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 ...
Apr 17, 2019•54 min
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 Pro...
Apr 16, 2019•52 min
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, wate...
Apr 10, 2019•59 min
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 education...
Apr 09, 2019•51 min
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...
Apr 09, 2019•57 min
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 Gresh...
Apr 08, 2019•36 min
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 o...
Apr 04, 2019•56 min
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: http...
Apr 03, 2019•54 min
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 nat...
Apr 02, 2019•43 min
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 insid...
Mar 27, 2019•58 min
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 oper...
Mar 26, 2019•58 min
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 ...
Mar 25, 2019•55 min
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 trans...
Mar 21, 2019•48 min
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 ...
Mar 20, 2019•58 min
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 b...
Mar 19, 2019•52 min
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, Gre...
Mar 14, 2019•48 min
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 g...
Mar 13, 2019•53 min
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 forwa...
Mar 12, 2019•59 min
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 C...
Mar 11, 2019•38 min
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 ...
Mar 07, 2019•50 min
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 oratio...
Mar 07, 2019•47 min
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 indust...
Mar 06, 2019•50 min
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 T...
Mar 06, 2019•55 min
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 yiel...
Mar 05, 2019•50 min
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 sexuali...
Feb 28, 2019•56 min
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 ...
Feb 27, 2019•55 min
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...
Feb 26, 2019•53 min
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-event...
Feb 25, 2019•52 min
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 vulnerabil...
Feb 20, 2019•51 min
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...
Feb 19, 2019•50 min
