WELCOME TO THE QUANTUM WORLD OF GROUPIES… 11.00AM
Sir Roger Penrose - black holes - quantum everything
So Sir Roger Penrose is very highly spoken of... Not only is he one of the world's leading theoretical physicists but, according to a woman I met while queueing to get in to the Sheldonian (and I'd estimate she was in her fifties), he's very charismatic too (I wouldn't have called her a 'groupie' but I'd swear I later saw her touching up her lippy in the front row). Anyway, suffice to say, I was impressed by her obvious adoration, so looked forward to picking up a few tips. And with a talk whose title included in its first four words 'Fashion, Faith and Fantasy...' I saw plenty of opportunity to do so. Suffice to say it was a packed house for a packed brain; a brain whose size if measured would stretch from outside Debenhams to the farthest known reaches of the universe. And gratifyingly, the audience was not only made up of ageing groupies but an entire alphabet of of ages and backgrounds, from someone who looked four to someone who could easily have qualified as 'Father Time'. As it happens I read a book Sir Roger wrote when I was a teenager all about Black Holes and what I didn't understand then I still don't understand now but who cares - it was, and is, fascinatingly beautiful and poetic. "Quantum" this and 'Quantum" that were bandied around with gay abandon but I did manage to understand a few of the 'in-science' jokes. A brilliant, brilliant speaker and a perfect way to kick off the festival. I loved it (thought I still can't understand "Quantum gravity").
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International radio partner
Supporter of programme of science and medicine and annual science and innovation award
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The Cervantes Institute, London
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Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection
Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection
Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture
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Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314
New College founded 1379
Worcester College founded 1714
Lincoln College founded 1427
St Cross College founded 1965
Trinity College founded 1555
Magdalen College founded 1458
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Wines of the Douro Valley
Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024
Sponsor of the EBRD Literature Prize since 2018
Georgia's leading lifestyle hotel brand since 2012. Supporters of the programme of Georgian literature and culture
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Oxford International Centre for Publishing
Festival academic partner
Olive oil from Sicily
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Supporter of the programme of Georgian literature and culture
Corporate communications
K T Bruce Photography
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‘Round like a circle in a spiral…’ - March 31 - 6.15pm - 2022
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Food for thought - March 31 - 3.32pm - 2022
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Fit for Royalty - March 30 - 3.56pm - 2022
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‘A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…’ - March 30 - 11.24am - 2022