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)....
Oct 10, 2018•53 min
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 natio...
Oct 09, 2018•55 min
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 t...
Oct 09, 2018•57 min
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 ro...
Oct 08, 2018•46 min
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 ...
Oct 04, 2018•56 min
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...
Oct 03, 2018•55 min
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 avai...
Oct 03, 2018•56 min
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 l...
Sep 27, 2018•52 min
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 M...
Sep 25, 2018•45 min
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 availa...
Sep 24, 2018•1 hr 1 min
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. T...
Sep 19, 2018•54 min
"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...
Sep 18, 2018•49 min
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 Britai...
Jun 21, 2018•36 min
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 le...
Jun 19, 2018•53 min
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 prosperit...
Jun 14, 2018•58 min
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 questi...
Jun 13, 2018•49 min
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...
Jun 12, 2018•46 min
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 o...
Jun 11, 2018•51 min
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:...
Jun 07, 2018•52 min
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 nationalis...
Jun 06, 2018•42 min
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 dispe...
May 31, 2018•1 hr
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 ...
May 30, 2018•53 min
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 availa...
May 29, 2018•52 min
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:/...
May 29, 2018•57 min
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 watc...
May 24, 2018•58 min
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 Col...
May 23, 2018•55 min
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 c...
May 23, 2018•45 min
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 lectur...
May 22, 2018•54 min
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 serie...
May 16, 2018•48 min
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 fi...
May 15, 2018•56 min
