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Cambridge University

lectures 2

University of Cambridge

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Cambridge Science Festival 2015

In this extended interview, Sebastian Barry speaks about the many histories of Ireland and, even closer to home, remnants of his own family history to be found in his new book The Secret Scripture in the fictional shape of Roseanne McNulty, one of the novel's two narrators, confined to an asylum for sixty years.  
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Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture

Social Science, Small worlds and Big Data

On Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Truth and Method (1960, ch. 4), “Aesthetics and Hermeneutics” (1964), “The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem” (1966), and “Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy” (1972).

Hemeneutics is all about interpretation, primarily of texts, but of other things too, and Gadamer thinks that even if we learn all about the history and customs and probable authorial mindset of a text, there’s still not a single, correct interpretation. We can’t just put aside our prejudices to get to such an objective truth, and in fact without the baggage we bring to a text, we have no purchase from which to begin an interpretation.

Mark, Seth, Wes, and Dylan try to get through all this rich material, discussing science vs. philosophy (again!), modern art, what it is to be practical, and lots more. 

End song: “The Default Relation,” a new song by Mark Lint.

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Gadamer's Hermeneutics of Interpretation

Rediscover Puffin Classics - the world's favourite stories


Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, brought to life by award-winning actress Sheridan Smith. Featuring magical sound effects and specially composed music, this promises to delight and enamour children and adults alike.  

On an ordinary summer's afternoon, Alice tumbles down a hole and an extraordinary adventure begins. In a strange world with even stranger characters, she meets a rabbit with a pocket watch, joins a Mad Hatter's Tea Party, and plays croquet with the Queen! Lost in this fantasy land, Alice finds herself growing more and more curious by the minute . . .

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Audiobook Extract) read by  Sheridan Smith

Lunch Hour Lectures - Autumn 2014

Dr James Kilner, UCL Institute of Neurology

Successful human interactions depend upon the verbal and non-verbal signals from one individual to another. Our ability to read and understand other people’s actions is essential, and is part of what makes humans such a pro-social species. Dr Kilner will describe our current understanding of the neural mechanisms involved.

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-0Nd47IJrU

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: understanding other people’s actions (20 Nov 2014)

Professor Wallace Arthur takes us on a trip from the starting point of familiar animals of the here and now to unfamiliar ones of the past and possible ones on other planets. Along the way, he'll ask a series of questions, including: What exactly is an animal? When did the first animals live? How did animals become more complex over time? Which animals have survived space travel – not inside spacecraft but outside them? Are there animals on exoplanets – either the 2000 or so discovered so far or the millions that we haven’t found yet? And how many different species of animals are there on Earth?

9 March 2015 Animals In Time And Space

Meteorites are fragments of ancient material, natural objects that survive their fall to Earth from space. Some are metallic, but most are made of stone. They are the oldest objects that we have for study. Almost all meteorites are fragments from asteroids, and were formed at the birth of the Solar System, approximately 4570 million years ago. They show a compositional variation that spans a whole range of planetary materials, from completely unmelted and unfractionated stony chondrites to highly fractionated and differentiated iron meteorites. Meteorites, and components within them, carry records of all stages of Solar System history. The Earth, along with the other planets, was formed at the same time, but none of the original material remains: over the years it has been changed and recycled through geological activity. It is only by studying meteorites that we can learn about the processes and materials that shaped the Solar System and our planet.

10 March 2015 Space On Earth

Discover from Dr Alex Kogan the insights that can be gleaned about people's beliefs, values, and personalities from small bits of their Facebook data. Learn how these insights are beginning to transform the fundamental approach social scientists take to understanding human nature and societies.

10 March 2015 What Your Facebook Says About You

Suppose we have six people at a party. Any two are either friends or strangers. Can we always find three of them who are either mutual friends or mutual strangers? Professor Imre Leader introduces the mathematical theory of ‘order out of chaos’ - we can view the unknown pattern of friendships among the six people as`chaos', the three mutual friends/strangers as a patch of ‘order’ in this chaos.

