Episode 24 University Challenge

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.'

Hello. Out of the 28 teams who qualified for this contest,

19 have now fallen by the wayside.

Seven are through to the quarterfinals,

and they'll be joined by whichever team wins this,

the last of the second-round matches.

The team from Pembroke College, Cambridge,

dominated their first match against St Anne's College, Oxford,

winning by 205 points to 140.

They were familiar with the predictions of Nostradamus,

they know what goes into nitroglycerin,

and they recognised Girls Aloud with almost superhuman speed.

They're true Renaissance figures. Let's meet the team again.

My name is Edward Bankes. I'm from Sevenoaks, and I'm reading English.

I'm Ben Pugh. I'm from North London, and I'm reading German and Russian.

-And their captain.

-Hello. I'm Bibek Mukherjee.

I'm from Canterbury, and I'm reading economics.

I'm Imogen Gold. I'm from London, and I'm reading engineering.

APPLAUSE

The team from Nottingham University had a very strong start

in their first match against the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,

but were neck-and-neck halfway through.

They pulled away again in the second half,

and were on 215 points at the gong, with their opponents on 155.

Welsh castles may not be their strong point,

but they were impressive on peace treaties of World War I,

Anglo-Saxon flags and the provinces of Canada.

Let's meet the Nottingham team again.

Hello. I'm Harry Dalton from London, and I'm studying politics.

Hi. I'm Matthew Byrne from Wimborne Minster in Dorset,

-and I'm studying French and German.

-And their captain.

I'm Lee Cooper. I'm from Long Eaton in Nottingham, and I'm studying physiotherapy.

Hello. I'm Ewan Pickard from Stoke-on-Trent,

and I'm studying chemistry. APPLAUSE

The rules are the same as ever. 10 points for starters,

15 for bonuses, five-point penalties for incorrect interruptions.

Here's your first starter for 10.

Quote - "It taps directly into the country's mythic image of itself,

unshowily brave and brewing tea as the bombs fall."

These words from The Economist describe which slogan

printed in bold white, san-serif...

-"Keep calm and carry on"?

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Nottingham, are on the human condition.

Quote - "Experience declares that man is the only animal

which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term

to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

These are the words of which future US president

in a letter of 1787?

-Future...

-Who was it?

-Franklin?

-No, Jefferson.

Yeah. Yeah.

-It might be Jefferson.

-Jefferson.

Correct. "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing."

In which allegorical work of 1945 do those works appear?

Um... Animal Farm.

-Oh! Yeah. Yes.

-Animal Farm.

Correct. "Man is the only animal that blushes,

or needs to." Which American humorist wrote those words

in a work of 1897?

-Twain.

-Yeah.

-Mark Twain.

Correct. Another starter question now.

Quote - "In the councils of government, we must guard against

the acquisition of unwarranted influence,

whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."

These are the words of which outgoing US president

in a speech of January 1961.

-Eisenhower.

-Eisenhower is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right. Your first bonuses, Pembroke, are on search engines.

Firstly, for five points, the leader in the Chinese market

with more than 60 percent of internet search revenue.

Which search engine's name was inspired by a poem

written during the Song Dynasty,

the name representing the persistent search for the ideal?

-Baidu.

-Correct. Google handles only a small percentage of searches,

but Naver.com deals with over 60 percent,

and is by far the largest search portal in which Asian country?

-Naver?

-Naver... India?

-Korea, maybe?

-What do you think?

-India.

-OK. India.

-No. South Korea.

Yandex, which launched an international version of its search engine in 2010,

has long dominated which country's internet market

with its native web portal?

Yandex?

-It's somewhere...

-Russian, do you think?

-Israel, perhaps. I don't know.

-Er, Israel?

No, it's Russia. 10 points for this.

Which play by Shakespeare was initially banned by the Nazi regime

from being produced on radio, but was later adopted by them

as a school text -

-The Merchant Of Venice?

-I'm afraid you lose five points.

..as a school text in which the ancient-Roman hero

was compared to Hitler? It was subsequently banned

by US forces in post-war Germany.

One of you may buzz.

Julius Caesar?

No, Coriolanus. 10 points for this.

"Classification and name-giving

will be the foundations of our science."

These are the words of which Swedish botanist -

-Linnaeus.

-Linnaeus is correct.

That gives you the lead. Your bonuses are on beds.

Which three-metre-wide bed dominates room 57

of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and was probably built for an inn

-in Hertfordshire in about 1590?

-Oh, I've seen this!

-Shakespeare's bed.

-Er, Shakespeare's bed?

No. It's the Great Bed of Ware.

Consisting of a pillow, sheet and quilt supported on a frame,

the 1955 work Bed was among which US artist's first Combines,

the term he used for artworks incorporating cast-off items

such as old material or furniture?

-Warhol.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

-Er, Warhol?

No, it was Rauschenberg. And finally,

which Turner-prize-nominated artist exhibited the installation My Bed

at the Tate Britain in 1999?

-Emin.

-Tracey Emin is correct. 10 points for this.

What nickname for a political grouping was an abusive term

connoting Catholicism, foreignness and immorality,

redefined by the followers of Charles I to indicate loyalty -

-Cavalier.

-Cavalier is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Pembroke, are on pioneering female scientists.

Born in 1706, Emilie du Chatelet was a scientist

whose achievements included the first French translation

of which work of 1687 by Newton,

usually known by a single Latin word?

-Er, Principia Mathematica?

-Principia, yes.

What was the surname of the woman thought to have been the first

to receive a salary for scientific work?

The sister of a private astronomer to George III,

her own achievements include the discovery of several comets and nebulae.

-Herschel. George III's astronomer...

-What was her name?

-It's just a surname.

-Oh. Herschel?

Correct. Which Oxford college is named after the mathematician

who wrote the influential 1834 work

on the connection of the physical sciences?

THEY WHISPER

-Is there a Lovelace College?

-No.

-Er, Somerville?

Somerville, after Mary Fairfax Somerville, yes.

APPLAUSE

We'll take a picture round now. For your starter,

you'll see a photograph which uses a specific lens

generally known by what two-word term?

-Fish-eye.

-Pembroke, one of you want to buzz?

-Wide-angle.

-Wide-angle is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Following on from that, three more lenses used in photography,

five points for each you can correctly identify.

Firstly, the lens used for this close-up.

-Not a macro?

-Macro, yeah.

-Macro?

Correct. Secondly, the lens that creates this effect.

-I think I've heard of it, but...

-Is it fish-eye?

-No, that's not.

-I don't know, then.

-Er, pass.

That's a tilt-shift.

And finally, the lens used for this photograph...

-That's a fish-eye.

-Fish-eye.

-That is a fish-eye, yes.

10 points for this. Which island comes next in this sequence,

given in ascending order by area?

Kauai, Oahu, Maui and -

Honolulu?

No.

-Big Island.

-Yes, or Hawaii, as it's more commonly known.

Right. A set of bonuses now. They're on sociology, Pembroke.

In an eponymous work of 2000,

the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman coined what two-word term

to describe a contemporary society of seductive consumerism,

rapid technological change, contingency and ambiguity?

Any ideas? No?

Pass. It was "liquid modernity".

Now used of reorganisation in business,

what term did the German sociologist Max Weber use

to describe the process in which modernisation affects economic life,

law and religion by eliminating traditional ideas

and customary practices?

What's the name? "De" something. Is it "de"?

-I can't remember.

-It's "de"... What happens when you go...

-Downsize?

-"De" something.

-Devaluations?

-Pass.

It's rationalisation, apparently.

In his 1900 work The Philosophy Of Money,

which German sociologist explored the connection

between modernity and the development of a money economy?

-German sociologist...

-Sorry?

-Was that Weber?

-Er, no.

-THEY WHISPER

-OK. Durkheim?

It's Georg Simmel. 10 points for this.

Appointed Johnston Family professor of psychology

at Harvard University in 2003,

which Montreal-born American cognitive -

-Michael Sandler.

-I'm afraid you lose five points.

Which Montreal-born American cognitive scientist

and experimental psychologist is the author of works

including The Stuff Of Thought, The Language Instinct

and The Blank Slate?

Er, Steven...Pinkerton? Sorry.

No. It's Steven Pinker. So another starter question.

Answer as soon as you buzz. What is the product

of the two smallest double-digit primes?

-143?

-Yes!

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a US city, Pembroke College.

Named after a chief of the Native American Duwamish people,

which major US city stands on an isthmus

between Puget Sound to the west and Lake Washington to the east?

-Seattle.

-Seattle?

-Seattle.

-Correct.

Meaning a forest incline used to send timber downhill from sawmills,

what name was given to what is now Seattle's Pioneer Square?

It's thought by some to be the origin of its later use

to denote any dilapidated urban area.

-Shanty something?

-Sorry?

-Slum?

-Er, Slum?

It's Skid Row.

Appearing in outline in the title of the TV series Frasier,

what feature of Seattle's skyline was completed in 1962

when the city hosted the World's Fair?

-Space Needle.

-Correct. Another starter question. In philosophy,

what name, derived from the Greek for "take",

is given to a proposition in an argument

often accompanied by its own proof?

Hypothesis?

-No. Anyone like to buzz -

-Axiom?

No. It's a lemma. 10 points for this.

Appearing in the work's title,

which creatures were introduced by the writer Ben H Winters

into a 2009 parody of Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility?

-Zombies?

-No.

-Sea monsters.

-Sea monsters is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Pembroke, are on bears.

Tremarctos ornatus, the spectacled bear,

has what alternative common name

after that of an extensive mountain range?

The Urals?

-Rocky...

-Um, Rocky?

No, it's the Andean bear.

The name of which Asian peninsula appears in the binomial

of the sun bear or honey bear, native to lowland tropical rainforests?

-The name of a peninsula?

-Um... Malay?

-Er, Malay.

-Correct.

Yosemite National Park in California

is home to several hundreds of which bear

whose scientific name is Ursus Americanus?

Grizzly? Is it grizzly?

-Er, grizzly?

-No, it's the black bear.

10 points for this. On the periodic table of elements,

up to number 118, including those with only temporary names,

which is the only letter of the alphabet

that does not appear in a symbol?

-J.

-J is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a literary character, Pembroke College.

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book."

"Books are well written or badly written. That is all."

In the preface to which work of 1890 does the author make that assertion?

THEY WHISPER

-Huckleberry Finn?

-No. It's The Picture Of Dorian Gray,

by Oscar Wilde.

Entitled Dorian: An Imitation, which author's novel of 2003

transposes the character from the late 19th to the late 20th century

and draws parallels between him and Princess Diana?

THEY WHISPER

-Pass.

-Will Self.

Finally, which British choreographer also reworked and updated Wilde's novel,

making Dorian a model for an advertising campaign

in a work which premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival?

-I thought it was Bourne.

-Bourne.

-OK. Matthew Bourne.

-Correct.

We're going to take a music round now.

For your starter, you'll hear an excerpt from the score of a ballet.

10 points if you can name the composer and the title of the work.

-STIRRING VIOLIN MUSIC

-The Rite Of Spring,

-and Stravinsky.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

That premiered in 1913,

and famously caused the audience to riot.

Your bonuses are more pieces

that met with less-than-favourable responses

when they were first performed. Name the composer in each case.

First the composer of this piece. On its premier in 1881,

it was criticised for being long and pretentious,

and "odorously Russian".

SLOW VIOLIN MUSIC

THEY WHISPER

-If it was Russian...

-Tchaikovsky.

Er... Tchaikovsky?

Is it... Is it... Do you think, maybe... Is it...

His Violin Concerto?

Shall we go with Tchaikovsky? We know the composer.

THEY WHISPER

Just go for it.

Er, Tchaikovsky?

It is Tchaikovsky, yes. It's his Violin Concerto In D Major.

Secondly, the Russian composer of this piece.

He himself termed its 1897 premier "a fiasco".

SWELLING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

-Is it Mussorgsky?

-Shall we go for Mussorgsky?

I thought he was dead by then.

THEY WHISPER

I'd go with Rimsky-Korsakov. I think Mussorgsky was dead,

but I'm not sure.

-Er, Korsakov?

-No, it's Rachmaninov's First Symphony.

And finally, this French composer,

who met with hostility and incomprehension

from members of the orchestra and audience

when this piece premiered in 1838?

LIVELY ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

THEY WHISPER

I'd go Berlioz.

-OK. Berlioz?

-Yeah, Berlioz.

-Berlioz?

-It was Berlioz. Well done. Another starter question now.

A concept adopted by German nationalists from the 1920s

in an attempt to justify seizing territory in Eastern Europe -

Lebensraum.

Lebensraum is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Nottingham, your bonuses are on the skin.

Relating to their colour, what is the common two-word name

of senile lentigo? It's a benign condition

caused after middle age by the long-term effect of sunlight

-upon exposed areas of the skin.

-Liver spots?

-Liver spots.

-Correct.

Often a normal vascular condition whose effects are exaggerated

by exposure to the cold, livedo reticularis

is characterised by mottling seen on skin

covering which part of the body?

-Is it the hands?

-Hands, lips...

-What are we going to go for? Hands?

-Yeah.

-Arms.

-No. It's the legs, or the lower legs and the feet.

What common term is usually applied to the cutaneous condition

known in dermatology as striae gravidarum,

and associated with pregnancy or rapid weight gain?

-Stretch marks.

-Stretch marks.

-Yes.

10 points for this. Quite distinct from the European Union,

which supranational body comprises those countries

that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights?

-Council of Europe.

-Council of Europe is correct.

Your bonuses are on plays at the Donmar Warehouse.

Which prolific screenwriter made his debut as a playwright

with the Donmar's 2006 production of Frost/Nixon?

Oh! Er...

THEY WHISPER

-Pass.

-It was Peter Morgan.

The 2009 play Be Near Me was adapted for the stage

from a novel by which Scottish writer,

the author of The Life And Opinions Of Maf The Dog

And Of His Friend Marilyn Monroe?

THEY WHISPER

-Scottish writer...

-I don't know.

-Do you want to guess?

-THEY WHISPER

-Iain Banks?

No. It's Andrew O'Hagan. And finally,

first performed in December 2009, John Logan's play Red

fictionalises two years in the life of which Russian-born pioneer of colour-field painting?

-Rothko?

-Correct. Another starter question now.

Answer as soon as you buzz. If A is 1,

E is 5 and J is 10,

which common preposition is indicated by the numbers 2015?

-To.

-To is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on environmentalists now, Pembroke.

Which former director of Friends Of The Earth

helped found the sustainable-development charity

Forum For The Future in 1996?

-Pass.

-It was Jonathon Porritt.

The original editor of The Whole Earth Catalogue,

which US environmentalist has founded organisations

including the Global Business Network

-and the Long Now Foundation?

-Environmentalists...

-THEY WHISPER

-I don't know.

-Pass.

-Stewart Brand.

And finally, the South African Kumi Naidoo

in 2009 became the executive director

of which environment organisation, founded in Vancouver in 1971?

-Greenpeace.

-Greenpeace.

Correct. We'll take our second picture round now.

You'll see a painting. 10 points if you can give the name of the artist.

Lichtenstein.

Roy Lichtenstein is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

In the car, following on from that, three more works by artists

associated with the Pop Art movement,

all of which were created in the 1960s,

around the height of that movement. Five for each you can name.

Firstly...

-I don't know.

-I've got no idea.

Pass.

That's Allen Jones's Sheer Magic. Secondly, this.

-Clueless.

-No. We don't know. Sorry.

That's Richard Hamilton's Adonis In Y-Fronts.

And finally, the artist who created this screen print.

It's a screen print, so maybe Warhol. Just give it a go.

-Yes. We'll say Warhol.

-No. That's Peter Blake,

Babe Rainbow. 10 points for this.

Which of Shakespeare's plays includes the lines,

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness

and some have greatness"...

-Er, Twelfth Night.

-Twelfth Night. It's Malvolio. Yeah.

Right. Your bonuses this time, Pembroke College, are on physics.

Sometimes abbreviated to QCD, which branch of physics

explains permissible combinations of quarks

to form various elementary particles

by the notional assignment of a primary colour to each?

-Quantum chromodynamics.

-Correct.

In quantum chromodynamics, any one of the three complementary colours

of cyan, magenta and yellow may be assigned to what?

-Quarks?

-Er...

Photons or something? I don't know.

-Antiquark.

-Quarks?

-No, they're antiquarks.

-Oh, that's right.

When a quark combines with an antiquark to form a meson,

what is the resulting colour?

White? THEY WHISPER

-Shall we go white? Yeah.

-No.

-White may be...

-White.

White is correct, yes. 10 points for this.

Pinkerton and Sharpless are among the characters in which opera

first performed in 1904 and set in -

-Madame Butterfly.

-Madame Butterfly is right.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the year 1961. Situated between Guinea and Liberia,

which country became independent from the UK on April 27th 1961?

-Sierra Leone.

-Correct.

How was Tanzania known when it became independent from the UK

in December 1961? It changed to its present name

after the union with Zanzibar in 1964.

-Tanganyika.

-Correct.

Ruled by the Al Sabah family, which Persian Gulf state

became independent of the UK in June 19th 1961?

-Oh, '61? Yes. South Yemen.

-Yemen.

-No, it was Kuwait.

Five and half minutes to go. 10 points for this.

Alphabetically, which of the first five cardinal numbers

comes second in Italian and French, third in Spanish -

-Two.

-Two is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on pairs of words that differ only by the presence

of an acute accent. In each case, give both words

from the definitions. To allow light to fall on a photographic film

and a revelation of something discreditable.

-Expose and "exposay".

-Ex-...

-Expose and "exposay".

-Expose and "exposay".

Correct. Unable to walk properly,

and fabric interwoven with metallic thread.

-Lame and "lamay".

-Lame and "lamay".

Correct. The heterogametic sex in mammals

and the capital of the Maldives.

-Male and "Malay".

-Male and "Malay".

-Correct.

10 points for this. An acronym comprising four French words,

FIDE - that's F-I-D-E - was founded in 1924,

and is the world governing body of which -

-Chess.

-Chess is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a peace treaty.

Which conflict was ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905

through the mediation of Theodore Roosevelt?

-Russo-Japanese?

-Yeah. Russo-Japanese.

War. Correct. By the Treaty of Portsmouth,

Japan and Russia agreed to return the sovereignty

of which territory to China? It was occupied by the Soviet Union

-at the end of the Second World War.

-Manchuria?

-Was it Korea?

THEY WHISPER

-Come on!

-Manchuria.

Correct. The southern half of which large island

was given to Japan by the treaty? It's been part of Russia since 1945.

-Oh, Sakhalin?

-Yeah.

-Come on!

-Sakhalin.

-Correct. Four minutes to go. 10 points for this.

Give any of the three short anagrams

that mean "principal river of north-eastern Spain",

"pertaining to York or its archbishop",

and "dull or vapid"...

-See?

-No. I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and "dull or vapid person"?

-Bore?

-Bore would do for the last one.

The other ones were Ebro and Ebor.

So you get a set of bonuses now on geology.

Which specific branch of geology

is concerned with fossils and their use in dating rock layers?

THEY WHISPER No, it's not that.

-Paleogeology?

-Yeah. Just...

-Paleogeology?

-No. It's biostratigraphy.

Widely used in biostratigraphy, fossils that are useful

for dating the strata in which they are found

are known by what term?

-Indicators?

-Come on.

-Don't know.

-They're index fossils.

Key indices for stratigraphical investigations,

which fossils are remains of a marine cephalopod mollusc

from the Mesozoic Era with a flat, tightly coiled shell?

-Trilobite.

-No, they're ammonites. 10 points for this.

An identity module used in mobile phones

is usually known as a SIM card.

For what does the letter S in SIM stand?

-Subscriber.

-Subscriber is correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on the noble gasses.

Which noble gas, atomic number 54,

is commonly used in photographic discharge tubes?

-THEY WHISPER

-Radon's not... Xenon.

-Xenon.

-Correct.

Which noble gas, atomic number 18, is used in incandescent light bulbs?

-Neon.

-No, it's argon.

Which noble gas, atomic number 86,

is produced when radium 226 undergoes alpha decay?

-Is that radon?

-OK.

-Radon.

-Correct. Another starter question.

Answer as soon as you buzz. Stibnite is a mineral

containing sulphur and which other -

-Antimony.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on religious clothing.

Firstly, for five points, usually made of wool,

the tallit is a prayer shawl associated with which religion?

-Judaism.

-Correct. Consisting for men of two lengths of white cotton,

ihram clothing is worn by those performing

-which of the Five Pillars of Islam?

-Hajj?

-The Hajj?

It is indeed. Part of the distinctive dress known as the bana,

the term "dastar" denotes what religious headwear?

-Maybe a turban, do you think?

-OK.

-OK, a turban. Turban.

-It is a turban, yes. Sikh turban.

10 points for this. What is the common name

for the Engraulidae, the small members of the herring family

often used in cooking as a garnish and flavouring?

-Anchovies.

-Anchovies is correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on astronomy.

Which celestial body is 1.3 light seconds from Earth?

-It's the moon, surely.

-Come on!

-The moon?

-It is the moon.

What is the most distant planet within one light-hour of Earth?

-Jupiter, I'd say.

-Would you?

-Jupiter.

-It is.

To the nearest integer, how many light-minutes distant is the sun?

-Eight.

-Eight.

Eight is correct. Another starter question.

In pharmacology, phenindione, heparin and warfarin

are drugs with what property?

-Blood-thinning agent.

-That's correct. Anticoagulants.

Three questions on the arts for your bonuses, Nottingham.

First performed in 1782, which Mozart opera

is set in the Ottoman Empire?

-Oh, it's the one in the harem.

-Come on. We need an answer.

-GONG RINGS

-And at the gong,

Nottingham University have 125.

Pembroke College, Cambridge have 280.

Well, you had a jolly bad start,

but you showed us what you can do towards the end.

We'll have to say goodbye to you, though.

Pembroke, another terrific performance from you.

We shall see you in the quarterfinals. Join us next time

for the first quarterfinal, but until then,

-it is goodbye from Nottingham University...

-Goodbye.

-..and from Pembroke...

-Goodbye.

-..and from me. Goodbye.

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