Episode 31 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

-ANNOUNCER:

-University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello.

We've seen the team from Trinity College Cambridge

become the first to qualify for the semifinals

by winning the two quarterfinal matches required

by our stringent, many would say over-stringent, rules.

They'll be joined by whichever team wins tonight,

because both of them have already one quarterfinal win behind them.

The losers will play again

and get one final chance to go through.

Now, the team representing Somerville College, Oxford,

had comfortable wins over Pembroke College, Cambridge,

and the University of York in Rounds 1 and 2,

and then a tougher time of it

in their first quarterfinal against Clare College, Cambridge

but they still managed to win that by 195 points to Clare's 160.

Let's meet them again.

Hello, I'm Sam Walker from Stafford and I'm studying physics.

Hello, my name's Zach Vermeer.

I'm from Sydney, Australia, and I study law.

-And their captain.

-Hi, I'm Michael Davies.

I'm from Blackburn in Lancashire

and I'm studying politics, philosophy and economics.

Hi, I'm Chris Beer.

I'm from Blyborough in Lincolnshire and I'm studying English literature.

APPLAUSE

The team from Southampton University

lost to the London School of Oriental and African Studies

in their first-round match

but, as one of the highest-scoring losing teams,

they met Loughborough in the playoffs,

and that victory put them through to the second round,

in which they beat Bangor University.

Their first quarterfinal was against Queens University, Belfast,

which they won by 290 points to 90.

Let's meet the Southampton team again.

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

Hello, I'm Richard Evans.

I'm from Frimley in Surrey and I'm reading chemistry.

And here's their captain.

Hi, I'm Bob De Caux.

I'm originally from West Sussex

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

Hi, I'm Matt Loxham.

I'm from Preston in Lancashire

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

APPLAUSE

Right, let's just cut to the chase. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for 10.

Having played in goal, which Frenchman claimed that,

"All I know most surely about..."

-Albert Camus.

-Indeed.

It could only be.

APPLAUSE

Right the first set of bonuses, Somerville,

are on novels set in London.

Firstly, for five points,

named after the postcode of its setting,

which novel by Zadie Smith

details the lives of Leah, Natalie, Nathan and Felix,

who grew up together on a Willesden council estate?

-I think this is NW.

-NW?

-Yes.

-NW.

-Correct.

The residents of Pepys Road

populate the 2012 novel Capital by which author?

His other works include The Debt To Pleasure,

and Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone And No One Can Pay.

-This is another fiction one. Do you have any idea?

-I'm sorry, I don't.

-No idea?

-Do you have any guesses you could go for?

-I think it's up to you.

-Oh, God.

Any ideas? Vickers.

No, it's John Lanchester.

And finally,

the occupants of Thomas Cromwell's London house in Broad Street

called Austin Friars

appear in both Wolf Hall in 2009

and which novel, its sequel, published in 2012?

-Is this Bring Up The Bodies? Is that what it's called?

-Happy?

-Yeah.

-Try it.

-Bring Up The Bodies.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Bought by Lord Hertford in 1865 as Portrait Of A Man,

which popular title was later given

to the portrait in the Wallace Collection

of a smiling enigmatic sitter?

-The Laughing Cavalier?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Somerville, are on early computer networking.

For five points, the main precursor of the internet,

which network of time-sharing computers

was developed by the US Department Of Defence

Advanced Research Projects Agency?

It became operational in 1969.

Nominate Walker.

-ARPANET.

-Correct.

Which internet pioneer

co-wrote the communication protocol for ARPANET with Robert Kahn

and co-founded the Internet Society with him in 1992?

He joined Google in 2005

as Chief Internet Evangelist.

It's not Berners-Lee.

Seems unlikely. Do you know anyone?

Not really.

THEY CONFER

-Berners-Lee.

-No, it's Vinton Gray Cerf. Vint Cerf.

Five points for this.

Which networking technology was created in 1973

by a Xerox PARC research team led by the US engineer Bob Metcalfe?

It developed into the most popular standard for local networks.

-Is that the intranet?

-Sorry?

-Ethernet?

-Ethernet?

