Gresham College Lectures

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...

How does everyday medical practice get interpreted in the courtroom? In cases of child protection, do everyday decisions made in a resource-limited NHS stand up to cross-examination? Does the duty of care in hospital also extend to collecting evidence, and are the obligations of the doctor looking after a child different to the obligations of the expert commenting on them in retrospect? How does t...

The evolution of our Sun from ordinary star into red giant is radically different from the evolution of much more massive stars towards their end-points: supernova explosions followed by black holes. This lecture will contrast the relevant nuclear physics and thermodynamics that determine these very different outcomes. A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE recorded on 18 January 2023 at David Game C...

Vaccination against disease has saved countless lives, yet it remains a controversial topic because of concerns some hold about safety and potential harms. Should we be legally required to vaccinate ourselves and our children? How important is individual choice when balanced against saving lives? To what extent should vaccination of children be a matter for parents or the state? This lecture consi...

Breast cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases for women, not only because it can be a serious medical condition resulting in painful therapies, but because it is regarded as an assault on a sufferer’s self-image and sexuality. Historically, women have responded to diagnoses of breast cancer in different ways. This lecture explores some of the shifting ideas about breast cancer, including the a...

Microbial chemistry makes bread rise and cheese mature, and turns grapes into wine. Microbes help make engine fuel, life-saving antibiotics and nano-particle sunscreens. Without fungi and bacteria, the world would sink under its own waste within days, since only these microbes have the ability to degrade complex polymers such as the lignin in plants. Might we be able to harness this amazing power...

Coronary heart disease caused by narrowing and blockage of the heart arteries causes angina, heart attacks and heart failure. It remains one of the commonest causes of mortality in the UK and globally. Public health interventions and improvements in treatment have steadily reduced deaths from coronary heart disease. This lecture will discuss the causes of coronary heart disease and advances in red...

What was religion like in Roman Britain? What pre-Roman deities persisted? Which new gods came with Romans? This lecture looks at the evidence: inscriptions, statues and figurines, carvings and all the impediments of ritual, as well as the testimony of hundreds of burials. It shows how the Romans developed the cults of native deities such as Sulis and Belatucadros, and imported their own official...

Fake news, influence operations, disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy theories are different flavours of falsehoods that have one thing in common: they put citizens in the front line of countering threats to democracies, national security, and community safety. This talk will explore governments’ and platforms’ efforts to counter falsehood, and what citizens can do to defend themselves, t...

Drawing on examples from the Israel-Palestine conflict, this lecture explores contrasting approaches, theories and practices for interpreting the relationship between religion and violence. It argues that understanding that religion can both incite violence and promote peace - is vital for building peace in the Middle East. It will explore the Myth of Redemptive Violence theory; the Mimetic Violen...

On the 5th of December 1952 London experienced a major pollution episode, the Great Smog, resulting in thousands of deaths throughout the city. On the 70th anniversary of this event, the lecturer will review how air pollution has changed in the intervening period, the evidence that it is still having profound effects on our health and the effectiveness of measures to ensure clean air and better pu...

What is the role of the judiciary in England and Wales, how did it develop, and how does it compare with other countries? This lecture will examine how judges are appointed, whose interests they serve, and who they are accountable to. It will examine the relationship between an independent judiciary and the rule of law, and what ideological assumptions underpin the judicial function in modern libe...

The name might sound forbiddingly technical, but the chord is immediately recognisable and it has played a hugely important role in tonal music. This is a chord of action and motion: it sounds unstable and incomplete, leading the listener to expect the particular triad that is its normal target. Without this chord, what we call Viennese classicism (Haydn-Mozart-Beethoven) would have been impossibl...

Invisible microbes have created some of the largest structures on the planet. Mycorrhizal fungi form extraordinary subterranean networks that associate symbiotically with plant roots. Most land plants, including many human crops, need mycorrhizae for optimal growth, but recent research has shown they also play important roles in forest-wide communication and may even turn some trees into carnivore...

The Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture This lecture highlights the experiences of Jewish refugees fleeing from antisemitic persecution and from World War II to Portugal. It describes how they were treated, how they attempted to escape Europe, and how they struggled in a “no-man’s land” between a painful past and an unknown future. Listening to their voices may help us to understand Jewish he...

Before net zero, climate policy was all about contraction and convergence of emissions between rich and poor to achieve, in the words of the Rio Convention, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” at a safe level. But scientists struggled to establish what that “safe” level was, making little progress in over a quarter of a century. And it was not because we were incompe...

When we buy, sell, bargain, barter, bid at auctions, and compete for resources, we want to be sure that we are using the best strategies. Game theory can help us understand precisely these kinds of situations. That’s why in 1994, the Nobel Prize for Economics was won by a mathematician – John Nash. Using games like the Prisoner’s dilemma, this lecture explains the work of game theorists such as Na...

Britain before 1914 was convulsed by the Irish Question. Since the Act of Union of 1800, Ireland had been governed without the consent of the vast majority of Irish Catholics, who comprised around 3/4 of the population. Home Rule was the suggested solution. But there was a second question, the Ulster Question arising from the presence of a large Protestant minority in the north east of Ireland, wh...

The crypto movement began as a reaction to the concentration of economic power in the traditional financial system (and associated financial crises). It involved the creation of a new type of financial recording system, that did not depend on any one individual keeping records, did not allow falsification, and prevented fraud and double spending. Crypto is underpinned by public-private key encrypt...

The levels of income in parts of China and India were similar to those in Europe in the middle ages, until the Mediterranean pulled ahead – followed by northern Europe, initially Holland and then Britain. This ‘great divergence’ was one of the fundamental shifts in history – and is only now being reversed.   Did the divergence arise from imperialism and a 'drain' of wealth from Asia, or...

Alexei Navalny is the leading opposition leader in Russia. He is also currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in a Russian correctional colony. This lecture will look at the use of the processes of the law by the Russian state to silence and isolate Navalny and to neutralise other forms of internal dissent. It will consider more widely the state of the rule of law in Russia since its invasion...

AI technology is already changing the face of the world as we know it. This lecture looks at the reasons why AI is hailed as an unprecedented revolution using practical examples from healthcare and business. Humans and machines will coexist and make joint decisions, but what does this mean for humanity? Learn what this gigantic shift, a 4th industrial revolution, entails and how you can harness th...