Episode 36 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. After several months of fierce competition,

the end is now in sight.

Last time, we saw Peterhouse, Cambridge,

take the first place in the final of this year's competition,

and whichever team wins tonight will join them.

The four from Liverpool University have won every match

they have played.

They saw off St Peter's College, Oxford, in round one

and Southampton University in round two,

and the two quarterfinal victories they needed were at the expense

of Newcastle University and Imperial College, London.

With an average age of 20,

let's meet the Liverpool team for the fifth time.

Hi, I'm Jenny McLoughlin.

I'm from Leeds and I'm studying biological and medical sciences.

Hi, I'm Jack Bennett. I'm from Lancaster and I'm studying law.

-And this is their captain.

-Hi, I'm Robin Wainwright.

I'm from the Wirral and I'm studying biological sciences.

Hi, I'm Ed Bretherton.

I'm from Bampton in Devon and I'm studying medicine.

APPLAUSE

The team from St John's College, Oxford,

have arrived here having beaten Bristol University in round one,

Queen's University, Belfast, in round two and

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

They lost their next match to Peterhouse, Cambridge,

though, but dodged the bullet by sending home

Newcastle University on the last occasion we met them.

Their average age is 19.

So, let's refresh our memories and say hello to them 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.

-And 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

Time is too precious to spend it reciting the rules.

Fingers on the buzzers, please.

Which future UK Prime Minister was news editor

of the Church Times from 1948...?

-Ted Heath.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your first bonuses are on achievements at the age of 25,

St John's. Firstly, for five,

born in 1865, which philosopher's major work,

A Treatise Concerning The Principles Of Human Knowledge,

appeared in 1710?

He later became Bishop of Cloyne in County Cork.

-Berkeley.

-Berkeley?

-Yeah.

-Berkeley.

-Correct.

In 1872, the 25-year-old CP Scott became the editor of a newspaper

known at that time by what name? He oversaw its development

as a supporter of many progressive causes.

-The Manchester Guardian.

-Correct.

What was the name of the aeroplane piloted by the 25-year-old

Charles Lindbergh in the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight

in 1927?

Spirit Of St Louis.

Correct. 10 points for this.

Which African country's Coats of Arms includes a camel

surrounded by laurel branches with the country's

name in English, Arabic and Tigrinya?

The camel is said to symbolise the country's movement to

independence which was achieved in 1993.

Mauritania.

No, anyone like to buzz...?

-Eritrea.

-Eritrea is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses - the first set for you, Liverpool -

are on the official nicknames of US states.

In each case, listen to the description

and give both the nickname and the state to which it applies.

Firstly, a precious metal appearing in the periodic table above gold

and between palladium and cadmium.

That's silver.

THEY WHISPER

Wyoming?

I don't know. That'll do.

Silver and Wyoming.

No, it's the Silver State, which is the nickname for Nevada.

Secondly, an enclosed structure created as a home for some

species of the subgenus apis.

-Beehive State and Utah.

-Correct.

Poa pratensis, a perennial plant species

with distinctively coloured flower heads.

THEY WHISPER

-No idea.

-That is the Bluegrass State of Kentucky.

10 points for this.

Give three answers as soon as your name is called.

Which three elements have the German names of

Wasserstoff, Sauerstoff and Stickstoff,

meaning water substance, acid substance

and smothering substance respectively?

Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

Anyone like to buzz from Liverpool?

Hydrogen, oxygen and phosphorus.

No, it is hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

So, 10 points for this.

Compared by one commentator to depictions of Christ being

led to the cross by Roman soldiers,

a photograph taken in 1974 by Ian Bradshaw showed

the aftermath of the Australian spectator Michael O'Brien

having become the first person to perform what act at a major...?

A heart transplant.

No. At a major sport... You lose five points.

..at a major sporting event.

-Streaking.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, a set of bonuses for you this time, Liverpool,

on a Greek-derived word.

From Greek words meaning "all" and "assembly", what term describes

a public speech or published texts in praise of a person or thing?

THEY WHISPER

-We don't know.

-It is a panegyric.

"If you want to raise a certain cheer in the House of Commons,

"you make a general panegyric on economy.

"If you want to invite a sure defeat,

"propose a particular saving."

These words appear in The English Constitution,

an 1867 work by which author?

-Bagehot.

-Bagehot?

-Bagehot.

-Walter Bagehot is correct.

"A full translation could only be an ideological translation,

"whereby Jefferson's words would be changed into a panegyric

"on absolute government."

These words appear in an appendix to which mid-20th-century novel?

THEY WHISPER

1984?

Yeah.

-1984.

-It is, talking about newspeak.

Right, 10 points for this.

Which decade saw the discovery of Uranus by William Hershel...?

-1780s.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on classical mechanics, Liverpool.

An object starts at rest and accelerates at a constant

five metres per second squared for ten seconds.

What distance in metres does it travel?

THEY WHISPER

Five metres per second...

-Something like 500.

-Yeah, it would have to be.

Try 50.

50 metres.

No, it travels 250 metres.

A second object has an initial velocity of three metres per second

and accelerates at a constant two metres per second squared.

How many metres does this object travel in ten seconds?

43?

43?

43. No, it's 130.

What, in meters per second, is the velocity of this second

object after ten seconds?

THEY WHISPER

No, it's not going to be that.

Erm...

50.

No, it's 23 metres per second.

We're going to take a picture round.

You will see a map of the eastern Mediterranean with

the location of a city of the classical world highlighted.

10 points if you can identify it.

Sparta.

No.

Megara.

No, it is Corinth. So, picture bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points at stake for this starter question.

Oxbridge, cosplay and Labradoodle are examples of...?

-Portmanteaus.

-Portmanteau words is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You recall that we saw the position of Corinth

depicted in the picture starter.

The early Christian communities of Corinth were the eponymous

addressees of two of the New Testament books of Pauline epistles.

For your bonuses, three more cities of the early Christian world

to whose church communities the epistles of St Paul were addressed.

Five points for each.

I want the name of the city or the adjective derived from it

by which their respective books of epistles are known.

Firstly...

-It could be Ephesus.

-Yeah.

-Ephesus.

-Correct.

Secondly...

Hm. Is Galatia...?

-Galatia is this way.

-Is that where Troy is?

No, no, no. It's going to be Galatians, Corinthian...

We've got Corinthian. Thessalonians.

But Thessalia is in Greece.

So it's going to be Galatia, then.

Unless it's Colossus, but, yeah, I think that's Galatia.

Galatia.

-No, it's Colossae.

-Oh!

-The epistle to the Colossians.

And finally...

-Thessalonia.

-Yeah, that's Thessalonia.

-Thessalonians.

-Correct, Thessaloniki is correct.

Right, ten points for this.

Which British economist gives his name to the equivalence

discussed in his 1820 essay on the funding system,

which suggests that the method of financing government spending...

Adam Smith.

No, you lose five points.

..the method of financing government spending may make

no difference to consumer demand?

Malthus.

No, it is David Ricardo. Ten points for this.

In 1958, the work of Dr Rune Elmqvist

and the surgeon Ake Senning

led to the 43-year-old Swede Arne Larsson

becoming the first person to be implanted with what device?

-A pacemaker.

-A pacemaker is right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Liverpool, are on English naturalists and sheep.

All three breeds are named after English counties.

Described as having an intelligent bright eye,

which breed of sheep originated on downland in the county that is

the setting of Gilbert White's 1789 work

The Natural History And Antiquities Of Selborne?

THEY WHISPER

Somerset.

It's Hampshire.

Which black-faced breed of sheep originated from the mating

of Norfolk Horn ewes with Southdown Rams?

William Kirby, the author of the 1802 work

A Monograph On The Bees Of England, was born in the same county.

Dorset.

-Dorset.

-No, it's Suffolk.

Active and alert with a soft black face -

these words describe a hornless breed of sheep named after

which English county, the birthplace of Charles Darwin?

-Shropshire.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Ailurus fulgens, meaning "shining cat", is the scientific...

-Red panda.

-Red panda is right.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, Liverpool, are on trade in the ancient world.

Often identified with China, the home of the people known as

the Seres was seen in ancient Rome as the original home

of what commodity?

THEY WHISPER

-Silk?

-Gold?

-Silk.

-Silk.

-Correct.

"India, Seres and the Arabian Peninsula take from our empire

"100 millions of Sesterces every year.

"That is how much our luxuries and women cost us."

Which Roman author wrote this in his Natural History?

He died during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

-Pliny the Elder.

-Correct.

At the time of Pliny the Elder, which Imperial dynasty ruled China?

THEY WHISPER

-Han.

-Han is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. Writing in AD 350,

the Roman poet Ausonius provided the earliest known reference to

wine production in which French region,

now the largest producer of AOC wines in the country?

-Bordeaux.

-Bordeaux is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on astronomy, St John's.

The local group of galaxies is dominated by three spiral galaxies.

These are the Triangulum, the Milky Way

and which galaxy also known as M31?

That's Andromeda.

-Andromeda.

-Correct.

Which constellation of the zodiac gives its name to

the supercluster of galaxies which contains the local group?

Taurus, because I think we're in Taurus, as well.

-Taurus.

-No, it's Virgo.

M87 is a giant radio galaxy in the Virgo cluster that belongs to

a broad morphological class of galaxies

denoted by what single letter?

Generally poor and young blue stars,

they may be oblate or triaxial in shape.

Spiral galaxies.

-No, it's a letter.

-Might it be an M galaxy?

-M.

-No, it's E for elliptical.

Right, we are going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you will hear an excerpt from a suite

of classical music that has been used as the basis for a ballet.

For ten points, I want both the name of the composer

and the title of the suite.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Delibes, Carmen.

No. You can hear a little more, Liverpool.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES

You may not confer.

Sabre Dance, Khachaturian.

No, it's Rimsky-Korsakov. It's part of Scheherazade.

Ten points for this starter question - music bonuses shortly.

Spell the two four-letter near homophones that mean respectively

a person in a condition of servitude or modified slavery and the mass...?

-S-E-R-F, S-U-R-F.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

So, we will pick up the music bonuses with you.

Scheherazade, which you heard a moment ago,

was one of the ballets born from the creative relationship

between the choreographer Michel Fokine

and the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky while both were at the Ballet Russes.

Your bonuses are three more works that Fokine

turned into ballets in which Nijinsky danced leading roles.

I want the composer of each, please.

Firstly, for five, this Russian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Rachmaninov.

No, it's Stravinsky. That's from Petrushka.

Secondly, this German composer.

CELLO MUSIC PLAYS

Schubert?

Schubert.

No, that's Weber, The Spectre Of The Rose.

And finally, this French composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Delibes.

No, that is Ravel. It's from Daphnis And Chloe.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

What physical quantity is the result of multiplying half

of a rotating object's moment of inertia

by its angular velocity squared?

Rotational kinetic energy.

Kinetic energy I'll accept, yes. That's fine. Good, well done.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Britain in the 19th century.

In each case, listen to the series of events

and name any one of the three consecutive years that they span.

Firstly, the Rainhill Locomotive Trials and the subsequent

opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway,

the death of King George IV

and the start of Charles Darwin's voyage on HMS Beagle.

1829, 1830, 1831.

1830.

1830, 1831 or 1829 in those cases. Well done.

The drafting of the People's Charter, secondly,

the founding of the permanent Anti-Corn Law League

and the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post.

1840, I think, is one of those.

Yeah. Go 1840, yeah.

-1840.

-That's correct, that was when the Penny Post came in.

And finally, the establishment, successively,

of Notts County Football Club,

the English Football Association, and Yorkshire County Cricket Club,

and the first publication of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

I've got somehow that 1868 is the date for the FA.

-OK.

-OK. 1868.

No, you're too late there,

it's 1862, 1863 and 1864. Ten points for this.

Asia's second predominantly Roman Catholic country

after the Philippines...

-East Timor.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the 2004 book In Europe

by the Dutch journalist Geert Mak. In each case,

identify the city from the words taken from his description of it.

"What strikes one about the city centre is the absence of Spain.

"The city is French, Italian, Mediterranean

"and above all its self.

"The Spanish nation, there will be none of that here, thank you."

-Barcelona.

-Correct.

"It was in this forest of churches and cranes that it all started,

"the tiny fissures that ultimately brought about

"the earthquake of 1989."

-Prague.

-Budapest or Prague.

Prague...

-Probably got more churches, I guess.

-Yeah.

-Prague?

-No, it's Gdansk in the north of Poland.

"How in the world could this friendly city,

"this uncommonly pleasant town, this centre of the arts and good cheer,

"have been the birthplace of such a fanatical and destructive movement?"

-Is that Munich?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Munich.

-Munich is right. That gives you the lead.

10 points for this. Listen carefully.

The large Zenith telescope in Vancouver, Canada,

can only point directly upwards owing to the nature of its rotating

mirror which has a reflective surface made of which element?

Germanium.

No, anyone like to buzz from Liverpool?

Silicon.

No, it is mercury. Ten points for this.

Which large anchorage is bounded by islands including

South Ronaldsay, Hoy, and Mainland?

Skye.

No, you lose five points.

It was a major naval base during both world wars,

and saw the scuttling of the German fleet in 1919.

-Scapa Flow.

-Scapa Flow is correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on a work of speculative fiction, St John's.

Who was the author of the 1961 work Stranger In A Strange Land,

which tells of a human raised on Mars

and his interactions with terrestrial culture?

-Could be Philip K Dick.

-Yeah.

-Nominate Clegg.

Philip K Dick.

No, it wasn't, it was Robert A Heinlein.

Secondly, coined by Heinlein in Stranger In A Strange Land,

which four-letter verb is defined in the OED

as "to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with"?

-Feel?

-Feel...

Feel. I feel it.

-Feel?

-No, it's grok.

The words "stranger in a strange land" appear in which book

of the Old Testament, referring to Moses after he fled from Egypt?

Probably Exodus.

-Exodus.

-Correct.

We are going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter, you will see a photograph of a building.

For ten points I want you to tell me the architect who designed it.

The building is now a museum dedicated to his life and work.

Sir John Soane.

Sir John Soane is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

That's 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields. It was also Soane's own home.

Your picture bonuses are three more photographs

of notable architects' own houses.

In each case, I want you to identify the architect who designed

and lived in the house you see.

Firstly, the architect of this house which was built in the 1930s.

THEY WHISPER

Goldfinger.

-Yeah.

-It really, really looks like Goldfinger.

He is basically the one Goldfinger is based on.

-Yeah. Shall we try?

-What's his name?

-It's Erno Goldfinger.

-He's just called Goldfinger.

-OK, yeah.

-Goldfinger.

-No, it's Walter Gropius' house in Massachusetts.

Secondly, the architect of this house which was built in the 1950s.

Oh, I recognise that.

-Used in a Bond movie, I think.

-LAUGHTER

-It might be Mies van der Rohe.

-Van der Rohe?

-Van der Rohe?

-No, it is Oscar Niemeyer in Rio De Janeiro.

And finally, the architect of this house which was begun in the 1930s.

I'd say that looks like Frank Lloyd Wright.

-Shall we try that?

-Yeah.

-Frank Lloyd Wright.

-It is, in Arizona. Well done.

Ten points for this.

The Marprelate Tracts describing bishops as "profane, proud, paltry,

"Popish, pestilent and pernicious"

were clandestine publications during the reign of which monarch?

Edward VI.

Nope.

Mary I.

No, it was Elizabeth I. Ten points for this.

Augustus Snodgrass, George Nupkins,

Samuel Slumkey and Dr Slammer are among characters

in which novel first published in serial form from 1836?

-The Pickwick Papers.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a philosopher, St John's.

In the 1923 essay Love And Knowledge,

which German phenomenologist introduced the idea that love

forms a bridge from poorer to richer knowledge?

I think Husserl's a phenomenologist.

The philosopher is not Heidegger, so...

Yes.

-Nominate Clegg.

-Husserl.

No, it was Scheler.

