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Top 5 Audio Highlights

海角社区

Put on your headphones and join the Beatty Lecture audience. These short audio clips feature standout moments from some of the most popular lectures delivered over the past six decades. Listen as Jane Goodall imitates chimpanzees and as听Sir Francis Crick examines whether the brain is like a computer.


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1968 - Author and physician Han Suyin predicts China鈥檚 future

Han Suyin (1917-2012) delivered a series of three lectures on the topic "Asia Today - Two Outlooks". Born and raised in China to a Belgian mother and Chinese father, she obtained a medical degree, became a leading authority on China, and wrote over twenty books including the best-selling novel A Many Splendoured Thing.


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Image: National Archives of Scotland
1972 -听 Journalist Peter Ritchie-Calder reveals the most important word you will ever need to know

Lord Peter Ritchie-Calder (1906-1982) was a Scottish socialist author, journalist and academic, known as an ardent peace activist and humanist. He delivered a series of three lectures on the topic of 鈥淪cience and Social Change鈥 including 鈥淪cience and International Relations, 鈥淪cience and Human Rights鈥 and 鈥淪cience and Posterity"; this clip is from his last lecture.


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Image: University of Chicago Archives
1975 - Violinist Yehudi Menuhin shares the role of the violinist

American-born violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He delivered the Beatty Lecture in 1975 on the topic, 鈥淚nterpretation in Music and Life鈥.

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1979 - Primatologist Jane Goodall imitates chimpanzees

Jane Goodall (1934-) is an internationally renowned advocate for nature conservation and is considered to be the world鈥檚 foremost expert on chimpanzees. She delivered the Beatty Lecture in 1979 on the topic, 鈥淐himpanzees in the Wild: Perspectives on Primate Behaviour鈥, based on her research at the Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania.


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1979 - Physicist Richard Feynman jokes about why we don鈥檛 understand technical lectures

Physics icon and Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman (1918-1988) specialized in quantum mechanics and particle physics. He delivered a series of three Beatty Lectures in 1979 on the topic of 鈥淟ight and Matter 鈥 The Modern View鈥 including 鈥淧hotons - Particles of Light鈥, 鈥淨uantum Behaviour鈥 and 鈥淚nteraction of Light and Matter"; this clip is from the first lecture.


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1985 - Sir Francis Crick examines whether the brain is like a computer

Sir Francis Crick (1916-2004) was a Nobel Prize winning British winning molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, best known for his work as the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. He delivered a series of three Beatty Lectures in 1985 on the topic of "How Do We See Things?鈥, 鈥淭he Search-Light Hypothesis鈥, and 鈥淭he Problem of Awareness"; this clip is from the first lecture.


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