Gresham College Lectures

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 lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 30th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-puzzles

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 Martin Rowson on 25th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/satirical-cartoons-history

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/capital-structure

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 Lintott on 24th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/oumuamua

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 by Sanjay Popat on 23rd January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cancer-genomics

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 of pitch colours between them.

This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 18th January 2024 at LSO, St Luke's Church, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/art-tuning

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 Melissa Lane on 11th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/greek-justice

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 by Myles Allen on 17th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/weather-change

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 Hall, London.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/one-human

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

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 with cancer.

This lecture was recorded by Dr Richard Sidebottom on 9th January 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-cancer

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/

Website:  https://gresham.ac.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show