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UCL Sound ▶ UCL Lunch Hour Lectures

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Running at UCL since 1942, Lunch Hour Lectures are an opportunity for anyone to sample the exceptional research work currently being undertaken at the university. Speakers are drawn from UCL's wide-ranging academic departments and lectures frequently showcase new research and recent academic publications.


Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

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Tech Lectures

Demi - How To Love (Acoustic)

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Landing on a planet at 600 miles per hour

Professor Alan Smith (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory)

Unmanned robotic missions are essential for understanding the planets within our solar system. Current missions comprise of gentle landings combined with rovers to explore the local region. Due to the expense of such missions, and their sometimes unsuitability as scientific outposts, UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory is developing Planetary Penetrators, which aim to land on planets at very high speed, penetrating the planet and implanting equipment just below the surface.

This lecture discusses the engineering difficulties of ensuring delicate instrumentation remains intact and operable after such high impact and highlights the biggest hurdle of all - convincing the space agencies to adopt the equipment in the first place!

With a whole solar system waiting to be explored this talk describes the UK Penetrator Programme - where we've been, what we've achieved and the opportunities for the future.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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.

Landing on a planet at 600 miles per hour (8 Feb 2011)

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Will robots take over the world?

Dr Kathleen Richardson (UCL Anthropology)

2011 is the 90th anniversary of the robot, first imagined as a character in a play, performed in Prague in 1921. It is also the 50th anniversary of the first use of robots in industry with the robot ‘Unimate’ for General Motors in 1961.

Since the origin of robots they have undergone a number of transitions from the popular idea of the robot as a domestic, a vision popular from fiction such as the 1970's cartoon ‘The Jetsons’, to the last fifteen years imagining robots, not just for work, but to act as companions, exercise coaches for the elderly or stroke patients, and assistants for children with autism spectrum conditions.

This lecture will explore the history of the robot, and how it has changed and been re-imagined in fiction and labs over the last 90s years.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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.

Will robots take over the world? (24 Feb 2011)

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Dr Jack Stilgoe, UCL Science and Technology Studies

Policies to tackle climate change do not seem to be working. Some scientists have begun to look into tacking climate change directly, through 'geoengineering', but the risks, ethics and politics look worrying. Should we be testing technologies now or keeping research indoors until we know more?

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2DqvjQKpc

Should we experiment with the climate? (11 Mar 2014)

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Dr Antonio Sennis, UCL History

Divine letters, supernatural visions and apocalyptic curses were often successfully employed by medieval clerics to persuade their counterparts to do what they wanted them to do. This lecture explores how these tools of persuasion responded to a Medieval cultural logic.

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWZJ_z2aW8Q

Medieval languages of persuasion (13 March 2014)

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Genetic testing in the 21st century: Should we screen the human embryonic genome before implantation?

Dr Joyce Harper (UCL Centre for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis)

In preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), embryos are created by IVF and cells removed from these embryos for genetic analysis. Until recently, testing was solely for the disease the couple carried. The use of array-comparative genomic hybridisation and single nucleotide polymorphism arrays has entered the PGD arena. These techniques allow all chromosomes and many genes to be examined. The analysis of the whole genome prior to implantation brings ethical concerns. Will healthy couples opt for PGD to select their 'best' offspring?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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.

Genetic testing in the 21st century (8 March 2011)

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Professor Lars Stixrude, UCL Earth Sciences

To the founders of geology, the question of how the Earth began could not be addressed by science; answers had to await recent advances in radioactive dating, planetary accretion, and materials physics. The Earth appears to have begun in a completely molten state, a magma ocean, the nature of which, while still sketchy, is remarkably rich in its implications for understanding our planet today.

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VybMqy0qbbk


How did Earth begin? (18 Mar 2014)

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Professor Christian Dustmann, UCL Economics

New research has shown the beneficial impact that immigration has on the UK economy. However, the beliefs people hold about immigration are not necessarily formed on the basis of economic considerations, but on other non-economic concerns and fears. Prof Dustmann reports on his research that quantifies the magnitude of these two channels.

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Ex4RV4gc4


The impact of immigration: fact or fiction? (20 Mar 2014)

Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Professor Angela Sasse, UCL Computer Science

Passwords have been used for around 40 years to authenticate people to computer systems, and nowadays on phones and touchscreen devices. This lecture will explain why most people today struggle with them, and why, contrary to received security wisdom, strong passwords do not necessarily mean good security for stakeholders and organisations. What might be the likely replacement? 

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xg7mqWF4M8


The end of passwords (25 Mar 2014)

Even before the first detainee arrived at the US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg was on the story. After 13 years on the job, Rosenberg reflects on how the detention center came to be, snapshots of life there, and what Guantanmo was like for the five Taliban leaders recently swapped for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Nine things we've learned from Carol Rosenberg's 13 years covering Guantanamo

Kathryn Ma's first novel, "The Year She Left Us," is a powerful story about an 18-year-old woman adopted from China by a Chinese American family.

A Chinese American family and the immigrant experience through an adoptee's eyes

Byron Moreno used to be a World Cup soccer referee. Now the Ecuadorian — a notorious ex-con — is known as the worst referee ever.

Why Byron Moreno became known as the 'worst soccer referee ever'

In Colombia, if you have resources, you can get out of the military draft. But if you're poor, you're stuck. It's become an issue in the presidential runoff.

Draft evasion is alive and well in Colombia. And it's an issue in the presidential race

The situation in Iraq got us to thinking, what are American vets thinking, seeing a lot of their blood, sweat and tears washed away as Islamic jihadi terrorists sweep to power in a wide swath of Iraq. So we asked them — and you'll want to hear what they say. Then, we check in on a man called the 'worst World Cup referee ever.' No, he didn't officiate the game Thursday night. Plus Izzy the ocelot makes his first pick in US versus Ghana. 

PRI's The World: 6/13/14

Come join the cosmic café at http://scifri.me/uov5vx

Neutrons, protons, and electrons—these are the basic building blocks of matter. But this kind of matter is only a tiny fraction of the entire universe. The rest, about 95 percent, in fact, is divided between dark matter and dark energy. Understanding what makes up dark matter and dark energy could help answer some of the biggest questions in physics. Physicists Jodi Cooley, Dan Hooper, and Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg join Ira Flatow to discuss what we do and don’t know about this “darker” side of physics, and what we hope to learn.

Understanding the Dark Side of Physics

Episode 1 - Mindverse

Imagine forcing scientists to write and perform spoken word poetry. That’s what Erman Misirlisoy from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience did with the help of the Train and Engage team. Comedian & Head of UCL’s Public Engagement Steve Cross chats about the poetic adventure.

This is an episode of the podcast series 'Clever people doing things'. Produced by UCL Public and Cultural Engagement, the five episodes are based on their training and funding project, 'Train and Engage', following the stories of researchers and their public engagement work.

www.ucl.ac.uk/public-engagement

Clever people doing things podcast: Episode 1 - Mindverse

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Building scientific models with computers

Professor Richard Catlow (UCL Chemistry)

Model building is one of the oldest scientific activities and is essential for allowing us to understand the complex reality of nature. Modern computers have allowed scientists to develop models of unprecedented accuracy and detail, and this lecture will explore and illustrate some aspects of the contemporary field, using examples ranging from cosmology and geosciences to engineering and materials sciences. The power of modern visualisation techniques will also be illustrated. 

This lecture marks 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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.

Building scientific models with computers  (20 Jan 2011)

UCL Lunch Hour Lecture: Stabilising the global population: Where next for the Millennium Development Goals for health and nutrition?

Professor Anthony Costello (Institute of Global Health)

(please note the sound improves after the first 30 seconds)

In many poor countries the Millennium Development Goals for improvements in nutrition and health, especially of mothers and children, will not be met by the target date of 2015. This talk will review progress towards these targets and consider critical obstacles to success. New strategies will be considered to improve nutrition and to accelerate reductions in death and fertility rates so that the global population will be stabilised by mid-century.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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.

Stabilising the global population (25 Jan 2011)

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