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 to predict from first principles are the consequences of the combinations of these laws acting in concert together, and the richness of the exotic phenomena that we can observe to evolve in the night sky. This talk will examine why laws are simple and how the combination of simple laws can lead to rich complexity. A lecture by Katherine Blundell 4 ...
Mar 04, 2020•56 min
Is gender equality a key factor in tackling climate change? Many think so, and in this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will explain why in relation to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 is to 'achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls'. When women are empowered and educated the evidence shows that they have more control over their lives and dedicate more resources to health and education than men. But does gender also influence the way that environmental issues are ...
Mar 03, 2020•45 min
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, exerted substantial political influence, and profited financially from imperial trade and exploitation. To illustrate these themes, this lecture examines an oil painting by William Hogarth illustrating a children's performance of John Dryden's play The Indian Emperour, a dramatized version of the tussle for power between Hernando Cortez and Montezuma. ...
Feb 26, 2020•54 min
'St Thomas has adorned…London by his rising and Canterbury by his setting'. This lecture will explore how the influence of Thomas Becket permeated city life in medieval London until Henry VIII ordered the destruction of his shrine and the removal of his name from all liturgical books. It will include consideration of the first stone bridge over the Thames made possible by offerings in the chapel dedicated to him; the hospital in Southwark; and the Becket family home in Cheapside (later the hall ...
Feb 25, 2020•54 min
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 and bring about revolution. Had they succeeded they would have achieved modern Britain's first terrorist atrocity. They were, however, moved by hunger and by democratic and secular principles, so are comparisons with today's terrorists appropriate? The lecture discusses their identities, motives and impact, and the forgotten fact that their failure ...
Feb 20, 2020•48 min
Scientific knowledge is advancing at dizzying speed and each day brings new breakthroughs in medical understanding. Unprecedented advances are opening possibilities that only a decade ago would have seemed like science fiction. Yet a deep anxiety pervades our society, raising questions about the wisdom and motives of experts and the implications of new technology. This lecture uses examples from cutting-edge science and medicine to explore the ethical questions which advances in robotics, person...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr
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 suited him. Once ugliness had been established as a legitimate option, he was happy to bring back beauty on many occasions alongside the new neoclassical music that he had begun to promote. Stravinsky and Balanchine's Apollo was one such ballet, which also managed to give Greek antiquity the new solemnity, stripped of the exoticism of earlier "Greek" b...
Feb 18, 2020•1 hr 3 min
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 the physiology of the clitoris has become understood. What can debates about these two organs tell us about scientific knowledge and gender identities? How have ideas about the "ideal penis" changed since the eighteenth century? What effect have these shifts had on the way men and women know their bodies? A lecture by Joanna Bourke 13 February The tr...
Feb 13, 2020•45 min
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 having much less effective treatment. Both treatment and prevention are currently improving, slowly. Mesothelioma, a lung-associated cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, is now the commonest occupational cancer. While treatment for these cancers is still at an early stage, they are largely preventable through public health measures. A lecture by Chri...
Feb 12, 2020•50 min
In 2013 Sir Michael Barber declared that "An Avalanche is Coming" and that universities would be swept away by new digital technologies. Six years later nothing seems to have happened, yet there has been change. In this lecture we will review what is commonly called e-learning, including MOOCs, SPOOCs, flipping and DIYU, and see if there are any themes which emerge from the buzzword bingo that is digital learning. Some of it is fascinating, some of it has deep implications for privacy and some o...
Feb 11, 2020•58 min
Mathematics is often thought of as being a dry and logical subject, and its conclusions free from the vagaries of fashion and misconception. However this is far from the truth. Mathematical misunderstandings, or perhaps a misunderstanding of mathematical ideas and conclusions, can permeate the public consciousness, and once there survive for a long time. This lecture looks at the mythology that has gathered around the Golden Ratio, and also consider the fairness of cake-cutting, and changing cho...
Feb 11, 2020•56 min
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 designed to order. It also looks at the early twentieth-century 'Station for Experimental Evolution' in New York, and at the utopian vision of Charlotte Gilman Perkins' Herland (1915), a novel describing a lost world populated by women that took the form of a perfect garden, whose wonderful plants and lack of men were both explained by de Vries' th...
Feb 10, 2020•47 min
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 pieces that are famously incomplete. This lecture examines the fascination surrounding works that are left unfinished at their composers' deaths. It also looks at the urge that certain of us have to complete these uncompleted works, however unwisely and however unbidden. 'Don't let anyone tinker with it', said Elgar; but several have anyway, and with thought-provoking resul...
Feb 06, 2020•49 min
Europe's Wars of Religion were fought against entire populations, and were punctuated by events remembered as atrocities: such as the siege of Leiden in 1573-4 or, most notoriously, the St Bartholomew's Day Massacres in France in 1572. This lecture will ask how these events came to be so notorious, how and why they were remembered on each side, and how they shaped the history of civil conflict and ideas of coexistence and nationhood in the societies that endured them. A lecture by Alec Ryrie 5 F...
Feb 05, 2020•51 min
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 our universe and our place in it. But as it approaches retirement, its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope is under construction. The speaker is a space scientist who has worked on the Webb's instruments; she will take the audience on a tour of both systems, showing how they can give us an understanding of the life cycle of our universe ri...
