We often think of evolution as ‘something that happened’ in the past. But of course, evolution is a constant, powerful process and one that is often unleashed by human behaviours. Often this is deliberate, we’ll look at how artificial selection has shaped our crops, livestock and domestic pets, and we’ll find out how modern science is uncovering th…

We increasingly share with online services intimate details of our lives, such as mental health and reproductive data. Far from being a ‘tick box’ legal exercise, data protection is about fair and responsible use of our personal information. It gives us rights which we are entitled to exercise against mega corporations, governments, and anyone who …

Governments increasingly use detention as a central component of immigration and asylum policy. The lecture addresses several important questions. What does immigration detention look like? How is it a reflection of those societies that tolerate its use and the policies that support and endorse its expansion? What place does it have in the journeys…

Demokratia is the power (kratos) of the people (demos). But what kind of power, and who constitutes the people? Although ancient democracy is often stylized as “direct democracy” and so positioned as very different from modern “representative democracy,” in fact, issues of accountability are central to both. Ancient Greek models of holding leaders …

In partnership with Novartis Treatments and research in cancer are moving very fast, giving new hope to many. This event will bring together speakers in the series to delve further into new treatments and research in cancer, including immunotherapy, genomics and AI imaging. This lecture was recorded by Parker Moss, Dr Richard Sidebottom, Sanjay Pop…

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a combination of hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention which significantly impacts those living with the condition. The medical approach to the ADHD pattern of behaviour has been very successful in childhood but the results have been somewhat less impressive in adulthood. This has led to a r…

The Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen has posed the question, ‘equality of what?’ The value of equality depends on what standard is chosen. As ancient Greek thinkers recognized, equality can be deployed to exclude as well as to liberate, and its relationship to law and freedom needs to be interrogated. If equal social freedom is a product of iso…

This lecture looks at the role played by nudity in European religion and magic from ancient times to the present, with some reference to a global context. It reveals the unexpected pattern and explains why it has been marginal to religion, except in initiation ceremonies, but very important in magical practices. This lecture was recorded by Ronald …

The impacts of climate change that probably worry people the most are irreversible changes that affect the entire world, such as a collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet, shutdown of the global thermohaline circulation, loss of the Amazon biome, or a melting of Arctic permafrost. Sudden, unpredictable and irreversible changes can happen in respon…

We regularly hear of amazing coincidences – people winning the lottery twice, or getting a phone call from a long-lost friend just when you were thinking about them. Is this telepathy? Is there a greater power at work when someone survives seven lightning strikes? There can be terrible consequences from the misunderstanding of coincidence. This lec…

Today, the UK is a deeply unequal society. This lecture critically evaluates the relationship between English law and capitalism and explores how legal changes over the past 30 years, such as deregulating the housing market and weakening trade unions, have widened wealth inequality. The lecture examines the role of lawyers in addressing these issue…

Our understanding of autism has changed over the last forty years. Historically, autism was diagnosed based on narrow criteria. Today, while still defined by social and communication difficulties, rigid interests and repetitive behaviours, the autism spectrum is far wider, and the historical under-diagnosis of women and girls is being addressed. ‘A…

We often change our minds after we decide to do something. In finance and business though, if you think you might like to change your mind you will have to pay your counterparty so that your right to change your mind is agreed in advance. But how much is the right to change your mind worth? Option pricing is the art of determining the value of this…

A musical scale – a hierarchical collection of pitches spread over multiple octaves – is a fundamental building block in the creation of melodies and harmonies in a wide range of musical practices. But where do these scales come from? Are they invented or discovered? This lecture looks at the history, theory and artistry of scale construction in a …

Major geophysical events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes can occur with little or no warning and have catastrophic effects. This lecture will consider the health impacts of these natural disasters and how best to minimise them. Trauma often dominates the first days after the initial event but predicting the medium-term effects such as i…

Immunotherapy has brought new hope for curing common cancers that have spread (metastatic) – once regarded as impossible. Over the last 10 years, immune checkpoint inhibitors – drugs that allow the immune system to identify and destroy previously unrecognised cancer cells – have been successfully used to treat melanoma, kidney cancer and lung cance…

Why have people believed in dragons, and what were they actually? Is there a difference between Western and Eastern dragons, in a global perspective, and if so, why? Has the Western attitude to dragons changed in the modern era? Did Christianity give rise to a different idea of what a dragon should be? These are the questions that this lecture sets…

There have been two major revolutions in how we look at the sky - the shift beyond the optical to other wavelengths, particularly the radio, and the increasing attention paid to how objects change over time. We start with the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, explore how a microwave oven bamboozled astronomers, and discuss the latest re…

The relationship between intimacy and technology is dynamic and transformative. Adult entertainment providers were early adopters of the Internet and directly influenced its development. Meanwhile, digital communication has changed our consumption of pornography, how we date, and how we seek pleasure. There is increasing concern that Internet-media…

Difficulties with reading and writing have wide-ranging effects beyond academic achievement, including on career opportunities and personal well-being. However, the concept of dyslexia continues to be debated: is the term useful? How does it relate to spoken language? This lecture describes what is known of the causes and consequences of reading di…

The species we recognise as our own - anatomically modern humans - has existed for only 300,000 years, a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. And yet during that time our species has been shaped by strong evolutionary forces, often unwittingly as an indirect result of human activities. In this lecture, we’ll find out how disease outbreaks, the ri…

Why have economies in east Asia been more successful in escaping from under-development and achieving high levels of growth? Japan’s experience of avoiding colonisation and creating a modern economy offered a model to other countries, some of whom had themselves been colonised by Japan – above all, South Korea. How did Japan and Korea create a succ…

Humanitarian agencies are increasingly relying on satellite imagery and testimonies from social media to understand and communicate why people feel compelled to seek refuge. This lecture will explore digital humanitarianism and the visual politics of refugeehood. It will discuss how such practices allow us to see the places where violence takes pla…

Historically lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have been persecuted under English law. Homophobic and transphobic laws were exported from England to the Commonwealth Caribbean, and these colonial laws have had a long-term impact on Caribbean societies. This lecture will make the case for the robust constitutional protection of LG…

Many puzzles have a long history, such as water pouring puzzles, where you need to measure (for example) one pint of water equipped only with an eight-pint and a five-pint jug. The mathematics behind the solution has many useful applications. Meanwhile, paradoxes such as: “some men shave themselves; those that do not shave themselves are shaved by …

How do cartoons and visual satire operate? This lecture will look at when humans first created art and at the dawn of satire. Examining the work of Swift, Hogarth, Gillray, David Low and Ronald Searle, this lecture by celebrated cartoonist Martin Rowson will also examine the role cartoons play in giving offence. Covering the Danish Cartoons scandal…

Knowing what the investors demand enables the firm to plan its financing. What type of instrument should it use? Should it issue debt or equity? This lecture will introduce the concept of Capital Structure Theory which tells the manager how to reduce capital cost by a correctly chosen mixture of debt and equity. The composition of the mixture depen…

In 2017, the Solar System was visited by an object named 'Oumuamua, which came from another star. The unusual properties of this first interstellar visitor led some to suggest it may be an alien spacecraft - but the truth is that its oddness is already teaching us lessons about how solar systems form. This lecture also considers the prospects of di…

Using lung cancer as a case study, this lecture will explore the transformative impact of genomics on personalised cancer treatment. What are the challenges of implementing tumour sequencing in routine care, its effect on drug development, and how can we maximise clinical benefit? How is the new technology of circulating tumour DNA analysis (liquid…

This lecture presents the rich history of musicians’ engagement with pitch. From the tuning systems of Babylon, Pythagoras and Hindustani ragas, through the temperaments of the Baroque and Classical eras and arriving at contemporary electronic, blues, jazz and global practices, we explore how musicians have organised, sliced and manipulated the pit…

In the poetry of the Athenian lawgiver Solon, justice (dikē) was a boundary stone marking out terms that rich and poor alike could respect. Yet ancient Greek authors also recognised the danger that the powerful will simply exploit those less powerful, and that Greek societies enforced slavery. This lecture explores ancient Greek aspirations to just…

Climate change is already affecting us all, regardless of where we live, through changing risks of extreme weather events. This lecture will take a break from global climate policy to talk about the links between climate and weather, chaos theory and the practical tools available to quantify changing risks. There is a lot we still don’t know – and …

We are the only human species on the planet today. But for most of our history we have not been alone. Fossil and genetic evidence has revealed a diverse and fascinating set of human-like species, from Neanderthals to Denisovans, to Homo Floresiensis (The Hobbit) and more. We’ll meet many of them in this lecture, investigate why they died out and r…

