Episode 18 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Last time, we saw Imperial College, London take the first of the

eight places in the quarterfinal stage of this competition.

Whichever team wins tonight will join them.

The team from Warwick University beat Clare College, Cambridge

by 195 points to 100.

Their strengths included chemical elements, central

Asia, Scandinavian crime fiction, Cypriot wine and exclamation marks.

Let's see if they can demonstrate a similarly eclectic knowledge tonight.

Hi, I'm Hugh Osborn, I'm from Norwich

and I'm studying for a PhD in Astronomy.

Hi, my name's Emily Stevenson, I'm from Oxford

and I'm studying English Literature.

-And this is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Ashley Page,

I'm from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire

and I'm studying for a PhD in Chemistry.

Hi, I'm James Leahy, I'm from Shrewsbury

and I'm reading a degree in French and History.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from Nuffield College, Oxford were

trailing in their first-round

match against Queen Mary College, London, but managed to pull

ahead and had 165 points at the gong, compared to their opponents' 130.

Despite their international line-up, they were quick to recognise

that very British phenomenon drizzle, and they were strong on 19th-century

paintings of Paris, book titles in IPA and Henry the Navigator.

Let's meet the Nuffield team again.

Hello, I'm Spencer Smith, I'm from Holland, Michigan

and I study Economics.

Hello, I'm Alexander Sayer Gard-Murray, I'm

from Los Angeles, California, and I study Politics.

-And this is their captain.

-Hello, my name is

Mathias Ormestad Frendem, I'm from Oslo, Norway,

and I study International Relations.

I'm Daniel Kaliski, I'm from Cape Town, South Africa,

and I'm studying Economics.

APPLAUSE

Right, you all know the rules by now, so let's just get on with it.

Fingers on the buzzers. Your first starter for ten.

In Roman legend, which hero escaped from the fallen city of Troy...

Aeneas.

Aeneas is correct, yes.

The first set of bonuses are on prime ministers, Nuffield.

Born in Dublin in 1737, the Earl of Shelburne became Prime Minister

towards the end of which war?

His immediate predecessors were the Marquess of Rockingham

and Lord North.

The War of American Independence.

Indeed. Also born in Dublin before the 1801 Act of Union, which former

military figure became Prime Minister for the first time in 1929?

The Duke of Wellington.

Correct. Born in New Brunswick, Canada,

who became Prime Minister after a meeting of the Carlton Club

in October 1922 during which he spoke against the coalition?

Arthur Bonar-Law.

It was Andrew Bonar-Law, but Bonar-Law was the surname I wanted

and I got it. Thanks. Right, ten points for this.

What single-word term was coined by the author

William Gibson in 1982 in a short story called Burning Chrome

and is used to mean the virtual world created by the links...

Cyberspace?

Cyberspace is right, yes.

Your bonuses are on animals this time, Nuffield.

Which large raptor has two species native to Britain, the golden

and the sea or white-tailed?

Hawk.

Oh, no, that's too generic. It's an eagle.

The beagle is a dog breed whose ancestors are thought to

include which extinct breed?

Its six-letter name is a traditional pub name, perhaps because of

its association with heraldic badges and with the Earls of Shrewsbury.

Should have gone to more pubs!

Sorry, we don't know.

It's a talbot. You sound as if you've never been in a pub!

And finally, found chiefly in the North Atlantic,

the porbeagle is a species of which broad group of cartilaginous

fish related to rays and skates?

-I'd say flatfish or flounder.

-Right, well, which one do you prefer?

Plaice?

All right. Plaice.

No, it's a shark. Ten points for this.

What is being described?

A two-dimensional graph with space on the x-axis and time on the y...

Oh. Er...

Acceleration?

No. If you buzz, you must answer straight away, and I'm going to have

to fine you five points for an incorrect interruption.

..space on the x-axis, time on the y-axis,

straight lines depict fermions, wavy lines depict bosons.

They're used by physicists to calculate processes

such as electron-electron scattering in quantum electrodynamics.

Feynman diagram?

Correct.

These bonuses are on astronomy, Warwick.

What six-letter term did the US astronomer Ed Spiegel

coin in 1978 to denote an unusually strong source of gamma rays?

The extragalactic object Markarian 421 is an example.

-Quasar.

-Quasar?

No, it's blazar.

Varying by as much as 50% flux in a single day,

for what does the abbreviation OVV stand when referring to

a class of blazar consisting of a few rare, bright radio galaxies?

I don't know. Any ideas?

I don't know.

-No, we don't know.

-It's Optically Violent Variable.

And finally, named after a US astronomer in 1943

and believed by many astronomers to be the same objects as quasars

but viewed differently, what type of active galactic nuclei show

broad emission lines in their spectrum?

-Nominate Osborn.

-Seyfert galaxies?

Correct. Ten points for this.

Dating from the early 2nd century BC, the Rosetta Stone carries

the same inscription in three distinct writing systems.

Please name two of them.

Er, Greek and Ancient Egyptian.

That's correct, yes.

Right, you get a set of bonuses on the Circle Line.

In each case, give the single-word name of the station that

shares its name with the following.

And for the avoidance of doubt, we're talking about the

Circle Line of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit System.

LAUGHTER

Firstly, ultimately from the Latin meaning "levelled"

and later applied to the flat ground on the top of a rampart,

the term that now denotes an area where one walks for pleasure,

typically by the sea.

Promenade?

No, it's Esplanade.

Secondly, the naval commander who became Viceroy of India in 1946.

He was assassinated in Ireland in 1979.

Lord Mountbatten.

Mountbatten is correct. And finally,

a designation used by the RAF for the Douglas DC-3 airliner.

It appears in the names of two US states.

-Dakota?

-Think so?

I think it's Dakota.

But wouldn't it be weird to have Dakota in...

-Or Carolina.

-I feel better about Dakota.

-OK.

Dakota.

Dakota is correct, yes. We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see part of the cast list of a film.

For ten points, I want both the name

of the missing actress who won an Oscar

for her performance in the film and the name of the character she played.

Faye Dunaway, Annie Hall?

No. Anyone want to buzz from Warwick?

Diane Keaton, Annie Hall.

Correct.

For your bonuses, three more lists which omit the name

of the actress who won an Oscar for her performance in that film.

Five points. In each case I'd like the name of the actor

and her character. Firstly...

Liza Minnelli. It's...

-Sally Bowles.

-Nominate Stevenson.

Liza Minnelli, Sally Bowles.

That's correct, as in Cabaret, yes. Secondly...

It's Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

-Do you know who played her?

-Smith?

It's Nurse Ratched and... Ann Radcliffe?

No, it was Louise Fletcher,

who played her in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. And finally...

Is this Fargo?

Yeah, this is Fargo, so it's Frances McDormand. Ah, what's her name?

-The detective.

-Any idea what her name is?

Start with Smith.

Frances McDormand and...Smith.

No, it was Marge Gunderson, was the name of the character.

Never mind, you did well enough there. Right, ten points for this.

Quote - "Do you feel an uncomfortable heat at the pit of your stomach,

"sir, and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? Ah, not yet.

"It will lay hold of you. I call it the detective fever."

These are the word of Gabriel Betteredge in which work of 1868,

often considered the first detective...

The Moonstone?

The Moonstone's right, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on pairs of anagrams.

In each case, give both words from the definitions.

Firstly, two five-letter words meaning

added an ingredient to enhance flavour,

for example whisky in coffee, and a noun denoting a design

prepared on a treated paper for transfer onto another surface.

Trace...

Lace.

No, they're anagrams.

Caret...?!

Yeah, trace and...caret?!

-No, it's laced and decal.

-Ah.

Secondly, two seven-letter words, one meaning to cover,

entwine or encircle, the other meaning the general

state of the atmosphere at a particular time and place.

Climate...

Weather?

Both seven letters. Can anyone think of an anagram?

-No, we don't know.

-It's wreathe and weather. Bad luck.

And finally, two seven-letter words,

one a colloquial term meaning damaged or wrecked,

the other an informal term used primarily in the US to mean clothes.

Trashed, maybe?

-No, we don't know, do we?

-No.

-No, we don't know.

It is trashed, and threads is the anagram. Right, ten points for this.

Who won the world table-tennis championships in Budapest in 1929,

the same year that his father was elected Labour MP for Kettering?

Six years later, he became the first man to have won at some

point in his career each of the Lawn Tennis Grand Slam singles titles.

Fred Perry?

Correct.

These bonuses could give you the lead, if you get them.

They're on exhibitions in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.

Firstly for five points, "It's a work about mass production,"

said which Chinese artist of Sunflower Seeds,

his 2010 Turbine Hall installation that

consisted of millions of hand-crafted pieces of porcelain?

Ai Weiwei.

Correct. Made from 14,000 polyethylene casts

of the interiors of different cardboard

boxes, Embankment was the 2005 exhibit by which

Turner Prize-winning sculptor?

-Kapoor? Anish Kapoor?

-Yeah?

Kapoor?

No, that was by Rachel Whiteread.

And finally, performed in the Turbine Hall in 2013,

The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

was a series of visual and sonic performances

by which German electronic-music group?

-Kraftwerk.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

What word results when one concatenates the initial

letters of the capitals of Ecuador, Mongolia,

Pakistan and Croatia?

Quiz.

Quiz is correct, yes.

Right, your bonuses are on a mathematical function, Warwick.

What is the name of the mathematical function that for positive integers N

is defined as the product of the integers from 1 to N?

Factorial.

Factorial is correct.

Which 18th-century Scottish mathematician gives his name

to a commonly used approximation to the factorial function?

Could be Napier?

I'm not convinced.

Napier?

No, it's Stirling, the Stirling approximation.

And finally, the gamma function evaluated at N = 10

is equal to the factorial of which integer?

Y'know, I don't know, and I feel like I probably should.

Just guess.

100.

No, it's 9. We're going to take a music round.

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

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

Johann Sebastian Bach?

Nope. You can hear a little more, Warwick.

Handel?

No, it was one of Vivaldi's concerti for recorders.

So we'll come to the music bonuses in a moment or two.

In the meantime, here's a starter question.

A Kerr-Newman with both charge and angular momentum,

and a Schwarzschild, which has no charge and no angular momentum,

are two of the four possible types of what astronomical object?

Black hole?

Correct.

Right, so we're going to go back to the music bonuses now,

and your music bonuses, three more reminders that the recorder is

good for more than just primary-school assemblies.

I want the name of the German-born composer in each case, please.

Firstly for five...

Handel?

It is Handel, yes. And secondly...

Bach?

No, that's Telemann. And finally...

Bach.

That IS Bach, yes! Ten points for this.

In addition to methane, what gas is released suddenly and in great

quantity in the phenomenon known as a limnic eruption or lake overturn?

The gas...

Carbon monoxide?

No. You lose five points.

The gas discharged can suffocate large numbers of wildlife

and humans, as for example at Lake Nyos in Cameroon in 1986.

Nitrous oxide?

No, it's carbon dioxide. You said carbon monoxide.

Ten points for this.

Which philosopher's first major work was subtitled An Attempt

To Introduce The Experimental Method Of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects?

A simplified version of the work was published in 1748.

Immanuel Kant?

No. You lose five points.

A simplified version of the work was published in 1748 entitled

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

Hume?

It was David Hume, yes.

Right, your bonuses this time are on ruling dynasties.

Which landlocked Asian country has been ruled by the Wangchuck

dynasty since 1907?

The monarch is styled Druk Gyalpo or "Dragon King".

-Bhutan?

-Bhutan is right.

Which Mediterranean country has been ruled by the Alaouite dynasty

since 1666? Its current head is King Mohammed VI.

Probably Morocco.

I can't think of any other monarchy.

Morocco.

Correct. The monarch of which country acceded in 1989 and is said to be

the 125th descendant of the country's first emperor, Jimmu?

-Japan.

-Japan.

Correct. Ten points for this.

What surname links the US philosopher who wrote

Democracy And Education, the man who, according to an erroneous

headline in the Chicago Tribune, defeated Harry Truman...

Dewey.

Dewey is right, yes.

Your bonuses, Warwick, are on the 16th century.

In each case, name the decade in which the following took place.

Firstly, the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, the marriage of Mary I

to Philip of Spain and the coronation of Elizabeth I.

The 1550s.

Correct. The marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway,

the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

1580s.

Correct.

And lastly, the death of Christopher Marlowe and the first publication

of both Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller and Bacon's Essays.

We've just had '80s, so...

1590s.

Correct. Right, ten points for this.

Always falling between January 21st and February 21st, which holiday

is known in its region of origin as Spring Festival because it

usually falls on the new moon closest to the beginning of the solar

term known as the start of spring?

Nowruz?

No. Anyone want to buzz from Nuffield?

Lunar New Year.

Yes, or Chinese New Year.

So a set of bonuses for you now, Nuffield. They're on zoology.

Spiders have an exoskeleton, a segmented body

and jointed appendages and are therefore members of which phylum?

Insects?

-Not insects.

-Yeah, but phylum, so it must be something bigger.

-If we've got nothing else, we can say insecta.

-No, it's not.

No clues?

Insects!

They're arthropods.

The head and midsection of a spider are fused into a single segment.

What's it called, please?

Thorax.

No, it's the prosoma or the cephalothorax.

The segment of the spider known as the opisthosoma is often

known by what more common name?

-Let's have it, please.

-OK, what should we answer?

-Thorax.

Thorax.

No, it's the abdomen!

LAUGHTER

We're going to take

a second picture round now.

You're going to see a photograph of an author.

Ten points if you can name him.

Kafka?

No, anyone like to buzz from Nuffield?

HG Wells?

No, it's not. It is EM Forster.

So, picture bonuses in a moment or two,

ten points for this starter question in the meantime.

Using orchestra and voices,

what large-scale musical form is characterised by the use

of narrative, and is typically on a sacred theme?

Examples include Handel's Messiah...

Oratorio?

Oratorio is right.

You'll recall we saw a photograph of EM Forster -

you're going to see photographs now of three literary figures

who, like Forster, are commonly known

by the initials of their given names and their surname.

This time I want the given names for which the initials stand. Firstly...

-Do you know who it is?

-Is that EE Cummings?

But we need the given names...

Edward...

If it is EE Cummings, Edward Ernest, but I don't really know.

Edward Ernest.

No, it's Thomas Stearns. It's TS Eliot. Secondly...

He looks vaguely familiar, but I can't come up with a name.

It'll be obvious after we hear it.

LAUGHTER

Let's have it, please.

We don't know.

That's WH Auden, his first names were Wystan Hugh. And finally...

-So this is 19th century...

-It's not HG Wells...

Could be HG Wells.

-What does the HG stand for?

-Henry...

-Henry Graham?

-Henry George?

I don't know. Might as well try.

Henry George.

No, it's William Butler Yeats.

Ten points for this. Named after a 19th-century German physicist,

what unit is used to measure the clock rate of a computer -

that is, the frequency at...

Hertz?

Hertz is right, yes.

These bonuses, Nuffield, are on a Belgian city.

Which city in Flanders

gives its name to a pacification of 1576 during the Spanish-Dutch War,

and to a treaty that concluded the war of 1812

between Britain and the United States?

Ghent.

Correct. Which ruler took refuge

in Ghent during the Hundred Days in 1815?

Must be Napoleon?

I mean, he's the only ruler who could have taken...

-It's the Hundred Days...

-OK.

Napoleon.

No, it was Louis XVIII.

And finally, named after a corruption of the city's name,

John of Gaunt was the younger son of which King of England?

John of Gaunt was...

Edward III or something like that?

It's in a Shakespeare play - which Shakespeare play is he in?

I can't remember.

-So the name of the king in a Shakespeare play?

-Yeah.

-Is there an Edward III play?

-Come on, let's have it, please...

Edward III.

Correct.

Ten points for this.

If its three colours from hoist to fly are reversed,

the national flag of Ivory Coast

most closely resembles that...

Ireland.

Of Ireland. Well done.

Right, Warwick, these bonuses are on similar though unrelated words -

in each case, give the term from the definition.

Answers all begin with the same four letters.

Firstly, a six-letter term used in ornithology

for a bird of the crow family.

Don't know.

No, pass.

They're corvids.

A historical term, secondly, from the old French,

denoting compulsory unpaid labour

done by those of lower social status,

for example as a feudal obligation.

Corvee?

Correct. Finally, a small warship designed for convoy escort duty.

Corvette.

Corvette is right,

ten points for this. Under which Prime Minister

did James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins

and Denis Healey...

Wilson.

Correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time, Nuffield, are on cell biology.

The cell cycle of eukaryotic cells

has been divided into so-called G, S and M phases.

For what does the letter G stand?

-M is mitosis I think.

-Hm?

M is mitosis.

Come on, let's have it...

Generator or genesis?

Generator.

No, it's gap.

What molecule is replicated in the S or synthesis stage?

Some sort of protein...

-Do you have an idea?

-DNA.

-Come on...

-DNA?

Correct.

Mitosis occurs in the M phase -

in which phase of mitosis do sister chromatids move to opposite poles?

Do you have any idea?

Let's have it, please...

Sorry, we don't know.

It's anaphase. Ten points for this.

What five-letter word from the Yiddish

means an expert in a particular field?

The same five letters form the abbreviation used

for the Nasa probe that entered orbit around Mars in September 2014.

Rover?

Nope.

Maven.

Maven is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on nicknames of US states, Nuffield.

The character Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore Cooper's

Leatherstocking Tales shares what nickname with the state of Iowa?

My mom's FROM Iowa...

-Potatoes...?

-Come on...

No, it's corn. But it's not called the Corn State.

Do you have any...

Come on!

The Corn State.

No, it's Hawkeye.

Mostly nocturnal, which mammal

is a nickname for the state of Wisconsin?

Which mammal...

-Bat...?

-Badger.

Badger.

Correct. Which object used in apiculture

provides a nickname for the state of Utah?

Honeybee... Isn't it?

Yeah...

Yeah.

Honeybee.

No, it's beehive, it's the Beehive State.

Ten points for this.

In addition to Cairo and Khartoum,

through which capital city does the River Nile flow?

Kampala?

Nope.

N'Djamena?

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

What generic term denotes a low-level computer programming language

that sits one level above machine code or machine language, and uses...

Compiler?

No, you lose five points.

..and uses short mnemonic codes for instructions?

It's an assembly or assembler code. Ten points for this.

What short word denotes the tidal movement that coincides

with the first and third quarters of the moon,

and has the smallest difference in water level

between high tide and low tide?

Neap?

Neap is correct, you get a set of bonuses now

on the films of the Czech-born British director Karel Reisz.

Karel Reisz's first feature in 1960

starred Albert Finney as a Midlands...

GONG

And at the gong, the University of Warwick have 120

but Nuffield College, Oxford have 160.

APPLAUSE

So Warwick, I'm afraid we're going to have to say goodbye to you,

but thank you very much for joining us.

Nuffield, you go straight through to the quarterfinals, congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time for another second-round match,

but until then, it's goodbye

-from the University of Warwick... ALL:

-Goodbye.

-..it's goodbye from Nuffield College... ALL:

-Goodbye.

..and it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.