Gresham College Lectures

Ill health has always been concentrated in particular places; tackling these pockets of ill health is an essential role for public health. These may be driven by environmental factors, demography, deprivation and healthcare provision. In the UK, the geography of ill health has shifted widely over time and continues to do so. Specific areas have particular health challenges, including coastal towns, rural districts and inner city areas. This lecture will consider the shifting geography of ill health in the UK and globally, and its implications.A lecture by Chris Whitty 25 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/health-geographyGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Digital technology from the early 1990s onwards produced an exponential increase in astronomical data. Within our lifetime, the entirety of the visible universe will have been mapped out: we will have seen everything there is to see. The question will then be: what does it all mean? Solving the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy (which together account for 95% of the universe) and finding life elsewhere in the universe won't be possible without statistical and data analysis methods that have yet to be invented. No human eye will ever inspect all the 50 billion galaxies in the visible universe, nor the 7,500 billion potentially habitable planetary systems: we need machines to do it for us. This lecture will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) will meet the challenges posed by big data to help answer fundamental questions of the cosmos.A lecture by Richard Harvey 24 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/data-futureGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Digital technology from the early 1990s onwards produced an exponential increase in astronomical data. Within our lifetime, the entirety of the visible universe will have been mapped out: we will have seen everything there is to see. The question will then be: what does it all mean? Solving the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy (which together account for 95% of the universe) and finding life elsewhere in the universe won't be possible without statistical and data analysis methods that have yet to be invented. No human eye will ever inspect all the 50 billion galaxies in the visible universe, nor the 7,500 billion potentially habitable planetary systems: we need machines to do it for us. This lecture will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) will meet the challenges posed by big data to help answer fundamental questions of the cosmos.A lecture by Roberto Trotta 23 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ai-universeGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

The Brothers Grimm's tale of Snow White has been retold dozens of times in print and the cinema over the past two centuries. A central character is the Evil Queen, Snow White's malevolent stepmother, who tries to kill her with the help of the occult. Aging women have often been portrayed as Evil Women. What do portrayals of the Evil Queen tell us about witchcraft, fears of the power of aging women, and the valorisation of youth, beauty, and domesticity?A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-witchesGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

The 2020 Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most lethal of all Nazi camps. This lecture looks back at its final months, from the time the camp reached its murderous peak, after the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary, to the arrival of Soviet soldiers in January 1945. But liberation did not put an end to Nazi murder - it continued elsewhere, until the final German defeat in spring 1945. The lecture follows the fate of former Auschwitz prisoners forced to other camps and the crimes of former Auschwitz SS staff in camps like Bergen-Belsen.This lecture is presented in partnership with the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Holocaust Research Institute (Royal Holloway), The University of Huddersfield, and the Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association.A lecture by Nikolaus Wachsmann 18 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/auschwitz-ww2Gresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

Accounts of occasional celestial spectacular events in past centuries have provided crucial information for modern-day astrophysicists. One such example is the so-called Great Eruption of Eta Carinae which was for a time in the mid 19th century the third brightest object in the night sky. Interpretation of the spectacular structure of this so-called supernova imposter would be hard without information from eye-witnesses of days gone by.A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE 18 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/witnessing-fireworksGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

It has been known since antiquity that there are simple "harmonic" relationships between notes that sound appealing together. This lecture introduces the mathematics of pitch, scales, and just temperament. The pitch of a sound is not its only important property. The same note, played on different instruments, can have a very different quality of sound. We will explore the mathematics governing the relationships between these qualities of sounds, and the shape and dimensions of the instruments used to produce them.A lecture by Sarah Hart 17 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-soundGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

THE 2020 PETER NAILOR MEMORIAL LECTUREDrones, or unmanned air systems, are changing the face of war in the 21st century, for combatants and civilians. We are used to a history of the RAF based on a narrative of the 'bravery of the few' with fighter pilot missions in the Battle of Britain seeing a mortality rate of 20% and a staggeringly higher rate for 'the many' of Bomber Command (over 50% of aircrew died on operations). But in the UK over the last fifteen years, an increasing number of air missions have been carried out remotely by drone. The tasks these drones can carry out include targeted assassinations, bombings and intelligence-gathering, and the forces that deploy them claim to minimise the loss of life on both sides. These drones still have operators, who can be based thousands of miles away from the field of battle, but in future they may not need operators at all. What does operating drones mean for the mental health of the operators? What does it mean for the concept of bravery in battle? How does distance affect the chances of operations going wrong? What are the ethical challenges of unmanned warfare today? And how much harder will those challenges become in a future era of autonomous drones? Ultimately, how are the risks and realities of unmanned air power changing those that fight, those who command them, and those they target?A lecture by Dr Sophy Antrobus MBE 11 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/drone-warfareGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

How has Covid-19 re-shaped our ideas about what we owe society? The lockdown has had a terrible impact on the economic prospects of young people - and the elderly have suffered from high mortality in care homes. Choices have to be made between the generations. Should people save and pay for their own pensions, care in ill-health and old age as an individual responsibility? Or is it a societal duty that should be funded by compulsory payment of taxes? The role of collective versus individual responsibility has shifted across time and between societies around the world according to different cultural understanding, political calculation, and pragmatic necessity. Might Covid-19 mark a further shift in the balance?A lecture by Martin Daunton 10 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/owe-societyGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show

What is meant by 'love' between human and nonhuman animals? Why is sex with animals such a taboo? It is only in very recent years that some people have begun to undermine the absolute prohibition on zoosexuality. Are their arguments dangerous, perverted, or simply wrongheaded? What does it mean to love nonhuman animals? More pertinently: what does it mean to love? This book launch will look at the history of debates about human sexual encounters with other species.A lecture by Joanna Bourke 9 NovemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/loving-animalsGresham 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/greshamcollegeSupport the show