Gresham College Lectures
Episodes
3038 episodes
Animal senses: how do they perceive the world and what important things can they sense that we cannot?
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 spec...
Does God 'Act'?
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?
Re-engineering EMU
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 ...
Science Fiction or Science Fact?
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.
The First Three Minutes
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.
'Creator' (or not?)
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 betwe...
Is having a good parent more important than having good genes?
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 o...
The folly of Value-at-Risk
The spread of the Value-At-Risk approach to risk management to banks, fund managers and insurance companies is creating financial risk.
Designing Mobile Phones
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,...
Is there a continuous self? Buddhism and its Indian opponents
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.
Attitudes to Ageing: Prevention
This event was a part of the Attitudes to Ageing lecture series.
A Conversation with Lord Goldsmith
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 h...
Thomas Hirst (1887): Ah, why was Newton ever born?
Thomas Hirst (1830-1892) recounts the period of mathematical history through which he lived.
Edmond Halley (1727): On the Shoulders of Giants
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...
Attitudes to Ageing: Housing
This event was a part of the Attitudes to Ageing lecture series.
1302 and All That: Papal Bulldozers through Seven Centuries
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 1...
Where have all the financial risks gone?
Banks have repackaged and sold on their risks - who has them now? Who will be the victims of the next financial crisis?
Just War: Ancient influence on Islam and on the Spanish Conquistadors
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 Ro...
The Concert of the Present
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 prem...
Attitudes to Ageing: Health
This event was a part of the Attitudes to Ageing lecture series.
Sexual conflict and the emergence of sexual equality and monogamy
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 conf...
Supreme Being or Beyond Being?
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 th...
The Concert of the Past
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...
Music or The Vocabulary of Music
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 s...
Designing Microwave Cookers
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 butt...
Four Colours Suffice?
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 o...
Maps, Maidens and Molecules
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, academi...
The Computer Science of Everyday Things
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 ...
HERA - Queen of the Electron Microscopes
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.
Hormones, sex and animal passion: making pleasure out of necessity?
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 re...
Neutrinos in the Snow
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.
The Particle Odyssey: Visions of the subatomic world
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.
'In All Things' or 'Beyond All Things'
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'?
Music of Today: Looking Under The Bonnet
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 s...
Bright Sparks of the Universe
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.
Designing gadgets
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 ...
When was the idea of human rights invented, and do we need it?
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?
Inside Story
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...
Antihydrogen - First Element of the Antiuniverse
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 ever...
Hooke as Speculative Philosopher
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'...
Hooke as Designer, Maker and User of Instruments
Dr Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.
Hooke as Employee
Michael Cooper, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Surveying, City University.
Why do we live in three dimensions - or do we?
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 scienc...
Computer Viruses
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; eq...
Governance and management in the not-for-profit sector
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 discha...
Could we destroy the Universe?
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 ...
Neutrinos - Ghost Particles of the Universe
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 t...
The Forces of Nature
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 m...
Euler
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...
Modern Crytography
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 a...
A Conversation with The Rt Hon Lord Justice Auld, Lord Justice of Appeal and Chairman of Criminal Courts Review
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...
Conventional Cryptography
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...
Technology, treasurers and financial markets in the 21st century
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...
Regulating human genetics
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 ...
From 'Self' and 'Other' to 'We'
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 t...
Newton
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...
Future Computers
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 s...
Business communications in the age of spin
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 th...
Euclid
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 cont...
A Conversation with David Pannick QC
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 o...
21st Century: Tuberculosis
Dr John Watson, Director of the Public Health Laboratory's TB Programme for the UK
The truth is in between
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 t...
Business relationships - do they count anymore?
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 shou...
19th Century: Cholera
Professor Bohumil Drassar, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Author of Cholera in the Wellcome History of Tropical Diseases.
A Conversation with The Rt Hon the Lord Woolf of Barnes, The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
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 challeng...
17th Century: Plague
Stephen Porter, Assistant Editor, Survey of London Section, English Heritage. Author of The Great Plague.
City and business ethics - declining or improving?
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 bu...
Thou shalt not kill - not even animals?
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 re...
Abdullah Ibrahim in conversation with Peter Conway
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.
Recent Law Reforms and IT
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?
The Heart of the Matter
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 ...
The Finance Director and the Treasurer
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 Ci...
Its Done with Mirrors
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 asym...
Financial Institutions, Regulation and Compliance
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 co...
The Non Executive Director
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 invol...
Governance: The Board
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...
A Giant Leap
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.
Governance and the City
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, th...
Banking Today
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 ...
Livery Companies: A Retrospective
Speaking as part of a series on 'City Institutions', George Webber looks back on the rich and colourful history of London's livery companies.
Thomas Gresham's Archbishop: Archbishop
The Reverend Professor Richard Chartres concludes his history of Archbishop Matthew Parker.The other lectures in this series are:Early Life and Education...
