Evidence - Darwin Lectures

[Hamish]

Quoted from: http://www.dar.cam.ac.uk/lectures/2004/

Nineteenth Annual Darwin College Lecture Series 2004
EVIDENCE
Fridays at 5.30 p.m.
The Lady Mitchell Hall
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge

16 Jan Carlo Ginzburg - Representing the Enemy: Historical Evidence and its Ambiguities
23 Jan Karen Armstrong - Evidence: a Red Herring?
30 Jan Cherie Booth - Legal Evidence
6 Feb Monica Grady - Evidence for Life in Space
13 Feb Peter Lipton - Evidence and Explanation
20 Feb Vincent Courtillot - Evidence for Catastrophes in the Evolution of Earth and Life
27 Feb Philip Dawid - Evidence and Statistics
5 Mar Brian Greene - Evidence in Theory: Superstrings and the Quest for Unification.

Since I live literally just around the corner and all these lectures are completely free, I thought I'd go along, take notes and give updates here if anyone is interested. The lecture subjects are fairly broad but with the common theme of evidence. There are some big names in the list above and I expect these lectures to be pretty good.

I should point out that I've had an e-mail saying the 30th of Jan speaker will be Cherie Booth (PM Tony Blair's wife for those not interested in UK politics) but the website says that the speaker is TBC.

Any thoughts, interests or requests for heckles?

 

[Soapy Sam]

You studying at Darwin College, Hamish?

 

[Hamish]

No, I'm actually attached to Imperial College in London. I just happen to be living in Cambridge while writing up the old PhD. I'm here because my fiance is doing her PhD here and just happen to be living right round the corner from the lecture hall.

The lectures are open to the general public and, from the info I've had, tend to be very popular. I'll let you know if they live up to expectations.

 

[Soapy Sam]

My nephew was just in, rendering assistance with my PC. He's a Darwin man, doing something incomprehensible at the Computer Lab. He's keen to see if CB's mouth really is that wide. Greene and Grady would be my choices.

 

[Hamish]

I'm very much looking forward to Brian Greene's lecture. I'm not so sure about Monica Grady. I watched the first of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which she gave and wasn't impressed. The content should be interesting though.

 

[Hamish]

Just been to the first one:

Carlo Ginzburg - Representing the Enemy: Historical Evidence and its Ambiguities

And after that, I don't think I can really be bothered to post a detailed review. That was the worst twisting of a lecture title I've ever seen. If the rest of the lecturers are going to ignore the proposed theme and use the lectures to talk about their latest research paper then I'm not sure I want to sit through it all.

I was expecting some sort of commentary on the problems of validating and interpreting historical data. While the lecture started out like that, the theme was then hijacked in order for Prof. Ginzburg to present a paper about a forgotten 19th century commentary on the reign of Napolean III, written in the form of a "dialogue of the dead" and how this was plagiarised in the writing of "The Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion", the anti-semitic conspiracy theory of 1903.

Interesting in its own right, but not what I went to see. The link with the evidence theme was tenuous at best.

Humph!