consider the treatment and prevention of common cancers in women. The outlook for those with breast cancer and uterine cancer have s...
Taming the Trolls of Social Media
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
George Eliot and Relationships
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Ann Evans experienced difficult relationships with her family while growing up in Warwickshire, and with nineteenth-century London society more g...
A History of the Eye
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From ancient times to popular self-help books today, eyes have been viewed as 'windows to the soul'. The interpretation of eye shape and col...
How the English Learned to Hate Catholics
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Medieval England was proudly Catholic and ostentatiously loyal to Rome. But from the late sixteenth century until recent times - and even now - anti-C...
The End of Matter?
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Sir Thomas Gresham and the Tudor Court
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture will explore Gresham's service to the crown during the turbulent politics of mid-Tudor England. Gresham served three Tudor monarchs,...
Keyhole Surgery Pioneers
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture examines how minimal access ('keyhole') surgery has revolutionised medicine in just a few decades. By re-assembling teams of lo...
Unlocking the Health Benefits of Nature
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nature's benefits to human health are so well-attested, that the medical profession is now actively engaged in fighting for a clean, healthy envi...
Maths and Voting
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Powell and Pressburger: The Matter of Britain
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
World War Two set British filmmakers a challenge: to be relevant and entertaining and to inspire without patronising. Powell and Pressburger brought w...
The Origins of the Elements
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this talk, coinciding with the UNESCO International Year of the Periodic Table, Dr Wilkins will discuss the astrophysical origins of the chemical e...
Charles I: The Court at War
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 locat...
Dams, Radiators and The Shard: The Legacy of English Gardening
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
BOOK LAUNCHThis lecture describes three ways in which technology developed for gardens changed the shape of England and its built environment. Gardeni...
AI Weapons, War and Ethics
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Weighing the Universe
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The cosmic microwave background is the luminous echo of the primordial explosion, the Big Bang — literally the oldest light in the Universe. Exquisi...
A History of Hair
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The 2014 scandal over Rachel Dolezal's lying about being of African-American heritage reignited debates about the politics of hair. It has been f...
Infection, Immunity and Cancer
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Examples of cancers caused largely by infections include cervical cancer, some liver cancers, and gastric cancer. If the infection can be prevented, o...
The Ballets Russes: Courting the Exotic
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Diaghilev found that the Oriental style that had been cultivated by Russian composers was a perfect match for the Parisians' love of exoticism, a...
Slavery and the City of London
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIESFreedom has been central to the identity of the City of London for centuries. But from the Seventeenth to the Ni...
Freedom Song: The Fisk Jubilee Singers' Story
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIESA choir of ex-slaves, raising funds to build their University, toured America from 1871, suffering discriminatio...
A Global History of the Eclipse of 29 May 1919
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTUREThe event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining ...
Mathematical Practice and the 18th-Century British Voyages of Scientific Exploration
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTUREThe event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining ...
Privateer and Mathematician: The Voyages of Edward Wright
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTUREThe event will focus upon mathematical expeditions, outlining ...
Frozen in Time?
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 obs...
Biometrics: How Unique are You?
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Mathematical World of C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
BOOK LAUNCHCharles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is best known for his Alice books. But his day job was as a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church in Oxford...
Black Tudors: Three Untold Stories
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIESDr Kaufmann tells the intriguing tales of three Africans living in Tudor England - Jacques Francis, a diver empl...
Building Sustainable Communities: A New Era for Twinning
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In contrast to their stark socio-economic and environmental differences, the communities of Harbury, UK and Sekenani, Kenya are building 'collabo...
Slavery, Memory and Reparations
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
PART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIESUsing memory scholarship, this talk will examine how the history and memory of enslavement shaped questions of i...
Organ Transplants and Human Rights Abuses in China
10 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture reports on the findings of The Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China (June 2019), which...
Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891) And the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
1667 and The Royal Society: A Manifesto for the Future
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Maths of Future Computing
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This lecture examines the mathematics behind computing, starting with the history of the explosive growth of computer technology, from code breaking t...
Experimental Gardens from Francis Bacon to Today
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627) imagined a utopian island including an experimental garden, where plants could be made "greater much tha...
Have Women Achieved Professional Equality? 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
2019 marks 100 years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 when a woman was recognised as a 'person' in law. This groundbreaking...
Time Management in the Digital Age
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 2...
Faster than Light?
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 pa...
Human Traffic: Race and Post-War Migration Policy
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLIN MATTHEW MEMORIAL LECTUREPART OF OUR BLACK HISTORY MONTH SERIESIn the years after 1945 successive British gover...
How to Avert a Climate Catastrophe
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After the UN Climate Action Summit in September, our Environment Professor will be talking to three experts about whether we still have a meaningful c...
Everyone Expects the Spanish Inquisition: The Making of Spain's 'Black Legend'
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Spain became a byword for cruelty in much of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whether it was the brutality of American colonisation,...
Exporting Russia: Diaghilev's Beginnings
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Archers Assemble: Creating The Powell-Pressburger Partnership
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Alexander Korda teamed Michael Powell with Emeric Pressburger in 1939, a lasting partnership between this Englishman and refugee Hungarian must h...
Musical Openings
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The hammerblow introduction to Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony and the iconic four-note opening motif of the 5th Symphony, the unresolved...
James I: The Court at Play
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Striking the Balance Between Common Sense and Legal Reasoning
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 GRAY'S INN READINGLord Kerr intends to address the recent decision in Stocker v Stocker and the challenges which confront judges when re...
The Weimar Republic: Germany's First Democracy
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 PROVOST'S LECTUREA century has passed since the establishment of the ill-fated Weimar Republic, founded in August 1919 and superseded 14...
Sir Thomas Gresham 1519-2019
13 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTUREA special illustrated lecture will be presented by Dr John Guy to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the b...
Byron and the Age of Sensation
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Wellbeing at the Bar? Is a Legal Aid Lawyer's Work all Stress and Distress?
06 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 ch...
Mergers and Acquisitions: Do They Create or Destroy Value?
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are perhaps the most important decisions that a company ever faces, yet very many deals destroy substantial value. ...
The Treaty of Versailles: A Hundred Years Later
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 subje...
Aristotle's Lyceum
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the 330s BCE, the great philosopher and scientist, Aristotle of Stagira in northern Greece, returned to Athens and founded his Lyceum. The first in...
Toothpaste, Custard and Chocolate: Mathematics Gets Messy
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE 2019 JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL LECTUREThis talk looks at mathematical modelling of real, complex fluids in flow situations - some w...
Creativity: Can Computers Cut It?
28 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Computers are often parodied as machines that kill creativity. Yet modern works of creativity usually have a digital aspect, and many are wholly digit...
The Changing Impact of Infections as We Go Through Life and Age
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Limits of Our Knowledge
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 stop...
Exploring Earth from Space
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, multiple space missions have been launched. Many have set out across our galaxy to explore other systems and planets, capturing peopl...
Prokofiev's War and Peace
21 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...