A century has passed since the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. After WWI the treaty imposed peace terms which have remained the subject of controversy ever since. It also attempted to set up a new international order to ensure that there would never again be such a destructive war as that of 1914-18. Professor MacMillan, a specialist in British imperial history and the international history of the 19th and 20th centuries, will consider if the treaty led to the outbreak of the Se...
Jun 04, 2019•43 min
In the 330s BCE, the great philosopher and scientist, Aristotle of Stagira in northern Greece, returned to Athens and founded his Lyceum. The first institution in world history to encompass teaching, research and the collection of a vast library, the Lyceum immediately began to revive even Plato's Academy in international reputation. This lecture looks at the archaeological site of the Lyceum, discovered accidentally in 1996, and asks how the remains can illuminate Aristotle's life, work, and in...
May 30, 2019•49 min
THE 2019 JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL LECTURE This talk looks at mathematical modelling of real, complex fluids in flow situations - some with serious commercial applications, and some just for fun. Focusing on the chocolate fountain, we experience one of the key day-to-day tools of an applied mathematician, scaling analysis, to answer the question: why doesn't the chocolate fall straight down? A lecture by Helen Wilson, Professor of Applied Mathematics University College London 29 M...
May 29, 2019•34 min
Computers are often parodied as machines that kill creativity. Yet modern works of creativity usually have a digital aspect, and many are wholly digital. We will look at technology that enables creativity (not always of a good kind) and the prospects for a machine to create works of art. We will examine computer- created artefacts and ask if we can tell if the creator was human or artificial. A lecture by Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology 28 May 2019 The trans...
May 28, 2019•53 min
The very young and very elderly are particularly susceptible to many infections and for many infections, age will predict how likely someone is to die once infected. The immediate and long-term effects of an infection changes throughout our life course. Some infections which if caught as a child are usually relatively trivial are likely to be much more severe in young adults including mumps and chickenpox. Other infections present in very different ways depending on the age of the sufferer; for ...
May 22, 2019•56 min
There is much in the universe we will never know, and it is equally certain that we will never know all that we do not know. This dilemma has not stopped cosmologists, philosophers and even theologians from exploring and going beyond the limits of space and time. A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 22 May 2019 The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/limits-of-knowled...
May 22, 2019•53 min
In recent years, multiple space missions have been launched. Many have set out across our galaxy to explore other systems and planets, capturing people's imaginations and helping us to understand more about the origins of the universe. But there are also a myriad of space missions and platform that are sending data back to earth that are telling us about how earth is changing. Today the earth is opening up its secrets as never before. A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade, Frank Jackson Foundation Pro...
May 21, 2019•40 min
Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace (1953) was an adaptation of Tolstoy's novel begun during WWII. He saw it as a personal interpretation of the novel, but as soon as it went forward for production, the Soviet authorities realised that this was the perfect opportunity for creating a rousing epic wartime drama. A succession of cultural officials left their imprint on the work, requiring Prokofiev to make hundreds of changes and write new scenes. The composer did not live to see a complete performanc...
May 21, 2019•1 hr
The origin of life is one of the biggest questions in science, but until recently it was, experimentally, a question in chemistry. Now, gene sequences and a better understanding of cell growth under extreme conditions are giving insights from biology. These point to hydro-thermal vent environments as 'incubators' that could drive growth in a similar way to cells at the origin of life. Professor Lane will discuss how these ideas are being tested in the lab. A lecture by Nick Lane, Professor of Ev...
May 20, 2019•47 min
Touch is central to the performance of medicine. Traditionally, doctors depended on touch to diagnose illness. Revolutions in imaging technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence seem to reduce the need for physical examination. Yet touch is not only about gathering information but is how we express compassion and care. This lecture considers how 'gnostic' touch (identifying disease) and 'pathic' touch (conveying care) are becoming separated by technological developments, and asks wh...
May 15, 2019•53 min
The word Romanticism makes us think of mountain tops and stormy seas, but the younger generation of English Romantics (above all, John Keats) were Londoners through and through. They were even mocked as 'the Cockney School of Poetry'. Jonathan Bate will track Keats to Hampstead and tell of the extraordinary circle of writers - opium-eater Thomas De Quincey, essayist Charles Lamb, master-critic William Hazlitt - who wrote for The London Magazine, until its gifted editor was killed in a duel with ...
May 14, 2019•50 min
Professor Wilks will discuss the argument that 'superintelligent' AI may turn against us, as Hawking and Bostrom have warned. It will be argued that these worries misrepresent the achievements and potential of AI, and that the ethical dilemmas of AI will be deeper and more challenging than just managing idleness due to automation, or how to blame an automated car in a crash. They will include how to treat the artificial Companions created to curate our own lifetimes of information. A lecture by ...
May 14, 2019•54 min
It's a tough time to be a listener. Our present-day cultures of listening are radically fragmented, as our time and attention are fractalised into bits of information. What's the future of listening? What will happen to the ways we give attention to music in the future? Our conclusion might be that an expanded definition of listening - an active, participative, engaged listening! - can save our digital and musical futures from the fates they seem to be facing. A lecture by Tom Service, Gresham P...
May 13, 2019•52 min
This series has argued that the origins of modern secularism lie in the age of the Renaissance. This last lecture will track that legacy down to the present. From Tom Paine through Bakunin to modern humanism and anti-Nazism, religion has not collapsed intellectually. Instead, religious impulses - defiance of unwelcome moral authority, the quest for ever-deeper truths, a readiness to judge churches by their own standards - have given our age a profoundly secular ethic with deeply religious roots....
May 09, 2019•52 min
'Go to the Exchange, crave gold as you intend.'' (William Haughton, Englishmen for My Money, 1598). Sir Thomas Gresham's first great contribution to the life of London was the Royal Exchange, the purpose-built merchants' bourse which opened in 1567. Why did Gresham finance and build it? What did Londoners (and others) do there? And what does the Exchange tell us about Gresham's ambitions both for himself and for London? A lecture by Professor Stephen Alford, University of Leeds 8 May 2019 The tr...
May 08, 2019•36 min
There is far more to piano accompaniment than meets the ear or eye. Vocal celebrities are reliant on an accompanist's skills in indisputably great music composed for an equal partnership of voice and piano, and yet the hard-working pianist's public profile seldom matches that of the singer. Skills developed over many years are often accorded faint praise and small fees. Graham Johnson examines a problematic profession that continues to attract many gifted young pianists to its ranks and asks why...
May 07, 2019•1 hr 4 min
What happens when doctors and parents cannot agree on whether a child should be given experimental medical treatment? Why is there any question mark over a parent's right to decide if medical treatment for their child continues? From the parents of Ashya King who successfully secured proton beam therapy for their son to the despair surrounding baby Charlie Gard and his life-limiting genetic disorder: how does the court make decisions that can potentially prolong life or bring about the death of ...
May 02, 2019•55 min
The newly discovered Salvator by Leonardo, the world's most costly picture, is one of his most notable creations, in which he used his 'science of art' to transform a stock subject into a profound expression of the ineffability of the divine. We will look at the remarkable story of its discovery, its conservation and scientific examination, the research into how it works as an image and its provenance. We will also look at the scandalous events of its ownership and how it came to be where it is ...
May 01, 2019•46 min
Pollution is a much more complex problem than many realise and cannot be resolved solely through global and regional agreements. Pollution is closely connected with behavioural and technology choices, production and consumption practices, industrial processes and pricing policies, financial and business sector orientation and a culture of consumerism and irresponsibility to the environment and impacts on people's health. Only by changing behaviours can we tackle pollution. A lecture by Jacquelin...
Apr 30, 2019•59 min
Much has happened in the 500 years since the birth of Thomas Gresham, and mathematics is no exception. Most mathematicians were then in awe of the Greeks and felt little had been done since. But the start of modern mathematics soon followed, marked by the solution of the cubic equation. Mathematics has grown explosively since then and we are now in an age of great discovery. The last 500 years of progress in maths will be reviewed, to see where it is going next and ask whether we are truly livin...
Apr 30, 2019•1 hr
Recent advances in medical science have brought complex ethical dilemmas, particularly around the beginning of human lives (abortion, embryo research, IVF, gene therapy, stem cells) and its ending (switching off ventilators, persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 'dying with dignity' or assisted suicide). Although none of these topics occurs directly in the New Testament, references to 'life' abound, and healing was the centre of Jesus' earthly ministry. Can our approach enable the Biblical mater...
Apr 25, 2019•55 min
Since the financial crisis, there has been a strong view that the financial sector has little benefit for society. The stock market is not a net supplier of capital - as much money is spent on share buybacks as is raised from new issuance. Moreover, most stock market trading is speculative side-bets between investors, with no new money being raised by firms. This talk will show that stock market trading may contribute to society even if does not lead to firms raising new capital. A lecture by Al...
Apr 24, 2019•53 min
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