Feb 04, 2020•46 min
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 after 1980 £100bn worth of council housing was sold off. How did this expansion come about, what changed - and what lasting effects did the rise and fall of council housing have on our politics, society and economy? Is it now time to reconsider our attitude to public housing? A lecture by Steve Schifferes 3 February The transcript and downloadable ...
Feb 03, 2020•55 min
Albert Einstein's mind-boggling ideas revolutionized our view of the universe. From relativity to curved spacetime, from the Big Bang to black holes and gravitational waves, nothing could be further from our everyday experience than such esoteric concepts, right? Wrong! This lecture will offer a surprising exploration of the wide-ranging consequences of Einstein's ideas, and how they shape our everyday lives. A lecture by Roberto Trotta 3 February The transcript and downloadable versions of the ...
Feb 03, 2020•44 min
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 Witness parent refuses a life-saving blood transfer to their child? Where does religious devotion end and unsafe thought begin? What about cultural and spiritual beliefs that clash with UK 'norms'? Has the law has kept up with the changing society it regulates? A lecture by Jo Delahunty 30 January The transcript and downloadable versions of the lectu...
Jan 30, 2020•57 min
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 explained by Isaac Newton). But we now understand that, depending on the history and the energy of the orbiting system, other geometric shapes are possible and indeed frequently observed. This talk will explore how simple changes to the circumstances can make dramatic differences to the shapes of the orbits, all of which belong to a special family of sha...
Jan 29, 2020•49 min
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 native-born (white Protestants) and foreign-born (Catholics and Jews), between religion and science, between homogeneity and cosmopolitanism, and, of course, between 'drys' and 'wets'. The lecture will show how Prohibition animated combatants on both sides, generating two Americas that were barely comprehensible to each other, and how the truce dec...
Jan 28, 2020•40 min
Stories about islands punctuate the careers of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, from Powell's breakthrough with Edge of the World (1936) to the Hebridean journey of I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), and the final act of their Tales of Hoffmann (1951). What can we learn about the imagination of these very different figures by tracing this motif ? This lecture draws on archival sources to show that these films are as rich and complex as art in any medium. A lecture by Ian Christie 27 January T...
Jan 27, 2020•56 min
This lecture-recital will explore the life of Clara Schumann (1819-1896) through her music and surroundings, her achievements and influencers. Deservedly revered by all who knew her, she was a pioneer of female composition, who overcame societal norms to rise to fame as one of the most sought after and celebrated pianists and composers of her generation. A lecture by Fionnuala Moynihan 23 January The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College websi...
Jan 23, 2020•57 min
Surveys about people's fears commonly feature public speaking at the very top of the list. Many people believe that public speaking is either something you are born with or without. This talk will provide practical tips that everyone can employ, regardless of their experience, to improve their public speaking. It will highlight what is unique about public speaking compared to other forms of communication, and explain how to tailor your approach to both the audience and the format (e.g. large aud...
Jan 22, 2020•51 min
The Rite of Spring was the startling result of a collaboration between Stravinsky, Nijinsky (choreography) and Roerich (sets and costumes). In the immediate aftermath, it seemed to be a fiasco because of its riotous reception, but it proved to be the successful introduction of a new modernist aesthetic that cultivated ugliness and machine-like movements. We will trace the musical, visual and choreographical consequences of this new trend through several later Diaghilev ballets: Parade (Satie/Pic...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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 knows what it means, nor how we would know they were conscious if they were. This lecture explores what its role might be, and the ways in which AI scientists have explored and tried to simulate the possibility of consciousness in machines, while asking whether it would add anything useful if they had it. A lecture by Yorick Wilks 21 January The transcript and...
Jan 21, 2020•45 min
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-industrialising world around him, and the turbulent political times he lived through. When George was young, opposition politicians worried about the 'secret influence' the monarch could wield. By the time he died the limited power of the monarch was confirmed. But did the shift have anything to do with him at all? A lecture by Stella Tillyard 20 January The t...
Jan 20, 2020•48 min
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 explores notions of beauty, sexual pleasure, and age. Early maturation of girls, coupled with a greater focus on the breasts of older women, have had major effects on cultural expectations and experiences. The lecture also asks: what happens when we turn attention to the male breast? A lecture by Joanna Bourke 16 January The transcript and downloadabl...
Jan 16, 2020•43 min
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 cancer, is rare, but occurs early in life. Neither are preventable. There has been a steady improvement in treatment for prostate cancer, and we can now safely avoid treating many men with them at all. The outlook for testicular cancer if caught early is now very good. A lecture by Chris Whitty 15 January The transcript and downloadable versions of...
Jan 15, 2020•53 min
How can we end our intense consumer addiction and change our habits and values to be more sustainable? In this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will look at patterns of consumption and the concepts of sufficiency in communities across the world, linking them not only to poverty and wealth but also to ecosystem health. She will look at how we can achieve UN sustainable development goal 12, to 'ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns'. https://www.un.org/sustainabled...
Jan 14, 2020•50 min
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 to do business but also has a rich and vibrant cultural offer making it a great place to live, learn, work and visit. It is home to a year round programme in the Square Mile led by the City of London Corporation's Cultural & Visitor Services. Culture Mile, which stretches from Farringdon to Moorgate, is led by the City Corporation in partnership wi...
Jan 09, 2020•1 hr 2 min
