Dr Maggie Adarin-Pocock delivers the 2019 Simonyi Lecture at the Oxford Playhouse

Science in Society

Why be a Lunatic

In this year’s Simonyi Lecture Geoffrey West discusses universal laws that govern everything from growth to mortality in plants, animals, cities and companies. These remarkable laws originate in the networks that sustain life from circulatory to social systems and help us address big, urgent questions from population explosion, urbanization, lifespan and cancer, to the accelerating pace of life and global sustainability. Why do we stop growing and live about 100 years rather than 1000, or just two like mice? Why do we sleep eight hours a day and not three like elephants? Why do all companies and people die whereas cities keep growing? How are these related to innovation, wealth creation, and “singularities”? And is any of this sustainable? Geoffrey West is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics, biology and social organizations  West is a distinguished professor at the Sante Fe Institute, where he served as the president from 2004-2008. He is author of the recent best-selling book, Scale.

The future of the planet: life, growth and death in organisms, cities and companies. Geoffrey West

The Inaugural Lecture of the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, 2009.

Mathematics: Navigating Nature's Dark Labyrinth

Luc Steels delivers the 2012 Simonyi lecture and asks can machines be creative enough to invent their own language? Professor Steels talks about some of his recent breakthrough experiments which have seen robots programmed to play language games and come up with novel concepts, words and meanings. He discusses how this triggers a process of cultural evolution that leads to more complex forms of language and deliberate on what this tells us about the nature of our own intelligence and the future of artificial intelligence. Luc Steels is ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona and Director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. The Simonyi Lecture is funded by a generous gift from the Amalur Foundation.

Can robots be made creative enough to invent their own language?

2014 Charles Simonyi Lecture with David MacKay. David discusses how the laws of physics constrain our energy options, and describes what happened when his reflections on energy arithmetic propelled him into a senior civil service role.

Why climate change action is difficult and how we can make a difference

Professor Melissa Franklin talks about her experiences working towards the discovery of the Higgs Boson and her work today at the Large Hadron Collider This entertaining lecture by experimental particle physicist, Professor Melissa Franklin (the first woman to achieve tenure in the Harvard Physics Department), is the latest in the Charles Simonyi annual lecture series. This series was set up in 1999 in order to promote the public understanding of Science

Putting the Higgs Boson in its Place

Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Cambridge, and Director of the Autism Research Centre, gives the 2016 Charles Simonyi Lecture on new research into autism.

Autism and Minds Wired for Science

The annual Simonyi Lecture is the highlight of Oxford University's programme to bring the excitement of science to the public. Held each year at the Oxford Playhouse, the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Marcus du Sautoy, invites an eminent scientist to talk about cutting edge science and it’s impact on society. More details about the lectures can be found at: https://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/about-marcus/the-oxford-simonyi-professor-for-the-public-understanding-of-science/

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Science in Society

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