Know It Wall

How do physicists know what will happen in situations that haven't been tested? How sure can we be that physical laws are constant? Katy Clough explains how we are pushing the limits of what we know about the universe. | Narrated by Agnes Donnelly and Vidish Athavale | Music by Lee Rosevere | Katy is a postdoctoral researcher in the Astrophysics Department at Göttingen University in Germany, having recently completed her Ph.D. at King's College London. Her research involves solving the Einstein equations of gravity on supercomputers, investigating the early universe and even making black holes.

Imagine if we could correct genetic mutations as easily as correcting a typo in Microsoft Word, and thereby cure Alzheimer's, depression and other neurological disorders. Sounds like the plot of a sci-fi film, right? According to neuroscientist Gabriele Lignani, this is now a reality. | Narrated by Angus Waite | Music by Dexter Britain, Léo Delibes, Lloyd Rodgers and Jon Luc Hefferman | Gabriele is a neuroscientist at UCL whose research focuses on new approaches in the treatment of neurological disorders, which include gene editing and regulation in different neurons and brain regions. He has a passion for all sorts of animals and when he is not busy with his neurons at work, he enjoys spending time hiking with his two dogs.

One of the most complex and finely-tuned ways of communicating emotion in humans are facial expressions. Social psychologist Eva Krumhuber fills us in on the latest research and takes us from the Oscars to the quest to create ever more realistic robots. | Narrated by Louise Essex | Music by Akoko Nante Ensemble, Podington Bear, Lee Rosevere and Jon Luc Hefferman | Eva is a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at UCL, where she investigates the expression and perception of emotions in the human face. Besides her scientific contributions to psychology, her research has proved relevant for the successful modelling of emotions in virtual characters, being commercially used by the film and video games industries.

The Earth is over 4 billion years old, but land animals have only existed on our planet for the past 500 million years. Why didn't animal life on land emerge sooner? And why did it emerge at all? The Earth scientist Philip Pogge von Strandmann has the answers. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2kzO0V6 | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Alasdair Cooper and Lee Rosevere | Philip is a Senior Lecturer in the Earth Science Department at UCL. His main research area is the Earth’s present and past biogeochemical cycles, including the carbon and oxygen cycles and what controls them. He is the 2016 winner of the Max Hey Medal.

In 2014, the head of Russia's biggest international news agency reminded the world that Russia is the only country capable of ‘turning the USA into radioactive dust’. Do Russian elites share similarly hostile attitudes towards Western countries? Sociologist Elisabeth Schimpfossl investigates. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2hAWdtf | Narrated by Charlotte Holtum and Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel, Huma-Huma and Alasdair Cooper | Elisabeth is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at UCL, teaching Russian politics at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies. Her current research compares the philanthropic practices of Britain's and Russia's super-rich.

Could there be a theory that describes all of the fundamental laws of nature, a Theory of Everything? Einstein thought so but he never managed to prove it. Mathematical physicist Yang-Hui He guides us through the quest to fulfil Einstein's dream. | Read along while listening at our Medium: http://bit.ly/2gMa9kG | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Jon Luc Hefferman, Neil Cross, James Joshua Otto and Jason Donnelly | Yang-Hui is a Professor of Mathematics at the City University of London and a Tutor at Merton College, University of Oxford. He works on various interfaces between geometry and theoretical high energy physics and is particularly interested in aspects of algebraic geometry in application to, and interacting with, gauge theory as well as string theory.

The extraordinary complexity of life has puzzled scientists for a long time. But underneath the apparent randomness of life lies a deeply rooted order at the quantum scale. Geneticist Johnjoe McFadden takes us to the world where biology meets quantum mechanics. | Read along while listening at our Medium: http://bit.ly/2cA0CJN | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Sergey Cheremisinov, Alasdair Cooper, Jon Luc Hefferman and James Joshua Otto | Johnjoe is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey. His principal research area is investigating genetics of microbes that cause infectious diseases. He is the author of 'Quantum Evolution', 'Life on the Edge: The Coming Age of Quantum Biology' (with Jim Al-Khalili), and is currently working on a book on Ockham’s razor.

Art forgery has existed for centuries, but what about a 19th-century forger of medieval art whose unmasked work went on to become more valuable than originals? Mary Wellesley takes us through the detective-like story of the woman who uncovered his deception. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2cfJRmO | Narrated by Mary Wellesley and Vidish Athavale | Music by James Joshua Otto, Kai Engel, Greg Joy and Neil Cross | Mary is a medieval culture scholar at UCL and the British Library whose current research focuses on 15th-century literary manuscripts. As a freelance writer, her work has appeared, among others, in the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and Lapham’s Quarterly, where a version of 'The woman who unmasked the forger' first appeared.

For many people, contemporary art is a strange place where artists are charlatans who take us for fools. But are they really, or should we take them seriously? Miguel Dos Santos tackles the issue. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2aSWbc2 | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Addam Farmer, Debbie Miller and Mark Petrie | Miguel teaches and does research in philosophy at UCL. When he is not trying to solve the problem of what art is and several other philosophical puzzles, he enjoys learning about theoretical physics and how the universe works. No less important, he is a big supporter of Real Madrid.

From the Civil Rights movement to the modern efforts to legalize gay marriage, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution has been central to many of the most important issues in American history. UCL historian Adam Smith takes us through its significance. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2aEpNZE | Narrated by Adam Smith and Vidish Athavale | Music by Sergey Cheremisinov and Kai Engel | Adam is a Senior Lecturer in the History Department at UCL and a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio 4. An expert on the nineteenth century United States, his latest book is ​'The Stormy Present: Conservatism and American Politics in an Age of Revolution, 1848-1877', shortly to be published by the University of North Carolina Press.

