Gresham College Lectures

We used to think Roman Britain was a largely untamed natural landscape of woodland with occasional opulent villas representing the houses of an alien elite, set side by side with scattered peasant settlements. Archaeological work since the 1940s has radically altered this understanding through a combination of large-scale excavation and a revolution in remote sensing techniques, revealing a more v...

What is the adversarial tradition in English criminal and civil procedure, and how does it compare with the inquisitorial systems found in some civil law jurisdictions? What are the strengths and weaknesses of adversarial and inquisitorial jurisdictions?  Does our adversarial system truly deliver equality of arms between the powerful and the powerless? Have modern fair trial standards, such as tho...

What happens to carbon dioxide after we emit it? Half is absorbed within a year or two by plants and the oceans, the rest, in effect, stays in the atmosphere. So, does that mean we have to halve emissions to stop concentrations rising? Unfortunately, no. Despite the vast reserves of carbon dissolved in the oceans, carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels does not get diluted away, but makes...

The Norse and Danish invaders - commonly called Vikings - who occupied Britain in the ninth and tenth centuries, brought with them their own pagan gods. Odin, Thor, Tyr, Loki and Freya left their trace on the British landscape, in the form of scenes from their mythology carved on stone slabs, and Viking paganism has a further considerable legacy of material evidence in richly furnished graves, esp...

Christopher Wren, who died 300 years ago this year, is famed as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. But he was also Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and one of the founders of a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning” which became the Royal Society. This lecture explores some of Wren’s mathematical work on curves including spirals and ellipses and the mathematic...

Scores of painters and photographers over the last seventy years have grappled with the formal portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II from life. These range from the celluloid fantasies of Cecil Beaton to the directness of Lucian Freud; the Renaissance-inspired divinity of Pietro Annigoni to the naturalism of Annie Leibovitz. Underlying all her official portrayals is an artistic conflict: the requirement...

Until the 1970s, historical fiction was a scorned genre that belonged to Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy. Over recent decades, literary fiction has turned back to History, from Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy to Helen Dunmore, Francis Spufford and Eleanor Catton. In the nineteenth century the historical novel had been more respected, with examples (sometimes impressive, sometimes absurd) f...

Big data has really taken off over the past decade because of the presence of ubiquitous sensor technology everywhere. For example, we are all constantly monitored by our phones, smart doorbells, heating systems, televisions, watches and jewellery. These devices generate a constant flow of information about us. But this data is pretty much meaningless without context. This lecture talks about how...

Our bodies depend on our hearts maintaining a steady beat, and increasing it appropriately in response to exercise. If the heart goes too fast, or too slowly, we have effects ranging from tiredness to unexpectedly passing out to death. This lecture will consider the normal heartbeat, the causes of the heart going too fast or slowly and how it is treated when it does. A lecture by Sir Chris Whitty...

Our contemporary ideas about Stonehenge and British antiquity were shaped in times of empire and war. They dominate popular histories and inform national identity. Focusing on how Stonehenge was built, and drawing on a wealth of evidence which includes new archaeology and science, this lecture describes an alternative narrative of ancient communities, and presents a more positive and inclusive sto...

Sir Christopher Wren was one of the most remarkable Gresham Professors of Astronomy. Though best known today as the architectural mastermind behind the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, Wren’s appointment to the Gresham chair in 1657 stemmed from his enthusiasm for turning his gaze well above London’s skyline and focussing his attention on the heavens above. This lecture will consider Wre...

This lecture will examine the images of power and empire projected by Queen Victoria over the course of her reign. Beginning with her coronation, it surveys her depictions as a young queen. It looks at the transformation of her image after Albert’s death from devoted wife to grief-stricken widow. It examines portrayals of Victoria as grandmother of Europe and as Empress of India, and it concludes...

