The impacts of climate change that probably worry people the most are irreversible changes that affect the entire world, such as a collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet, shutdown of the global thermohaline circulation, loss of the Amazon biome, or a melting of Arctic permafrost. Sudden, unpredictable and irreversible changes can happen in response to a gradual warming. What is known about these risks at 1.5°C, 2°C and higher levels of warming? This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 5th M...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr
We regularly hear of amazing coincidences – people winning the lottery twice, or getting a phone call from a long-lost friend just when you were thinking about them. Is this telepathy? Is there a greater power at work when someone survives seven lightning strikes? There can be terrible consequences from the misunderstanding of coincidence. This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 5th March 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available ...
Mar 25, 2024•58 min
Today, the UK is a deeply unequal society. This lecture critically evaluates the relationship between English law and capitalism and explores how legal changes over the past 30 years, such as deregulating the housing market and weakening trade unions, have widened wealth inequality. The lecture examines the role of lawyers in addressing these issues. This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 29th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London The transcript and downloadable versions of the l...
Mar 22, 2024•2 hr 2 min
Our understanding of autism has changed over the last forty years. Historically, autism was diagnosed based on narrow criteria. Today, while still defined by social and communication difficulties, rigid interests and repetitive behaviours, the autism spectrum is far wider, and the historical under-diagnosis of women and girls is being addressed. ‘Autisms’ are more often discussed as neurodivergence rather than a single ‘disorder’ to be treated. This lecture explores how our understanding of auti...
Mar 21, 2024•2 hr 7 min
We often change our minds after we decide to do something. In finance and business though, if you think you might like to change your mind you will have to pay your counterparty so that your right to change your mind is agreed in advance. But how much is the right to change your mind worth? Option pricing is the art of determining the value of this right. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 26th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London The transcript and downloadable versions of t...
Mar 18, 2024•2 hr 7 min
A musical scale – a hierarchical collection of pitches spread over multiple octaves – is a fundamental building block in the creation of melodies and harmonies in a wide range of musical practices. But where do these scales come from? Are they invented or discovered? This lecture looks at the history, theory and artistry of scale construction in a wide range of styles, and how each scale can, through ‘rotation’, form a colourfully expressive palette of modal colours. This lecture was recorded by...
Mar 13, 2024•2 hr 6 min
Major geophysical events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes can occur with little or no warning and have catastrophic effects. This lecture will consider the health impacts of these natural disasters and how best to minimise them. Trauma often dominates the first days after the initial event but predicting the medium-term effects such as infectious diseases can head off predictable secondary health disasters over the medium and long term. This lecture was recorded by Sir Chris Whitty on...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr
Immunotherapy has brought new hope for curing common cancers that have spread (metastatic) – once regarded as impossible. Over the last 10 years, immune checkpoint inhibitors – drugs that allow the immune system to identify and destroy previously unrecognised cancer cells – have been successfully used to treat melanoma, kidney cancer and lung cancer, among others. Clinicians are looking at whether vaccines, oncolytic viruses and cellular therapies could cure cancer. This lecture explores the sci...
Mar 08, 2024•2 hr 3 min
Why have people believed in dragons, and what were they actually? Is there a difference between Western and Eastern dragons, in a global perspective, and if so, why? Has the Western attitude to dragons changed in the modern era? Did Christianity give rise to a different idea of what a dragon should be? These are the questions that this lecture sets out to answer. This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 14th February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London The transcript and downloadable version...
Mar 06, 2024•58 min
There have been two major revolutions in how we look at the sky - the shift beyond the optical to other wavelengths, particularly the radio, and the increasing attention paid to how objects change over time. We start with the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, explore how a microwave oven bamboozled astronomers, and discuss the latest research on Fast Radio Bursts, mysterious events detected in galaxies billions of light-years away. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 21st F...
Mar 04, 2024•2 hr 3 min
The relationship between intimacy and technology is dynamic and transformative. Adult entertainment providers were early adopters of the Internet and directly influenced its development. Meanwhile, digital communication has changed our consumption of pornography, how we date, and how we seek pleasure. There is increasing concern that Internet-mediated sex is having a negative impact on humans. What’s the evidence for that? And what does the future hold? This lecture was recorded by Dr Victoria B...
Feb 29, 2024•2 hr 3 min
Difficulties with reading and writing have wide-ranging effects beyond academic achievement, including on career opportunities and personal well-being. However, the concept of dyslexia continues to be debated: is the term useful? How does it relate to spoken language? This lecture describes what is known of the causes and consequences of reading difficulties and how they relate to other common conditions that affect learning. It will look at the importance of early intervention and how best to s...
Feb 27, 2024•2 hr 1 min
The species we recognise as our own - anatomically modern humans - has existed for only 300,000 years, a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. And yet during that time our species has been shaped by strong evolutionary forces, often unwittingly as an indirect result of human activities. In this lecture, we’ll find out how disease outbreaks, the rise of civilisation and even the invention of agriculture have left their traces in our DNA. This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 7th February 202...
Feb 26, 2024•2 hr
Why have economies in east Asia been more successful in escaping from under-development and achieving high levels of growth? Japan’s experience of avoiding colonisation and creating a modern economy offered a model to other countries, some of whom had themselves been colonised by Japan – above all, South Korea. How did Japan and Korea create a successful model of export-led growth with a close connection between the state and business that was criticised by the IMF as ‘crony capitalism’? This le...
Feb 21, 2024•2 hr 6 min
Humanitarian agencies are increasingly relying on satellite imagery and testimonies from social media to understand and communicate why people feel compelled to seek refuge. This lecture will explore digital humanitarianism and the visual politics of refugeehood. It will discuss how such practices allow us to see the places where violence takes place but often also serve to simplify complex situations. It will focus on undocumented migration from Pakistan towards Europe. This lecture was recorde...
Feb 19, 2024•53 min
Historically lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have been persecuted under English law. Homophobic and transphobic laws were exported from England to the Commonwealth Caribbean, and these colonial laws have had a long-term impact on Caribbean societies. This lecture will make the case for the robust constitutional protection of LGBT rights. This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 1st February 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London The transcript and downloadable versions o...
Feb 16, 2024•2 hr 12 min
Many puzzles have a long history, such as water pouring puzzles, where you need to measure (for example) one pint of water equipped only with an eight-pint and a five-pint jug. The mathematics behind the solution has many useful applications. Meanwhile, paradoxes such as: “some men shave themselves; those that do not shave themselves are shaved by the barber: who shaves the barber?” lead us to deep questions about set theory. We will discuss several examples and the related mathematics. This lec...
Feb 12, 2024•58 min
How do cartoons and visual satire operate? This lecture will look at when humans first created art and at the dawn of satire. Examining the work of Swift, Hogarth, Gillray, David Low and Ronald Searle, this lecture by celebrated cartoonist Martin Rowson will also examine the role cartoons play in giving offence. Covering the Danish Cartoons scandal and the Charlie Hebdo massacre, this talk will also look at Martin Rowson's own cartoon output over the past 40 years. This lecture was recorded by M...
Feb 12, 2024•2 hr 17 min
Knowing what the investors demand enables the firm to plan its financing. What type of instrument should it use? Should it issue debt or equity? This lecture will introduce the concept of Capital Structure Theory which tells the manager how to reduce capital cost by a correctly chosen mixture of debt and equity. The composition of the mixture depends on how much tax the firm pays and how it can use its financing to reduce those taxes. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 22nd January ...
Feb 06, 2024•2 hr 3 min
In 2017, the Solar System was visited by an object named ' Oumuamua, which came from another star. The unusual properties of this first interstellar visitor led some to suggest it may be an alien spacecraft - but the truth is that its oddness is already teaching us lessons about how solar systems form. This lecture also considers the prospects of discovering more unusual objects in the Solar System, and what we might do about asteroids that threaten the Earth. This lecture was recorded by Chris ...
Feb 05, 2024•59 min
Using lung cancer as a case study, this lecture will explore the transformative impact of genomics on personalised cancer treatment. What are the challenges of implementing tumour sequencing in routine care, its effect on drug development, and how can we maximise clinical benefit? How is the new technology of circulating tumour DNA analysis (liquid biopsy) used by healthcare systems? What is the potential future impact of using DNA analysis to screen for cancers early? This lecture was recorded ...
Feb 01, 2024•2 hr 12 min
This lecture presents the rich history of musicians’ engagement with pitch. From the tuning systems of Babylon, Pythagoras and Hindustani ragas, through the temperaments of the Baroque and Classical eras and arriving at contemporary electronic, blues, jazz and global practices, we explore how musicians have organised, sliced and manipulated the pitch continuum for expressive effect. In so doing, we reveal the mechanics that determine the 12 notes of the piano keyboard and the beautiful spectrum ...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr
In the poetry of the Athenian lawgiver Solon, justice (dikē) was a boundary stone marking out terms that rich and poor alike could respect. Yet ancient Greek authors also recognised the danger that the powerful will simply exploit those less powerful, and that Greek societies enforced slavery. This lecture explores ancient Greek aspirations to justice - and how they fell short - as a call for recurrent interrogation of the terms governing power and vulnerability. This lecture was recorded by Mel...
Jan 26, 2024•2 hr 6 min
Climate change is already affecting us all, regardless of where we live, through changing risks of extreme weather events. This lecture will take a break from global climate policy to talk about the links between climate and weather, chaos theory and the practical tools available to quantify changing risks. There is a lot we still don’t know – and a lot we could know, if only governments and the insurance industry were willing to pay for better climate risk information. This lecture was recorded...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr
We are the only human species on the planet today. But for most of our history we have not been alone. Fossil and genetic evidence has revealed a diverse and fascinating set of human-like species, from Neanderthals to Denisovans, to Homo Floresiensis (The Hobbit) and more. We’ll meet many of them in this lecture, investigate why they died out and reveal why some of them are much closer relatives than you might think. This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 10th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Ha...
Jan 15, 2024•59 min
AI will be one of the most disruptive technologies, enabling safer, faster and more accurate healthcare. It will unlock smarter cancer imaging and new insights from medical scans that were indiscernible to the human eye. This lecture will demystify the AI technological revolution and explore “why now?” and how to ensure AI is deployed safely and meaningfully. It will discuss how AI deployed in radiology can empower healthcare professionals to provide compassionate and precision care for patients...
Jan 11, 2024•2 hr
Today, objects in smart cities, outer space, and medical implants in our bodies are connected to the internet. When streetlamps can ‘talk’, when autonomous vehicles safely navigate, and energy and public services can be automatically routed when and where they are needed, we will reap the rewards of a Massive Internet of Things (MIoT). How might we maximise the benefits while ensuring our data is protected and our networks are stable and secure? This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 5t...
Dec 23, 2023•2 hr 4 min
This lecture investigates how and why the song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ has become so popular, transcending its roots in the MGM musical Meet Me in St Louis to become a presence in the canon of secular popular Christmas songs. Live and recorded examples from artists including Judy Garland and Sam Smith will explain both how this remarkable song works and the process by which it became so popular. What gives this song its prayer-like quality? Professor Broomfield-McHugh will be jo...
Dec 14, 2023•57 min
The forever chemicals, or PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) represent a large family of highly persistent synthetic chemicals widely used in everything from carpets to non-stick cookware, to firefighting foams and furniture textiles. They are highly persistent in nature and have been found in the blood and breast milk of people and wildlife globally. They are linked to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. How can we reduce ou...
Dec 12, 2023•2 hr 9 min
Nuclear, radiological and chemical incidents have the potential to cause major harm. The risk of nuclear and radiological events causing health effects can usually be significantly reduced by relatively simple measures, which are based on the properties of the chemicals released, especially at a distance from the incident. Chemicals that can cause harm, such as organophosphate and mustard chemicals, need to be understood to mitigate the risks and establish medical countermeasures. This lecture w...
Dec 08, 2023•55 min
