Episode 20 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Tonight two more teams are competing

to take a step closer to being named series champions,

an accolade that's yet to be superseded in any single field of human endeavour.

Three places in the quarterfinals have already been taken.

Tonight's winners will take the fourth.

The team from Bangor University had a convincing win in their first-round match,

with 230 points to Aberystwyth's 110.

They knew a lot about what goes on in the human brain, appropriately,

and they were strong on Christopher Marlowe,

Spanish cities and nature.

They're playing on behalf of an institution

that had reached the semifinals of this competition last year.

So let's find out if tonight's four have it in them to go even further. Here they are.

Hello. I'm Owain Wyn Jones from Abertawe - Swansea -

and I'm doing a PhD in medieval Welsh history.

Hello. I'm Daisy le Helloco from Dorchester in Dorset and I'm doing a PhD in English literature.

Let's meet their captain.

Hi. I'm Catriona Coutts. I'm from Anglesey

and I'm reading English literature with creative writing.

Hello. I'm Anna Johnson.

I'm from Chippenham and I'm doing an M degree in marine biology,

studying imposex in the common dog whelk.

APPLAUSE

Well, it takes all sorts.

Now, their opponents, Southampton University,

lost to the London School of Oriental and African Studies

in their first-round match by 155 points to 230.

They made the most of their second chance

as one of the highest scoring losing teams

by beating Loughborough University

by 105-point margin,

aided by their knowledge of football badges, famous horses

and nasty things you can catch from insects.

Let's meet the Southampton team again.

Hello. I'm David Bishop. I'm from Reading. I'm studying physics.

Hello. I'm Richard Evans. I'm from Frimley in Surrey

and I'm reading chemistry.

And their captain.

Hi. I'm Bob de Caux. I'm originally from West Sussex

and I'm studying for a PhD in complex system simulation.

Hi. I'm Matt Loxham. I'm from Preston in Lancashire

and I'm studying for a PhD in respiratory toxicology.

APPLAUSE

Shall we just get on with it?

Fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for 10.

"Why should it be thought irreligious

"to believe the maker of all things in his first designs

"should have foreseen the necessity of future modifications

"to future altered conditions?"

From an 1861 edition of The Geologist,

these words form part of a review of which ground-breaking work?

Bangor, Johnson.

Origin Of The Species.

That's correct. The Origin Of Species.

APPLAUSE

So you get a set of bonuses, Bangor, on statues of fictional characters.

Firstly, for 5 points, statues of which literary character

were unveiled at Meiringen in Switzerland

and the mountain resort of Karuizawa in Japan in 1988,

some years before the unveiling of a statue near his fictional London home?

Sherlock Holmes?

Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah.

-Sherlock Holmes.

-Correct.

Funded by the author who created him,

a statue of which fictional character appeared in Kensington Gardens in 1912?

Peter Pan.

-Peter Pan.

-Correct.

Which character, created by Michael Bond,

is commemorated by a statue unveiled at a major London railway station in 2000?

-Paddington.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

APPLAUSE

Devised in about 1700 to skim floating tea leaves,

what type of spoon takes its name from a word for...?

Southampton, De Caux.

-Runcible.

-No.

You lose five points.

..for a tiny piece of a substance, for example,

dust?

-Bangor, Le Helloco.

-Spatula?

No, it's a mote spoon.

10 points for this.

Discovered in 1994, which protein was originally identified

as the product of the Ob gene in mice

and was later found in humans and other species?

It's expressed almost exclusively in adipose tissue

and is involved in the regulation of appetite and fat storage.

-Southampton, Loxham.

-Leptin.

-Leptin is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get three bonuses on EH Gombrich's The Story Of Art.

I want you to identify each of the following artists of the Italian Renaissance

from Gombrich's description.

Firstly, "His greatest paintings seemed so effortless

"that one does not usually connect them with the idea of hard and relentless work.

"To many, he's simply the painter of sweet Madonnas,

"which have become so well known as hardly to be appreciated as paintings any more."

THEY CONFER

Michelangelo.

-Try Michelangelo.

-No, it's Raphael.

"He was of a wild and irascible temper,

"quick to take offence and even to run a dagger through a man.

"He had no liking for classical models, nor any respect for ideal beauty."

Maybe Caravaggio?

-Caravaggio.

-Correct.

"In The Dying Slave, he chose the moment when life was just fading

"and the body was giving way to the laws of dead matter.

"There is unspeakable beauty in this moment of final relaxation and release."

Could that be Michelangelo?