-Sounds more likely.

-OK, maybe.

-Ethernet.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Described as the hero among those third-rate men,

which character in Thackeray's Vanity Fair

dies at the Battle Of Waterloo...?

George Osborne.

Yes, it is.

APPLAUSE

Somerville, these bonuses are on ancient bronze artworks.

Dating to the 4th century BC,

the bronze sculpture

of the head of the thickly-bearded Thracian King Seuthes III

was discovered in 2004 in which country?

THEY CONFER

Thracian, did he say? Macedonian? I don't know.

It sounds like a reasonable guess, doesn't it?

-Macedonia.

-No, it's Bulgaria.

Thought to date from the 3rd or 2nd centuries BC

and recovered from the sea floor in 1998,

the Dancing Satyr is usually displayed

in a church in the port of Mazara del Vallo

in which Mediterranean island?

THEY CONFER

-Sicily.

-Correct.

Found in 1553 and thought to date from the 4th century BC,

the bronze Chimera Of Arezzo

is a prominent example of the art of which ancient people?

THEY CONFER

The Minoans, or the Mycenaeans?

I think it is going to be one of those, but I don't know.

So the Minoans were on Crete and the Mycenaeans were on the mainland,

but I don't really know, it...

Mycenaeans, say Mycenaeans.

-Mycenaeans.

-No, it's the Etruscans.

Ten points for this.

In 1828, the German chemist Friedrich Wohler

achieved the first synthesis of an organic compound

from an inorganic substance

when he converted ammonium cyanate into which substance,

also known as carbamide?

None of you know? It's urea. Ten points for this. Which city is this?

The capital of the Serbian states

before the Ottomans defeated the Balkan Christian armies

at a battle of 1389,

it's regarded as a cultural centre by ethnic Albanians

and is the capital of Kosovo.

Pristina.

Pristina is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your first set of bonuses, Southampton,

are on films based on works of journalism.

Firstly, for five points -

later revealed to be largely the invention of its author,

the British journalist Nik Cohn

was the author of a 1976 New York magazine piece

which forms the basis for which film?

THEY CONFER

Is it the Truman Show? I don't know why I am...

-The Truman Show.

-No, it's Saturday Night Fever.

Secondly, which 1984 film about Cambodia's Khmer Rouge

came out of the article The Death And Life Of Dith Pran

by Sydney Schanberg of the New York Times?

-The Killing Fields.

-Correct.

The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman used The Orchid Thief

by the New Yorker writer Susan Orlean

as the basis for which film

starring Nicolas Cage as identical twins?

THEY CONFER Yes.

-Adaptation.

-Correct.

We're going to take a picture round now. For your picture starter,

you will see the logo of an international organisation

with any helpful wording removed.

Ten points if you can name the organisation.

-UNICEF.

-No. Somerville?

One of you may buzz.

Doesn't look as if you're going to...

-Association Of Southeast Asian Nations.

-No.

No, we'll see the whole thing now.

So, picture bonuses shortly. Ten points for this starter question.

"Why is geometry often described as cold and dry?

"One reason lies in its inability to describe

"the shape of a cloud, a mountain, or a tree."

These are the words of which mathematician

in his pioneering work of 1975...

-Mandelbrot.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

So we go back to the picture bonuses.

Medecins Sans Frontieres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

For your bonuses, you will see the logos

of three more international organisations

that have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Five points for each you can name. Firstly...

I think they gave it to the World Health Organisation...

-But it doesn't look like...

-It isn't.

THEY CONFER

-UNESCO? I don't know.

-Could be a UN...

-UNESCO.

-No, it's the International Labour organisation.

We'll see the whole thing, there it is. Secondly...

THEY CONFER

A refugee organisation?

Could be.

Anyone know any UN bodies related to refugees?

UN High Commission For Refugees?

Try it.

The UN High Commission For...

No, it's not. It's the Grameen Bank.

There we are. It's a Bangladeshi micro-finance community bank.

And finally...

THEY MURMUR

UN Peacekeeping...?

-Yeah, because they're deployed by the Security Council.

-Come on!

