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 Sir Francis Crick examines whether the brain is like a computer.
Image: McGill University Archives
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
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 “Science and Social Change” including “Science and International Relations, “Science and Human Rights” and “Science and Posterity"; this clip is from his last lecture.
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Image: University of Chicago Archives
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, “Interpretation in Music and Life”.
Image: United Nations Photo Library
Jane Goodall (1934-) is an internationally renowned advocate for nature conservation and is considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. She delivered the Beatty Lecture in 1979 on the topic, “Chimpanzees in the Wild: Perspectives on Primate Behaviour”, based on her research at the Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania.
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Image: Creative Commons
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 “Light and Matter – The Modern View” including “Photons - Particles of Light”, “Quantum Behaviour” and “Interaction of Light and Matter"; this clip is from the first lecture.
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Image: Creative Commons
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?”, “The Search-Light Hypothesis”, and “The Problem of Awareness"; this clip is from the first lecture.
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