The Reith Lectures

This year's lecturer is the first and current Professor of Art History at Oxford University, Edgar Wind. The German-born British professor specialises in iconology in the Renaissance era. In his Reith Series entitled 'Art and Anarchy', Edgar Wind explores the concepts of creative energies produced through turmoil.In this lecture entitled 'The Fear of Knowledge', Edgar Wind challenges the idea that intellect hurts the artistic imagination. This prejudice, which artists themselves have rarely shared, does not allow for the aesthetic perception of art to be heightened. He argues that art and intellect should not be separated into one or the other, because together they have created some of the greatest works of art.

This year's Reith lecturer is the Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College London, Peter Brian Medawar. His work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance has been fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants. In his Reith lecture series entitled 'The Future of Man', Professor PM Medawar considers how humans will continue to evolve in the future.In his sixth lecture entitled 'The Future of Man', Professor PM Medawar discusses the possibility of a new, non-genetic, system of inheritance. He predicts that certain properties and activities of the brain will affect our evolution in the future.

This year's Reith Lecturer is Professor Bernard Lovell, the first Director of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Observatory, and Professor of Radio Astronomy at Manchester University. During the Second World War, he helped to develop radar systems for aircrafts, for which he received an OBE in 1946. He delivers six lectures on the wonders of the solar system in his series entitled 'The Individual and the Universe'.In his final lecture entitled 'The Origin of the Universe 2', Professor Bernard Lovell considers the alternative theory which science can offer on the beginning of the universe. His exploration of the continuous creation theory concludes his Reith lectures.

This year's Reith Lecturer is Professor Bernard Lovell, the first Director of the Jodrell Bank Experimental Observatory, and Professor of Radio Astronomy at Manchester University. During the Second World War, he helped to develop radar systems for aircrafts, for which he received an OBE in 1946. He delivers six lectures on the wonders of the solar system in his series entitled 'The Individual and the Universe'.In his fifth lecture entitled 'The Origin of the Universe 1', Professor Bernard Lovell explores how we observe the horizon of the universe, and contemplates how we formulate theories in terms of known physical laws. He gives examples of evolutionary models and explains the implications of this evolutionary theory.

This year's Reith Lecturer is American adviser, diplomat, political scientist, and historian George Frost Kennan. He is best known as "the father" of the USA Containment Policy and is a leading authority on the Cold War. In his series 'Russia, the Atom, and the West', he considers the relationship between the two superpowers Russia and the USA. In his fourth lecture entitled 'The Military Problem', Professor Kennan discusses the military aspect of the West's conflict with Soviet power. He considers how atomic weapons have changed the relationship between East and West, and confronts the problem of the 'mutually assured destruction' doctrine.

This year's Reith Lecturer is American adviser, diplomat, political scientist, and historian George Frost Kennan. He is best known as "the father" of the USA Containment Policy and is a leading authority on the Cold War. In his series 'Russia, the Atom, and the West', he considers the relationship between the two superpowers Russia and the USA. In his third lecture entitled 'The Problem of Eastern and Central Europe', Professor Kennan considers why disagreements about frontiers and the political control of territory are so potent. He explores the difficulties which have already arisen in Central and Eastern Europe over territorial conflict, and considers in detail the problems between Germany and the satellite states under Soviet rule.

This year's Reith Lecturer is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh Sir Edward Appleton. From 1939 to 1949 he was Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and in 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the knowledge of the ionosphere, which led to the development of radar. In his Reith series entitled 'Science and the Nation', he considers the importance of science. In his sixth lecture entitled 'Science and Education', Professor Appleton considers how we teach science. He analyses the functions of teaching institutions, and explores how universities teach both applied and pure science.

This year's Reith Lecturer is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh Sir Edward Appleton. From 1939 to 1949 he was Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and in 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the knowledge of the ionosphere, which led to the development of radar. In his Reith series entitled 'Science and the Nation', he considers the importance of science. In his fifth lecture entitled 'Industrial Science', Professor Appleton considers the functional uses of science. He explores the scientific research work carried out by industries in order to produce better products, and analyses how automation is expanding this kind of science.

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character.In his final lecture, Dr Pevsner examines the particular aspects of Englishness which he believes are prevalent today, and what, by their means, England might achieve for her own benefit, and perhaps, that of other nations. He explores how England's towns and centres have been planned, and argues that traditional English planning theory takes into account the historical, social and aesthetic aspects of a site, as well as its pure geography.

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character.In his sixth and penultimate Reith lecture, Dr Pevsner describes the attitude of the English Romantic painter John Constable (1776-1837) and some of his contemporaries to Italian art, and compares his Englishness with that of Blake and Hogarth. He examines the sudden flowering of English landscape painting which began with Richard Wilson (1714–1782) and his Welsh landscapes, and argues that this concentration on landscape is a direct result of the temperate English climate.