Episode 33 University Challenge

'University Challenge.'

'Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.'

Hello, two places remain in the semifinals

so whoever wins tonight will join Peterhouse, Cambridge

and Liverpool University in the penultimate stage of this contest

and I'm afraid the losers will take

the train of broken dreams back home.

Now, the team from York University beat Manchester University

in Round One, Christ College, Cambridge in Round Two and

St Catherine's College, Cambridge in their second quarterfinal.

A victory which allowed them to stay in the competition,

having previously lost to Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Let's meet the York team again.

Hello, my name is Barto Joly de Lotbiniere.

I'm from London and I'm studying history.

Hello, I'm Sam Smith. I'm from Guernsey and I'm studying chemistry.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm David Landon Cole.

I'm from Yeovil in Somerset and I'm studying politics.

Hi, I'm Joseph McLoughlin.

I'm from Oldham in Lancashire and I study chemistry.

APPLAUSE

The team from Imperial College London have a track record

of victories against Reading University,

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford.

But their second quarterfinal was a defeat at the hands of

Liverpool University, which is why we're saying hello to them again.

Here they are.

Good evening, my name's Ben Fernando.

I'm from Birmingham and I'm studying physics.

Hi, I'm Ashwin Braude.

I'm from North London and I'm also studying physics.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm James Bezer.

I'm from Manchester and I'm also studying physics.

Hi, I'm Onur Teymur.

I'm from North London and

I'm working towards a PhD in mathematical statistics.

APPLAUSE

OK, you all know the rules so fingers on the buzzers,

here's your first starter for ten.

What regnal name links two holy Roman emperors of the

12th and 13th centuries

and two kings of Prussia in the 17th and 18th?

Frederick.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, York, are on George Orwell.

The bookseller's assistant Gordon Comstock is the protagonist

of which 1936 novel by Orwell?

Its title includes the name of a house plant said to symbolise

middle-class values.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying.

Correct. Based on a journey Orwell made to northern England in 1936,

which work of reportage

was published the following year by the Left Book Club?

The Road To Wigan Pier.

Correct.

Which non-fiction work of 1938 is based on Orwell's experiences

in the Spanish Civil War?

Homage To Catalonia.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Prince Albert, Abigail Adams and Gerard Manley Hopkins

are among those who died of which acute infectious disease?

Often spread by contaminated water, it's particularly associated...

Cholera.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

It's particularly associated with the New York cook, Mary Mallon.

Typho... Typhoid.

Typhoid is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

As in, Typhoid Mary.

Right, your bonuses, York, are on astronomy.

In 2006, what two-word designation was given by

the International Astronomical Union to bodies including Pluto and Ceres?

-Yes.

-Dwarf planet.

Correct.

In the same year and another dwarf planet was given what name,

after a Greek goddess of strife and discord?

Its discoverer, the US astronomer Mike Brown, is said to have found

the name fitting in the light of the academic commotion

that followed it's discovery.

-Eris.

-Correct.

Pluto and Eris are among objects known by the designation TNO,

after their position in relation to one of the outer planets.

For what do the letters TN stand?

-Trans-Neptune.

-Yeah.

-Neptunian?

-Neptunian. Trans-Neptunian.

Trans-Neptunian.

Correct.

Ten points for this.

In ancient geography, what six-letter place name may precede

Deserta, Petraea and Felix...

Arabia.

Arabia is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses, York, are on journeys.

Tracks is a work that tells the story of Robyn Davidson's

1,700 mile trek with four camels and a dog across parts

of which country in 1977?

-It's likely to be somewhere from the Sahara.

-Yeah.

-Or Australia?

-Ah.

-Yeah. Go with that.

-Is...

Australia.

Correct.

Adapted for the cinema by Sean Penn, which book by Jon Krakauer

recounts the last two years of the life of Christopher McCandless

who died in 1992 after more than 100 days in the Alaskan wilderness?

-Wild.

-Into The Wild.

-Into The Wild, yeah.

-Into The Wild?

Into The Wild.

Correct.

A Walk In The Woods - Rediscovering America On The Appalachian Trail

is a work by which author born in Iowa in 1952?

-Bill Bryson?

-Sure.

Bill Bryson.

Correct. Ten points for this.

In physics, what single letter is the symbol for a number that

characterises the total angular momentum of an atom...

L.

I'm afraid, you lose five points.

..atom, nucleus or particle.

It also follows Alt in a keyboard short cut that forms the name

of a Mercury prize-winning band.

