Highlighted Lectures

Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 5:00 minute point in the video. Lord Rees, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, delivers the inaugural Madingley Lecture on 10 January 2011 at the Institute of Continuing Education ( ). The lecture is chaired by Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. We have come to understand how, starting from some mysterious 'beginning' about 13.7 billion years ago, the first atoms, stars and planets emerged - and how, on at least one planet around at least one star, life began and a complex biosphere evolved. What were the key stages in this process? How did the laws of nature allow such complexity to emerge, and what can we infer about the overall scale and structure of the cosmos? And what lies in the far future? Will life from Earth spread far beyond? Or is life already widespread?

Newton Institute Web Seminars: newton.ac.uk/webseminars The last year has been a difficult time for climate science, with leaked emails undermining public confidence and perhaps contributing to the failure of Copenhagen to reach an agreement on emissions cuts. On top of this, mid-term elections in the US suggest it will be difficult for President Obama to carry into legislation any substantial agreements on emissions cuts that may be made in Cancun, making the chances of such agreements less likely in the first place. How does climate science move forward in the light of these events? The evidence above suggests, whether we like it or not, that the arguments of so-called climate "sceptics", that the cost of major emissions cuts is not justified given existing uncertainties in climate predictions, have substantial political traction. Hence I believe that we are unlikely to move from the current stalemate without further advancing the science of climate change, in particular without redu

Evolutionary basis of ageing Professor Cynthia Kenyon (University of California, San Francisco, USA) Summary: Scientists have long thought that ageing just happens. Yet because of their genes, different species have different lifespans. From the roundworm C. elegans, we now know that ageing is regulated, by specific genes. These genes also influence life span in mammals, including humans. This system, and its evolution, will be discussed.

A lecture commemorating the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Pitt in 1795, and 425 years of continuous printing and publishing at Cambridge University Press.

James Deutsch directs the Africa Program of the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society, with 1,100 staff implementing conservation work in 20 African countries. James studied philosophy at Harvard and biological anthropology and zoology at Cambridge King's College before holding a research fellowship at Churchill College and a lectureship in conservation biology at Imperial College, London. In Africa he has researched rhinos, kob antelope, and cichlid fishes and taught high school and field courses. Before coming to the Wildlife Conservation Society four years ago he ran the UK's national fundraising charity for AIDS. Speakers in this video are Jill Fredston, Professor Bill Adams and Professor William Sutherland.