Gresham College Lectures

THE 2018 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE As a commemoration of the end of the First World War, the event will focus on the theme of mathematics in war and peacetime. The main speaker, Professor David Aubin will speak on Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I (6 pm), preceded by shorter presentations by Professo...

THE 2018 BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE As a commemoration of the end of the First World War, the event will focus on the theme of mathematics in war and peacetime. The main speaker, Professor David Aubin will speak on Science Leaders under Fire: Stories about Mathematicians Killed in World War I (6 pm), preceded by shorter presentations by Professo...

The dark side of the universe is pervasive. Most of the matter in the universe is dark, most of the energy in the universe is dark. Many searches are underway, on mountain peaks, in deep underground mines, and in space, to discover more about dark matters. Many new telescopes are being constructed on high mountain tops and in space to search for tracers of dark energy. A lecture by Professor Josep...

Physicist John Wheeler asked the famous 'It from bit?' question: what if at its heart the universe is not a collection of particles, forces and fields but rather a collection of bits? If this is true, it leads us to new insights in compression, machine learning, artificial intelligence and maybe even the universe and life itself. A lecture by Professor Richard Harvey, IT Livery Company P...

Adam Feinstein will examine the strengths of many people on the autism spectrum which make them an untapped human resource in the workplace. Using case studies, he will analyse potential employment openings across the autism spectrum and demonstrate why employing autistic people makes sound economic sense. He will examine misleading stereotypes and assess the alternative option of self-employment....

Torture was officially outlawed in France in the 1780s and in Europe during the nineteenth century. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it has returned as an instrument of state policy. The defence of torture is no longer viewed with abhorrence. How have languages of patriotism, law and order, justice, the 'civilizing mission', and human rights been used to foster att...

THE 2018 ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLIN MATTHEW MEMORIAL LECTURE We often think of the British countryside as 'natural' but it is anything but. Not only its fields and hedges, but also its woods, heaths, moors, and fens are largely the product of human activities - of complex systems of management, changing over the centuries. Historians thus have a vital role in nature conservation. We...

'The sense of a new style and a new spirit in poetry came over me', wrote William Hazlitt, recalling the day in 1798 when he heard William Wordsworth reading aloud from Lyrical Ballads, 'It partakes of, and is carried along with, the revolutionary movement of our age'. Jonathan Bate will explain what Hazlitt meant and why Lyrical Ballads, the product of Wordsworth's intima...

Some infections come in repeated epidemic waves, others are new to human populations. A known human threat such as influenza may mutate or a new infection jumps the species barrier from animals to humans: recent examples include HIV and Ebola, and the historical example of plague. What happens depends on the route of transmission. Methods for tackling an airborne disease like influenza are differe...

Was Brexit (the 2016 referendum) argued on the basis of accurate information fairly presented? Slogans were, and may always be, better at gathering votes. With the reality of Brexit a few months away, a sober look at what we actually gain or lose is needed in two areas: What is sovereignty of an island like our own? Could we draw a line round the coast line (and the Irish border) and contain and c...

Since Newton, we are used to science making confident predictions about the future. For example, the motion of the planets and the times of the tides. However, some things seem very hard to predict, such as the stock market, or the weather in six months' time. Is this a fault in the way we model these systems, or is there a genuine limit to how far we can predict the future? One explanation c...

What does it mean to listen to music? How might the concepts and practices of 'listening' and 'music-making' have first emerged in the story of human development? We journey back in time, to the origins of human society - in the company of research like Steven Mithin's book The Singing Neanderthals - and to the origins of our hearing, to the mechanisms of how our bodies an...

If you are a barrister you will be asked 'how can you act for someone who is guilty?'. This is just one of the ethical questions the Bar has to confront. Barristers have a Code of Ethics that governs the working relationship with the client, the court and colleagues but ethical dilemmas in practice are rarely straightforward. Do we make value judgements about our client's culpabilit...

Do businesses exist to make profits, or to serve a purpose? This talk will present rigorous evidence showing there need be no trade-off between purpose and profit, contrary to conventional wisdom. It will then turn to the practical 'so what?'. How can we embed purpose in the heart of business so that it extends far beyond a mission statement. The talk will highlight how change cannot be...

The most compact objects that shine in the universe are neutron stars. Black holes are even more compact objects that we view indirectly as matter accretes and heats up around them. Professor Silk will describe the state of our knowledge of neutron stars and black holes, and how new observations of gravity waves are poised to revolutionise this field. A lecture by Professor Joseph Silk, Gresham Pr...

There was no intellectually sophisticated or articulate 'atheism' in the Middle Ages, but there was plenty of raw scepticism and incredulity. Church courts regularly heard blasphemy cases which went as far as outright denial of God. This lecture will take a tour of medieval unbelief, showing how and why some medieval people defied the powerful orthodoxies of their day: fired not by intel...

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as an issue that threatens public health around the world. Even simple operations may no longer be possible due to the risk of lethal infection. What is less well-known is the role of environmental components in amplifying resistance. Heads of State have pledged to tackle the problem but current policies are proving inadequate. A shift in thinking is needed with c...

The earliest London-made films showed the Victorian city doing everyday business, before its fictional screen image became increasingly shadowy and sinister. Gothic or 'gaslight' visions of London have remained popular with cinema audiences, providing a fictional and often eerie counterpoint to the growth of the modern city. A lecture by Professor Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the...

Tudor England was a dangerous place for the wealthy and powerful. The cultural ambitions of the elite open a window into contemporary attitudes. A lecture by Professor Simon Thurley CBE, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 19 September 2018 The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/p...

"What is 'Romanticism'? Jonathan Bate goes in search of what Isaiah Berlin described as 'the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West'. A lecture by Sir Jonathan Bate CBE FBA, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric 18 September 2018 The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture...

It has become the conventional wisdom that the rule of law is a necessary ingredient of economic progress. Along with an independent judiciary, individual rights, a free media, free association, strong political parties and a rich civil society, government policy asserts that the rule of law is found in all successful countries and sustainable economies, and consequently should be promoted abroad....

THE PROVOST'S LECTURE Terrorism has become one of the most destructive and worrying aspects of life in 21st-century European cities. Seemingly random and unpredictable attacks have placed us all at risk of injury or death. How new is this phenomenon? Is terrorism more widespread and more dangerous than it has been in the past? This lecture takes the long view and examines the nature and impac...

THE SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTURE 2018 The scientific evidence for climate change will be examined, describing how simulations of the Earth's weather and climate are constructed and how these can be used to make assessments of what our climate and weather might be like in the coming decades. Based on this scientific evidence it will be argued that climate change may well be one of the def...

T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" was the voice of a disillusioned generation and reflected a world in disarray. Then in 1928 Eliot announced to a startled world, and the disapproval of his contemporaries, that his general point of view could be described as 'classicist in literature, royalist in politics and anglo-catholic in religion.' The previous year he had been baptised...

The invention of the computer in 1948 has changed our world radically but we are only in the early years of this industrial revolution. What disruptions will quantum computing bring? What else can we foresee and what can we learn from the first seven decades of our cyber enabled world that will help us to design the best future for ourselves and our children? The transcript and downloadable versio...