-BARTO SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

-'Press the button.'

Omega.

No, it's J and I could hear Mr de Lotbiniere say that

that was the right answer but you can't confer at this stage,

and luckily you gave the wrong answer anyway.

So we'll get on with the next one then. Ten points for this.

In England and Wales,

the county officials who are the holders of the oldest secular

royal appointment in the UK have what two-word designation?

Deputy Lieutenant.

No.

Lord Lieutenant.

No. I haven't finished reading the question

but you lose five points, I'm afraid, Imperial.

I can't fine you five points, York,

for a completely pointless interruption.

It's a High Sheriff.

Ten points for this starter question.

The letters spelling the name of which number appear together

at the end of words meaning foolish or obstinate, resembling a lion,

a low story between two others in a building and an alkaloid found...

Nine.

Nine is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on scientists born on March 14 -

a date now widely celebrated as Pi Day

after the mathematical constant.

In each case, name the person from the description.

Firstly, a medical scientist born in Prussia in 1854,

he's generally credited with the discovery of Salvarsan -

the first effective treatment for syphilis.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

-He was from Prussia.

-Oh.

-Koch.

No, it's Paul Ehrlich.

Secondly, a pioneer of set theory, born in Warsaw in 1882.

His name precedes the words carpet and triangle

in the names of well-known fractals.

-Sierpinski?

-Yeah.

-Sierpinski?

-Oh, yeah.

-Sierpinski.

-Sierpinski.

Correct.

And finally, a physicist born in South Germany in 1879.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1921

for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.

Einstein.

Correct. Right, we're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter you'll see

a map of Europe with a city highlighted.

Ten points if you can give me both the name of the city

and the German name by which it was known before 1946.

Um... It's Kaliningrad and Konigsberg.

That is correct.

APPLAUSE

So we follow on from the former Konigsberg with three more cities,

each in a non-German-speaking country but which, like Kaliningrad,

were once part of the German-speaking empire.

In each case, I want the current name of the city

and its historic German name. Firstly...

-Bratislava and Pressburg.

-Yes.

-Nominate Smith.

Bratislava and Pressburg.

Correct. Secondly...

-Ljubljana and Laibach.

-Laibach, yeah.

-Nominate McLoughlin.

-Ljubljana and Laibach.

Correct. And finally...

Wroclaw... Wroclaw.

-Nominate McLoughlin.

-Wroclaw and Breslau.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

In the theory of relativity, what term denotes an observed

slowing down of time owing to relative motion?

The same term...

Dilation.

Dilation is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Imperial, these bonuses are on an US economist.

Firstly for five. In 1970 in his seminal work, The Market For Lemons,

which US economist demonstrated how private or asymmetric information

prevents markets from functioning effectively?

Friedman?

Milton Friedman.

No, it's George Akerlof.

Secondly, showing how economic institutions protect themselves

from the consequences of adverse selection, Akerlof cited

the instance of dealers in what second-hand commodities

offering guarantees to increase consumer confidence?

Car. Cars.

Cars is correct.

Akerlof's theory is a modern version of an idea first suggested

by which 16th-century financier noted for the axiom

that bad money drives out good?

-That's...

-16th century.

-..Gresham. Gresham.

Sir Thomas Gresham is correct. Ten points for this.

A sequel to Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

called Death Comes To Pemberley,

and a series of crime novels featuring...

PD James.

PD James is right. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on acids.

Firstly, what name is given to organic compounds in which

a carbon atom is bonded to an oxygen atom by a double bond and

-a hydroxyl group by a single bond?

-Carboxylic acid.

Correct.

What five-letter term denotes the group of open chain

carboxylic acids that includes oleic and linolenic acid?

Its members may be saturated or unsaturated.

-Um...stearic?

-Yeah.

Stearic.

-No, they're fatty acids.

-Oh.

And finally, which organic compounds are commonly derived from

carboxylic acids and are obtained by

the exchange of the replaceable hydrogen for alkyl radicals?

-They're, they're...

-Esters.

-Yes, esters.

Esters is correct. Ten points for this.

Which US state is this?

Its capital lies on the site of a locality formally known as

Last Chance Gulch, where gold was discovered in 1864?

The fourth-largest state by area, its neighbours include

North Dakota, Idaho and the Canadian province of...

Montana.

Montana is right.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on South America, York.

Under the presidency of Evo Morales, which South American country

changed its official name in 2009,

substituting Plurinational State of for Republic of?

-Bolivia.

-Correct.

Which country's formal name includes

the words Oriental or Eastern Republic after its position

on the bank of the river from which it takes its name?

-Uruguay.

-Uruguay.

Uruguay is correct.

Which country formally describes itself as a co-operative republic?

It gained independence from the UK in 1966?

-Guyana.

-Guyana.

Guyana is right. Ten points for this.

In botany, what five-letter term denotes the woody tissue

lying inside the phloem...

Xylem.

Xylem is correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on birds, Imperial.

The largest order of birds is the passeriformes or perching birds

and takes its name from the Latin for what small bird

whose British species include the tree and house?

-Sparrow.

-Brown martin.

It's called a house sparrow.

-Go with what Ben says.

-I'd go sparrow.

-Sparrow.

Correct.

The family Fringillidae is most often given what common name?

British birds in this family include

the brambling, the siskin and the linnet.

-You don't know?

-Linnet.

-Woodpecker.

-Woodpecker.

No, they're finches.

And finally, what four-letter name is given to the family Alaudidae

and follows shore, wood and sky in the name of three British species?

Lark.

Correct. Ten points for this.

The South Caucasian language family includes Mingrelian, Laz...

Georgian.

Georgian is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on churches in Herefordshire, York.

Noted for its well-preserved vernacular carvings,

the Church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck is a fine example

of which style of architecture

prevalent in the 11th and 12th centuries?

-11th, 12th would be Norman.

-Norman.

-It's got to be.

-Norman.

Norman or Romanesque, yes.

And secondly, for five, the Church of St Michael at Garway

above the River Monnow, was closely associated with which military order

suppressed by Pope Clement V in 1312?

-Yeah.

-Yeah? The Knights Templar.

Correct. Completed in 1902,

All Saints' Church at Brockhampton near the River Wye

was designed by WR Lethaby

and is in the style of which aesthetic movement

pioneered by William Morris?

-BOTH:

-Arts and Crafts.

-The Arts and Crafts movement.

Correct. We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you're going to hear a piece of classical music

by a French composer.

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Berlioz.

No. You can hear some more, Imperial.

Poulenc.

No. It's Bizet. So music bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points at stake. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's a starter question.

In 1572, Tycho Brahe observed the supernova known as Tycho's star

in which constellation? It's named after the Queen of Ethiopia.

Cassiopeia.

Correct. APPLAUSE

OK, Imperial, that means that you get the music bonuses.

The music starter was from Bizet's Symphony in C.

Though performed with some frequency now,

it was never performed or published in Bizet's lifetime

and he made no acknowledgement of it.

Your music bonuses are three more works

that their composers attempted to destroy or suppress.

In each case, simply identify the composer of the work you hear.

Firstly, this Russian composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

INDISTINCT SPEECH

-It won't be...

-MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

-Tchaikovsky.

-It is Tchaikovsky, yes.

He destroyed the score, apparently, a few years after its premiere.

It was reconstructed from individual orchestral parts.

Secondly, this central European composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

They're either going to be Czech or Hungarian. Right. So...

MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

Dvorak.

It is Dvorak. He would have destroyed it

but for the intervention of a friend, apparently.

And finally, this Nordic composer.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

INDISTINCT SPEECH

Is that Sibelius?

Sibelius.

It is Sibelius, yes.

APPLAUSE

It's part of the Karelia Suite,

and Sibelius apparently burned parts of that work later in life.

Right, ten points for this.

Castillon on the Lower Dordogne

was the last major engagement of which war?

Soon afterwards England relinquished most of its possessions in France...

Hundred Years' War.

Hundred Years' War is correct.

APPLAUSE

These are bonuses, York, on lines spoken by Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Firstly, in Act I, Scene V,

to whom does Hamlet address the line,

"Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further"?

-That's the ghost, isn't it?

-I have no idea.

The ghost.

Correct.

Secondly, the words of which character in Act I, Scene II

prompt Hamlet's aside, "A little more than kin, and less than kind"?

-Erm, Polonius?

-Horatio? Someone like that?

Horatio.

No, that's Claudius, the King of Denmark.

And finally, again in Act I, Scene II,

to whom does Hamlet address the lines,

"What is your affair in Elsinore?

"We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart"?

Is that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or am I being stupid?

-Sure. Go for it.

-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

No, that is Horatio. Ten points for this.

Native to many subtropical regions,

plants of the genus Gossypium yield which fibre?

Its mechanised spinning and weaving was a driver...

-Cotton.

-Cotton is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Imperial, are on geometry.

What term denotes a line that joins the vertex of a triangle

to the midpoint of the opposite side?

-Bisector.

-Yeah.

Bisector.

No, it's a median.

The centroid of a triangle

is the point where its three medians intersect.

What are the XY coordinates of the centroid of an isosceles triangle

whose vertices have coordinates 0,0, 1,0 and 0.53?

So that would be...

-0.5.

-So, obviously...

-It's a third of the way...

-So 0.5 and .1.

-No, 0.5 and

-1. Yeah, that sounds about right.

-Try it.

-0.5 and

-1. Correct.

And finally, what single-word term denotes the centre of the circle

that passes through the three vertices of a triangle?

The circumcircle is the one that goes around.

So, what are the three...

-Is that what the question was?

-It was the centre of the circle.

-Be quick.

-Verticircle.

-Nominate Fernando.

Verticircle.

No, it's the circumcentre.

Ten points for this.

Expressed as a six-letter Latin word,

a five-letter Greek word or a four-letter English word,

which principle of order, form and meaning

is identified with God in the opening verse of St John's Gospel?

Word.

The Word is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on education legislation, Imperial.

In each case, I want the decade

in which the following acts were passed.

Firstly, Fisher's Education Act.

This raised the school leaving age to 14

and abolished any remaining fees for elementary education.

-18...

-It must have been the 19th century.

-Yes. Erm...

Probably fairly early on. 1840s or something.

-Well, I don't know....

-I think 1810s, but I don't know why.

-Maybe.

-I don't know why.

-Go with 1840s.

1840s.

No, it was the 1910s.

Secondly, the Butler Education Act

which raised the school leaving age to 15

and provided for universal free secondary education.

-Well, if it was Rab Butler, then...

-I don't know if it is.

OK. It was Rab...

-Say

-'50s? I guess so. '50s.

No, that was the 1940s. It was 1944 to be precise.

The Education Reform Act, finally,

that introduced the national curriculum,

grant-maintained schools and city technology colleges.

-'80s? Sure.

-That was Thatcher, wasn't it?

-Or...?

-Sounds like the '80s.

'80s.

1980s, you mean. Yeah. APPLAUSE

You're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter, you'll see a portrait.

For ten points, I want the name of the subject depicted.

Martin Luther.

It is Martin Luther, yes.

APPLAUSE

By Cranach the Elder.

It was Luther, of course, who translated the Bible into German.

For your bonuses, you'll see depictions of

three more translators of the Bible.

Five points in each case if you can give me

the name of the translator depicted

and the language into which they made the translation.

Firstly.

Erm, that's Jerome. Jerome did the Vulgate, so...

-So into Latin?

-Into Latin, yeah.

-Yeah, sure.

So St Jerome, Latin?

St Jerome into Latin.

That's correct. That was Caravaggio's St Jerome Writing.

Secondly, both of these figures and the language.

It's Cyril and Methodius.

-I think it's Basil and...

-Cyril.

-..Cyril.

And they put it into...

-JOLY DE LOTBINIERE:

-Well, it's... He's changed his name...

-One of them's got two names.

-Was it Methodius?

-Methodius.

Cyril and Methodius.

-And would be Old...Old Church Slavonic.

-Yes.

-Can I nominate you?

-Yeah.

-Nominate Smith.

St Cyril and Methodius and Old Church Slavonic.

Correct.

And finally the figure in the centre of this painting and the language.

The guy who translated it to English?

-William Tyndale?

-Sure.

-What language?

-English.

-Yeah.

Tyndale, English.

No, it's John Wycliffe and English. Bad luck.

Ten points for this.

The ballet The Wooden Prince,

the pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin

and the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle

are works by which Hungarian...?

Bartok.

Bartok is right. APPLAUSE

These bonuses, York, are on a French author.

Firstly, which French novelist has been calculated

to have created 2,472 named characters

in his novel sequence La Comedie Humaine?

I've literally no idea.

-Did he give a time?

-No, we don't know a time.

-Proust?

-Yeah, go Proust, maybe.

Proust.

No, it's Balzac.

Balzac is especially associated with which two-word French term

denoting an irrational obsession that dominates a person's life?

Something tic?

It's not cause celebre, is it? Or is that something else?

My mind's blank.

Cause celebre.

No, it's idee fixe.

And finally, "Balzac observed all the things that he did not."

These words of the French thinker Regis Debray

compare Balzac to which German philosopher born in 1818?

-Karl Marx!

-Yes!

Karl Marx.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Also called carpincho or water hog,

which semiaquatic mammal of Central and South America...?

Capybara.

Capybara is right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on electronics.

What electronic component was developed by

the US physicists Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley at

-the Bell Telephone Laboratories...

-Transistor.

-..in 1947?

-Transistor.

-Correct.

With the atomic number 32,

what semiconductor was used in the first 1947 transistor?

Germanium.

Correct. Labelled B, C and E,

what are the three terminals of a bipolar transistor?

Base, current...

Nominate Fernando.

Base, current and element.

No, it's base, collector and emitter.

Ten points for this.

Which two final letters link

a West African republic that borders Guinea and Senegal,

the capital of Dominica and the German name...?

-AU.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on geology, York.

What unit of geological time forms the first subdivision of an aeon?

Examples include the Mesozoic and the Palaeozoic.

-Is that an era?

-Yeah, I think it's an era.

-An era.

-Correct.

What unit of geological time

is shorter than a period and longer than an age?

-Is that an epoch?

-Yeah, I'd go epoch.

-Yeah.

Epoch.

Correct. In which epoch of the Quaternary Period are we now living?

-Erm, Holocene.

-I was going to say that.

-Is it Holocene?

-I think it might be.

-Yeah. Try Holocene.

We think it may be Holocene.

Holocene is correct. There's less than three minutes

to go and ten points for this.

The name of what trade or profession

comes from the Latin name of the chemical element

with the atomic number...?

Plumber.

Plumber is correct, yes. The atomic number 82.

APPLAUSE

Inspired guess, if it was.

Your bonuses are on history and politics.

Knighted in 2002,

which British historian's recent works include

The End - Hitler's Germany 1944 to '45?

Ian Kershaw? Or...? Ian Kershaw or...

Erm...

-Kershaw was...

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

-Kershaw.

It is Sir Ian Kershaw.

Secondly, a landmark in American social thought,

The End of Ideology -

On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties

is a work of 1960 by which US sociologist?

-Is it Putnam?

-I'm afraid it's all on you.

Putnam.

No, it's Daniel Bell.

Which US political scientist claimed to announce

the triumph of liberal democracy

in his influential 1989 essay The End of History.

-Francis Fukuyama.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Francis Fukuyama.

Correct. Time for another starter question.

Answer clearly and audibly as soon as your name is called.

What word is spelt by concatenating the silent letters

in the words isosceles, baguette and aplomb?

Cub.

Cub is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on cell biology, York.

Containing ribosomes,

which two eukaryotic organelles are thought to have evolved

from endosymbiotic bacteria?

-INDISTINCT SPEECH

-No, no.

-Containing ribosomes...

No, that's going to be the mitochondria and the chloroplast.

Erm... I think, yeah, mitochondria developed from

the endo...whatever it was.

Yeah, but...cos I think they evolved separately

and were sort of taken in over time.

Come on. Let's have it, please.

OK, we think it's the mitochondria and the chloroplast.

Well, you're correct. The Latin for plume,

what term denotes the folds on the inner membrane of mitochondria?

-Oh, is it matrix?

-Maybe.

-I think it's matrix.

-No idea.

Matrix.

No, it's crista or cristae.

What term, finally, denotes the flattened sac-like structures

containing chlorophylls?

They're stacked to form the grana of chloroplasts.

-I've literally no idea.

-Chloroplasts... No idea?

This is A-Level biology, and my teacher is shouting at me at home.

-Let's have it, please.

-We have no idea.

They're thylakoids. Ten points for this.

Earth's atmosphere at sea level exerts

a force of approximately 1kg weight over what metric unit of...?

-Metres cubed.

-No.

Square metre.

It's a square centimetre.

Ten points for this.

Name either of the two men who died in office

as President of France during the 20th century.

Er, Mitterrand.

Anyone like to buzz from York?

Giscard d'Estaing.

No, it was Pompidou and Doumer.

Ten points for this.

What first name links

the US psychologist who wrote Obedience To Authority,

the Prime Minister... GONG SOUNDS

And at the gong, Imperial College London have 135,

but York University have 260.

APPLAUSE

Well, it wasn't your greatest hour, Imperial,

cos you've actually performed much more competently than you did today.

Sadly, we shall have to say goodbye to you.

York, many congratulations.

We look forward to seeing you in the semifinals.

Well done. It's a terrific score.

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

-But until then, it's goodbye from Imperial College London.

-Bye.

-It's goodbye from York University.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE