The following speakers are amongst those who have been invited to deliver pre-recorded talks as part of the virtual Pre-University Summer Programme. (Further details will be added in due course.)
Dr Saz Ahmed - The teenage brain
Why do adolescents seem so much more impulsive and so much more driven by peer influence than adults? This talk will discuss how different brain regions show varying patterns of development in adolescence and explore how the growing and developing brain may underlie typical 'teenage' behaviours.
Dr Alex Archibald - The impacts of the COVID-19 shutdowns on air quality and climate: What have we learned so far?
As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented lockdown measures have been imposed worldwide to reduce the spread of the disease, causing huge reductions in economic activity and corresponding reductions in transport, industrial and aviation emissions. As well as lowering emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases, these changes in activity have resulted in a dramatic reduction in the emissions of short-lived climate forcers, species like nitrogen dioxide and ozone, components in the air that affect air quality and climate change. Dr Alex Archibald will discuss and review what we have witnessed over the last year in terms of changes in these short-lived climate forcers and the work in this area that his group in Cambridge have led. He will review where we are now and what the implications for future strategies to improve air quality and climate are.
Dr Iris Batalha - Nanobiotechnology in health and environment
This talk will give you an overview of the multidisciplinary field of nanobiotechnology, which brings together chemists, physicists and biologists. Students will learn how nanoparticles can be tuned and tailored for certain medical applications by playing with parameters such as chemical composition, size, shape and physical properties. The environmental benefits and risks associated with this growing field will also be discussed.
Dr Jenny Bavidge - An introduction to Cambridge English and close-reading
Learn about the history of 'Cambridge English' and the development of 'close-reading'. We'll analyse several extracts and think about the ways in which we make meaning from literary works and take a look at a notoriously difficult question faced by undergraduates in their final exam.
Dr Matthew Bothwell - The crash that shook the Universe: detecting waves in space and time
Astronomy is the oldest science. The first astronomers had to use their eyes to study the night sky: the invention of the telescope, around 400 years ago, was a scientific revolution which allowed us to see a whole new - previously hidden - Universe. Another genuine revolution happened around a century ago, when radio astronomers discovered how to harness electromagnetic waves beyond visible light to understand the cosmos around us. The third grand revolution in astronomy happened on the 14th of September 2015. That was the date that humanity detected our first ‘gravitational wave’: a completely new way to see the Universe. As with every grand astronomical revolution, this discovery has opened an entirely new window to the cosmos. Matt Bothwell will talk all about that discovery: how it happened, what we saw, and what comes next.
Simon Browne - Lord Byron: still ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’?
Byron has divided critics since he first published in 1807. Wildly popular to contemporary readers, though reprimanded for immorality by censorious reviewers, he now lives on as the original Heathcliff - and is reprimanded for his aesthetics rather than his morality. This talk will look at some of the elements that made him the hero of his age.
Dr Sean Butler - Animal Rights Law – working with farmed animals
Animal rights laws would mean that people cannot exploit animals or kill them for food or pleasure. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t have farmed animals any more: it may be possible to keep animals in such a way that they continue to provide us with milk and wool and perhaps eggs - but this will have to be done with true respect for the animals as individuals. This lecture considers how use of animal products may be compatible with animal rights, and explores how one farm, the Ahimsa Dairy Foundation in Rutland, may do just that.
Dr Paul Elliott - 10 reasons why you need to understand evolution
The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection was jointly conceived by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace over 160 years ago. It remains the most important theory ever devised in Biology, and its consequences impact our lives in a multitude of ways. This lecture will examine the importance of the theory in terms of understanding COVID-19, ensuring global food security, improving healthcare and championing science.
Dr Seb Falk - Turning points in the History of Science
What do we mean by scientific discovery (or invention)? How should we celebrate it? This lecture will examine some iconic achievements from the history of science. From Newton’s apple to Nobel prizes, we will unpack the popular myths surrounding them, using an array of media sources and objects in Cambridge’s museums.
Dr Patricia Fara - Life after Gravity: Newton’s London career
For the last thirty years of his life, Isaac Newton lived in London and ran the Royal Mint as well as the Royal Society. Formerly a reclusive scholar at Cambridge, now he moved in aristocratic circles, exerted political influence and became very rich. Through exploring a painting by William Hogarth that is packed with Newtonian references, Dr Patricia Fara describes aspects of Newton’s life and fame that usually receive little attention. Taking the picture as her cue, she reintegrates him into a metropolitan world where men and women benefited from global trading based on slavery.
Dr James Grime - Alan Turing and the Enigma machine
Alan Turing may best be remembered as one of the leading code breakers of Bletchley Park during World War II. It was Turing's brilliant insights and mathematical mind that helped to break Enigma, the apparently unbreakable code used by the German military. We present a history of both Alan Turing and the Enigma leading to this triumph of mathematical ingenuity.
Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright - Are physicists really superheroes? Have you got what it takes to solve a problem?
What is it about physics that attracts so few but repels so many? Physics enables everyone to solve problems every day but a common reaction to Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright’s introduction “I’m a physicist” is “wow – really?”. The subject, its image and its practitioners are often prejudged and misrepresented. A 2020 study has highlighted the preconceptions of students, teachers and parents about physics (https://www.iop.org/about/strategy/limit-less/member-stories). What is it that prevents students from considering physics in their future? In this lecture Dr Jardine-Wright will ask you to reflect on your own perceptions of physics and challenge you to change the face of the future of physics.
Dr Seán Lang - Sherlock Holmes and the British Empire
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective first appeared at the height of Britain’s imperial power, and colonial and American themes appear regularly in Holmes’s cases. How might Holmes’s Empire-conscious readers have understood these stories and how can we use them to get a grasp of how the British saw their Empire and their role within it?
Dr John Lennard - Harry Potter and the Evils of Prejudices
The Harry Potter series wasn't only an astonishing commercial and popular phenomenon - it was also sharply topical. While Harry and his friends fought Voldemort and his muggle-hating death-eaters, the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry reported, condemning "institutional racism" in the Metropolitan Police, and the British National Party began to win council seats. This lecture looks back at Rowling's series in context, and considers its powerful treatment of prejudice.
Dr Tom Monie - Outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics – a natural cycle or a growing threat?
The relationship between humans and infectious diseases has always been a tense one. We will look at some of the key diseases that have shaped history and consider the ongoing threat of new pathogens in light of the current coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Charlie Morgan - How are DNA manipulations changing how we live?
Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of CRISPR/Cas9, a revolutionary DNA editing technique. However, humans have been manipulating DNA for centuries and as a result changing how we live. This talk looks at the science, the promises, and risks involved in DNA manipulations.
Dr Charlie Morgan - How is precision medicine changing healthcare?
Precision medicine is changing how doctors think about patients and how researchers are investigating diseases as they search for new treatments. This talk looks at the challenges of a ‘one-size fits all’ approach and how new biotechnologies are informing both diagnosis and treatments decisions in the clinic.
Dr Calum Nicholson - International Development: what is it good for?
We’re told International development is about changing the world for the better. But why do we think we know how to change it? And why do we think we know what to change it to? At the end of this talk, you’ll see international development a little differently.
Allen Packwood - The power of words: the oratory of Winston Churchill
In this talk Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, will describe how Churchill crafted his famous speeches and broadcasts and look at some of the origins and inspirations for his rhetoric.
Dr Fred Parker - Scenes from Shakespeare, 1: Rosalind wooing Orlando
Boy playing girl plays boy playing girl... meets boy. This talk takes Act 4 Scene 1 from As You Like It as a focus for thinking about cross-dressing and role-playing in Shakespeare. Is it liberating to think that gender roles, and the attitudes to love that go with them, are like parts performed in a play? If love or marriage are being tested in this playful exchange, do they pass the test?
Dr Fred Parker - Scenes from Shakespeare, 2: Passing the time with Falstaff
In a tavern in Eastcheap, Prince Hal explores whether Falstaff can be made accountable for his actions. This talk takes Act 2 Scene 4 from Henry IV Part One as a focus for thinking about this famous double-act, and about what happens when comedy and history collide. Is Falstaff's irresponsibility a vital principle to be celebrated, or a dangerous temptation to be condemned? And why, really, is Hal spending time with him?
Dr Sudesh Sangray - From ideas to conclusion: understanding the fundamentals of the research process
This session introduces students to the complete process of research. By using software tools, participants are guided through an organised and systematic process that interlinks ideas and approaches to research. The talk will show how a bespoke software tool demonstrated in this case by the Cambridge Research Training software - supports students in the formulation of ideas, develop claims, and review the academic literature in an organised fashion in order to generate research questions that are original, correctly formulated and relevant in the context of the academic literature. This session will further show how easily the appropriate research testing tools can be applied to test for substantiation or rejection of the research question and how analysis can be easily interpreted.
Dr Darshil Shah - Growing the future: from farming linen to farming wind
Bridging archaeology, botany and materials engineering, this talk explores the advancements we have made in growing flax fibres that now enable their uses to capture wind energy through plant material-based turbines. Linen is woven into the fabric of human societies: from its first use over 30,000 years ago for making effective stone tools, to its cultivation by Egyptians 5,000 years ago to wrap mummies, to its farming in contemporary France for uses extending into automotive components. We will reflect on historic and modern practices of growing flax, transforming the crop into high-quality fibres and textiles, and designing wind turbines as sustainable energy solutions.
Dr David Smith - The English Revolution, 1640-60
This lecture examines some of the radical new ideas that emerged during the turbulent times of the English Civil Wars from 1640-60. Along the way we will meet a range of colourful and disparate groups, such as the Levellers, the Diggers, the Ranters, and the Fifth Monarchists, and find out how these new ideas were received and what changes they led to.