Thomas Gresham's Archbishop: Crisis
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.
Thomas Gresham's Archbishop: Early Life and Education
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 per...
Science and Theology: Traffic Across the Frontier
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.
Personal Responsibility and Health
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.
The Social Challenge of Medical Advance
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 on...
Health Perspectives for the Nineties
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 ahea...
Medical Advance: Its Global Challenge
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 facilitat...
Better Late Than Never: Late Development in Education
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 th...
The Community and Medical Advance
The human impact of any given medical advance must be fully integrated with relevant social conditions. How might this be achieved?
What is the role of the independent schools in British education?
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...
Healing and the Spirit: Medicine and the Church
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 collabora...
Healing and the Spirit: Holistic Biology
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?
Business, Ethics and the Law
This series of lectures included the following talks:Is it enough to be legal?7th March 1990Business and the Role of the Law14th March 1990...
Healing and the Spirit: Ancient Medicine
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.
Part Two: 'A British view of Pan-European Banking and Currency' and 'The Philosophy of Regulation'
Part One: 'A New Financial Europe', 'Challenges for the International Stock Exchange' and 'Using Security Markets for International Investments'
The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: Ravages of Fanaticism
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 Isl...
The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: Imperial Archaeology
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 ...
The Turin Shroud - An Update
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 ...
Who is responsible for bringing up our children: home or school?
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-curr...
The Place of Competitions in the Personal and Musical Development of Young People
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 'marketi...
How do we create good schools?
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, ...
London Churches under the First Elizabeth
Richard Chartres considers the most important religious figures and dilemmas to gain prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I.
The Religious Life of Sir Thomas Gresham
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 Decline of Socialism
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 an...
How should we organise the school system?
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?
Introduction to Catastrophe Theory and its Application to Physics and Sociology
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 ani...
What should we teach the children?
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 lectur...
The Armenians: Church and Culture
Professor Chartres offers an overview of the history and culture of the Armenian nation, including the genocide of 1915.
The Russian Millennium: The Morning After
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 apost...
Gyroscopes and Boomerangs
Professor Zeeman guides us through the geometry and the mechanics of spinning objects.
Do the British know what education is for?
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 ...
Does a high-tech building have to look like a carbuncle?
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 "ugl...
Where did the war-time dream go wrong?
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 ...
Gambling Fever: The Mirage of Sudden Riches
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...
Miracle Cures: Spas, Shrines and Spirits
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...
Money Mania: The South Sea Bubble
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. Wh...
God Speaks First to His Englishmen: The Armada of 1588
Was English success against the Spanish Armada an instance of divine 'deliverance'? Reverend Professor Richard Chartres examines the evidence.
Victorian Values: Lecture Three
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 o...
Victorian Values: Lecture Two
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 ...
1888: Jack the Ripper
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.
Victorian Values: Lecture One
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.
1848: The Chartists' Revolution in London
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 Victori...
1665: The Great Pestilence of London
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 'rumo...
Advances in Medicine and their Social Aspects
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?
Popular and Unpopular Science
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...
Recent Developments in the Legal Regulation of Deep Seabed Mining: Lecture Two
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.
Recent Developments in the Legal Regulation of Deep Seabed Mining: Lecture One
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 le...
The Religious Picture Today in the Soviet Union
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 ...
Forty Years of the Health Service
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?
Making Music Live in the Community
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 re...
Audience for Music in the Year 2000
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 i...
The Christian Church in the Soviet Period
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 Christia...
The Russian Orthodox Church Before the Revolution
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 th...
Laughter and Television
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 lau...
Stand-Up Comedy
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'...
The Radio Comedians
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.
Uranus' Eccentric Magnetic Field
Professor Hide explains what makes the planet's magnetic field so extraordinary.
Jupiter's Red Spot
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 import...
Pictorial Representation: The Twentieth Century
Professor Kilmister considers the impact of the advent of computers on graphical representation in mathematics.
Pictorial Representation: Nomography
Historically, how did people make calculations and solve equations without using a slide rule? Professor Kilmister considers in detail one possible method: the nomogram.
Pictorial Representation: The Slide Rule
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.
Alternative Medicine: Are Elizabethan Disciplines Relevant Today?
Professor Griffiths is joined by Dr Siân Griffiths and Robin Rusher, acupuncturist, to explore the links between Elizabethan medicine and contemporary alternative therapies.
Why Geometry?
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 ...
The Japanese Market and Services
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?
Science Today and Science Then
Professor Hide compares contemporary science with science as it was at the time of the foundation of Gresham College in 1597.
The Japanese Political System
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 C...
Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary?
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, ...
Japanese Management Practice in the UK
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 o...
The Rise and Fall of the Entrepreneur
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...
Adopting a 'Philosophical' Approach to Life
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 Go...