Gresham College Lectures

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...

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 Ronal...

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 det...

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. Wha...

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 con...

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 agric...

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 con...

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 situat...

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 Tho...

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 dee...

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 al...

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 us...

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...

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 p...

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, w...

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 recu...

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 i...

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 t...

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 rad...

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...

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 bec...

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...

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 chemical...

This lecture delves into the history of abortion in English law, from common law to the Abortion Act 1967. Professor Thomas KC critically examines the current state of abortion law in England, the Commonwealth Caribbean, and recent developments in the US. Is there a case for further liberalisation of abortion law? This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 30 November 2023 at Barnard's...

Could artificial intelligence be used to tackle online harms to children? What are the specific “solutions” AI could offer – for example, age verification, preventing the sending of intimate images, and stopping the promotion of harmful content - and what would applying these look like in practice? What ethical dilemmas and rights challenges does this raise? What do policymakers need to understand...