Gresham College Lectures

Mathematics is often thought of as being a dry and logical subject, and its conclusions free from the vagaries of fashion and misconception. However this is far from the truth. Mathematical misunderstandings, or perhaps a misunderstanding of mathematical ideas and conclusions, can permeate the public consciousness, and once there survive for a long time.

This lecture looks at the mythology that has gathered around the Golden Ratio, and also consider the fairness of cake-cutting, and changing choices in "the Monty Hall problem".

A lecture by Chris Budd 11 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/great-maths-myths

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

This lecture examines the work of Hugo de Vries, a Dutch botanist who was one of the first to claim that science would allow plants and animals to be designed to order.

It also looks at the early twentieth-century ‘Station for Experimental Evolution’ in New York, and at the utopian vision of Charlotte Gilman Perkins’ Herland (1915), a novel describing a lost world populated by women that took the form of a perfect garden, whose wonderful plants and lack of men were both explained by de Vries’ theory of mutation.

A lecture by Jim Endersby 10 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-new-plants

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Bach’s Art of Fugue, Mozart’s Requiem, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, Alban Berg’s opera Lulu, and Elgar’s 3rd Symphony are all pieces that are famously incomplete.

This lecture examines the fascination surrounding works that are left unfinished at their composers’ deaths. It also looks at the urge that certain of us have to complete these uncompleted works, however unwisely and however unbidden. ‘Don’t let anyone tinker with it’, said Elgar; but several have anyway, and with thought-provoking results.

A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 6 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unfinished-music

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Europe’s Wars of Religion were fought against entire populations, and were punctuated by events remembered as atrocities: such as the siege of Leiden in 1573-4 or, most notoriously, the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres in France in 1572.

This lecture will ask how these events came to be so notorious, how and why they were remembered on each side, and how they shaped the history of civil conflict and ideas of coexistence and nationhood in the societies that endured them.

A lecture by Alec Ryrie 5 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/europes-wars-religion

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Is the clitoris simply a female version of the male penis? Many scientists and biologists in the past thought so. It is only in recent decades that the physiology of the clitoris has become understood.

What can debates about these two organs tell us about scientific knowledge and gender identities? How have ideas about the "ideal penis" changed since the eighteenth century? What effect have these shifts had on the way men and women know their bodies?

A lecture by Joanna Bourke 13 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-penis-clitoris

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women, but kills the most people through a combination of being common and currently having much less effective treatment. Both treatment and prevention are currently improving, slowly.

Mesothelioma, a lung-associated cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, is now the commonest occupational cancer. While treatment for these cancers is still at an early stage, they are largely preventable through public health measures.

A lecture by Chris Whitty 12 February

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

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show

In 2013 Sir Michael Barber declared that "An Avalanche is Coming" and that universities would be swept away by new digital technologies. Six years later nothing seems to have happened, yet there has been change.

In this lecture we will review what is commonly called e-learning, including MOOCs, SPOOCs, flipping and DIYU, and see if there are any themes which emerge from the buzzword bingo that is digital learning. Some of it is fascinating, some of it has deep implications for privacy and some of it is downright weird and wacky!

A lecture by Richard Harvey 11 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/digital-university

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show

Mathematics is often thought of as being a dry and logical subject, and its conclusions free from the vagaries of fashion and misconception. However this is far from the truth. Mathematical misunderstandings, or perhaps a misunderstanding of mathematical ideas and conclusions, can permeate the public consciousness, and once there survive for a long time.

This lecture looks at the mythology that has gathered around the Golden Ratio, and also consider the fairness of cake-cutting, and changing choices in "the Monty Hall problem".

A lecture by Chris Budd 11 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/great-maths-myths

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show

This lecture examines the work of Hugo de Vries, a Dutch botanist who was one of the first to claim that science would allow plants and animals to be designed to order.

It also looks at the early twentieth-century 'Station for Experimental Evolution' in New York, and at the utopian vision of Charlotte Gilman Perkins' Herland (1915), a novel describing a lost world populated by women that took the form of a perfect garden, whose wonderful plants and lack of men were both explained by de Vries' theory of mutation.

A lecture by Jim Endersby 10 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-new-plants

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show

Bach's Art of Fugue, Mozart's Requiem, Schubert's Symphony No. 8, Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and Elgar's 3rd Symphony are all pieces that are famously incomplete.

This lecture examines the fascination surrounding works that are left unfinished at their composers' deaths. It also looks at the urge that certain of us have to complete these uncompleted works, however unwisely and however unbidden. 'Don't let anyone tinker with it', said Elgar; but several have anyway, and with thought-provoking results.

A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 6 February

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unfinished-music

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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

Support the show