In this lecture, we will delve into the history of opera because that is where the diminished seventh-chord gradually accumulated its expressive power as a chord for dramatic climaxes, demonic intrusions and generally for shock and horror of any kind. The augmented triad came to be used for the mysterious and supernatural. The symmetrical structure of these two chords allowed composers to veer off...

End-to-end encryption secures messages before they leave a device, preventing them from being read in transit. Increasingly the default protocol for messaging apps, neither governments nor the platforms on which it operates can access unscrambled communications and message content. Some governments have demanded ‘back doors’ for criminal investigations, while others have exploited workarounds to a...

Numeracy skills, good financial education and financial inclusion are essential ingredients for a thriving, fair economy. The cost-of-living crisis exposes how we need to go further and faster to ensure people have the skills they need to manage their money and improve their prospects in life, and can access useful, affordable financial services. This event and panel discussion brings together spe...

Microbes hold astonishing speed records: the remarkable Thiovulum majus races along at 60 body lengths per second – the equivalent of Usain Bolt completing the 100m sprint in just over 0.8 seconds. Viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 replicate so rapidly that a single infection can produce 100 bn virus particles within a couple of days. And some bacteria lie dormant for millions of years. This lecture look...

During debates over the abolition of slavery, supporters of the system claimed that it was vital to the British economy and that abolition would be disastrous. The abolitionists argued that slavery was immoral and that the economy would prosper in its absence. Just how important was slavery to British economic success? This question continues to resonate in modern debates over the historic role of...

There is a rising number of people of all ages with mental health illnesses globally, that has been accompanied by a greater willingness to talk about it in many places. What are the most common disorders and the best treatment options, including non-medical treatment and lifestyle modifications? The lecture will conclude by looking at global mental health myths, for example in several cultures in...

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the distinction between solicitors and barristers? What is the purpose of the independent Bar in our legal system today? How does England and Wales compare with common law jurisdictions which have abandoned, or have never had, a split profession? Is the Bar’s history as a bastion of privilege, its various historical monopolies and prerogatives, and its cult...

When the Western Roman Empire crumbled, the Anglo-Saxon peoples who occupied Britain brought their own paganism with them. This was Germanic, with a pantheon of deities that included Woden, Thunor, Tiw and Frig. Its temples were wooden structures that leave scant traces in the landscape, but you can find evidence for their beliefs in cemeteries like Sutton Hoo. This lecture looks at such evidence...

Composers of tonal music, from the 17th century through to the latest jazz tune or film score, think mainly in terms of how their chords succeed each other, rather than taking chords in isolation. We will investigate the most important succession of chords in Western music, the cadence. Cadences are a kind of punctuation, dividing music into sentences or periods. They are also responsible for crea...

Why is the deep ocean cold? And why does this matter for global warming? Doing the maths with pipes and plumbing, not computers, we explore how processes that keep the deep oceans at frigid Arctic temperatures also determine how fast the world is warming in response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations – and also explain why it would be so difficult to say when the warming would stop even if we...

The field of probability started when a French nobleman asked the mathematician Blaise Pascal to solve a dispute for him about a game consisting of throwing a pair of dice 24 times. Pascal discussed this and other problems with fellow mathematician Pierre de Fermat, in a series of letters in which they arrived at the basic principles of probability theory. This lecture looks at dice, cards, lotter...

Louis XIV saw himself as a patron of the arts, as well as an absolute monarch and warlord. He talked to his favourite artists and writers, including Bernini, Racine, Andre Lenotre the gardener and Charles Lebrun the painter, almost as equals, and made Versailles an arts and entertainment centre rivalling Rome. Versailles’s influence, like the French language, spread across Europe. In his range and...

How is the decentralised finance world organised? This lecture discusses how cryptographic technology is applied in business. It discusses blockchains and their uses. It explains how smart contracts, open code that automatically executes contracts once certain conditions are fulfilled, are used. It will also look at non-fungible tokens, a type of cryptographic asset on a blockchain with a unique i...