The medical effects of sport seem to be well understood, there being a consensus that it is good for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But what about its non-medical effects? For example, are the effects of sport on society generally positive? Nick Piercey shares his views. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/29wzAoD | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel, Dexter Britain and Lee Rosevere | Nick is an Honorary Research Associate at the UCL School of European Languages, Culture and Society. His research focuses on the interactions between sport, culture and society. Nick’s first monograph, ​'Four Histories about Early Dutch Football, 1910–1920: Constructing Discourses'​, will be published by UCL Press in open access.

The search for liquid water on Jupiter's moons could reveal a habitat suitable for life. Space physicist Mehdi Ben Slama guides us through that search. | Read along while listening at our Medium: http://bit.ly/28X7cb3 | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Dexter Britain | Mehdi is a space physicist at Imperial College London whose research focuses on the search for water on Jupiter's moons, particularly Ganymede. When his head is not up above the clouds, he enjoys exploring underground cave systems. Also, he is Tunisian — and yes, Tunisia is a real country.

As the legendary Italian poet Dante turns 750, what can he tell us about the human experience? Dante scholar John Took takes us through his timeless angst and joy ridden ponderings on love, despair and existence. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/1YjwJyK | Narrated by John Took | Music by Advent Chamber Orchestra, Kai Engel, Tales, Spin Day, Ars Sonor & XXIXI, and Kevin MacLeod | John is Professor of Dante Studies at UCL. His research focuses on the ​Divine Comedy, Dante's minor works as well as his philosophy of existence and theology. Also a Dantean editor and biographer, John published a critical edition of the ​Fiore (a work attributed to Dante) and is currently completing an intellectual biography of Dante for Princeton University Press.

Dust in the air is nothing new. But for the Amazon rainforest, dust from the Sahara is crucial for its survival. How does this happen though? Ian Ashpole explains the phenomenon. | Read along while listening to our Medium: http://bit.ly/25upeLc | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel, Sergey Cheremisinov and Dexter Britain | Ian is a postdoctoral researcher in geography at the University of Oxford. When he’s not collecting data from African deserts, he works on trying to improve the way that mineral dust is modelled in the UK Met Office’s climate model. He also loves cycling and The Great British Bake Off.

Warfare has given rise to an invisible killer, one that was first discovered in World War I, attacking soldiers even after they had returned home to their families. Historian of science Emily Mayhew takes us through the story so far. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/22baD1N | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel | Emily is a historian in residence at Imperial College London, working primarily with the Centre for Blast Injury Studies. A military medical historian, she specialises in severe casualty in 20th- and 21st-century warfare. Her book Wounded​ was shortlisted for the 2014 Wellcome Book Prize.

The general public has been debating immigration with seemingly modern notions of economics, identity and conflict, but is this debate really so modern? Surely our forbears have little to add to the discussion in our globalised world? Alexander Samson doesn't think so. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/24gsSHO | Narrated by Alexander Samson and Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel | Alexander is a Reader in Early Modern Studies at UCL, specialising in the political and cultural relations between England and Spain in the sixteenth century. He has published on early modern drama, gardens and the reign of Mary I. He directs the Centre for Early Modern Exchanges and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters.

We might think that exploring Antarctica, one of the most inhospitable regions of the world, is something that has no relevance to us or future generations. According to Martin Siegert, we couldn't be more wrong. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/1SkZ5oO | Narrated by Angus Waite | Music by Dexter Britain | Martin is a Professor of Geosciences and co-director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London. His research, in the field of glaciology, involves acquiring data from unexplored parts of Antarctica and exploring Antarctic subglacial lakes for signs of life. He is well known among his students for telling the best stories about Antarctic explorers.

Almost 50 years after it was first proposed, evidence for the elusive Higgs boson finally emerged. But how can you detect a particle that only exists for a tiny fraction of a second? Jonathan Butterworth takes us through the experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/1N4bqZN | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel | Jonathan is a Professor of Physics at UCL, head of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, and a member of the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He writes regularly for The Guardian and has recently published 'Smashing Physics', a book on his experiences of the discovery of the Higgs boson, that was shortlisted for the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.

The popular trend for drones has highlighted an old human desire: to see the world from above and look upon the lives of those below. But how was this desire satisfied in a world before flying and spying? Zoltán Biedermann takes us to Renaissance Italy to find the expression of an earlier form of voyeurism. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/21CnWXa | Narrated by Angus Waite | Music by Kai Engel and Lee Rosevere | Zoltán is a historian at UCL, teaching in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies. He studies the cultural production of the Portuguese Empire during the 16th and 17th centuries, which includes chronicles, letters, travel accounts – and maps, many maps.

It has been suggested that all of the world's languages, from English and Italian to Mandarin and Hindi, share the same basic principles. But do they really? The linguist Vieri Samek-Lodovici explores the possibility. | Read along while listening at our Medium: http://bit.ly/1Tk1OBo ​| Narrated by Angus Waite and Vidish Athavale | Music by Jon Luc Hefferman, Sergey Cheremisinov, Kai Engel and James Joshua Otto | Vieri is a Reader in Linguistics at UCL whose research concerns the ways syntax and intonation affect each other, as well as the best way to model their complex interactions. He is the author of 'The Interaction of Focus, Giveness, and Prosody', which was recently published by Oxford University Press.