Episode 37 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.'

Hello. It's the final tonight.

We've asked 3,191 questions so far in this series

and after months of furrowed brows, feverish whispering

and answers ranging from the impressive to the utterly bonkers,

we're left with the best two teams.

In a little under half an hour, one of them will lift the trophy.

Manchester have taken the scalps of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford,

Newcastle University, Clare College, Cambridge and Worcester College, Oxford.

Making their seventh appearance, let's meet the Manchester team one last time.

I'm Luke Kelly from Kent and I'm studying history.

I'm Michael McKenna from Lancashire and I'm studying biochemistry.

-And their captain.

-I'm Tristan Burke and I'm studying English literature.

I'm Paul Joyce from Lancashire

and I'm studying for a masters in social research methods and statistics.

CHEERING

The team from Pembroke College, Cambridge

have reached the final without losing a single match.

Their victims were St Anne's College, Oxford, Nottingham University,

Balliol College, Oxford, Clare College, Cambridge and University College London.

Let's meet again four young people hoping to become series champions.

My name's Edward Bankes from Kent and I'm reading English.

I'm Ben Pugh from north London. I read German and Russian.

-And their captain.

-I'm Bibek Mukherjee from Kent and I'm reading economics.

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

CHEERING

It's the final. You know the rules. Fingers on the buzzers. Here's your starter for 10.

Which field of study appears in the titles of novels by Henry Fielding,

Charles Dickens and HG Wells?

The title characters respectively are Tom Jones, David Copperfield and Mr Polly.

-History.

-Correct.

The first set of bonuses are on a novel.

Firstly for five. Give the author and the work of 1961 in which the following words appear:

"One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up,

"must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur."

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark.

Correct. Spark writes that Miss Brodie's pupils knew the rudiments of astrology,

but not the date of the Battle of Flodden or the capital of Finland.

For five points, give me the date of the Battle of Flodden and the capital of Finland.

-When's Flodden?

-I want to say...

-1645.

-No.

I think it's 16 something. Try that.

1645. Paul?

-1645.

-Go on.

1645 and Helsinki.

It is Helsinki, of course, but it's 1513. Bad luck.

Give the words that complete these lines that Miss Brodie recited to her class

to raise their minds before they went home.

"Down she came and found the boat Beneath a willow left afloat,

"And round about the prow she wrote..."

-The Lady of Shalott.

-Well done!

-APPLAUSE

10 for this. A body of water between the Philippines and Borneo,

an informal name for the Church of Scotland,

the Swahili word for freedom,

the authors of The Cherry Orchard and The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

are linked by what enduring science fiction -

-Star Trek.

-Star Trek is right, yes.

Manchester, these bonuses are on the number seven.

"We've been waiting 700 years. You can have the seven minutes."

Which Irish leader said those words in 1922

when he arrived at Dublin Castle for its handover by British forces and was told he was late?

Eamon de Valera?

THEY CONFER

-What shall I go for?

-Go for de Valera.

-Eamon de Valera.

-No, it was Michael Collins.

"I will give him seven feet of English ground

"or as much more as he shall be taller than other men."

Before which battle did King Harold II make this offer to an invader?

-Battle of Hastings?

-There's two.

Stamford Bridge?

-Stamford Bridge or Hastings. Stamford Bridge.

-Correct.

"There shall be in England seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny."

Which historical figure says these words in Shakespeare's King Henry VI Part 2?

-Give me just a historical figure.

-John of Gaunt.

-Is he in that play?

-No idea.

-John of Gaunt.

-No, it's Jack Cade. 10 for this.

Quote, "The English at that time had their hair cropped, their beards shaven,

"their arms laden with golden bracelets, their skin adorned with punctured designs.

"They were wont to eat until they became surfeited and to drink until they were sick."

To what pivotal year in English history

does this observation of the historian William Of Malmesbury refer?

-1066?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Pembroke College, are on comparative religion.

"Religion is hard work. Its insights are not self-evident

"and have to be cultivated in the same way as an appreciation of art, music or poetry must be developed."

These are the words of which British author in the 2009 work The Case For God?

-Who are you thinking of?

-Polkinghorne.

Er, Reverend Polkinghorne.

No, it's Karen Armstrong.

An examination of thought between 900 and 200 BC,

Karen Armstrong's work The Great Transformation

includes the names of four influential figures in its subtitle. One is Jeremiah.

For five points, name two of the others.

Moses.

-Was he that time?

-No, earlier.

-Sorry?

-It's BC.

-BANKES WHISPERS

Jesus and... ALL TALK AT ONCE

Confucius and Buddha.

-Confucius and Buddha.

-Correct. The other was Socrates.

Finally, a 2010 work by Armstrong outlines 12 steps to a life based on what quality,

described as "indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community"?

-Fortune?

-Fairness or something?

-Fairness?

-No, compassion.

We're going to take a Picture Round. You will see a mathematical grid

with certain prime numbers highlighted.

For 10 points, tell me what term denotes these primes.

Mersenne.

No. Manchester, one of you buzz.

Special.

-No, they're happy primes.

-LAUGHTER

Picture bonuses in a moment. 10 points for this.

Formulated by the 19th-century German biologist Ernst Haeckel

and popularised by The Simpsons episode We're on the Road to D'ohwhere,

what term denotes the development of an organism undergoing an abbreviated form

of the species' evolutionary development?

Speciation.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Pembroke?

It's -

Chrysalis?

"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". 10 points for this.

Lip, rip, lox, pox, oil and oxlip

are among shorter words that may be made from the letters of which six-letter word?

-Prolix.

-Prolix is right.

APPLAUSE

Pembroke, you get picture bonuses. You saw a grid for your starter

of happy primes from 1 to 100 highlighted.

Your bonuses, three more grids, each with different types of prime numbers.

I want you to name the series of primes shown.

Firstly...

GOLD: Perfect? I know there's a series, but I don't know the definition.

No, that's when it adds up... But you can go for it.

-Perfect.

-No, they're permutable primes.

Secondly...

I've not the faintest idea.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Transcendent.

No, they're Fibonacci primes.

Finally, the name given to these pairs of primes...

-You said Mersenne earlier.

-GOLD: That's a thing, but I don't know.

-Er, Mersenne?

-No, they're sexy primes.

10 points for this. Situated on opposite banks of a major river,

the names of which two capitals are used...

-Buda and Pest.

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

..to distinguish their respective countries from one another?

Both countries' official names include the words Republic and Congo.

One of you buzz, Manchester.

-Brazzaville and Lusaka?

-No.

Lusaka's in another country. It's Kinshasa and Brazzaville.

10 points for this. Quote, "My therapist has given me such a good rate

"I can afford to indulge my bouts of infidelity

"and still deal elegantly with my guilt."

This is an illustrative extract from a typical personal ad in which publication?

-London Review of Books.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Manchester, are on physics.

Which English physicists give their names to the law that states

that the spectral radiance of a black body

scales with the inverse fourth power of the wavelength?

Does anyone know anything about when someone might've even thought that?

HE WHISPERS

Give me the names of two physicists who worked together.

Yes. Rutherford.

-Rutherford and -

-No, forget it. It was RayleighJeans.

Secondly, what two-word name was given to the prediction derived from the RayleighJeans Law

that a black body should radiate with infinite power?

-The dark prediction.

-No, the ultraviolet catastrophe.

-Ohh!

-Finally, using ideas that led to the formulation of quantum theory,

the ultraviolet catastrophe was resolved by which German physicist?

Er, Planck?

-Planck.

-It was Max Planck, yes.

CHEERING

10 points for this. Frequently cited as being among the most overused words in the language,

what two adjectives, differing only in their second letter,

describe persons or things uncritically admired or regarded as representative symbols,

and events that happen in a way contrary to what is expected,

and thus cause wry amusement?

Ironical and iconical. Ironic and iconic.

-Ironic and iconic is correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on carelessness.

I will read three extracts from well-known literary works.

Identify the author and the title of the work.

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and creatures

"and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness...

"..and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

-The Great Gatsby.

-Correct.

-By?

-F Scott Fitzgerald.

-Correct.

"Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

"Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find thee sitting careless on a granary floor

"Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind".

-Does anyone have any ideas?

-No.

-No.

-Romeo and Juliet?

-No, it's Keats' Ode To Autumn.

"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune,

"to lose both looks like carelessness."

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde.

Correct. 10 points for this.

What single word neologism was coined by KW Jeter,

author of the 1979 novel Morlock Night,

to denote the sub-genre of science-fiction

and speculative fiction set in worlds...

-Fanfiction?

-No.

I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and speculative fiction, set in worlds that run on clockwork mechanisms and...

Steampunk.

-Correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Manchester, these bonuses are on a constructed language.

Toki Pona is an experimental language, first published online in 2001

by the Canadian linguist Sonja Elen Kisa.

The word "toki" means "talk".

What is the meaning of "pona", derived via Esperanto from Latin?

Note that Toki Pona has no letter "B".

-Talk well.

-Good?

Yes, talk well or good.

It's "good". I have to accept "well" which is what you said first.

Toki Pona is intended to test the hypothesis

that the words and forms of a language influence the way its users perceive the world.

Which two linguists give their names to this hypothesis?

Anyone?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

-Chomsky and Searle.

-No, Sapir and Whorf.

In Toki Pona, the word "jo" means "have", "kon" means "air",

"breath" means "spirit" and "sin" means "new",

all derived from which major world language?

Greek?

Chinese?

-Chinese.

-Correct.

We're going to take a music round. You'll hear an extract from Gustav Holst's The Planets suite.

For 10 points, name the particular planet

that is the title of the piece.

PLEASANT, FAST-PACED MUSIC

-Mercury.

-It is Mercury, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, three more extracts from The Planets suite,

but before you think that sounds disgracefully easy,

I want you to name the planet and its largest moon.

-LAUGHTER

-This planet and its largest moon...

DRAMATIC MUSIC

-That's Jupiter, isn't it?

-It's biggest moon is Ganymede.

-Are we happy that's Jupiter?

-It sounds regal.

Jupiter and Ganymede.

No, it's Saturn and Titan.

Secondly, this planet and its largest moon...

DRAMATIC MUSIC

That's Neptune.

Why?

MSUIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

I might go for Jupiter.

It might be Mars. THEY CONFER

-Go for Neptune.

-Neptune and...?

-Triton.

-Neptune and -

-No, it's Uranus and Titania.

Finally, this planet and its largest moon...

SWEEPING MUSIC

-That's Mars.

-Is it Phobos? Go for Phobos.

-Mars and Phobos.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

-10 points for this...

Answer as soon as you buzz.

Goldman Sachs' chief economist Jim O'Neill coined the acronym BRIC to denote the notion...

Brazil, Russia, India, China.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on plant cytology.

What specific term denotes the soft-wall, undifferentiated cells

that form the basic ground tissue of plants?

They make up the bulk of non-woody structures, such as pith and mesophyll.

Something "thin". Erm...

GOLD WHISPERS

-Let's have an answer.

-Pass.

-Parenchyma.

From the Greek for "divided", what term indicates plant tissue capable of undergoing mitosis,

thus giving rise to new cells at the growing tips?

THEY WHISPER

-Pass.

-It's meristem.

What term denotes the lateral meristems

from which secondary growth arises, forming cork and vascular bundles?

Buds?

-Buds.

-No, cambium. 10 points for this.

"A tidy laboratory means a lazy chemist".

This remark is attributed to which Swedish scientist, born 1779?

He established the modern technique of chemical formula notation

and discovered selenium, thorium and cerium?

Celsius.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Pembroke?

-Berzelius.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on psychology.

Which US university gives its name to a notorious experiment of 1971

in which a prison was set up in the basement of the psychology department

and students were assigned the roles of inmates and guards?

-Stanford.

-Correct.

Which Midwestern university gives its name to a starvation experiment

in which conscientious objectors were subjected to malnutrition

and their physical and psychological responses monitored?

-Iowa.

-No, Minnesota.

Which US psychologist gives his name to an Obedience To Authority study

in which people showed themselves willing to administer electric shocks to other subjects?

-Milgram.

-Correct. Another starter.

The name of which Asian island is spelt with the initial letters of the world's deepest lake,

the world's highest waterfall, France's longest...

-Borneo.

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

..France's longest river and the UK's northernmost city?

-Bali.

-Bali is correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on angles, Pembroke.

What name is given to the steepest angle of descent

relative to the horizontal plane, at which material on the slope-face is on the verge of sliding?

-THEY WHISPER

-Come on.

-Er, pass.

-It's the angle of repose.

What term is used for the angle that a ray or beam of radiation makes with a line

perpendicular to the surface at the point of arrival?

Refraction?

-The angle of refraction.

-No, it's the angle of incidence.

Named after a Dutch physicist, which law states

that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction

is constant when a light ray passes from one medium to another?

Would it be Fresnel?

-Nominate Pugh.

-Fresnel.

-No, it's Snell's Law. 10 for this.

Its definition varying, depending upon whether market institutions are included,

what two-word term describes the set of intermediate relations and associations

that are neither the state nor the extended family?

Civil society.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on volcanoes.

Pelean eruptions are named after the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee

that devastated the town of St Pierre on which island in the Lesser Antilles?

-Montserrat.

-Is that in the Lesser Antilles?

-Montserrat.

-No, it's Martinique.

Named after an Italian volcano, what eruption involves moderate bursts of expanding gasses

that eject clots of incandescent lava in small cyclical eruptions?

-Stromboli.

-Strombolian eruptions is correct.

Involving the explosive ejection of relatively viscous lava,

the most powerful type of eruption is named after which Roman scholar who died in AD 79?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

-Do you reckon? Pliny the Elder?

-Go on.

-Pliny the Elder.

-Correct. We're going to take a second Picture Round.

You'll see a painting from 1914.

10 points if you can tell me who painted it.

Adolf Hitler.

-Yes!

-LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Your picture bonuses are all paintings by amateur artists,

all of whom happen to be, or have been, world leaders.

In each case, give me their name. Firstly, this painting from 2009.

2009...

THEY CONFER

What language is that at the top?

Oh, I reckon it's Boris Yeltsin.

No. 2009. Vladimir Putin.

It is that nice Mr Putin, yes.

Secondly, from the mid-1950s.

Winston Churchill.

THEY CONFER

-Eisenhower.

-Do you reckon?

-Yes.

-Winston Churchill.

-No, that's by Dwight Eisenhower.

Finally, this painting from 1938.

Churchill.

-Churchill.

-It is Churchill, yes. 10 points for this.

Definitions of what two-word term include, fancifully, Santa's Little Helpers

and, more correctly, sub-divisions of a sentence, introduced by words such as "who"...

Subordinate clauses.

-Correct.

-LAUGHTER

Your bonuses are on The Definitions, a Dictionary Of Philosophical Terms,

often included in the corpus of Plato's works.

Give the philosophical concept from the definition.

You may answer in either Greek or English.

Firstly, "Political judgement of many people, not limited to a certain time"?

Democracy? Law?

-Anyone?

-No.

-Democracy.

-Democracy?

-No, it's law.

"The bestest position, the state of a mortal creature, which is in itself praiseworthy,

"the state which produces faithfulness to law"?

-Fidelity?

-Judgement?

THEY CONFER

-Fidelity.

-No, it's virtue.

"The gift of good things given for virtuous deeds, the dignity conferred by virtue,

dignified bearing, the cultivation of one's dignity"?

-Honour.

-Mm.

-Honour.

-Correct. Five-and-a-half minutes to go.

Which Polish composer entitled his first symphony in 1959?

The second is known as the Copernican

and a recording of his third, Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs...

-Gorecki.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on melting points. Name the elements which are liquid at 20 degrees Celsius,

one having the atomic number 80 and the other having an atomic mass of approximately 80.

-Mercury, bromine.

-Correct.

Which group 1 element is solid at normal body temperature,

but melts at a fever temperature of 39.31 degrees Celsius?

THEY CONFER

-Potassium.

-No, it's rubidium.

What is the only element that can, in pure form and at standard atmospheric pressure,

remain solid above 3,500 degrees Celsius?

Carbon?

-Carbon.

-Carbon is correct. Four-and-half minutes to go.

Which ravine in Northern Tanzania

is the site of significant finds of humanoid fossils?

-Olduvai.

-Olduvai is right.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Florentine architecture.

Dedicated to St John, which building in Florence has a gilded bronze door

known as the Gates of Paradise, designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti?

-Baptistery.

-Correct.

Which of Ghiberti's contemporaries

was the architect who designed the Basilica of San Lorenzo, begun in 1418,

and gave a practical demonstration of the geometric method of perspective?

-It could be Brunelleschi.

-Brunelleschi.

Correct. Which square or piazza lies in front of the Palazzo Vecchio?

Its features include Cellini's Statue Of Perseus With The Head Of Medusa.

THEY CONFER

-Pass.

-It's della Signoria.

10 points. Answer as soon as you buzz.

During the 1980s, three men served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Name two of them.

-John Major and Geoffrey Howe.

-Correct.

-The other one was Nigel Lawson.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on soldiers in music.

The Soldier's Tale, in which the protagonist gives his violin to the devil

in exchange for knowledge of the future,

premiered in 1918 with work by which composer?

-Stravinsky.

-Yes.

-Stravinsky.

-Correct.

Based on an unfinished drama by Georg Buchner,

which of Alban Berg's eponymous protagonists is a soldier who drowns

while trying to retrieve the weapon with which he stabbed his mistress? It premiered in 1925.

-Nominate Pugh.

-Wozzeck.

-Correct.

Which eponymous character in a 19th-century opera is stabbed to death by Don Jose,

a corporal in the Dragoons?

-Nominate Pugh.

-Carmen.

-Correct. 10 points for this.

Meaning "small town", what Spanish word denotes the settlements of flat-roofed, stone or adobe houses

that are home to Native American peoples in Arizona and New Mexico?

-Pueblo.

-Correct.

Here are your bonuses. They're on inventions.

Give the decade of the 20th century in which the following were invented:

Liposuction, the laser printer, Post-it notes and magnetic resonance imaging.

The '70s or '80s?

-Come on!

-The '70s.

-That's right.

Astroturf, the hover-mower, the cash dispenser and silicon breast implants?

-The '60s?

-Correct.

The lie detector, the medical dressing Elastoplast,

bubblegum and the commercially-manufactured car radio?

-The '50s?

-Probably the '40s.

-'40s.

-The 1920s. Ten for this.

From an ancient word meaning Etruscan, what name denotes that part of the Mediterranean Sea,

bounded by Corsica and Sardinia, Sicily and mainland Italy?

-Tyrrhenian.

-Correct, yes.

-APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on enzymes, Pembroke College.

What is the chief digestive enzyme which splits proteins -

-Pepsin.

-Correct.

The digestive enzyme trypsin

is formed in and secreted from which gland?

-Pancreas? Pancreas.

-Correct.

Which enzyme interacts with fibrinogen to create fibrin

and so playa an important role in blood clotting?

-Prothrombin.

-Nominate Pugh.

-Prothrombin.

-No, it's thrombin.

10 points for this.

Cloudy in appearance, what drink is made in Spain from ground tiger nuts

and in Mexico from ground rice or cantaloupe melon...

Mate.

Anyone like to buzz from Manchester? I'm going to have to deduct five points.

One of you buzz, Manchester. It's horchata.

10 points for this. What short word meaning "vigour"

is an anagram for the Roman numerals for the number 1,004?

-Vim.

-Vim is right. Here are your bonuses.

They're on a Scottish island.

Portree is the chief town of which island,

the largest and most northerly of the Inner Hebrides? Quickly!

-Harris and Lewis.

-No, it's Skye.

What name is given to the rock

that rises from the summit of Sgurr Dearg in Skye's Cuillin mountain range?

-Come on!

-The Slippery Slope.

-No, it's the Inaccessible Pinnacle.

Which castle on Skye claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited...

END-OF-GAME KLAXON

Pembroke College have 135. Manchester University have 180.

APPLAUSE

Bad luck, Pembroke. Someone's got to lose, but you've had a terrific run.

Thanks for being with us.

Manchester, terrific performance from you again. Congratulations. You've won the title.

CHEERING

We recorded that final at our studios in Manchester,

but for the first time in our history, we left the studio for the trophy presentation.

We've come to Clarence House in London for this, the 2012 trophy presentation,

the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of University Challenge.

I'm delighted to say

that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has agreed to present the trophy.

APPLAUSE

-Hello.

-Thank you very much for doing this.

-Very nice to see you.

-Well, what did you think?

-I thought the questions were unbelievably difficult!

-Well, that's intentional, you know.

-They do get harder and harder.

-They do. Yes, they do.

Have you watched the programme for long?

'62, I watched the first programme. I watched it all the way through, with Bamber Gascoigne.

I remember sitting there with my father,

and he got more questions right than anybody else.

And when you came on the scene, I used to sit with my children.

There was a lot of arguments, but Tom did answer a few.

He could answer some of the ones I couldn't. So I've seen it for years.

I'm its greatest fan.

Well, that is a real treat for us!

Can you anatomise what it is you like about it?

I think it's a family programme. I think all ages can watch it.

I think everybody can join together and answer the questions.

I also think it shows how wonderful a lot of the youth are today

and how many clever people there are out there.

I think they give young people a very good name.

Good. May I ask you please to meet this year's runners up,

the team from Pembroke College, Cambridge?

You're the captain.

-How do you appoint a captain?

-This is quite funny.

I think we flipped as coin and I managed to get lucky!

-Very, very well done.

-There we are.

-We've got a trophy for you, as well.

-Thank you.

-I'd better give it to the captain.

-APPLAUSE

Now, would you like to come and meet this year's winners?

I will.

-How do you do?

-Hello.

-This is the captain.

-Very nice to see you. So, they picked you as captain?

-Yes.

Well, it wasn't my decision!

-Did you flip a coin?

-Oh, I was appointed.

-You were appointed.

-Yes.

-You must be a very good leader.

No, I'm not!

Can I ask you to present the trophy now, Your Highness?

-Can I give you this rather splendid trophy?

-Thank you.

-Don't drop it!

APPLAUSE

That's it for this series of University Challenge.

Many thanks to Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall for presenting the trophy.

Many congratulations to the runners-up and the winners.

-Thank you very much for watching.

-APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd