Videos

The mathematical problems arising from modern celestial mechanics, which originated with Isaac Newton’s Principia in 1687, have led to many mathematical theories. Poincaré (1854–1912) discovered that a system of several celestial bodies moving under...

Humanitarianism, which can be defined as the introduction of moral sentiments into human affairs, is a major component of contemporary politics—locally and globally—for the relief of poverty or the management of disasters, in times of peace as well...

Bodies bound by gravity can evolve in surprising ways. In accord with everyday experience and physical law, heat flows from regions of high to low temperature, and angular momentum from regions of fast to slow spin. However, counter to intuition, in...

Is the Qurʾān an exclusively Islamic text? In this talk, Angelika Neuwirth, Member (2009) in the School of Historical Studies, contends that it is both Islamic and late antique. Before the Qurʾān was recognized as Muslim scripture it was...

Conceptions of war and of its uses, and the interaction of the arts with politics and ideology, are two different but often related areas of research in which Peter Paret, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, specializes.

Aspects...

In the 1660s and onward, the Radical Enlightenment pushed for full freedom of thought, religious freedom, and personal liberty together with democracy and the principle of equality. In this public lecture, Jonathan Israel, Andrew W. Mellon Professor...

The political season is upon us and so, if they were not before, our newspapers, radios, computer screens, and televisions are now overfull with sound-bites; and countless people are complaining about the degradation of political conversation. But...

Influenza viruses are unusual because we can become infected by a similar virus almost every year during our lifetime and occasionally there are worldwide pandemics that can cause many fatalities. Why does our usually excellent immune system fail us...

Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies, School of Historical Studies. This lecture will provide an overview of the production and characteristics of alien history in early China, while acknowledging and attempting to gauge...

Clifford Geertz, an eminent scholar in the field of cultural anthropology known for his extensive research in Indonesia and Morocco, died on October 30, 2006, at the age of 80. Geertz was Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science at the...