UN Peacekeepers?

UN Peacekeepers.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. There we are.

-APPLAUSE

-Right. Well done. Ten points for this.

Identified to its audiences

by the English pronunciations of its initials,

although its full name is not written in an alphabetic script,

NHK is the national public broadcasting organisation

of which country?

-North Korea.

-No.

Southampton?

-South Korea?

-No, it's Japan.

Ten points for this.

In atmospheric physics,

what term denotes the optical phenomenon

of a yellowish-white halo around the Sun, caused by...

-Corona.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses on disorders of the eye, Southampton.

From the Greek, meaning "without a mark",

what term denotes the condition

in which the image of a viewed object appears to be distorted?

It's usually caused by an irregular curvature of the cornea or lens,

resulting in the incorrect focusing of light rays onto the retina.

THEY CONFER

I can't think what it would be.

-No, pass.

-It's astigmatism.

Secondly, for five points, from the Greek, meaning "darkness",

what term denotes a temporary or permanent blind spot

in the field of vision

such as might be caused by looking directly at the Sun?

THEY CONFER

-Any ideas?

-No.

-Morphea.

-No, it's scotoma.

And, finally, from the Greek word for "squint",

what medical term denotes a condition

in which the eyes aren't properly aligned?

THEY CONFER

-Pass.

-It's strabismus. Ten points for this.

Which monarch occupies the northeast

if the southwest is occupied by General Sir Charles James Napier

and the southeast by Major General Sir Henry Havelock?

-Charles I.

-No.

One of you buzz, Somerville.

-James I?

-No, it's George IV.

They are the plinths in Trafalgar Square. Ten points for this.

Listen carefully. Which five-letter word means a mouldy smell or taste

or something that is old-fashioned?

If the initial letter M is changed to an F

both meanings remain valid. If, instead, the letter T...

-Musty.

-Correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, Somerville. These bonuses are on economics.

In 1933, which British economist wrote an open letter

to President Roosevelt in the New York Times,

recommending government spending to reinvigorate the economy?

-Keynes.

-Correct.

From 1933, Roosevelt implemented a package

of state intervention and stimulus policies known by what popular name?

The New Deal?

-The New Deal.

-Some people find these questions quite difficult.

-Oh, sorry!

-There's no need to dismiss them with such contempt!

-I'm sorry.

-You're quite right.

Perhaps you will get the third one, too.

The Norwegian economist Ragnar Frisch

made the distinction

between the study of the behaviour of individuals and firms

and the study of the economy as a whole system.

What term, also associated with Keynes,

describes the latter approach?

Macroeconomics. I assume so... Ma...

-Macroeconomics.

-Yeah. Macroeconomics.

-It is indeed.

Contemptibly easy. Right. We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you will hear a piece of instrumental music.

For ten points, all you have to do is name the lead performer.

MUSIC: "Spanish Flea"

-Herb Alpert.

-I can't believe you confessed to that!

Yes, it is. And his Tijuana Brass.

APPLAUSE

So we follow on from Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass

with bonuses by three more instrumentals from the 1960s.

In each case, I want the name of the composer

who, in each case, also performed on the track.

Firstly, for five...

JAZZ MUSIC

What's the instrument? Is it Miles Davis?

-Miles Davis?

-THEY MURMUR

-Miles Davis?

-No, that Herbie Hancock.

Secondly, who's this?

JAZZ MUSIC

THEY CONFER

-This is Miles Davis?

-Yeah.

Miles Davis.

No, that isn't Miles Davis, that's John Coltrane.

And finally...

MUSIC: "Soul Bossa Nova"

I've played this.

The only one I can think of is Mancini,

and it's not Mancini, is it?

-He did The Pink Panther. Do you have any ideas?

-No, sorry.

-Mancini?

-No, it's Quincy Jones.

-Yeah.

Ten points for this starter question. Listen carefully.

If a single self-replicating robot

takes one year to produce ten copies of itself,

all of which are activated on the same day,

after how many years will the number of robots exceed one million?

-Six.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Somerville College, are on artists' biographies.

Noted for his frescoes in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio,

which painter and architect

is best known for his 1550 work

Lives Of The Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects?

This is Vasari, is it? I think so. Vasari.

I bow to your knowledge. Vasari.

Correct. Absolved by Pope Paul III

after being found guilty of killing a rival goldsmith,

which artist's frank and boastful autobiography

was first printed in Italy in 1728,

over 150 years after his death?

I think this is Cellini.

-Cellini?

-Yeah.

-Cellini.

-Correct.

Hilary Spurling won the 2005 Whitbread Book of the Year award

for the second volume of her biography

of which French artist who died in Nice in 1954?

THEY CONFER

Matisse or Cezanne...?

Matisse?

Could be Matisse.

I think, yeah, Matisse.

-Matisse is correct.

-APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. I Am The Wife Of Mao Tse-tung

is an aria from which opera

with a libretto by Alice Goodman and music by John Adams...?

Nixon In China.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

Somerville, these bonuses are on US states,

specifically those that may autocomplete into an historical term

when typed into Google.

For example, Missouri Compromise.

In each case, give the historical term from the definition.

Firstly, a deal of 1803

by which the United States acquired New Orleans

and all French territory on the west bank of the Mississippi.

Louisiana.

-The Louisiana Purchase.

-It is.

Secondly, what three-word term denotes the English settlement

around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston,

established by John Winthrop and others from 1628?

THEY CONFER

Salem witch trials.

It's not a settlement.

It's not just New England, is that?

It was three words.

THEY CONFER

-No.

-Let's have it, please.

Um...

New England...Cambridge.

No, it's the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is what it autocompletes as.

A 2,000-mile overland wagon route,

the principal means of emigration to the Pacific Northwest

from the 1840s, finally.

-The Oregon Trail.

-Yeah.

-The Oregon Trail.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

Because of its low neutron-capture cross section,

which alloy of magnesium and aluminium

has been used for cladding uranium fuel elements in nuclear reactors?

-Magnox.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these are your bonuses, Southampton,

on the US architect Daniel H Burnham.

Firstly, completed by Burnham in 1902,

which office building filled the triangular plot

at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway?

It's been called New York's oldest skyscraper.

-The Flatiron.

-Correct.

For which US city did Burnham design the Reliance Building in 1895

and produce a master plan in 1909,

now considered a landmark in the history of urban planning?

Chicago.

Correct.

Burham co-designed which London department store

which opened on Oxford Street in 1909?

-Selfridges.

-Correct.

We're going to take a second picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a portrait of a political philosopher.

Ten points if you can give me his name.

Jeremy Bentham.

No.

-John Locke.

-It is John Locke, yes.

APPLAUSE

Somerville, for your bonuses,

three more thinkers who influenced the American and French Revolutions.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly, for five, this Irish philosopher and politician.

Burke?

It that Burke?

He was a politician, I guess.

-But he was a philosopher.

-He was.

-Burke.

-Yes, I was quite surprised too.

-I thought he was fatter than that, but you're right.

-Well done.

Secondly, this French political philosopher.

-Montesquieu.

-Yeah.

-Montesquieu.

-Correct.

And finally, this English-born philosopher and polemicist.

-Thomas Paine.

-Thomas Paine.

It is, of course. Ten points for this.

Andrew Osmond and Peter Usborne co-founded which magazine

that first appeared in October 1961?

The following year,

the magazine was sold to the comedian Peter Cook

and received its first...

Private Eye.

-Private Eye is correct.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a planet of the solar system, Somerville.

Which planet has two large highland regions

named after the goddesses Ishtar and Aphrodite,

along with other surface features

named Helen, Guinevere and Lavinia?

-Venus?

-Venus.

-They're all named after women.

-Yeah, Venus.

-Correct.

A many-ringed impact crater in the southern hemisphere of Venus

is named after which Austrian physicist?

She was involved in the discovery and explanation of nuclear fission

and gives her name to the element with the atomic number 109.

THEY CONFER

Do you know any female Austrian scientists...?

Do you have any names?

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

-Um... We don't know.

It's Meitner, Lise Meitner.

A lowland area in the northern hemisphere

is named after which Inuit goddess?

She also gives her name to one of the most distant bodies

known in the solar system, discovered in 2003.

THEY CONFER

Sedna? Sedna.

Sedna is right. Four and a half minutes to go. Ten points for this.

Denoting a thick soup or stew,

which archaic word is especially associated

with a passage in the Book Of Genesis

in which Esau exchanges his birthright for a single meal?

Pottage.

-Pottage is correct.

-APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on the 1920s, Somerville.

In each case, I want you to identify the precise year

in which the following took place.

Firstly, for five points, Mussolini's March On Rome,

the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb,

and the first complete publication of James Joyce's Ulysses.

-1922.

-1922.

Correct. Secondly, the Scopes Monkey Trial,

the publication of The Great Gatsby, and the signing of the Locarno Pact.

'26?

You say '26? '26.

No, it's 1925.

And finally, the enfranchisement of women aged 21 to 30 in Britain,

the premiere of Ravel's Bolero,

and the publication in ten volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary.

1924?

It was later, I think, for women.

'28 or '29. What do you think?

-I thought '28.

-All right, go with it.

-'28.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

When appearing, for example, before the words

memory, emotion, language or theory,

which Greek prefix means something of a second or higher order?

-Meta.

-Meta is right.

These bonuses, Southampton, are on an African country.

Which West African country takes its name from the river that,

for more than 800km, forms its border with Mauritania?

Niger?

-Niger River, Niger.

-Niger.

No, it's Senegal. Senegal almost completely surrounds which country

that has a short Atlantic coastline

and is the smallest country of mainland Africa?

-The Gambia.

-Correct.

Located in Senegal, the westernmost cape of Africa

gives its name to which island country?

Cape Verde is right near Senegal.

-Cape Verde.

-Cape Verde is correct. Ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

If log (base 9) of x plus log (base 3) of x equals 6, what is x?

2.

No, Southampton, one of you buzz.

3.

No, it's 81. Ten points for this.

In summer of the year 306,

Constantine was proclaimed Emperor of Rome

by troops stationed in what...?

Britannia.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..in what location, now an English cathedral city?

-St Albans.

-No, it's York, or Eboracum. Ten points for this.

Listen carefully.

Since 1918, three decades have seen four UK general elections.

One was the 1970s, can you name one of the other two, please?

1950s.

Yes, that's correct. The other one was the 1920s.

So you get a set of bonuses now, Southampton, on microscopy.

Firstly for five points, what can be deduced if a cell appears blue

when stained with the azo dye trypan blue?

-Dead...

-Dead?

-Yes.

-It's dead.

-Correct.

-LAUGHTER

-It is, indeed.

The Ziehl-Neelsen technique is used in bacteriology

to stain an important group of which human pathogens?

THEY CONFER

Gram-positive bacteria.

-Gram-positive bacteria.

-No, it's mycobacteria.

Which biomolecules are stained by the fluorescent dye acridine orange?

-I'd go for, perhaps...

-Nominate Loxham.

-Lipids.

No, it's nucleic acids. Ten points for this.

Which human intestinal parasite

attaches itself to the wall of the digestive tract

by means of...?

Tapeworm.

-Correct.

-APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a French composer, Southampton.

Which Frenchman became the first high-profile composer

to write music for the cinema

when he produced the score for the 1908 short film

The Assassination Of The Duke Of Guise?

-Debussy.

-Debussy.

No, it was Saint-Saens.

Featuring in the 1995 film Babe, the song...

GONG

At the gong, Southampton have 95. Somerville have 215.

APPLAUSE

-Well, Southampton, you weren't on very good form today.

-No.

You're much less lively than you usually are,

but you'll be coming back to have another go.

You must when that time, of course,

in order to stand a chance of going through.

Somerville, congratulations. You go through to the semifinals. Another great performance from you.

We shall look forward to seeing you in that contest.

I hope you can join us next time for another quarterfinal match.

But until then, it's goodbye from Southampton University.

-ALL:

-Bye-bye.

-It's goodbye from Somerville College, Oxford.

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE