Episode 34 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. So far, we've seen Peterhouse, Cambridge

and the Universities of Liverpool and York

go through to the semifinals.

Whichever team wins tonight will join them.

The losers will be left weeping into their beer.

Now, the team from St John's College, Oxford,

arrived here by beating Bristol University in round one,

Queen's, Belfast in round two and St Catharine's College,

Cambridge in their first quarterfinal,

but then they lost to Peterhouse, Cambridge in their second.

Let's ask them now to introduce themselves again.

Hi, my name is Alex Harries.

I come from South Wales and I'm reading history.

Hello, my name is Charlie Clegg.

I'm from Glasgow and I'm reading theology.

-This is their captain.

-Hi, my name's Angus Russell.

I'm from Mill Hill in North London and I study history and Russian.

Hi, I'm Dan Sowood.

I'm from Uxbridge in Middlesex and I'm reading chemistry.

APPLAUSE

The team from Newcastle University have seen off

the Universities of Kent and Glasgow.

They beat Nuffield College, Oxford, which made up for their earlier

quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Liverpool University.

Let's remind ourselves now of who they are.

Hello, I'm Alexander Kirkman.

I'm from Guildford in Surrey and I'm studying biomedical sciences.

Hi, my name's Nicholas Smith.

I'm originally from Chorley in Lancashire

-and I'm studying medicine.

-And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Tony Richardson, originally from County Durham,

studying for a masters in international politics.

Hi, I'm Kate Bennett.

I'm from Chichester and I'm studying for an MA in film,

theory and practice.

APPLAUSE

Right, fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for ten.

Based on a design said to have been modelled on Frances Stewart,

later the Duchess of Richmond,

which symbolic figure appeared on New English coinage...

-Britannia.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on kings and artists, St John's.

Which French king invited Leonardo da Vinci

to live at the Chateau du Clos Luce in 1516?

The artist remained in France until his death three years later.

Maybe Francis I.

-OK.

-Possibly.

Francis I?

Correct.

Inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses,

which Italian artist began a series of large-scale mythological works

known as the Poesie Paintings for Philip II of Spain in 1551?

-Is he Italian?

-Yeah.

-Philip II...

-It's not Raphael or anything like that.

-Maybe Titian.

-Titian, yeah.

-Titian?

-Titian is correct.

Arriving in London in the early 1630s,

which painter supplanted his main rival at court,

the Dutchman Daniel Mijtens,

to become the court artist of Charles I?

-Oh, van Dyck.

-Yeah. Van Dyck.

Anthony van Dyck is correct.

Ten points for this.

The birthplace of Goethe

and the home of the headquarters of the European Central Bank

and the Staedel Museum, which German city...?

-Frankfurt.

-Frankfurt is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, St John's, are on a constellation.

The constellations now known as Carina, Puppis

and Vela formerly comprised a single constellation

known by the name of what ship in Greek mythology?

-Argo.

-It's the Argo, yeah.

-Argo.

-Argo is correct.

Which star in the southern constellation of Carina is

the second brightest after Sirius in the night sky?

Betelgeuse, isn't it?

Nominate Harries.

-Nominate Clegg.

-Betelgeuse.

No, it's Canopus.

Born around 135 BC, the Syrian thinker Posidonius used

sightings of Canopus to estimate the Earth's size.

He was a leading figure of which philosophical school?

Might be Empiricism.

Shall we go for that?

Isn't all the Empiricists not a lot later?

Erm, there's the early school of Empiricism.

-Yeah, OK, let's go with that.

-Empiricists?

No, it's the Stoics.

Ten points for this - from the Greek for "hair on the head",

what four-letter term denotes the cloud of gas

and dust around the nucleus of a comet?

A medical name...

-Coma.

-Coma is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your first set of bonuses, Newcastle, are on scientific terms.

In each case, give the term from the description.

All three begin with the same four letters.

Firstly, a large carnivorous bipedal dinosaur of the Jurassic period

somewhat smaller than the later tyrannosaurus.

An almost complete skeleton of one such animal was

discovered in Shell, Wyoming, in 1991.

I was going to say velociraptor but...

-Allosaurus.

-It's in America.

-But go allosaurus.

-Allosaurus.

Correct, yes. Big Al, that was, in Wyoming.

Secondly, a two-word term denoting the accumulation of genetic

differences in an isolated population leading to

the evolution of a new species.

Allo-something variation. Allo...

Oh, dammit.

It's not allospecific, is it?

-What is it?

-It's allo-something variation.

Allogenic?

Allogenic.

Allogenic variation.

-No, it's allopatric speciation.

-Speciation.

And finally, in chemistry,

a term describing two or more forms of a solid element.

Examples are the graphite and diamond forms of carbon.

-Allotrope.

-Allotropes or allotropy is correct.

Right, ten points for this.

What single letter of the alphabet is repeated four times to

give the title of Laurent Binet's 2010 debut novel?

The resulting abbreviation denotes a remark in German about two

high-ranking Nazi officials, one of whom was assassinated in 1942.

-H?

-H is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

St John's, your bonuses are on groaning.

Firstly, for five points,

which century saw the Groans Of The Britons,

the historian Gildas's description of a vain appeal for help

to a Roman commander usually identified as Flavius Aetius?

That's the fifth.

THEY WHISPER

-The fifth?

-Correct.

"How alike are the groans of love to those of the dying?"

These words appear in Under The Volcano,

a 1947 work by which British author?

-Lowry.

-Malcolm Lowry.

-Lowry, Malcolm Lowry.

Correct.

"Oh, who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?

"And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?"

These lines, from a poem by AE Housman,

are a response to the trial of which literary figure in 1895?

-Oscar Wilde.

-Correct.

We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter, you'll see a map showing two locations.

The first is the burial place of a historical figure while

the second is where that person's heart is separately interred.

Ten points if you can name the historical figure.

Charlemagne.

Nope.

Chopin.

Chopin is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

His body was buried in Paris and his heart in Warsaw.

So, your bonuses now.

Chopin's heart had been removed at his request and sent back to Poland.

Three more maps, each illustrating the final resting place

of a historical figure.

The spot where their heart is separately interred is also marked.

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

Is that Zambia?

-Cecil Rhodes.

-Yeah, could be, yeah. Go for it.

Cecil Rhodes.

No, that's David Livingston.

His heart was cut out before his body was taken back to England

and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Secondly...

Is that Robert the Bruce?

-Scotland.

-Mm-hmm.

Maybe.

Who else in Scottish history that...?

-Robert the Bruce's heart is buried...

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-I'd go with that, yeah.

-Robert the Bruce.

-It is Robert the Bruce, yes.

And finally...

THEY CONFER

Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Hardy indeed. His heart was buried in Dorset.

Right, ten points for this -

at an altitude of more that 3,500m, Leh, in the Indian state

of Jammu and Kashmir, is the main town of which historical region?

-Ladakh.

-Ladakh is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the author Arthur Koestler.

What two-word term did Koestler use in a work of 1964 to describe

those who close their minds to science despite being

entirely dependent on it for the conveniences of modern life?

It includes a derogatory word for an uncultured person.

Philistine.

-If you say uncultured person I would say Philistine.

-Yeah, I know.

THEY CONFER

Pretentious Philistine.

The pretentious Philistine.

No, he called them urban barbarians.

Secondly, in the same work,

Koestler refers to a catastrophe of modern philosophy which he says

"consisted in the splitting up of the world

"into the realms of matter and mind".

After which French philosopher and mathematician did he name it?

Descartes.

-Descartes.

-Descartes, the Cartesian catastrophe is correct.

And finally, a 1967 work by Koestler has as its title what

expression used derisively by the British philosopher

Gilbert Ryle to refer to Cartesian dualism?

-Don't know.

-Body-mind duality.

Body-mind duality.

No, it's the ghost in the machine.

Ten points for this. I need a precise two-word term here.

What measure of the effectiveness of a rocket engine can bear

units of either seconds or metres per second depending on

whether it's measured per unit weight or unit mass?

Jet propulsion.

No, anyone like to buzz from Newcastle?

Jet momentum.

No, it's specific impulse.

Ten points for this.

Differing only in their initial letters,

give the surnames of the Venetian Renaissance artist who

painted the San Giobbe Altarpiece and the Florentine sculptor

and goldsmith whose works include Perseus With The Head of Medusa.

-Bellini and Cellini.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on infinite series, St John's.

Give the limit as n tends to infinity of each of the following.

Firstly, the limit of the sum from k = 0 to n

of terms of the form 1/3 to the power of K.

In other words, 1 + 1/3 + 1/9, and so on.