-Michelangelo.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

What short word is spelt

using the middle initials of the civil rights activist Susan Anthony,

the Confederate general Robert Lee

and John Rockefeller...?

-Southampton, De Caux.

-Bed.

Bed is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses could give you the lead. They're on radio-astronomy.

Which US engineer in 1931,

while investigating interference to telephone communications,

discovered unidentifiable radio signals from outer space?

He gives his name to a unit measuring radio emission strength.

-It's not Hubble, is it?

-It's not Hubble.

I've got Tombaugh in my head, but...

Nominate Evans.

-Tombaugh.

-No, it's Karl Jansky.

Secondly, which British radio-astronomer

pioneered the subject at Cambridge University?

His work included the cataloguing of radio sources,

which contributed to the discovery of quasars.

THEY CONFER

That's the Manchester guy.

-Anyone?

-No.

No, we don't know.

It's Sir Martin Ryle.

Finally, what name has been given to the upgrade to a network of seven radio-astronomy stations

from Jodrell Bank in Cheshire to Lord's Bridge near Cambridge

that links the stations together using optical fibres?

SkyNet?

SkyNet sounds good!

Shall we say it?

Well, we'll say SkyNet!

No, it's e-Merlin. 10 points for this.

JRR Tolkien claimed he created

which race of characters, partly in disappointment "at the shabby use made in Shakespeare's Macbeth..."?

-Bangor, Coutts.

-Orcs.

No. You lose 5 points.

"..at the coming of great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill"?

In his own works, they appear as guardians

or shepherds of the tress.

-Southampton, Bishop.

-Ents.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, Southampton, these bonuses are on the Color Of The Year

in the supreme wisdom of the US design corporation, Pantone.

Pantone's 2011 Color Of The Year

shared its name with which climbing garden plant

of the genus Lonicera, noted for its intense fragrance?

Lavender?

Could be.

-Climbing?

-It's not climbing.

I don't know.

-Lavender.

-No, it's Honeysuckle.

What was Pantone's 2012 Color Of The Year?

Its two-word alliterative name

comprises those of a citrus fruit named after a North African port

and a ballroom dance that originated in Argentina.

It's alliterative, so...

Tangerine Tango?

Yeah.

Tangerine is the fruit, so...

-Tangerine Tango.

-Correct.

Well worked out.

What is Pantone's 2013 Color Of The Year?

It shares its name with a variety of the mineral beryl,

that's valued as a gemstone.

Is that emerald?

Could be.

That's definitely beryl, but...

-Emerald.

-Correct.

Right, we'll take a picture round.

For your picture starter,

you'll see a notable New York street. For 10 points,

I want you to name the street, please.

-Southampton, Loxham.

-5th Avenue.

It is 5th Avenue, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are three more New York thoroughfares.

In each case, I simply want the name of the road. Firstly...

Is that Broadway?

It's the only one that...

-Broadway.

-Correct.

Secondly, the four-word name of this street.

Avenue of the Americas?

-Avenue of the Americas.

-Correct.

And finally, this intersection.

-Times Square?

-Times Square.

Well done. 10 points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

What comes next in this sequence,

being the countries that border Sudan, in clockwise order?

Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and...?

-Southampton, Evans.

-South Sudan.

No.

-Bangor, Coutts.

-Djibouti.

No, it's Kenya.

10 points at stake for this.

Formerly used in televisions, what device requires a magnetic field

to deflect a beam of electrons...?

-Southampton, Loxham.

-Cathode ray tube.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

This set of bonuses, Southampton,

are on 20th-century history.

Which former Prime Minister gave his name to a declaration of 1926

that acknowledged the growing diplomatic independence of Britain's dominions?

That's probably Balfour.

-Balfour.

-Correct.

Adopted by the United Kingdom in 1931,

which statute confirmed the legislative autonomy of the dominions

that had been suggested by the Balfour Report?

THEY CONFER

-We don't know.

-It's the Statute of Westminster. And finally,

a dominion when the Statute of Westminster was adopted,

which island became a province of Canada in 1949?

Newfoundland.

-Yeah, that's right. Newfoundland.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

Resembling a stylised trident,

the columns of Gediminas

are a symbol of which EU member state?

Its coat of arms features an armoured knight on a white horse...

-Southampton, Bishop.

-Lithuania.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Southampton, are on graphic novels.

"It feels like a character I created 30 years ago

"has escaped the realm of fiction."

Which writer said that, referring to the sight of global protestors

adopting the Guy Fawkes masks worn by the protagonist of his V For Vendetta?

-Alan Moore.

-Alan Moore.

Correct.

Although the illustrator Eddie Campbell believes otherwise,

in the comic series From Hell, Alan Moore identifies

the Royal Physician Sir William Withey Gull as which notorious figure?

-Jack the Ripper.

-Correct.

First published in 1999, which comic book series by Alan Moore

features an eponymous team of secret agents

that includes Edward Hyde, Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man and Alan Quartermain?

-Watchmen.

-No, it's The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

10 points for this.

Alluding to the raised platform used to attract an audience,

what word denotes a charlatan seller of quack remedies

or a person who deceives others, especially in order to separate them from their money?

-Southampton, De Caux.

-Huckster.

Anyone like to buzz from Bangor?

It's a mountebank. 10 points for this.

Which interpretation of quantum mechanics is named after the European city...?

-Southampton, Loxham.

-The Copenhagen Interpretation.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Principally associated with historical novels,

which author was shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize for The Colour

and went on to win in 2008 with The Road Home?

THEY CONFER

Pat Barker.

No, it's Rose Tremain.

Which US author won the 2010 Orange Prize for The Lacuna,

having been shortlisted over ten years earlier for The Poisonwood Bible?

We'd just be making names up, so pass.

Served you fine so far!

No, it's Barbara Kingsolver.

And finally, Unless, nominated for the Orange Prize in 2003

and Larry's Party, the winner in 1998,

are works by which Canadian writer who died in 2003?

-Margaret Atwood, but I don't think she died, did she?

-Try it.

I think she's still alive!

I'll say Margaret Atwood.

No, it's Carol Shields.

There really is a divide in reading, isn't there?

Right, we're going to take a music round, Bangor, and there's plenty of time to come back.

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

For 10 points, I simply want you to tell me the name of the group performing.

# I'm a fi... #

-Southampton, Loxham.

-The Prodigy.

It is The Prodigy, Firestarter.

APPLAUSE

That was banned by the BBC

for arson fixation and scaring small children.

For your bonuses, three more songs that were at one time banned by the BBC for various reasons.

5 points for each artist or band you can identify.

Firstly, the name of the group performing this song,

banned because its lyrics were seen to be an implicit endorsement of early '90s drug culture.

# 'Ezer Goode, 'Ezer Goode

# He's Ebenezer Goode

# 'Ezer Goode, 'Ezer Goode... #

-That's the Shamen.

-It is the Shamen, yes.

Secondly, the band performing this song,

which made the BBC's list of songs to be avoided during the Gulf War for its Middle Eastern references.

# Foreign types with their hookah pipes say... #

That's the Bangles, isn't it?

The Bangles.

Yes, Walk Like An Egyptian. And finally,

who's performing this song, of which BBC managers stated,

"Certain lines in the lyric must not be broadcast due to their suggestive nature?"

# In my blazer and a pair of shorts

# With me little stick of Blackpool rock... #

THEY CONFER

# Along the promenade I stroll

# It may be sticky but I never complain

# It's nice to have a nibble at it now and again... #

-George Formby.

-It is George Formby, yes!

APPLAUSE

10 points at stake for this. First used in an essay of 1849

by Henry David Thoreau,

which two-word term describes the intentional, non-violent defiance of Government authority

on the grounds of moral objection, with the aim of promoting a just society?

-Bangor, Johnson.

-Um...conscious objectation.

No. Anyone like to buzz from Southampton?

You may not confer. One of you may buzz.

-Southampton, De Caux.

-Conscientious objector?

-No.

It's civil disobedience. 10 points for this.

Which play by Shakespeare includes the lines,

"Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,

"and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind?"

-Southampton, Loxham.

-Romeo And Juliet.

No. Anyone from Bangor?

-Bangor, Le Helloco.

-Twelfth Night.

No. It's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's Helena. 10 points for this.

In terms of Boltzmann's constant, k,

and the temperature, T,

what is the average kinetic energy per molecule of a...?

-Southampton, Evans.

-Three times half kT.

Correct, yes - 3/2 kT.

Right, a set of bonuses now, Southampton.

They're on crystal structures in chemistry.

Which element was discovered by the Curies in 1898,

some months before their discovery of radium?

It has two metallic allotropes - the alpha form is an example of a simple cubic structure

and the beta form is rhombohedral.

Is it polonium?

Polonium.

Correct. There are two crystal lattices in which hard spheres can be packed

to fill spaces as efficiently as possible.

One lattice is the hexagon close packed or HCP.

What's the other?

-Cubic close packed.

-Close packed?

-Cubic close packed.

-Correct.

In a sodium chloride crystal, how many sodium ions

surround a chloride ion as nearest neighbour?

-Six.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

After the then reigning monarch,

what three-word name was given to a fund

aimed at supplementing the income of less wealthy Anglican clergy?

It was established in 1704.

-Bangor, Coutts.

-Queen Anne Fund.

No. Anyone like to buzz from Southampton?

-Southampton, De Caux.

-King George Fund.

No, it's Queen Anne's Bounty.

10 points for this.

Born in Danzig in 1788

and often called the "philosopher of pessimism",

which opponent of Hegel is best known...?

-Southampton, Loxham.

-Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on African capitals.

Cotonou is the seat of government and Porto-Novo the official capital of which West African country?

It gained independence from France in 1960.

-Benin.

-Correct.

Pretoria is the executive capital of South Africa

and Cape Town, the legislative.

Which inland city is the judicial capital?

-Bloemfontein.

-Right.

Dodoma has been designated capital of Tanzania

since the 1970s,

although the seat of much government administration has remained in which sea port?

-Dar es Salaam.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

How many full decades

separate Yuri Gagarin's first space flight

and the last flight of the space shuttle?

-Southampton, Evans.

-Five.

-Five is correct.

APPLAUSE

1961 to 2011.

These bonuses are on artists.

A founder of the Vienna Secession,

which artist's works include Judith And The Head Of Holofernes

and Three Ages Of Woman?

THEY CONFER

-We'll try Klimt.

-Klimt is correct.

At the Vienna Secession exhibition in 1902, a frieze by Klimt

accompanied Max Klinger's sculpture of which German composer?

THEY CONFER

I would go Beethoven.

-Beethoven.

-Well done.

Perhaps the most familiar image of Beethoven is Joseph Stieler's 1820 portrait

of him working on his Missa Solemnis, on display in the Beethoven House,

in which city, the composer's birthplace in 1770?

-Bonn?

-I think it was Bonn, yeah.

-Bonn.

-Correct.

10 points for this. Which English city shares its name

with a comma that precedes...?

-Southampton, Loxham.

-Oxford.

-Oxford is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Southampton, these bonuses are on historic routes.

Firstly, described as Britain's oldest road,

which national trail runs from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire

to Overton Hill in Wiltshire?

Ridgeway.

-The Ridgeway.

-Correct.

Thought by some to have been a branch of the Icknield Way,

the Peddars Way follows the route of a Roman road

for 46 miles to the north coast of which county?

THEY CONFER

Which Roman way's going to...?

No, actually, it could be...

-Devon.

-No, it's Norfolk.

The Pilgrims' Way is a historic route

that runs from Winchester to the shrine of St Thomas a Becket in which city?

-Canterbury.

-Correct.

We'll take a picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you'll see a portrait of an historical figure.

For 10 points, give me his name.

-Bangor, Jones.

-Simon de Bolivar.

Simon Bolivar is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You've got a bit of ground to catch up. You may have time.

Following on from Simon Bolivar, your bonuses -

three more figures who notably combined

military and political service in the mid- to late-19th century.

5 points for each you can identify. Firstly...

That was Ulysses S Grant.

-Who?

-Ulysses S Grant.

-OK.

-Ulysses S Grant.

-Correct.

Secondly...

Any idea?

Metternich? Give it a shot.

-Come on.

-Metternich?

-No. That's Paul Kruger,

the South African Boer leader. And finally...

-Bismarck.

-No. The shirt's the giveaway - it's Garibaldi.

10 points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

In mathematics, what are the four roots of unity?

Southampton, De Caux.

Plus one, minus one, i and minus i?

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on cell biology.

What term denotes the large family of calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecules

found in junctions between cells?

Oh, dear! Um...

Well, they're...

-Junctions between cells are synapses, aren't they? Cadherins.

-Nominate Loxham.

-Cadherins.

-Correct.

Containing cadherins and also known as macula adherens,

what term denotes the strong junctions between cells

that occur as discrete points on the lateral cell membrane?

That's hemi-desmosomes.

Hemi-desmosomes.

No, they're desmosomes. They're different.

Pemphigus vulgaris is an auto-immune disease

in which auto-antibodies target desmosomes.

What are the characteristic lesions of this disease?

Epithelial sloughing, maybe?

Nominate Loxham.

-Epithelial sloughing.

-No, they're blisters. Another starter question.

Gloucester, Monmouth, Camden,

Guilford, Courthouse and Brandywine

are among military actions in which 18th-century conflict?

-Southampton, Bishop.

-The American War of Independence.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on proper names in which no letter is repeated,

sometimes called isograms. In each case, give the name from the description.

Firstly, a town in North Lincolnshire,

noted for steel production.

-Scunthorpe. Is that an isogram?

-Yeah, it is.

-Scunthorpe.

-Correct.

An automotive company founded by the German government in 1937.

Volkswagen?

-Volkswagen.

-Correct.

And finally, the 11-letter English name of a landlocked European country.

-Liechtenstein.

-Oh, no!

No, it's Switzerland.

10 points for this.

In addition to the Pre-Cambrian and the Cambrian,

two geological periods have names associated with Wales...

-Bangor, Jones.

-Ordovician and Silurian.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Nice to have you with us!

These bonuses are on the United Nations.

In each case, give the decade in which the following joined the UN.

Jamaica, Malta, Kuwait and Zambia.

I think it might be '60s.

A lot of the Africans were '60s.

-1960s.

-Correct.

Thailand, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

-I think that might have been from the start.

-OK.

1940s.

Correct.

And finally, Moldova, Palau and Latvia.

-1990s, I think.

-Yeah.

-1990s.

-Correct.

About three minutes to go and 10 points for this.

You must answer as soon as your name is called.

Give the dictionary spelling of the word "excerpt".

-Southampton, De Caux.

-E-X-C-E-R-P-T.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on diseases of the vascular system.

In each case, give the term from the description.

Firstly, a localised swelling or widening of an artery,

often due to the weakening of its wall.

Quickly!

Oedema. Go for oedema.

-Oedema.

-No, it's aneurysm.

Secondly, a spasm of pain in the chest,

often caused by the inability of the coronary arteries to bring enough oxygen-laden blood to the heart.

-Angina.

-Angina.

Angina pectoris is correct.

A Greek-derived term meaning the formation of blood clot

within the blood vessels or heart.

Myocardial infarction is a heart attack.

No, it's...

Come on!

Haemostasis.

-Haemostasis.

-No, it's thrombosis.

10 points for this.

Pilsner, Semtex and dollar

are English words that derive ultimately from the names of locations...?

-Southampton, Bishop.

-The Czech Republic.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Southampton, your bonuses are on a month.

Which month is a wicked month,

according to the title of a novel of 1965 by the Irish writer Edna O'Brien?

THEY CONFER

-January.

-No, it's August.

August 1914 is the first in a series of novels collectively known as the Red Wheel by which Russian writer?

THEY CONFER

Come on!

-Solzhenitsyn.

-Correct.

Which poet wrote that the English winter "ended in July, to recommence in August"?

That sounds like Auden.

Yeah. Auden.

No, it was Byron. 10 points for this.

In chemistry, what is the oxidation state

of oxygen in hydrogen peroxide...?

-Southampton, Evans.

-Minus 1.

-Correct.

These bonuses are on religious texts.

The Rig Veda, a large collection of hymns composed during the second millennium BCE

is the oldest known text in which language?

-Sanskrit, maybe?

-Sanskrit.

-Correct.

Related to Sanskrit, in what language are the earliest texts of southern Buddhism?

It developed in northern India from the fifth century BCE.

THEY CONFER

-Nominate Bishop.

-Hindi.

No, it's Pali.

Ardha Magadhi, or Half Magadhi,

is a principal language of the texts of which Indian religion?

Is that Jainism?

Try Jainism.

Come on!

-Jainism.

-Correct.

10 points for this. Cape Fear, The Age Of Innocence

and The Last Temptation Of Christ...?

-Southampton, Evans.

-Martin Scorsese.

Correct. These bonuses now are on the British actor Charles Laughton.

Which Roman emperor did Charles Laughton play

in Cecil B DeMille's 1932 film The Sign Of The Cross?

If it's The Sign Of The Cross, it must be Constantine.

-Constantine.

-No. Nero.

What role did Laughton play in the 1953 film Salome?

He memorably views Rita Hayworth in the title role

performing the dance of...

-GONG

-That's the gong.

Bangor University have 60. Southampton University have 335.

APPLAUSE

Well, Bangor,

you were so much stronger last time you were here!

I don't know what happened - you were rather tongue-tied.

Thank you for joining us. We have to say goodbye to you.

You guys are on fire, Southampton!

Some very, very inspired guesses, if indeed they were guesses. Or maybe you were trying to...

I won't do...

You never know.

Anyway, congratulations to you. We shall look forward to seeing you

in the quarterfinals. I hope you can join us next time.

-But until then, it's goodbye from Bangor University...

-ALL: Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Southampton University...

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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