Upcoming Lectures
Date
Speaker
Title
Venue
10.02.2023
Professor Dame Jane Francis, British Antarctic Survey
Antarctica:Isolated Continent
Continents as we know them today emerged as a consequence of the mechanism of plate tectonics, which led to the fragmentation of a super-continent. One such fragment, the Antarctica, now is in the ocean at the South Pole, covered in thick ice-sheets that contrast with its long-past history where it was adorned by forests and inhabited by animals including dinosaurs. It was the natural processes that buried carbon dioxide that led to the glaciation of Antarctica. The burning of fossil fuels is now having an opposite effect, causing the depletion of the ice at a remarkable rate.
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
17.02.2023
Professor Philip Jones, University College London
Isolation and Trapping using Optical Tweezers
In 2018 Arthur Ashkin was awarded a half share of that year's Nobel Prize in Physics "for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems". The work for which he was recognised had its origins more than thirty years before, and in the years since their invention, the uses of optical tweezers have grown far beyond biological systems, with numerous diverse applications across the chemical and physical sciences also.
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
24.02.2023
Dr Arik Kershenbaum, University of Cambridge
Are we alone in the Universe?
Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? If not, does that mean that we humans are utterly alone in creation? Recent technological developments make the discovery of life on other planets almost expected within the coming decades. But most of the inhabited planets we hope to discover may well be populated by no more than alien bacteria. Will that make us feel any less alone? What we really hope to find are aliens with whom we can communicate and hold a conversation.
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
03.03.2023
Professor Heonik Kwon, University of Cambridge
The Self-Imposed Isolation of North Korea
North Korea is one of the most secluded societies in today's world. Its system of rule is often referred to as an enigma of modern politics. This essay asks what has caused this condition of extreme isolation, highlighting the relentless pursuit of a historically durable charismatic political power. The discussion will include Max Weber's thoughts on the place of charismatic power in modern politics.
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
10.03.2023
Professor Amrita Narlikar, German Institute for Global and Area Studies
Isolation in International Relations
Since the end of the Second World War, diverse aspects of International Relations (IR) - including foreign policy, global governance, negotiation studies, and political economy - have been guided by an understanding that if markets were kept open, and states and their peoples interconnected, both prosperity and peace would stand a far better chance. In contrast, isolation - or its translation into a national strategy, isolationism - is often treated as a profanity in both the study as well as the practice of IR. In my Darwin lecture, I offer a different perspective.
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
Past Lectures
Tamsin Mather
Eruptions, Emissions and Enigmas: from fuming volcanic vents to mass extinction events”
Watch all past lectures
Since 1986, the Darwin College Lecture Series has provided an important annual contribution to Cambridge's intellectual conversation. Watch or listen to previous lectures via the following services.