Annual Christmas Lecture - Durham University

The Annual Christmas Lectures

The department traditionally holds a public lecture every Christmas and invites local schools to come along and learn from some of our leading academics about the science we do and the issues it affects.

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xmas image 2021

The 2021 Soft matters! When solids flow and liquids jam

Professor Suzanne Fielding

December 14 + 15 2pm Online only

This lecture will explore the fascinating physics of soft materials that defy our everyday ideas of solid and liquid: from familiar household liquidsthat jam up when stirred too vigorously, to solids that yield and flow under large enough loads, and materials that bounce on short timescales ye flow on longer timescales.

Along the way we will encounter avalanches and mudslides; traffic jams and log jams; complicated turbulent flows; and biological tissues, swarming bacteria, shoals of fish and flocks of birds.

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Previous lectures in this series

Year	Lecturer	Title of Lecture
2020	Prof Frank Krauss	How to build an epidemics simulation
2019	Dr Chris Saunter	The Worm who lived forever?
2018	Prof Charles Adams	The Mystery and Mastery of Photons
2017	Professor Martin Ward	The James Webb Space Telescope
2016	Prof Ruth Gregory	The Decay of the Universe
2015	Prof Tom McLiesh	The Subtle Science of Soft Slimy Stuff!
2014	Dr Pete Edwards	Universe Missing! - The 2014 Durham Physics Xmas Lecture
2013	Dr Del Atkinson	Thanks for the memory - From hard rocks to hard disks: How magnetic information changed the world
2012	Prof P Richardson	2012: The year of the Higgs Boson
2011	Prof M Ward	The Ultimate Fate of the Universe
2010	Prof B K Tanner	Sounds Fantastic
2009	Prof J Girkin	Making light work for Doctors
2008	Dr G Love	Light: Skies, Eyes and Spies
2007	Prof G Weiglein	'The LHC - Exploring the mysteries of matter, space and time'
2006	Dr M R C Hunt	Nanotechnology: the next big thing is small
2005	Dr C Done	Extrasolar planets and extraterrestrial life
2004	Dr I G Hughes	Cool things to do with lasers
2003	Dr P J Edwards	A recipe for the universe
2002	Prof E W N Glover	The hunt for the Higgs
2001	Dr R P Cowburn	The incredible shrinking world of nanotechnology
2000	Dr C Done	Black holes - fact, fiction or fantasy?
1999	Prof R L Davies	New eyes on the universe: telescopes for the millennium
1998	Dr P D Hatton	Superconductivity: money, science and applications
1997	Prof D R Flower	Galactic nebulae
1996	Prof A D Martin	Neutrinos
1995	Dr R M Sharples	New light from the cosmos - astronomical technology in the 1990's
1994	Dr A P Monkman	A practical guide to lasers
1993	Dr T Shanks	Einstein's universe
1992	Prof W J Stirling	The fundamental particles - the building blocks of matter
1991	Dr C S Frenk	The universe: What is the matter?
1990	Prof B K Tanner	In record time
1989	Prof A W Wolfendale	Where do cosmic rays come from?
1988	Dr C J Maxwell	Hunting elementary particles
1987	Dr B K Tanner & Dr N R Berhoeft	There is no resisting a semiconductor
1986	Dr T Shanks & Dr J R Lucey	Stepping out into the universe
1985	Dr D R Flower	Interstellar matter
1984	Dr K E Turver	Very energetic gamma ray astronomy
1983	Dr B K Tanner & Dr S R Hoon	Magnetic fluids
1982	Dr F D Gault	Elementary particle physics: a GUT response
1981	Prof A W Wolfendale	The new astronomies
1980	Dr B K Tanner & Dr Dr S R Hoon	The physics of music
1979	Dr R Fong	Einstein's universe
1978	Dr J M Breare & Dr A D Martin	What are we made of?
1977	Dr J V Major & Dr K J Orford	Resonance revealed
1976	Dr B K Tanner & Dr W D Corner	A magnetic attraction
1975	Dr K J Orford	Energy conversion