11 March 2015 Order Out Of Chaos

We are busy people living in a competitive world with stresses from commuting on crowded trains to unpleasant and dangerous news events. How do we remain optimistic and resilient? Professor Barbara J Sahakian (University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry and MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute), Dr Jennifer Wild (University of Oxford) and Allison Pearson (The Telegraph) show how to manage stress, get the most out of work and home life and how to successfully overcome problems of anxiety or depression.

12 March 2015 Get The Best Out Of Life - Resilience And Stress Management Organiser

For as long as we have had secrets we have had secret messages.Dr James Grime looks at the fascinating history and mathematics of codes and code breaking - from ancient Greece to the present day - including a demonstration of an original WWII Enigma Machine!

Dr James Grime is a speaker and maths populariser. He has toured the world with his code-breaking talk. In his spare time, James creates videos about maths for Youtube."

14 March 2015 Engima And The Secret World Of Code Breaking

Vitamin D and light: a close relationship with a lot of controversy. Diet is insufficient in providing vitamin D; however, to make Vitamin D ourselves, we need sunlight, which tends to be in short supply in the UK. The EPIC-Norfolk study observed that participants who had a higher blood vitamin D concentration had a lower risk of developing lung disease, heart disease and fractures. Prof. Kay-Tee Khaw will discuss these findings and shed some light on the question: To D or not to D?

12 March 2015 Vitamin D: To D Or Not To D

In this year's Linacre Lecture at St John's, Professor Sharon Peacock discusses a potential tool that could be used to control bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The Linacre Lecture is an annual presentation on a medical topic that has been given at the College since 1524.

Antimicrobial Resistance In The Genomic Era

Lydia Rutherford, an A-level student from Lodge Park Academy (Corby), interviews Professor Trevor Robbins, Head of Psychology at Cambridge University about drug abuse and dependence.

Lydia Rutherford & Professor Trevor Robbins on drug addiction

Noel Fombanu, an A-Level student from Lodge Park Academy (Corby), interviews Dr David Franklin from Cambridge University's Dept of Engineering about the role that neuroscience has to play in robotics.

Noel Fombanu & Dr David Franklin

Dr Denis Alexander talks to Eleanor Puttock about the new technique of human embryo gene editing, the science behind it, its implications as well as a theological view point. 

To find out more about Dr Denis Alexander go to: http://bit.ly/1T0g7sO

To find out more about The Faraday Institute go to: bit.ly/1AAhTXq

To read the original article "CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in human tripronuclear zygote" in Protein & Cell go to: http://bit.ly/1EedsFn (subscription required) 

To read the article in Nature "Ethics of embryo editing divides scientists", referred to by Dr Alexander, go to: http://bit.ly/1LM7GQL (subscription required) 

Denis Alexander discusses human embryo gene editing

The world sends more messages today than ever before. Through the internet we email, and tweet, and instagram. And those messages are in code. This may not be surprising, but even those codes contain more secrets than you realise.

Dr James Grime will reveal how film studios know if you are sharing movies illegally. How to hide a secret message on the internet in plain sight. And the ingenious maths within a CD that allows it to keep playing.

James will also reveal a World War II code machine even more secret and difficult than the famous Enigma, and how too that code was broken. And introduce the Golden Age Hollywood actress and secret inventor who came up with an idea still used in WiFi today.

Dr James Grime is a mathematician and public speaker. Formerly of the Millennium Mathematics Project for the University of Cambridge, James now runs The Enigma Project and travels the world giving public talks on the history and mathematics of codes and code breaking. James is also a presenter of the YouTube channel numberphile.

Dr James Grime -  Bits and pieces: secrets of a digital world

Research Horizons Public Talk

As AI systems are widely deployed in real-world settings, it is critical for us to understand the mechanisms by which they take decisions. Dr Adrian Weller discusses how processes are being developed to ensure AI systems are transparent, reliable and trustworthy.