Podcasts about charles simonyi professor

Simon and Rachel speak to Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and bestselling science writer. His first book, "The Selfish Gene", published in 1976, has sold over a million copies and been translated into more than 25 languages. Other titles include "The Ancestor's Tale", "The Blind Watchmaker" and "The God Delusion". The latter book, published in 2006, espoused the criticism of religion for which Richard is well known. From 1995 to 2008 he was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, and he has also written two volumes of memoir. We spoke with Richard about moving from research science to writing books for a general audience, his breakout with "The Selfish Gene" in the 1970s, and his latest title, "The Genetic Book of the Dead".  “Always Take Notes: Advice From Some Of The World's Greatest Writers” - a book drawing on our podcast interviews - is published by Ithaka Press. You can order it via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hatchards⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Waterstones⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can find us online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠alwaystakenotes.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on Twitter @takenotesalways and on Instagram @alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/alwaystakenotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Artemis Irvine. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

The bodies and genes of organisms can be thought of as a history book detailing how other creatures lived long ago. Richard Dawkins, inaugural Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why the bodies of animals resemble their environments from thousands of years ago, and why sequencing these genomes offers a time machine to previous stages of evolution. His book is “The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie.”

Evolutionary biologist and author, Richard Dawkins, explores how the body, behavior, and genes of every living creature serve as a record of their ancestors' worlds, similar to how a lizard's skin reflects its desert origins. In his new book, Dawkins shows that these genetic “books of the dead” offer insights into the history of life, revealing how animals have adapted to challenges over time. He argues that understanding these evolutionary patterns unlocks a vivid and nuanced view of the past, allowing us to see the remarkable continuity in how life overcomes obstacles. Richard Dawkins was the inaugural Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is best known for The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. Dawkins has made significant contributions to evolutionary theory and popular science, emphasizing the gene-centered view of evolution. His latest book, The Genetic Book of the Dead, explores how genes serve as an archive of ancestral history. Dawkins continues to write and lecture on science and reason. Shermer and Dawkins discuss Dawkins' new book, The Genetic Book of the Dead, exploring how an animal's genes can be interpreted as a record of its ancestral history. They delve into the interdisciplinary nature of evolutionary studies, linking archaeology, biology, and geology. The conversation clarifies the difference between genetic and phenotypic records, using the metaphor of QR codes to explain how genetic information encodes environmental history. They also touch on the future implications of this research for understanding evolution.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comRichard is a scientist, author, and public speaker. From 1995 to 2008 he was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, and he's currently a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature. Among his many bestselling books are the The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, and his two-part autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder and A Brief Candle in the Dark. He also has substack called The Poetry of Reality — check it out and subscribe!A pioneering New Atheist, Dawkins is a passionate defender of science and denigrator of religion. Who better to talk to about God? For two clips of our convo — on whether faith is necessary for meaning, and which religion is the worst — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: Richard growing up in England and colonial Africa; his father serving as an agricultural officer; the paternalistic racism of that period; Orwell's “Such, Such Were the Joys”; genetic variation and natural selection; how evolution is “stunningly simple” but yields “prodigious complexity”; the emergence of consciousness; the crucial role of language for humans; how our intelligence will destroy us; life on other planets; birds-of-paradise and seducing the opposite sex; how faith and the scientific method aren't mutually exclusive; Einstein's faith; Pascal; Oakeshott; religious practice over doctrine; the divinity of nature; Richard's love of cathedrals and church music; Buddhism; virgin births and transubstantiation; Jesus as a moral teacher; his shifting of human consciousness; the Jefferson bible; Hitchens; GK Chesterton; Larkin; Richard as a “cultural Anglican”; gender as “fictive sex”; gamete size; respecting pronouns; science and race; tribalism and “the other”; the complex blend of genetics and culture; the heritability of intelligence; the evolutionary role of religion; the heretical violence of Islam; gays in the Catholic Church; falling rates of religious faith; Judith Butler's new book; and my awful experience on Jon Stewart's now-terminated show.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Next up: Daniel Finkelstein on his memoir Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad, and Neil J. Young on his history of the gay right. After that: Johann Hari on weight-loss drugs, Adam Moss on the artistic process, and George Will on Trump and conservatism. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other pod comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

As machine learning and AI mature and adapt to the humans that created them, it's important we think carefully about not only what is creativity, but what is uniquely human about creativity.Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the Oxford University, a chair he holds jointly at the Department of Continuing Education and the Mathematical Institute, as well as a Professor of Mathematics and a Fellow of New College.His many books dive deep into the world of machines and creativity, and include “Thinking Better: the Art of the Shortcut,” and “The Creativity Code.”He sits down for this stimulating conversation with Greg covering generative adversarial networks, Ada Lovelace and machine generated music, crediting the code or the coder, and what the future holds for art & AI.Episode Quotes:Two kinds of algorithm we need at work:You need a sort of two algorithms at work. One is the creator coming up with babbling new ideas. And then the second is like, oh, the judgments. No, that's no good. That doesn't work because of this. And you know in my own research, I often pair up with another mathematician and we play these two roles, the creator and the discriminator.So, I think some of the most interesting algorithms that we're seeing that are beginning to look like they're making something genuinely new are capturing that element that we take advantage of as humans.Machines still need humansMachines might be able to do things at speed or at depth that a human could never achieve. But ultimately, we should credit the creativity with the human that told the machine what to do.The Emotional Resonance to MathematicsAda Lovelace went to see, you know, Charles Babbage making a machine do math, but, no, it wasn't doing math. It was doing arithmetic and that's the kind of bread and butter. But mathematics is something much more creative. And, we use this word creativity as a kind of protective shield about, against why a computer can't do what we're doing, because we're making lots of leaps into the unknown, lots of choices, things we choose proofs, which kind of move us emotionally because they got “Aha” moment in them.Show Links:Resources:The ContinuatorThe Turing TestForget Turing, the Lovelace Test Has a Better Shot at Spotting AIAda LovelaceAlphaGoGPT3 algorithmAnish KapoorLibrary of BabelDeep Dream GeneratorGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of OxfordProfessional Profile at the Royal SocietyMarcus du Sautoy WebsiteMarcus du Sautoy on TwitterMarcus du Sautoy on FacebookMarcus du Sautoy on YoutubeMarcus Sautoy on TEDTalkHis Work:The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AIFinding Moonshine BlogThinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and LifeI is a Strange LoopHow to Count to Infinity (Little Ways to Live a Big Life Book 1)The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of ScienceWhat We Cannot Know: From consciousness to the cosmos, the cutting edge of science explainedThe Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics The Number Mysteries: A Mathematical Odyssey through Everyday Life (MacSci)Symmetry: A Mathematical Journey Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey Through Symmetry

Critically-acclaimed author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss discuss biology, cosmology, religion, and a host of other topics at this event entitled 'Something for Nothing'. This video was recorded at The Australian National University on 10 April 2012. Richard Dawkins FRS is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Born in British colonial Africa, he was educated in England, where he now lives. He did his doctorate at Oxford under the Nobel Prize winning zoologist Niko Tinbergen, then was briefly an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1967 to 1969, after which he returned to Oxford, first as a Lecturer in Zoology, then Reader, before being elected to his present professorship. He is the author of nine books: The Selfish Gene (1976, 2nd Ed 1989), The Extended Phenotype (1982), The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), A Devil's Chaplain (2003), The Ancestor's Tale (2004) and The God Delusion (2006). The God Delusion has sold more than two million copies in English, and is being published in 30 other languages. Dawkins is now editing an anthology of scientific writing for Oxford University Press, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. In 2006, to promote the values of education, science, and critical thinking skills, he established The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) which is now a registered charity in both the UK and USA. Richard Dawkins has Honorary Doctorates of Literature as well as Science, and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the Nakayama Prize, the Cosmos International Prize, the Kistler Prize, the Shakespeare Prize and the Lewis Thomas Prize. Lawrence M. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist and science populariser, and is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare public intellectual, he is also the author of more than three hundred scientific publications and nine books, including the international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek, and his most recent bestseller entitled A Universe from Nothing. He received his PhD from MIT in 1982 and then joined the Society of Fellows at Harvard, and was a professor at Yale University and Chair of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University before taking his present position. Internationally known for his work in theoretical physics, he is the winner of numerous international awards, and is the only physicist to have received major awards from all three US physics societies, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Krauss is also a commentator and essayist for newspapers such as the New York Times, and the Wall St. Journal, and has written regular columns for New Scientist and Scientific American and appears regularly on radio and television. He is one of the few scientists to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, and is also active in issues of science and society. He serves as co-chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and on the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Scientists.

In today's episode of the Idea to Value Podcast, we speak with Professor Marcus du Sautoy. Prof du Sautoy is widely known for his work to popularise mathematics, is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and author of the bestselling book The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI. See the full episode at https://wp.me/p6pllj-1Bm #ai #artificialintelligence #creativity #code We speak about the link between Artificial Intelligence and Creativity, and how these two worlds are coming closer and closer together. Topics covered in this episode: 00:01:30 - Prof du Sautoy's history with Mathematics and Science 00:03:30 - Can Artificial Intelligence be creative? The example from the game of Go 00:07:30 - The new way of coding, based on machine learning, which no longer requires the rules which humans program into software 00:11:00 - The realms of the arts are now being taught to software, which allows code to generate output which humans never would have 00:15:00 - How algorithms are creating new types of music, and how audiences are unable to tell music created by a human or a computer 00:17:00 - The unbelievable creativity of GPT-3, and whether creativity requires intention 00:23:00 - Is AI creative if a human is always the one choosing which outputs to display 00:27:00 - The challenge of communicating science, and building public trust in science 00:31:00 - The power of a story in communicating (and miscommunicating) science Links mentioned in this episode: Book: The Creativity Code: https://amzn.to/3yw6oDV Book: Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life (Oct 2021): https://amzn.to/36k887d Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcusdusautoy Prof du Sautoy's site: https://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/ Bonus: This episode was made possible by our premium innovation and creativity training. Take your innovation and creativity capabilities to the next level by investing in yourself now, at https://www.ideatovalue.com/all-access-pass-insider-secrets/ * Subscribe on iTunes to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/idea-to-value-creativity-innovation/id1199964981?mt=2 * Subscribe on Spotify to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4x1kANUSv7UJoCJ8GavUrN  * Subscribe on Stitcher to the Idea to Value Podcast: http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=129437&refid=stpr * Subscribe on Google Podcasts to the Idea to Value Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9pZGVhdG92YWx1ZS5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw  Want to rapidly validate new ideas and innovative products and GROW your online business? These are the tools I actually use to run my online businesses (and you can too): * The best email management and campaigns system: ActiveCampaign (Free Trial) http://www.activecampaign.com/?_r=M17NLG2X  * Best value web hosting: BlueHost WordPress http://www.activecampaign.com/?_r=M17NLG2X  * Landing pages, Sales Pages and Lead collection: LeadPages (Free Trial) http://leadpages.pxf.io/c/1385771/390538/5673  * Sharing & List building: Sumo (Free) https://sumo.com/?src=partner_ideatovalue  * Payments, Shopping Cart, affiliate management and Upsell generator: ThriveCart https://improvides--checkout.thrivecart.com/thrivecart-standard-account/  * Video Webinars for sales: WebinarJam and Everwebinar ($1 Trial) https://nickskillicorn.krtra.com/t/lwIBaKzMP1oQ  * Membership for protecting content: Membermouse (Free Trial) http://affiliates.membermouse.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=735  * eLearning System for students: WP Courseware https://flyplugins.com/?fly=293  * Video Editing: Techsmith Camtasia http://techsmith.z6rjha.net/vvGPv  I have used all of the above products myself to build IdeatoValue and Improvides, which is why I can confidently recommend them. I may also receive affiliate payments for any business I bring to them using the links above. Copyright https://www.ideatovalue.com

Join us to hear master story teller and theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli in conversation with Marcus du Sautoy - the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University – as they discuss a revolutionary idea that transformed the whole of science and our very conception of the world. In his new book Helgoland, Carlo Rovelli guides us through the extraordinary story of the quantum, the debates it raises, and his own foundational contribution to the field. The book opens a century ago on a treeless windswept island in the North Sea, Helgoland, where the young Werner Heisenberg, aged just 23, had retreated to think and had an idea, “one of the most vertiginous of Nature’s secrets ever looked upon by humankind, an idea that would transform physics in its entirety – together with the whole of science and our very conception of the world.” Heisenberg had begun to glimpse the strange beauty of a world in which nothing exists until it interacts with something else, forever causing a rip in our all-too-solid conceptions of reality. This is the story of the bright young men who together with Heisenberg completed the theory of quantum mechanics. Their science has given us modern technology, yet it remains enigmatic, swarming with startling ideas such as ghostly waves, distant objects seemly magically connected to each other, and cats that are both asleep and awake. Drawing off a lifetime of reading across the sciences and the arts, philosophy and neuroscience, Rovelli guides the reader through the far-reaching general implications of thinking of reality as a vast network of relations, of which we ourselves are just a component. Now, a century on from the discovery of quantum theory, Carlo Rovelli helps us to truly understand the world we live in. Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. His books Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality is Not What it Seems and The Order of Time are international bestsellers which have been translated into 43 languages and have sold over 2 million copies worldwide in all formats. Rovelli is currently working in Canada and also directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseille, France. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is also a Professor of Mathematics and a Fellow of New College. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016. In 2001 he won the prestigious Berwick Prize of the London Mathematical Society awarded every two years to reward the best mathematical research made by a mathematician under 40. In 2009 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Faraday Prize, the UK’s premier award for excellence in communicating science. He received an OBE for services to science in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. This talk was recorded at 5x15 online in April 2021. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

In this episode, which Dawkins described as “one of the best interviews I have ever had,” the eminent ethologist and host Jason Gots talk about whether pescatarianism makes any sense, where morality should come from (since, as Hume says, "you can't get an 'ought' from an 'is'), the greatness of Christopher Hitchens, and the evils of nationalism. About the guest: Today’s guest is internationally best-selling author, speaker, and passionate advocate for reason and science as against superstition Richard Dawkins. From 1995 to 2008 Richard Dawkins was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.  Among his many books are The Selfish Gene, the God Delusion, and his two-part autobiography: An Appetite for Wonder and A Brief Candle in the Dark. His latest is a collection of essays, stories, and speeches called Science in the Soul, spanning many decades and the major themes of Richard’s work. About Think Again: Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Symmetry has played a role both for composers and in the creation of musical instruments. Marcus shows how composers have used this symmetry and demonstrates how Ernst Chladni revealed extraordinary symmetrical shapes in the vibrations of a metal Plate. Marcus du Sautoy is Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

Cara is joined by the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Oxford Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Marcus Du Sautoy, to talk about his new book "The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science." They discuss his role as a professional science communicator, as well as his take on the very edges of modern science understanding, from chaos to consciousness to infinity. Follow Marcus: @MarcusduSautoy.

Cara is joined by the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Oxford Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Marcus Du Sautoy, to talk about his new book "The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science." They discuss his role as a professional science communicator, as well as his take on the very edges of modern science understanding, from chaos to consciousness to infinity. Follow Marcus: @MarcusduSautoy.

Richard Dawkins explains his inspirations, ideas, encounters and history. Richard Dawkins is one of the most respected scientists and secularists in the world. From 1995 to 2008 he was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is an internationally best-selling author, with books including 'The Selfish Gene', 'The God Delusion' and 'The Greatest Show on Earth'. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature. His around-the-world speaking tour is the focus of recent documentary 'The Unbelievers', which also features appearances by Woody Allen, Stephen Colbert, Cameron Diaz, Ian McEwan, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Hawking, Eddie Izzard, Bill Pullman, and Sarah Silverman. In 2013 he published his autobiography 'An Appetite for Wonder', which is followed by a second volume, 'Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science', published in September 2015. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Mathematician Marcus de Sautoy champions the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. He is fascinated by the connection between the creator of 'The Library of Babel' and science - did Borges really understand notions of infinity and space? Biographer Jason Wilson adds colourful detail to the life of a great writer whom he insists was just being impish when it came to the weighty matters that have excited more than one mathematician over the years. The programme includes beautiful recordings of Borges in conversation in 1971. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Understanding of Science. Presented by Matthew Parris. Produced by Miles Warde. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2014.

Mariella Frostrup meets Ruby Wax; mathematician Marcus du Sautoy; writer Wendy Law-Yone and Ian Martin of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He presents a new series on BBC4, Precision: The Measure of All Things, which explores the history of numerical exactness in our world and how precision has come to rule our lives. Precision: The Measure of All Things is on BBC4 at 9pm. Ruby Wax is a comedian, actress and mental health campaigner. In her book, Sane New World: Taming the Mind, she demonstrates how our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking to cope with a frenetic world. Sane New World: Taming the Mind is published by Hodder & Stoughton. Author Wendy Law-Yone was born and brought up in Burma before fleeing the country at the age of twenty. Her book Golden Parasol: A Daughter's Memoir Of Burma tells the story of her father, the proprietor of The Nation newspaper, who spent five years as a political prisoner. Golden Parasol: A Daughter's Memoir of Burma is published by Chatto & Windus. Ian Martin is general manager of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. D'Oyly Carte has returned to the stage after lack of funds forced it to stop performances in 2003. Following a rebate from the taxman, the company has made its triumphant return with Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. The show, produced in association with Scottish Opera, is on tour. Producer: Paula McGinley.

Richard Dawkins has been called the world's most famous atheist - An evolutionary biologist , he has touched off a storm of controversy with his bestseller The God Delusion. In it he argues that a belief in God is irrational and religion is divisive and dangerous. Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

Richard Dawkins has been called the world's most famous atheist - An evolutionary biologist , he has touched off a storm of controversy with his bestseller The God Delusion. In it he argues that a belief in God is irrational and religion is divisive and dangerous. Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

Melvyn Bragg and guests John Barrow, Colva Roney-Dougal and Marcus du Sautoy explore the unintended consequences of mathematical discoveries, from the computer to online encryption, to alternating current and predicting the path of asteroids.In his book The Mathematician's Apology (1941), the Cambridge mathematician GH Hardy expressed his reverence for pure maths, and celebrated its uselessness in the real world. Yet one of the branches of pure mathematics in which Hardy excelled was number theory, and it was this field which played a major role in the work of his younger colleague, Alan Turing, as he worked first to crack Nazi codes at Bletchley Park and then on one of the first computers.Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the many surprising and completely unintended uses to which mathematical discoveries have been put. These include:The cubic equations which led, after 400 years, to the development of alternating current - and the electric chair.The centuries-old work on games of chance which eventually contributed to the birth of population statistics.The discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, which crucially provided an 'off-the-shelf' solution which helped Albert Einstein forge his theory of relativity.The 17th-century theorem which became the basis for credit card encryption.In the light of these stories, Melvyn and his guests discuss how and why pure mathematics has had such a range of unintended consequences.John Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London; Colva Roney-Dougal is Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews; Marcus du Sautoy is Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.

Melvyn Bragg and guests John Barrow, Colva Roney-Dougal and Marcus du Sautoy explore the unintended consequences of mathematical discoveries, from the computer to online encryption, to alternating current and predicting the path of asteroids.In his book The Mathematician's Apology (1941), the Cambridge mathematician GH Hardy expressed his reverence for pure maths, and celebrated its uselessness in the real world. Yet one of the branches of pure mathematics in which Hardy excelled was number theory, and it was this field which played a major role in the work of his younger colleague, Alan Turing, as he worked first to crack Nazi codes at Bletchley Park and then on one of the first computers.Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the many surprising and completely unintended uses to which mathematical discoveries have been put. These include:The cubic equations which led, after 400 years, to the development of alternating current - and the electric chair.The centuries-old work on games of chance which eventually contributed to the birth of population statistics.The discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, which crucially provided an 'off-the-shelf' solution which helped Albert Einstein forge his theory of relativity.The 17th-century theorem which became the basis for credit card encryption.In the light of these stories, Melvyn and his guests discuss how and why pure mathematics has had such a range of unintended consequences.John Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London; Colva Roney-Dougal is Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews; Marcus du Sautoy is Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss altruism. The term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist Auguste Comte and is derived from the Latin “alteri” or "the others”. It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. Comte declared that man had a moral duty to “serve humanity, whose we are entirely.” The idea of altruism is central to the main religions: Jesus declared “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” and Mohammed said “none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself”. Buddhism too advocates “seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”Philosophers throughout time have debated whether such benevolence towards others is rooted in our natural inclinations or is a virtue we must impose on our nature through duty, religious or otherwise. Then in 1859 Darwin's ideas about competition and natural selection exploded onto the scene. His theories outlined in the Origin of Species painted a world “red in tooth and claw” as every organism struggles for ascendancy.So how does this square with altruism? If both mankind and the natural world are selfishly seeking to promote their own survival and advancement, how can we explain being kind to others, sometimes at our own expense? How have philosophical ideas about altruism responded to evolutionary theory? And paradoxically, is it possible that altruism can, in fact, be selfish?With Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London; Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University; John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at Exeter University and director of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss altruism. The term altruism was coined by the 19th century sociologist Auguste Comte and is derived from the Latin “alteri” or "the others”. It describes an unselfish attention to the needs of others. Comte declared that man had a moral duty to “serve humanity, whose we are entirely.” The idea of altruism is central to the main religions: Jesus declared “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” and Mohammed said “none of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself”. Buddhism too advocates “seeking for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”Philosophers throughout time have debated whether such benevolence towards others is rooted in our natural inclinations or is a virtue we must impose on our nature through duty, religious or otherwise. Then in 1859 Darwin’s ideas about competition and natural selection exploded onto the scene. His theories outlined in the Origin of Species painted a world “red in tooth and claw” as every organism struggles for ascendancy.So how does this square with altruism? If both mankind and the natural world are selfishly seeking to promote their own survival and advancement, how can we explain being kind to others, sometimes at our own expense? How have philosophical ideas about altruism responded to evolutionary theory? And paradoxically, is it possible that altruism can, in fact, be selfish?With Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London; Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University; John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at Exeter University and director of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the emergence of the world's first organic matter nearly four billion years ago. Scientists have named 1.5 million species of living organism on the land, in the skies and in the oceans of planet Earth and a new one is classified every day.  Estimates of how many species remain to be discovered vary wildly, but science accepts one categorical point – all living matter on our planet, from the nematode to the elephant, from the bacterium to the blue whale, is derived from a single common ancestor. What was that ancestor?  Did it really emerge from a ‘primordial soup'? And what, in the explanation of evolutionary science, provided the catalyst to start turning the cycle of life?With Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University; Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University; Linda Partridge, Biology and Biotechnology Research Council Professor at University College London.

Melvyn Bragg looks at the development of the science of genetics. In the 1850s and 60s, in a monastery garden in Burno in Moravia, a Franciscan monk was cultivating peas. He began separating the wrinkly peas from the shiny peas and studying which characteristics were passed on when the next crop of peas were grown. In this slow and systematic way Gregor Mendel worked out the basic law of heredity and stumbled upon what was later to be described as the fundamental unit of life itself…the gene.But Mendel's work was ignored when he published his findings in 1865, and it was not until the 20th century that he was rediscovered and the science of genetics was born. What effect did the discovery of the gene have on Darwin's ideas? How do our genes work upon us, and how can we manipulate them?With Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics and Head of the Galton Laboratory at University College London, Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and the genetic scientist Linda Partridge, NERC Research Professor at the Galton Laboratory, University College London.

Melvyn Bragg looks at the development of the science of genetics. In the 1850s and 60s, in a monastery garden in Burno in Moravia, a Franciscan monk was cultivating peas. He began separating the wrinkly peas from the shiny peas and studying which characteristics were passed on when the next crop of peas were grown. In this slow and systematic way Gregor Mendel worked out the basic law of heredity and stumbled upon what was later to be described as the fundamental unit of life itself…the gene.But Mendel’s work was ignored when he published his findings in 1865, and it was not until the 20th century that he was rediscovered and the science of genetics was born. What effect did the discovery of the gene have on Darwin’s ideas? How do our genes work upon us, and how can we manipulate them?With Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics and Head of the Galton Laboratory at University College London, Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and the genetic scientist Linda Partridge, NERC Research Professor at the Galton Laboratory, University College London.