AI will be one of the most disruptive technologies, enabling safer, faster and more accurate healthcare. It will unlock smarter cancer imaging and new insights from medical scans that were indiscernible to the human eye. This lecture will demystify the AI technological revolution and explore “why now?” and how to ensure AI is deployed safely and me…

Today, objects in smart cities, outer space, and medical implants in our bodies are connected to the internet. When streetlamps can ‘talk’, when autonomous vehicles safely navigate, and energy and public services can be automatically routed when and where they are needed, we will reap the rewards of a Massive Internet of Things (MIoT). How might we…

This lecture investigates how and why the song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ has become so popular, transcending its roots in the MGM musical Meet Me in St Louis to become a presence in the canon of secular popular Christmas songs. Live and recorded examples from artists including Judy Garland and Sam Smith will explain both how this rem…

The forever chemicals, or PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) represent a large family of highly persistent synthetic chemicals widely used in everything from carpets to non-stick cookware, to firefighting foams and furniture textiles. They are highly persistent in nature and have been found in the blood and breast milk of people and w…

Nuclear, radiological and chemical incidents have the potential to cause major harm. The risk of nuclear and radiological events causing health effects can usually be significantly reduced by relatively simple measures, which are based on the properties of the chemicals released, especially at a distance from the incident. Chemicals that can cause …

This lecture delves into the history of abortion in English law, from common law to the Abortion Act 1967. Professor Thomas KC critically examines the current state of abortion law in England, the Commonwealth Caribbean, and recent developments in the US. Is there a case for further liberalisation of abortion law? This lecture was recorded by Lesli…

Could artificial intelligence be used to tackle online harms to children? What are the specific “solutions” AI could offer – for example, age verification, preventing the sending of intimate images, and stopping the promotion of harmful content - and what would applying these look like in practice? What ethical dilemmas and rights challenges does t…

The death of the Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, in September 2022 sparked the largest protests in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The protests threaten the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic as a political system. Beyond Iran, the protests have highlighted that Iranians reject gender-based, race-based, and religion-b…

Antisemitism has existed and continues to exist on many levels, from unthinking prejudice to highly developed theories. Common to all levels is an explicit, or more often, implicit belief that all Jews, usually defined in racial terms, are conspiring secretly to undermine civilisation, order, or social and cultural stability. This lecture considers…

On the eve of COP28 in Dubai, is the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C still alive? What does this mean and is it even possible? Given warming has reached 1.25°C, increasing at around ¼°C per decade, what happens if we miss our target? While every tenth of a degree matters, passing 1.5°C does not mean an inexorable slide into climate chaos, …

Is Artificial Intelligence fundamentally different from previous technological advancements? This lecture will examine the opportunities and threats of the impending AI revolution, asking if AI differs from past technology waves and exploring measures to ensure AI safety. It will introduce 'Human-led AI', a paradigm which emphasises human control a…

Millions of us regularly solve Sudoku puzzles. In this lecture, we discuss the mathematics behind them, and the links to other kinds of number grids, like magic squares and so-called Latin squares, which have been studied for centuries. Latin squares have many applications in areas as diverse as experiment design, algebra and coding theory. This le…

An annual talk delivered by the President of Gresham College, The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of the City of London. Cities are networked networks of connectivity and information sharing. They create, often indirectly, communication, transportation, commercial, and intellectual networks. For the City of London, expanding and changing networks develop its…

Natural selection acts to ensure the ‘survival of the fittest’. But random chance has also played a huge role in the history of life on Earth, from meteorite strikes to massive earthquakes. Randomness also lies at the core of evolutionary processes; the impact of a chance mutation, or the ‘lottery’ of sexual selection. In this lecture, we’ll look a…

Why did the Iranian Revolution catch so many in US and UK Governments by surprise in 1978-79? Why were so many enthusiastic about the fall of the Shah? Why did so many Western observers - including Michel Foucault, Fred Halliday, and Edward Said, misread Ayatollah Khomeini? This lecture examines readings and mis-readings of the Iranian Revolution i…

Firms hope to get money for their investment decisions from investors. The latest have to decide how to maximize the returns they get while simultaneously minimizing their risk. This lecture will introduce two key concepts of financial management: Portfolio Theory and Capital Asset Pricing Model and will discuss how the CAPM gives us one of the inp…

Music is a temporal art, unfolding like a ribbon and transforming our experience of time itself. This lecture demonstrates how music harnesses our unique and intricate listening faculties creating a complex interplay between sounding events and our internal predictions. This forms a predictive tapestry whereby the listener - usually unconsciously -…