UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Patents stop people doing things. So why are they a good thing?

The Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Robin Jacob (UCL Laws)

Date: 6th March 2012

The public debate about patents is old and never stops. Here is what Jeremy Bentham said: "So long as men are governed by unexamined prejudices and led away by sounds, it is natural for them to regard Patents as unfavourable to the increase of wealth. So soon as they obtain clear ideas to annex to these sounds, it is impossible for them to do otherwise than recognise them to be favourable to that increase: and that in so essential a degree, that the security given to property can not be said to be complete without it'. This lecture puts the debate in modern context and shows why Bentham was right.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Patents stop people doing things. So why are they a good thing?

The Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Robin Jacob (UCL Laws)

Date: 6th March 2012

The public debate about patents is old and never stops. Here is what Jeremy Bentham said: "So long as men are governed by unexamined prejudices and led away by sounds, it is natural for them to regard Patents as unfavourable to the increase of wealth. So soon as they obtain clear ideas to annex to these sounds, it is impossible for them to do otherwise than recognise them to be favourable to that increase: and that in so essential a degree, that the security given to property can not be said to be complete without it'. This lecture puts the debate in modern context and shows why Bentham was right.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Patents stop people doing things. So why are they a good thing?

The Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Robin Jacob (UCL Laws)

Date: 6th March 2012

The public debate about patents is old and never stops. Here is what Jeremy Bentham said: "So long as men are governed by unexamined prejudices and led away by sounds, it is natural for them to regard Patents as unfavourable to the increase of wealth. So soon as they obtain clear ideas to annex to these sounds, it is impossible for them to do otherwise than recognise them to be favourable to that increase: and that in so essential a degree, that the security given to property can not be said to be complete without it'. This lecture puts the debate in modern context and shows why Bentham was right.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: The Great American Novel: how and why?

Dr Kasia Boddy (UCL English Language & Literature)

Date: 1st March 2012

Parodied almost as soon as it was announced, and generally regarded as a topic beneath the remit of serious literary criticism, the Great American Novel enterprise has proved more durable and more various than almost any other in American literary culture. It remains the bench-mark for literary ambition, prestige, and sales. This lecture, marking World Book Day, considers some of the forms the Great American Novel has taken in its 150-year history and ask what social, political, moral, commercial and aesthetic needs it so persistently promises to serve.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: The Great American Novel: how and why?

Dr Kasia Boddy (UCL English Language & Literature)

Date: 1st March 2012

Parodied almost as soon as it was announced, and generally regarded as a topic beneath the remit of serious literary criticism, the Great American Novel enterprise has proved more durable and more various than almost any other in American literary culture. It remains the bench-mark for literary ambition, prestige, and sales. This lecture, marking World Book Day, considers some of the forms the Great American Novel has taken in its 150-year history and ask what social, political, moral, commercial and aesthetic needs it so persistently promises to serve.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: The Great American Novel: how and why?

Dr Kasia Boddy (UCL English Language & Literature)

Date: 1st March 2012

Parodied almost as soon as it was announced, and generally regarded as a topic beneath the remit of serious literary criticism, the Great American Novel enterprise has proved more durable and more various than almost any other in American literary culture. It remains the bench-mark for literary ambition, prestige, and sales. This lecture, marking World Book Day, considers some of the forms the Great American Novel has taken in its 150-year history and ask what social, political, moral, commercial and aesthetic needs it so persistently promises to serve.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: From Euclid to modern geometry: Do the angles of a triangle really add up to 180˚?

Professor Mark Ronan (UCL Mathematics)

Date: 28th February 2012

More than two thousand years ago, Euclid of Alexandria wrote the most successful textbook of all time. Starting with a few simple assumptions (often called axioms), he proved one result after another — for example that the angles of a triangle add up to 180˚.

Euclid's work was later translated into Arabic, then from Arabic into Latin, and scholars wondered whether the last of his five axioms — which referred to parallel lines, and sounded more like a theorem than an assumption — wasn't simply a necessary consequence of the other four. Many tried to prove this, and some false proofs were published. I shall give a very convincing one before outlining the history of geometry up to the nineteenth century. That's when three people independently discovered a perfectly consistent geometry in which the Euclid's fifth axiom is not true, and where the angles of a triangle no longer add up to 180˚. This new work inspired others and led eventually to the sort of geometry Einstein needed for his theory of gravity.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: From Euclid to modern geometry: Do the angles of a triangle really add up to 180˚?

Professor Mark Ronan (UCL Mathematics)

Date: 28th February 2012

More than two thousand years ago, Euclid of Alexandria wrote the most successful textbook of all time. Starting with a few simple assumptions (often called axioms), he proved one result after another — for example that the angles of a triangle add up to 180˚.

Euclid's work was later translated into Arabic, then from Arabic into Latin, and scholars wondered whether the last of his five axioms — which referred to parallel lines, and sounded more like a theorem than an assumption — wasn't simply a necessary consequence of the other four. Many tried to prove this, and some false proofs were published. I shall give a very convincing one before outlining the history of geometry up to the nineteenth century. That's when three people independently discovered a perfectly consistent geometry in which the Euclid's fifth axiom is not true, and where the angles of a triangle no longer add up to 180˚. This new work inspired others and led eventually to the sort of geometry Einstein needed for his theory of gravity.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Genetic testing for risk of Heart Disease: fact or fiction?

Professor Steve Humphries (UCL Institute of Human Genetics and Health)

Date: 23rd February 2012

An individual's risk of Coronary Heart Disease is currently based on classical risk factors such as age, gender, blood pressure, smoking habits and obesity. However, most heart attacks occur in individuals with only average classical risk factors. In this lecture, Professor Humphries will discuss how family history of Heart Disease is also an important predictor, and how identifying specific genes and DNA variants within family history could help doctors offer lifestyle and drug advice to individuals. This lecture with then focus on the need for researchers to explore different ways of presenting information about genetic risk, to find approaches that minimise a sense of fatalism and maximise motivation for behaviour change.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Genetic testing for risk of Heart Disease: fact or fiction?

Professor Steve Humphries (UCL Institute of Human Genetics and Health)

Date: 23rd February 2012

An individual's risk of Coronary Heart Disease is currently based on classical risk factors such as age, gender, blood pressure, smoking habits and obesity. However, most heart attacks occur in individuals with only average classical risk factors. In this lecture, Professor Humphries will discuss how family history of Heart Disease is also an important predictor, and how identifying specific genes and DNA variants within family history could help doctors offer lifestyle and drug advice to individuals. This lecture with then focus on the need for researchers to explore different ways of presenting information about genetic risk, to find approaches that minimise a sense of fatalism and maximise motivation for behaviour change.

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.