Secondly, Scheler took as his starting point the idea that

there is a specific logic to human emotions

which is different from the logic of the intellect,

a concept he took from which 17th-century French philosopher?

Descartes?

It might be Descartes.

-That kind of plays into mind-body, sort of...

-Yeah.

Descartes.

No, it is Pascal. In the early 1950s, which Polish philosopher

and future Archbishop of Krakow wrote a PhD thesis on Scheler,

acknowledging his influence on Roman Catholicism?

-John Paul II.

-John Paul II.

It was, yes, Karol Wojtyla. Ten points for this starter question.

Which country is divided into seven geographical regions,

including those known as the Mediterranean, Aegean,

Black Sea...?

Greece.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points. ..and Southeast Anatolia.

-Turkey.

-Turkey is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on calculus.

Give the derivative with respect to x

of each of the following mathematical functions.

x.sin(x).

That's, erm, sin(x) + x cos(x).

-Nominate Sowood.

-Sin(x) + x cos(x).

Correct. Secondly, the hyperbolic cosine function, cosh(x).

-Nominate Sowood.

-Sinh(x).

-That's S-I-N-H x.

-Yes, well done.

And finally, the natural logarithm of x.

Nominate Sowood.

1/x.

Well done.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. The work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

laid the foundations of which discipline,

defined by him as concerned with the life of signs within society?

-Semiotics.

-Semiotics is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on countries admitted to

the United Nations in 1965.

In each case, name the country from the description, St John's.

Firstly, a country about half the size of Wales named after a river

that rises in the Fouta Djallon Mountains.

Its official language is English.

THEY WHISPER

-Butan, maybe.

-Yeah.

-Butan.

-No, it is the Gambia.

A country consisting of coral atolls, whose total area is

less than half that of Anglesey.

Its official language, Dhivehi, belongs to the Indo-European family.

THEY WHISPER

Oh, or it could be the Maldives.

OK, yeah. Maldives.

Correct. An island state close in size to Anglesey,

its official languages are English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.

Sri Lanka, isn't it?

-Oh, no, Singapore.

-Singapore.

Singapore is correct.

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as you buzz.

How many metric teaspoons are there in one litre?

-200.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the human face, St John's.

In human anatomy, the mandible forms the lower jaw.

Which bone forms the upper jaw?

THEY WHISPER

I think it's just part of the skull.

-The cranium, then.

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

Cranium.

No, it's the maxilla.

The cheekbone, or malar bone, has what alternative name,

taken from the Greek for yolk?

-Yolk doesn't appear in the New Testament.

-LAUGHTER

Oh, it would be something ugas.

-Jugular.

-No, it is the zygomatic bone.

Which bone in the facial skeleton forms

the roof of the mouth and the floor of the nasal cavity?

Uvula possibly.

Uvula.

No, it is the palatine bone.

Right, ten points for this.

Obtained from the tree Hevea brasiliensis,

which commercial product in its natural state

consists mainly of isoprene polymers?

-Rubber.

-I'll accept that, yes. Latex, yes.

15 points for these bonuses.

They are on the locations of Shakespeare's plays.

Which play is set in Navarre, Liverpool?

Henry V.

-Quickly.

-Henry V.

-Henry V?!

No, it's Love's Labour's Lost.

Settings of which play include Paris, Marseille,

Florence and Rousillon?

THEY WHISPER

-Just go Henry V again.

-Come on.

-All's Well That Ends Well.

-Correct.

Finally, which play is set in Ephesus?

-Don't know.

-Quickly.

It is The Comedy Of Errors. Ten points for this.

GONG And that's the gong.

Liverpool University have 95,

St John's College, Oxford, have 195.

APPLAUSE

You weren't on song today, Liverpool, were you?

It all depends how the questions fall, too,

but you have been a great team so far.

Congratulations for getting this far.

I mean, you could have only played one more match,

so thank you very much for being with us.

And, St John's, a terrific performance from you.

We'll look forward to seeing you in the final.

Many congratulations to you.

I hope you can join us next time for the final match of this series.

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

-Goodbye.

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

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE