Millions of us regularly solve Sudoku puzzles. In this lecture, the mathematics behind them was discussed, and the links to other kinds of number grids, like magic squares and so-called Latin squares, which have been studied for centuries. Latin squares have many applications in areas as diverse as experiment design, algebra and coding theory. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/transcript/2023-11-21_1300_Hart-T%20%28PDF%29.pdf […]

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https://youtu.be/R99t0sytY1s

Read more "Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohr Model"

The discovery that we live in an ordinary galaxy, one of several hundred billion in the observable Universe, instigated a profound change in thinking about our place in the Universe. This first lecture covered the Great Debate of the early twentieth century as new telescopes and new ways of observing the cosmos put our Milky […]

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During 2015 I was lucky to see a National Theatre play about J Robert Oppenheimer and I wrote about it here https://wordpress.com/post/helenthehare.org.uk/13072 I am a retired physics teacher and I try to keep up with everything physics so I made a point of seeing Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film about J Robert Oppenheimer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_(film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/ https://youtu.be/bK6ldnjE3Y0 […]

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Wed, 31 May 2023 The Universe is expanding, increasingly so. Will this persist or will it collapse back on itself? If it does expand forever, what happens to the galaxies? What is the long-term trajectory for the ultimate in collapsed matter, black holes? Part of: Cosmic Conclusions https://podcast.gresham.ac.uk/1904814/13023258 Astronomy Physics Science Professor Katherine Blundell OBE […]

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Wed, 19 Apr 2023 The UK’s nuclear power reactors have provided a significant proportion of the UK’s low carbon electricity over their lifetimes. Most will retire in this decade. Advances in technology mean that modern systems can compete with other forms of low carbon energy. The lecture discussed the progress made in development of Small […]

Read more "What Is the Role of Nuclear Power in a Net Zero System?"

What happens to carbon dioxide after we emit it? Half is absorbed within a year or two by plants and the oceans, the rest, in effect, stays in the atmosphere. So, does that mean we have to halve emissions to stop concentrations rising? Unfortunately, no. Despite the vast reserves of carbon dissolved in the oceans, […]

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Christopher Wren, who died 300 years ago this year, is famed as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. But he was also Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and one of the founders of a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning” which became the Royal Society. This lecture explored some of Wren’s mathematical work on […]

Read more "The Mathematical Life of Sir Christopher Wren"

Sir Christopher Wren was one of the most remarkable Gresham Professors of Astronomy. Though best known today as the architectural mastermind behind the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, Wren’s appointment to the Gresham chair in 1657 stemmed from his enthusiasm for turning his gaze well above London’s skyline and focussing his attention on […]

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 Why is the deep ocean cold? And why does this matter for global warming? Doing the maths with pipes and plumbing, not computers, we explore how processes that keep the deep oceans at frigid Arctic temperatures also determine how fast the world is warming in response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations […]

Read more "The Ocean Physics Behind Net Zero"