As part of a visiting fellowship at Delhi University in the mid 1990’s the speaker set up seminars relating to nuclear power, one of which was attended by a Russian diplomat who offered payment in return for information about Britain’s nuclear

Catalina Taltavull - To fly or not to fly through a volcanic ash cloud

Jun 9th, 2016 1h 13m

In this talk, Dr Taltavull will explore the importance of understanding the likelihood of a certain volcanic ash adhering into a substrate by taking into consideration both ash properties and environmental conditions.

Elizabeth Garnsey - Science and Spin-Outs in Cambridge: Incentives and Impact

Oct 18th, 2015 1h 8m

This talk offers an introduction to technology enterprise in and around Cambridge for those unfamiliar with the Cambridge tech scene. It will examine ways in which scientific knowledge is translated into practice, with a focus on technology-bas

Mikiko Chimori - Gulliver in the Orient

Sep 2nd, 2015 1h 6m

The talk compares Japanese and English illustrations in various editions of Gulliver’s Travels published in Japan between 1880 and the early 1920s.

Foss Lene - Developing Entrepreneurial Universities

Jun 17th, 2015 1h 44m

Global recessions and structural economic shifts are motivating government and business leaders worldwide to increasingly look to “their” universities to stimulate regional development and to contribute to national competitiveness. The challeng

Heide Estes - An Enemy Robbed Me of Life; Voices of Nature in Old English Poetry

Jun 3rd, 2015 59m 54s

In a series of Riddles written in about the year 1000, animals, plants, and even ore from the earth complain about being torn from their homes and deprived of life so as to become things useful to humans – a book, a bow, an inkwell.

Rosanna Cantavella - Sexual education in the Middle Ages

May 20th, 2015 1h 26m

Yes: hard to believe as it may be, sexual education was taught in the Middle Ages throughout Western Europe.

Pieter Botha - Considering land and religion in striving for identity

May 19th, 2015 1h 37m

The recently completed Freedom Park provides a profound representation of South Africa’s troubled past, evoking memories of forgotten names and long suppressed South African identities.

Mercedes Aguirre, Richard Buxton - Cyclops, Changing Perceptions of an Ogre

Apr 28th, 2015 1h 18m

Greek myths have always been powerful resources for thinking and feeling: they are ‘good to think with’. We shall illustrate this with the example of Polyphemus, the best known of the one-eyed, anthropophagous, pastoral giants known as the Cycl

Ruth Parkin-Gounelas  - Regarding Animals , Regarding Humans

Mar 11th, 2015 1h 15m

How should humans define themselves in relation to other animals? This familiar question has recently attracted new attention in several disciplines, with some radical results.

Gillian Brown - 500 years of changing patterns in English English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation

Feb 25th, 2015 1h 10m

I shall focus most of the discussion on the standard English used in the south east of England to describe very briefly some changes in the structures and use of English over the last 500 years.

Michael Loewe  - A journey up-stream, on the day of the Qingming festival

Feb 23rd, 2015 1h 8m

In about 1100, Zhang Zeduan painted a horizontal scroll that took as its theme the return journey that a family made back to Kaifeng, capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty (960‐1127).

Ian Goldberg - Privacy enhancing technologies: Combatting surveillance and censorship on the Internet

Feb 20th, 2015 1h 27m

We look at some examples of such Internet surveillance and censorship, and give an overview of some of the more popular technologies used by journalists, activists, and others to safely communicate online without observation or interference.

Bruno Ricco - From Silicon to Graphene and Beyond; The hidden engine of change

Feb 16th, 2015 1h 22m

Silicon development cannot last forever so two complementary strategies are being pursued at research level: one seeks to extend the life of silicon technology, and the other seeks alternative materials.

Emilia Wilton-Godberfforde - The Liar in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy; Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Feb 16th, 2015 1h 5m

In this colloquium I explore the phenomenon lying and its comic potential. This talk should appeal not only to those working in French literature, cultural studies and intellectual history but to anyone interested in how we communicate or misco

Malcolm Longair - The Cavendish Laboratory, 1932 to 1953; Decline and Regeneration

Nov 25th, 2014 1h 27m

Malcolm Longair is Emeritus Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy, Emeritus Professorial Fellow and former Head of the Cavendish Laboratory.

Hasok Chang - Is Water H2O?

Nov 19th, 2014 1h 25m

Every schoolchild knows that water is H2O, but it was a terribly difficult thing for scientists to learn originally.

Boudewijn de Bruin - Ethics and the global financial crisis: Why incompetence is worse than greed

Nov 5th, 2014 1h 34m

While unrestricted egoism is certainly a vice, I argue that the more serious moral defects in finance lie somewhere else.

Laurie Zoloth - The Ethics of Translation; Power, Exchange, and Hospitality

Oct 30th, 2014 1h 44m

What ethical judgments are at stake when we ‘translate’? What is ‘lost in translation’ when theories of human agency are translated into practices, or when practices are re-inscribed, or translated into theory?

John Parker - The man who knows everything; The life of John Stevens Henslow

Oct 15th, 2014 1h 17m

Henslow is remembered for recommending Darwin to the Beagle expedition but his research is less well known – the nature of species through understanding natural variation.

Tom Burton - Hearing is Believing: The Dialect Poems of William Barnes (1801–1886)

Sep 18th, 2014 1h 9m

Tom Burton presents poems of William Barnes.

Jon Charterina-Abando - Why we must bet on manufacturing: reversing the Washington Consensus in our cities and regions

Jun 8th, 2014 1h 29m

Jon Abando argues that the 'Washington consensus' should be reversed: in his view it IS possible for governments and public bodies to assure long-term competitiveness and prosperity at national level without hindering the free market.

Maria Freddi - Choice in Language

May 28th, 2014 1h 42m

Maria Freddi introduces some of the new tools for language analysis provided by the digital revolution. She then shows how the tools are used to study how scientists use language to argue their case and disseminate knowledge.

George van Kooten - Pagans and Christians in Debate: Mythology, Philosophy and Religion in the first two centuries AD

May 21st, 2014 1h 28m

The speaker argues that from the time of Jesus the Christian movement consciously engaged with the broader Graeco-Roman world in many different ways.

John D Barrow - Counter Culture: A look at some unusual applications of mathematics in the arts

May 16th, 2014 1h 43m

A fascinating look at some unexpected applications of simple mathematics to the arts: painting, sculpture, medieval manuscripts, architecture and poetry.