THEY CONFER

-Alex has the answer.

-Do you...?

-Wouldn't it be...

I think it might be the sine function.

-OK.

-Nominate Sowood.

The sine function.

No, it's 3/2, or 1 1/2.

The limit of the sum from k = 1 to n of the reciprocal

of the kth triangular number beginning 1 + 1/3 + 1/6.

So it's not squaring it, it's halving it.

So it's whatever that other one was but with a half in it.

-3/2.

-3/2, yeah.

No, that's what the last one was.

3/4, then.

Yeah. Erm...

Yeah. Why not?

-3/4.

-No, it's 2.

And finally, the limit of the sum from k = 1

to N of the reciprocal of the kth prime number.

That is, 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/5, etc.

Try one.

One.

No, that's infinity.

Ten points for this. After an area now in South London,

what two-word term is used of the discussions

of 1647 between the council of the New Model Army and their commanders?

They included radical political proposals

such as the argument for manhood suffrage.

-Putney Debate.

-Correct.

-Oh!

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the SOWPODS list of approved

two-letter words in Scrabble. In each case,

link the two words defined to form the name of a European river.

For example, "18th letter of the alphabet"

and "negative answer" give Arno,

the river that flows through Florence.

Firstly, then,

the letter that begins the name of the longest river of France

and the infinitive form that corresponds to etre in French

and estar in Spanish.

So it would be S... Seine?

S, B?

Yeah, S, B and then the L.

Elbe. Elbe.

Elbe is correct.

Secondly, a hypothetical force proposed by Carl von Reichenbach

and an interjection expressing uncertainty or hesitation.

Oh.

-What's the first one?

-Erm...

Oder.

Yeah, it could be. "Er".

-OK, Oder.

-Cos I think the force might be... OD?..

-Oh, like...

-What's the force? Is it OD?

I don't know what the force is.

-Oh, OK. Oder.

-Correct.

-Oh!

A contraction of a word for mother and a conjunction meaning

because, since, while or when.

As, so it's Maas?

-Maas, is that a river?

-Might be the city on which Maastricht sits.

Maas.

-Maas.

-Correct. M-A-A-S.

APPLAUSE

Well worked out. Your music round now for all of you.

Fingers on the buzzers, please.

Your music starter is a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

-Mendelssohn.

-It is Mendelssohn, yes.

APPLAUSE

His Violin Concerto in E Minor.

Right, he founded the Leipzig Conservatoire,

the first institution of its kind in Germany.

The Conservatoire became a school of some renown

and for your music bonuses, you're going

to hear three works by three of its notable pupils.

Five points for each composer you can identify.

Firstly, for five, this British composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

I know Vaughan Williams went to Leipzig.

That's what I was thinking.

Doesn't sound like him.

It could be Vaughan Williams.

No, I think it's... If it's one of the two, it's Elgar.

OK.

-Let's try Elgar.

-Elgar.

No, that's Delius, a bit from A Village Romeo And Juliet.

Secondly, this Czech composer.

SOLEMN BRASS MUSIC

Janacek.

Yeah? Janacek?

-Janacek.

-Correct.

And finally, this Nordic composer.

FAST PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

It could be Grieg.

It could be Nielsen - it's probably not Nielsen.

-Sibelius...

-Yeah, he said Nordic, which usually means...

I think he was from Finland.

I'd be inclined to say Grieg.

-Yeah, it sounds like it could be Grieg, yeah.

-Grieg?

Grieg is right, yes.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

In snooker, what score would be made in a break consisting of

six reds and six colours

if each of the six coloured balls is potted exactly once?

34.

Anyone like to buzz from St John's?

35.

No, it's 33.

Bad luck. Right, ten points for this.

In material science, what term is used to denote the controlled

heating and cooling of a substance in order to remove internal

stresses and instabilities and to make it easier to work a machine?

-Tempering.

-Nope.

-Soldering.

-No, it's annealing.

Ten points for this.

The major part of the historical region of Bessarabia

now forms most of which present-day country?

The northern area and coastal plain of the historical region were

added to the Ukrainian SSR in 1940.

Moldova.

-Moldova is right.

-Well done.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, St John's,

are on orthographic diacritics in languages of Europe and West Asia.

All three languages have at least 20 million speakers.

Firstly, umlauts over letters O and U

and cedillas under the letters S and C

appear in which language of the Eastern Mediterranean?

It's been written in Roman script since the 1920s.

-Turkish.

-Correct.

Secondly, breves on the letter A,

circumflexes over the letters A and I

and small commas under the letters S and T

feature in the orthography of which Romance language?

-Is that Romanian?

-Romanian, yeah.

-Romanian.

-Correct.

The kreska, similar in form to an acute accent, and the ogonek,

or little tail, are diacritical marks used to write which language?

Erm...

Could be Bulgarian or something.

It's maybe something, like, quasi-Slavic. Erm...

Hungarian, maybe?

-Yeah, OK, that's a good guess.

-Yeah. Hungarian.

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

In text messages and other digital usage,

ILD in German, TQ in Spanish...

-I love you.

-You're right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on modern artworks, Newcastle.

Tracing the fortunes of the Hogarthian reincarnation

Tim Rakewell, The Vanity Of Small Differences is a series of six

tapestries by which Turner Prize-winning artist?

Got no idea, actually.

THEY CONFER

-Try what you think is best.

-Rachel Whiteread.

No, it's by Grayson Perry.

Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate is a large public sculpture covered in

168 stainless steel plates

on display in the Millennium Park of which US city?

Millennium Park...

THEY CONFER

Might be Seattle.

-Might be Seattle.

-Seattle.

-No, it's Chicago.

Depicting a view in East Yorkshire, Bigger Trees Near Water is the title

of the largest painting undertaken to date by which British artist?

David Hockney.

Correct. Ten points for this.

What Norse-derived word for a small rocky island

appears in numerous British place names, particularly...?

-Skerry.

-Skerry is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, St John's, are on biology.

What Greek-derived term denotes asexual reproduction in which

an ovum grows and develops without fertilisation?

It's from the Greek for virgin, which is parthenogenic.

Parthenogenic.

Parthenogenesis is correct, yes.

From the Greek for male birth, what term denotes

the form of parthenogenesis in which only males are produced?

-Yeah, androgenesis.

-Androgenesis?

No, it's arrhenotoky.

And finally, honey bees exhibit arrhenotoky.

How many sets of chromosomes will be present

in the nucleus of a drone bee?

-I assume 23.

-How many?

-46 because I assume they cancel each other out.

-That's only for humans.

Oh.

Shall we go...?

Do we know the number of chromosomes in a bee?

-I don't, but I doubt it'll be the same.

-It differs animal to animal.

It's probably the overall one if they're asking about it, so 40...

-46?

-It's probably not going to be as many as that.

-I'm going to go...

30, 30, 30.

-23.

-No, it's 1.

LAUGHTER

Nice to hear it bid up, though.

Right, let's have a picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a painting of an event described in a play by Shakespeare.

For ten points, I want the name of the artist

and the title of the play from which it comes.

John Everett Millais and Hamlet.

Correct, yes, it's the death of Ophelia, of course.

OK, for your bonuses, you're going to see three more paintings

by British artists inspired by the plays of Shakespeare.

I want the artist and the play from which the depicted scene is taken.

Firstly.

Midsummer Night's Dream.

I'd go for Fuseli.

-Fuseli.

-Fuseli, yeah.

Yeah? Fuseli, Midsummer Night's Dream?

No, that's Landseer and Midsummer Night's Dream. Secondly.

-Macbeth.

-Macbeth. I think John Martin.

-John Martin and Macbeth?

Correct. Finally.

-Romeo and Juliet.

-Romeo and Juliet.

Possibly Rossetti?

Yeah, shall we...?

Rossetti, Romeo and Juliet?

No, it's Ford Madox Brown and Romeo and Juliet.

Right, ten points for this.

Give the single word name of the visual pigment that enables

vision in low-level lighting...

-Rhodopsin.

-Correct.

Right, Newcastle, your bonuses are on words that end

in the letters ERY.

All three are commonly used in colourful or emotive speech.

Firstly, from a Latin word thought to have

the sense of unblushing or pushing forward the forehead,

what word means barefaced cheek or shameless audacity?

(Effrontery.)

-Effrontery.

-Effrontery is correct.

From an obsolete generic name for a half-witted person,

what word signifies silly trifling or absurd behaviour?

Buffoonery.

-Buffoonery.

-No, it's tomfoolery.

And, finally, also ending in ERY

and derived, in part, from the French for "small" or "little",

what word means disreputable quarrelling over trivial points?

Pedantry.

WHISPERING

Petite? Small.

-I don't know.

-Come on.

-No, not going to come.

-It's pettifoggery.

There are just over four minutes to go and ten points for this.

Passed in 1799 and 1800,

the Combination Acts were oppressive legislation...

-Against trade unions.

-Correct.

Your bonuses, Newcastle, are on the Sapta Puri,

or seven great pilgrimage sites of Hinduism.

Firstly, Dwarka in Gujarat state was the legendary capital of which

deity worshipped as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu?

-Shiva?

-Shiva?

-No, it's Krishna.

Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh is generally identified as

the birthplace of which deity,

the title figure of a major Indian epic poem?

Deity...

-Ramayana.

-Possibly.

-I don't know. Did you have an idea?

-Lakshmi, I think.

-Lakshmi? Lakshmi.

No, it's Rama.

And finally, Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh, is the site

of the Mahakala Temple dedicated to which deity?

Mahayanas...

-Do you think it would be Ganesh?

-It's Hinduism, though, isn't it?

It's Hinduism.

-Shiva?

-Correct.

Ten points for this. A major exponent of existentialism,

which German philosopher wrote...

No, sorry, I got that wrong. Sorry.

Nietzsche.

..wrote the 1927 work Being And Time?

One of you buzz, St John's.

-Heidegger?

-Heidegger is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on toxicology, St John's.

-What broad group of organisms produces mycotoxins?

-Mycotoxins.

-Come on.

-Fungi.

-Fungi will do, or moulds.

Aflatoxin can cause liver disease and liver cancer.

What genus of fungus gives the toxin its name?

-Affleum.

-What, sorry?

-Affleum.

-Affleum.

No, it's aspergillus.

What is the short name of the species of grass most

commonly infected by Claviceps purpurea,

the cause of ergotism.

-I would say rye-grass.

-Rye-grass?

Correct. Ten points for this.

At a gentle walking pace of one metre per second, it would take just

under one thousand million years

to cover what astronomical unit of distance?

A leap year.

No. Anyone like to buzz from...?

-One astronomical unit?

-No, it's a parsec.

Ten points for this.

According to its dictionary definition,

what Greek-derived term means the branch of theology concerned

with the four last things - death, judgment, heaven and hell.

-Eschatology.

-Correct.

Your bonuses now are on French cinema since 2001.

Starring Tahar Rahim and set largely in a prison,

which 2009 film by the director Jacques Audiard

won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009?

-A Prophet.

-Correct.

The 2010 film, Of Gods And Men, was based on the 1996 kidnapping

and assassination of seven Trappist monks from the monastery

of Tibhirine in which African country?

Oh, Tunisia. I think it's Tunisia.

-Tunisia.

-No, it's Algeria.

Marion Cotillard won the Best Actress Oscar for her

portrayal of which singer in La Vie En Rose?

-Edith Piaf.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Glandular fever is an infectious viral disease

characterised by the swelling of which glands?

-Lymph nodes.

-Lymph glands is correct, yes.

A set of bonuses for you now.

They're on King David I of Scotland.

The fifth son of Malcolm Canmore and St Margaret, David, spent

his youth at the court of which English king, his brother-in-law?

Which one was David...?

Malcolm was, like, ten. Would it be Henry I?

Because Malcolm was, like, ten.

-OK. Henry I.

-Correct.

From 1136, David led several invasions of England

in support of his niece's claim to the English throne.

-What was her name?

-Matilda.

-Correct.

David died in 1153 at which present-day English city

on the River Eden? It had been his residence

and military base for much of the latter part of his reign.

-Carlisle.

-Correct, ten points for this.

Which modern orchestral instrument typically has seven pedals

of the form invented in the early 19th century by the Frenchman...

GONG

And at the gong, Newcastle University have 120...

APPLAUSE

..but St John's College, Oxford, have 210.

APPLAUSE

Well, you weren't really on song tonight, Newcastle, because

you can do much, much better than that,

as we've seen in previous matches.

We're going to have to say goodbye to you

but no shame in going out in the quarterfinal at all.

St John's, storming performance from you.

We shall look forward to seeing you in the semifinal.

Thank you very much for joining us.

I hope you can join us for the first of those semifinals but,

until then, it's goodbye from Newcastle University...

-Goodbye.

-..it's goodbye from St John's College, Oxford...

-Goodbye.

..and it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE