Episode 6 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Two colleges of the University of London are playing

each other tonight with a place in the second round

for whichever proves the stronger.

The losers might earn the right to play again if their score

is among the four highest losing totals in these first round matches.

The London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine is making

only its second appearance on this programme.

It was founded in 1899 by Sir Patrick Manson,

the Scottish physician whose discovery that mosquitoes

spread the disease filariasis led him

to be regarded as the father of tropical medicine.

It's located in Bloomsbury, including its Gower Street premises

which are home to numerous mosquito colonies,

some of which need to be fed with the blood of a human volunteer.

Tonight's team have told us that some people are just

into parasites, and indeed their favourite parasite is the botfly.

Whether they brought one with them tonight as a mascot

it's impossible to tell from this side of the studio.

With an average age of 27, representing around 4,000 students,

let's meet the LSHTM team.

Hi, I'm Andy Taylor, I'm originally from Oxford and I'm

studying for a master's in tropical medicine and international health.

Hi, my name is Rebecca Glover.

I'm originally from Ottawa, Canada

and I'm studying for an MSc in the control of infectious disease.

Let's meet their captain.

Hi, I'm Sarah Legrand.

I'm from London and I'm studying for a master's in epidemiology.

Hi, I'm Anjaneya Bapat. I'm from the Wirral

and I'm studying for a master's in tropical medicine

and international health.

APPLAUSE

Their opponents are playing for the London School Of Economics

which was founded after a discussion over breakfast in 1894

between the Fabians Beatrice and Sidney Webb,

Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw.

It was established to further the Fabian aims

of reforming society by researching issues of poverty and inequality.

It became the university's faculty of economics in 1900.

The father of the welfare state,

William Beveridge, was its director between the wars.

Clement Attlee taught there, as did Ramsay MacDonald

and its students have included John F. Kennedy, Mick Jagger

and Ed Miliband.

Representing nearly 9,000 students and with an average age of 26,

let's meet the LSE team.

Hi, I'm Peter Sims.

I'm from Edmonton, Canada and I'm doing a PhD in economic history.

Hi, I'm Jeffrey Mo. I'm from Calgary, also in Canada

and I'm studying for a master's degree in econometrics

and mathematical economics.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Jimmy Chen.

I'm from Colchester in Essex

and I'm studying for a bachelor's degree in government and history.

Hi, I'm Pedro Franco de Campos Pinto.

I am originally from Brazil and I'm studying for a PhD in economics.

APPLAUSE

If you don't know the rules you shouldn't be here

so let's just get on with it.

Fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for ten.

After his death, it was 2,000 years before the world produced any

philosopher who could be regarded...

BUZZER

Aristotle.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

The assessment of Bertrand Russell.

Right. Your bonuses. The first set of bonuses in tonight's contest

are on Caribbean cuisine.

Firstly, for five points, made with a porridge of cornmeal and okra,

Cou-cou and flying fish is the national dish of which country,

the easternmost of the lesser Antilles?

WHISPERING

Grenada.

No, it's Barbados.

A soup or stew made with leaf vegetables, coconut,

crab or pork, Callaloo is often described as the national dish

of which island country situated between Grenada and Venezuela?

(I think it's Jamaica.)

Jamaica.

No, it's Trinidad and Tobago.

And lastly, ackee and salt fish is generally regarded

as the national dish of which island of the greater Antilles?

(I think that's Jamaica.)

Jamaica.

That is Jamaica, yes.

Right, ten points for this.

What term was coined in 1958

by the sociologist and Labour politician Michael Young

to denote a form of government...

BUZZER

Meritocracy.

Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a second set of bonuses.

They're on poets' responses to war and revolution.

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

"but to be young was very heaven."

Which poet wrote those lines and to which event was he referring?

WHISPERING

Was it Wordsworth and the French Revolution?

It was, yes.

In 1914, which poet wrote,

"Now God be thanked who has matched us

"with his hour and caught our youth and wakened us from sleeping."

(Rupert Brooke.)

Rupert Brooke.

Correct.

Primarily associated with the First World War,

which poet wrote in May, 1940,

"Now, multifold, let Britain's

"patient power be proven within us for the world to see"?

Siegfried Sassoon.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

In vertebrate anatomy, which bone has a broad quadrangular

upper part called the manubrium that articulates...

BUZZER

Sternum.

Sternum, breastbone is correct, yes.

This set of bonuses are on the Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev.

Firstly, for five points, the Sanskrit word for the number one,

Mendeleev used what three-letter prefix to name undiscovered

elements whose existence he predicted.

WHISPERING

We'll try U-N-U.

No, it's E-K-A, eka.

Mendeleev's eka-aluminium was later discovered in 1875

and given what name after a large historical region of Western Europe?

WHISPERING

We'll try Germanium.

No, it was Gallium.

And finally, Mendeleev gave the name ekasilicon to another

undiscovered element on its discovery in 1886.

Clemens Winkler gave it what name

after the Roman name of his native country?

WHISPERING

Helveticum.

No, that was germanium.

We're going to take a picture round now.

Your picture starter is a graphic representation of the title

of an opera in the style of mobile phone emoticons.

Ten points if you can give me the opera's title, please.

BUZZER

The Barber of Seville.

It is embarrassing, isn't it? You're quite right.

APPLAUSE

Right. Your bonuses. Three more sets of emoticons representing the titles

of operas, each of which is based on a work of art or literature.

For five points, I want the name of the opera

and the composer in each case.

Firstly, this opera by a Russian composer.

(Rake's Progress?)

Rake's Progress.

By?

Come on.

Shostakovich.

No, it's by Stravinsky.

Secondly, this Russian opera.

(Any idea here?)

Queen Of Spades by Shostakovich.

No, it's by Tchaikovsky. Bad luck.

Finally, this English opera.

The Turn Of The Screw by Britten.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

Which novelist wrote a work whose chapters include,

"What Snobs Admire", "Military Snobs",

and "Party-giving Snobs",

known as the Book of Snobs, it was first serialised in Punch

from 1846 around the same time as his novel, Vanity Fair.

Thackeray.

Thackeray is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your first set of bonuses, LSE, are on triptychs.

On display in the Prado,

which triptych by Hieronymus Bosch depicts God, Adam and Eve

on its left panel, and the torments of hell on the right.

Its central panel depicts life's pleasures

and gives its name to the entire piece.

WHISPERING

The Garden Of Eden.

No, it's The Garden Of Earthly Delights.

Secondly, on display in the Cathedral Of Our Lady in Antwerp,

The Raising Of The Cross is a triptych completed

in around 1611 by which Flemish artist associated with the Baroque?

(Rubens? Is that Rubens?)

(Who else is Flemish?)

(Durer?)

(I think it was Rubens.)

Durer.

No, it was Rubens.

First exhibited in 1945, and now in Tate Britain,

Three Studies For Figures At The Base Of A Crucifixion

is a major work by which Dublin-born painter?

Francis Bacon.

Correct. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

In 1769, a three-day festival in Stratford-upon-Avon

to celebrate the life of William Shakespeare is believed

to have been largely responsible for putting the town on the

literary map and for cementing the playwright's reputation.

Which actor staged it?

David Garrick.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on a political figure.

Firstly, who succeeded Lord Elgin as Viceroy of India in 1899

and ordered a major restoration of the decaying Taj Mahal?

He was Foreign Secretary from 1919 to 1924.

WHISPERING

Arthur Balfour.

No, that was Lord Curzon.

Curzon resigned as Viceroy in 1905 after a disagreement

with which commander-in-chief of the Indian army,

a major figure of the Sudan campaign and the South African War?

-Kitchener.

-Correct.

Proposed by Curzon in 1920 when he was Foreign Secretary,

the Curzon Line demarcated the border

between Russia and which country?

Poland.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Give both answers promptly.

Which two neighbouring planets of the solar system have the

lowest and highest geometric albedos, that is,

they are the darkest and palest of the planets?

BUZZER

Mars and Earth.

Nope.

One of you buzz.

Mars and Jupiter.

No, it's Mercury and Venus. Ten points for this.

Starting in the early 19th century,

which country's golden age of art is associated with the painter

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg and his pupil Christen Kobke

as well as the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

BUZZER

Denmark.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on lines from films of the 1930s.

In each case, listen to the lines and name both the film

and the actor who speaks them.

Firstly, from a film of 1931,

"Listen to them, children of the night.

"What music they make."

WHISPERING

Gone With The Wind.

No, it's Bela Lugosi in Dracula.

From a film of 1930, secondly,

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas.

"How it got in my pyjamas, I don't know."

WHISPERING

Duck soup.

No, it was Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers.

And finally, from a film of 1939,

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

(That's, er, Casablanca.)

(Isn't that Gone With The Wind?)

(Oh, yeah.)

(Who is it in Gone With The Wind?)

Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind.

-The actor, please.

-Rhett Butler.

No, that's the character.

It's Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind.

Right, we're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of popular music.

For ten points, all you have to do is to name the band performing.

-# Ski-doo-be-dop

-We were at a party... #

The B-52s.

It is the B-52s, Rock Lobster.

APPLAUSE

Now, the B-52s lead singer, Fred Schneider

is noted for his Sprechgesang style of singing,

literally, "spoken voice".

For your bonuses, three more pieces of pop music

performed by singers in that style.

Five points for each band or artist you can name.

# There was a guy

# An underwater guy who controlled the sea

# Got killed by ten million pounds of sludge... #

(It's from the 1990s, I think.)

(Is this Arctic Monkeys, or The Black Stripes, or...?)

The Arctic Monkeys.

No, it's the Pixies, Monkey Gone To Heaven.

Secondly.

# From the deserts of Sudan

# And the gardens of Japan

# From Milan to Yucatan... #

(I don't know. Simply Red, or Pet Shop Boys, maybe?)

# Hit me with your rhythm stick Hit me, hit me... #

Pass.

That's Ian Dury, Hit Me With You Rhythm Stick. And finally.

# "No way", "not today", makes you wonder what it meant

# And this hollow feeling grows and grows and grows and grows

# And you want to call your mother and say, "Mother..." #

No idea.

Pass.

That's Pulp.

Right, ten points for this.

What surname links the Scottish bacteriologist who shared

the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Florey and Chain,

the director of Gone With The Wind,

and the authors of News From Tartary and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

BUZZER

Hopkirk.

Fleming.

Fleming is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Bonuses this time on internet and technology corporations, LSE.

The founder of a non-profit support community for women, Sheryl Sandberg

became chief operating officer of which internet corporation in 2008?

Facebook.

Correct. Formerly an executive at Google,

Marisa Mayer became CEO of which corporation in 2012,

making high-profile acquisitions including Summly and Tumblr?

Yahoo.

Correct. In 2011, Ginni Rometty became the first female CEO

in the 100-year history of which major US technology corporation?

WHISPERING

General Electric.

No, it's IBM.

Ten points for this.

Which evolutionary hypothesis suggests that species must

continually evolve to survive

and maintain their relative positions in the same ecosystem?

Red Queen hypothesis.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on genetics.

First noticed in petunias when biologists attempting to deepen the

purple colour of the petals instead produced white flowers,

what general term denotes the means by which small RNA molecules

can provide a regulatory mechanism for gene expression?

WHISPERING

Imprinting?

No, it's RNA interference.

Secondly, what Greek-derived term denotes

the region at the end of each chromosome containing repetitive

DNA sequences that protect against degradation and crossover?

Telomere.

Correct. Which amino acid is present at the start of the protein-coding

DNA sequence for every gene in all eukaryotes?

WHISPERING

Lysine.

No, it's methionine. Ten points for this.

Which class of organic compounds is characterised by the presence

of a carbonyl group in which the carbon atom is covalently

bonded to an oxygen atom, acetone being a common example?

Ketone.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on world capitals.

In each case, identify the city from its location.

All three have names that begin and end with the same letter.

Firstly, a city close to the Greenwich Meridian

and around midway between Abidjan and Lagos.

Accra.

Correct. Secondly, a city roughly midway between Odessa and Damascus?

Ankara.

Correct. Finally, a city roughly midway between Khartoum in Sudan

and Sana'a in Yemen?

Addis Ababa.

No, it's Asmara.

Ten points for this.

When written in Roman numerals and with the addition of the letter O,

which three-digit decimal number spells the name

of the Muse of history?

BUZZER

100.

No, anyone want to buzz from...

550.

No, it's 151. Clio.

Right, ten points for this.

In 1755, Pascal Paoli founded a republic

on which Mediterranean island?

Corsica.

Corsica is correct.

APPLAUSE

That gives you the lead

and you get a set of bonuses on Europe in the 9th century.

The Pactum Ludovicianum was

an agreement of 817 between the papacy and which son of Charlemagne?

I need his regnal name and number or byname.

WHISPERING

Ludwig I.

No, it's Louis I, or Louis the Fair.

I believe he is called Ludwig I in German

but since you were given a form of words very close to that

in the question, I can't accept it, I'm afraid.

Now, in Northern France, which city gives its name to

a treaty of 843 that divided the Carolingian Empire?

WHISPERING

Amiens.

No, it's Verdun.

And finally, the Peace of Wedmore is a name given

to an agreement of 878 between

the Danish King Guthrum and which king of Wessex?

Alfred.

Alfred The Great is correct, yes.

We're going to take a second picture round now.

For your picture starter, you'll see a painting of a beach scene.

Ten points if you can name the artist.

BUZZER

Whistler.

No, anyone like to buzz from the LSE?

Mary Cassatt.

No, it's Monet.

So, we'll take the picture bonuses shortly but ten points at stake

for this starter question. Fingers on the buzzers.

Around two miles south-west of the source of the Severn,

a stream on the eastern slopes of Plynlimon in Mid Wales

is the source of which river?

It joins the Severn Estuary near Chepstow.

BUZZER

Wye.

The Wye is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Now, you get a set of picture bonuses, LSE.

Three more beach scenes by notable artists.

I want the name of the artist in each case, please.

Firstly.

(This looks pretty modern. Picasso?)

(You think it may be Picasso? Early Picasso?)

Picasso.

No, that's by Van Gogh.

Secondly, who's this by?

Manet.

No, that's by Renoir. Le Lavandou.

And finally.

Manet.

Manet is right. Boulogne.

Ten points for this. In 1768, who became the first president

of the Royal Academy Of Arts?

His paintings include The Age Of Innocence...

BUZZER

Joshua Reynolds.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the Bible translator William Tyndale.

Tyndale's English translation of the new testament was first

published in full in 1526 in which German city?

It gives its name to an assembly or diet of 1521

at which Martin Luther answered charges of heresy.

Worms.

Correct. Later canonised by the Roman Catholic church,

which English political figure described Tyndale as,

"A hell-hound in the kennel of the devil"?

WHISPERING

Thomas More.

Correct. Tyndale was arrested by the imperial authorities

and executed near which present-day European capital in 1536?

WHISPERING

Come on.

Brussels.

Correct.

You always seem so pleasantly astonished when you get it right.

Right, ten points for this.

In physics, which Greek letter signifies the ratio of isothermal to

adiabatic compressibility, or equivalently, the ratio of

heat capacity at constant pressure to heat capacity at constant volume?

BUZZER

Lambda.

No, anyone like to buzz from LSE?

BUZZER

Mu.

No, it's gamma. Ten points for this.

Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun,

is the author of which work of 199...

BUZZER

Dead Man Walking.

Correct.

That's given you the lead

and your bonuses are on asexual reproduction in fungi.

In Phycomycetes such as mucor,

what term denotes the well-developed spherical capsules

carried on aerial hyphae that contain many asexual spores?

WHISPERING

Come on, let's have it, please.

Sporocysts.

No, they're sporangia.

From the Greek for dust,

what term denotes fungal spores asexually produced

by constriction of sterigmata and not enclosed in a sporangium?

(Any idea?)

(Greek? Anyone?)

Pass.

They're conidia.

And finally, in yeasts, what term denotes asexual reproduction

in which a new cell is produced as an outgrowth of the parent?

Budding.

Correct. Two and half minutes to go. Ten points for this.

Answer clearly and audibly as soon as your name is called.

What word is spelt by concatenating the silent

letters in the words honour, biscuit and mnemonic?

BUZZER

Hun. H, U, N.

No, anyone want to buzz from the...

Hum.

Hum is correct, yes. H, U, M. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your set of bonuses now are on marine mammals.

In zoology, the family Phocoenidae has what common name

from the Latin meaning roughly, pig-fish?

Seal.

No, it's the porpoise.

The term Pinnipedia encompasses three families of carnivorous

sea mammals, true seals, sea lions and which other?

Walruses.

Correct. Which horny keratinous substance forms a series of

comb-like plates that filter and trap prey

in the upper jaws of true whales?

Baleen.

Correct. We're going to take another starter question.

The Economist newspaper was founded in 1843 as a voice

against what protectionist legislation...?

BUZZER

The Corn Laws.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, LSE, are on Shakespeare's Hamlet.

In each case, identify the speaker of the following lines.

Firstly, "Murder most foul, as in the best it is."

Claudius.

No, it's the ghost, old Hamlet.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"

Hamlet.

No, that's Marcellus. And finally,

"Good night, sweet prince and flights of angels

"sing thee to thy rest."

WHISPERING

Horatio.

Horatio is correct, yes.

Right, another starter question.

In 1980, the novelist Marguerite Yourcenar

became the first woman to be elected to which learned body?

The Academie Francaise.

Correct.

Get these bonuses, you'll take the lead again.

They're on Paleoanthropology.

Meaning "southern ape", what generic name is given those species

of extinct bipedal hominids that include Lucy, discovered in Ethiopia?

Her skeleton is around 3.2 million years old.

WHISPERING

END OF GAME GONG

And at the gong, the LSE have 140,

the London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine have 150.

APPLAUSE

Well, you were close...

..but no cigar. But thank you very much for joining us.

140, you might come back as one of the highest scoring losing teams.

Who knows? It's certainly higher than some losing...

it's higher, frankly, than some winning teams we've had so far.

London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine, well done.

You were a delightful team despite your apparent astonishment

when you got something right.

Thank you. I hope you can join us next time, but until then,

-it's goodbye from the London School Of Economics.

-ALL: Goodbye.

Goodbye from the London School Of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine.

ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.