University Challenge S53E23 Sheffield v Aberdeen

APPLAUSE University Challenge. Asking the questions – Amol Rajan. Hello and welcome to the penultimate match in round two of this year’s University Challenge. The teams returning tonight are hoping to become the first from their universities to qualify for the quarterfinals since 2011 and 1995, respectively.

A win by any margin will see them through. Anything else, sadly, means the end of the road. The team from Sheffield opened their account this year with a comfortable win over Loughborough University. The East Midlanders didn’t get out of first gear until after the second picture round, by which time Sheffield

Were well on their way to the second-highest score of round one. Unlike a lot of teams on this programme, they were particularly strong on popular culture, cleaning up rounds on lo-fi albums and contemporary horror films. They fared less well, however, on history of art and the biology of apples. Let’s meet them again.

Hi, I’m Safiyyah Rujak, I’m from Plymouth in Devon and I’m studying history. Hi, I’m Joe McGough, I’m from Coventry and I’m studying history and Spanish. And their captain. Hello, I’m Cameron Colclough, I’m from Sheffield and I’m studying biophysics. Hi, I’m Matthew Nail, I’m from Blyth in Northumberland

And I’m studying for a master’s in philosophy. APPLAUSE The Aberdeen team’s first-round match was a much closer affair against the University of Birmingham. With five minutes to go there were just five points in it, but then two unlucky interruptions by Birmingham allowed Aberdeen to pull ahead.

Aberdeen answered very well along the way on mathematics, human anatomy and the Brothers Grimms’ Fairy Tales. But they struggled on Shakespeare, German states and paintings of volcanoes. Let’s meet them for the second time. Hi. I’m Archie Broomfield, I’m in my fourth year studying politics and international relations and I’m from Edinburgh.

Hello, I’m Zachary Eisler, I’m from South Queensferry near Edinburgh and I’m studying history. And their captain. Hello. My name is Emily Osborne. I’m from Bristol and I’m studying economics. Hello, I’m Callum McClements from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. I’m studying medicine. APPLAUSE And welcome back to all of you. Any questions about the rules?

No, thought not. Let’s go for it. Fingers on buzzers, then. Here’s your first starter for ten. Based on Francois Eugene Vidocq, the founder of the detective organisation Surete, which fictional French detective appeared in the short stories The Purloined Letter and The Mystery Of Marie Roget, as well as his first… Um…

You need to answer immediately. Sorry, you lose five points. ..as well as his first appearance in The Murders In The Rue Morgue? Poirot. It’s Dupin. Another starter question now. The Kansas-born John Steuart Curry and the African-American Horace Pippin are among the artists who have depicted which militant

19th-century political campaigner? Curry’s mural shows him wild-eyed, holding a Bible… John Brown. It is John Brown, yes. Your bonuses, Aberdeen, are three questions on a Swiss Nobel Laureate. Born in 1828, which Swiss humanitarian was a co-founder of the Red Cross and won the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frederic Passy?

Anybody? I’m not sure. No. Just throw something out. I can’t even think, sorry. Toblerone. I don’t think a chocolate has ever won a Nobel Prize. It was Henry Dunant. Dunant’s humanitarian work began in reaction to the human cost of which battle of 1859?

It took place in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia as part of the Second Italian War of Independence. THEY CONFER Could be Milan. Treviso… A city in northern Italy? I’m not sure. Genoa? It could be Genoa. Genoa. No, it’s the Battle of Solferino. In which year did Dunant win the first Nobel Peace Prize?

The ceremony took place five years after the death of Alfred Nobel. The same year saw the deaths of President William McKinley and Queen Victoria. 1901. 1901. It was 1901, yes. Next starter question now. Quote – “Ancient, morbid, toxic, one of the longest-lived native

“species in Europe. This has made it a symbol of death and doom.” These words from the Woodland Trust website describe which evergreen tree, distinguished by its reddish brown… Yew. It is the yew, yes. Your three bonuses, Aberdeen, are questions on the Glasgow School of Art.

What was the surname of the influential artists Margaret and Frances, active at the Glasgow School of Art from the 1890s? Together with their husbands Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Herbert McNair, they were known as The Four, or, from their sometimes macabre themes, as the Spook School. I’m not sure. No… Pass. It’s Macdonald.

In 1894, Jessie Newbery became head of which department within the school associated with textiles? She is credited with raising its status to that of a creative artform. It’d be fashion? Fashion? I would guess fashion. Fashion. Embroidery, I’m afraid, is the answer we need.

Finally, born in 1970, which graduate of the school is noted for her focus on the female nude? Her works include Strategy, Stare, Blue Pieta and Torso. No… No? Pass. Pass. It’s Jenny Saville. Another starter question now. Which city hosted the first Summer Olympics following the overturning of the rule… Athens.

No, I’m afraid you lose 5 points. ..following the overturning of the rule that required participants to be amateurs? Tennis returned for the first time in 64 years with a gold medal for Steffi Graf, and Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson lost his gold medal after taking steroids.

It was the last Summer Olympics before the fall of the Berlin Wall and one of the first few to be held outside Europe and North America. Seoul. It was Seoul in 1988. Yes. Your bonuses, Sheffield, are on words in Shakespeare. The answer in each case is a football club that played

In the Premier League in 2022-’23. First, give the name of the club that begins with this five-letter word. In Antony And Cleopatra, Charmion says she would rather heat this with drinking than with love, and in Troilus And Cressida, Cassandra likens spotted ones to polluted offerings. Everton… Nottingham Forest. Any ideas? I’ve got nothing.

Any ideas? No. Everton. No, it was Liverpool. Cassandra was referring to divination with livers. The first five letters of a name of which Premier League club spell a word that appears in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech in a now somewhat archaic sense of limit, terminus or frontier?

Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea. Tottenham Hotspur. THEY CONFER Leeds? Any ideas? Leeds United. No. He says, “The undiscovered country from whose bourn “no traveller returns.” It’s Bournemouth. Bad luck. Finally, which club’s name begins with the direction in which Olivia points Viola in Act III of Twelfth Night? East… West Ham United.

It is West Ham United, yes. A picture round now, and for your picture starter you’re going to see a diagram showing a set of laboratory glassware that could be used to carry out a particular chemical process. For ten points, name the process. Reflux. No. Distillation. It is distillation, yes.

For your picture starter you saw a diagram showing the experimental set-up for a simple distillation. Your picture bonuses will be three more diagrams showing the experimental set-ups for common techniques or methods in chemistry. Name the technique or method in each case. Firstly… Titration? Yeah, titration. Titration. Correct. Secondly…

I’m not sure about this one. Condensat… No. Evaporation maybe? Evaporation. No, it’s reflux. Finally… Chromatography? Yeah. Crogatography. Chroma… No, sorry. I’ve got to take the answer given by the captain. And the correct answer is chromatography. I think you misheard your team-mates. Feel free to nominate team-mates if it makes things easier.

Another starter question now. In office in the mid-1970s, which Chief Secretary to the Treasury gives his name to the formula adopted in 1978 that calculates the amount of tax revenue allocated by the UK Government to the devolved…? Barnett. It is, as in the Barnett Formula. Yes.

Your three bonuses, Aberdeen, are questions on proteins. Proteins that contain a mitochondrial targeting sequence can enter the mitochondria through the T-O-M or Tom40 pore in the outer mitochondrial membrane. Here, 40 refers to the molecular mass of this protein and is measured in what units? It begins with S.

I think. I have no idea. Whatever you think. Um… Sievert maybe, but… Yeah? Nominate McClements. Sieverts. No, it’s kilodaltons. Oh. The SAM or SAM complex is responsible for inserting what general class of membrane proteins into mitochondria? In contrast to alpha-helical membrane proteins, they are made up of anti-parallel strands. Beta sheets. Beta sheets?

Aye. Beta sheets. I can’t accept that. Beta sheets is too general and what we needed was beta barrels. The MIA pathway allows targeting of proteins from the cytosol into the region between the outer membrane and the inner membrane of the mitochondria.

This region is known as the IMS. For what do these letters stand? Mitochondrial membrane… IMS. IMS. Intermembrane space. Nominate McClements. Intermembrane space. Is correct, yes. Intermembrane space is right. Well done. Another starter question now. Often used as grave markers for wealthy men and boys,

What term denotes vessels used for diluting wine with water in Ancient Greece? The same word also means… Casket. No, and I’m afraid you lose five points. The same word also means a large hollow on the surface of a body, such as one caused by an explosion

Or those found on the moon and at the mouth… Crater. Crater is correct, yes. Your bonuses, then, are three questions, Sheffield, on Japanese straits in history. The Shimonoseki campaign was a 19th-century conflict between Japan and Western powers over control of the strait separating which two Japanese islands?

It is also known as the Kanmon Straits. Honshu and Hokkaido? THEY CONFER Hokkaido or Honshu and what? Honshu and Hokkaido? Honshu and Hokkaido? No, I’m afraid it’s Honshu and Kyushu. Also taking place in the Kanmon Straits, the Battle of Dan-no-ura was the final battle of the Genpei War.

This ended the Heian period and installed the first shogun. It occurred towards the end of which century? THEY CONFER We’re going to have to pick a century. THEY CONFER Come on! 11th. It’s the 12th. Finally, the name for the straits between Japan and Korea in which it was fought,

The 1905 Battle of Tsushima was a major Japanese victory against which country? Russia. Russia. Russia is correct, yes. Another starter question. Best friends Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmeyer are the main characters of which cult graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, first published in book form in 1997? It was adapted… Daria.

No, and I’m afraid you lose five points. It was adapted into a 2001 film starring Thora Birch… Ghost World. Ghost World is correct. Yes. Your bonuses, Sheffield, are on economic DSGE models. The letter S in DSGE models stands for what word, intended to take into account random shocks and fluctuations present

In an economy? THEY CONFER Any ideas? Something beginning with S… THEY CONFER Any ideas? Stagger. No, it’s stochastic. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models updated the neoclassical RBC theory, which explained macroeconomic fluctuations with technical shocks and productivity changes, allowing the economy to respond to changes rationally. For what do the letters RBC stand?

Rational based choice? I was going to say it might be a cycle of sorts. What’s your reasoning? Rational… I mean, that’s RBC. Yeah… Choice is a thing. Yeah, go for it. Rational based choice. No, it is a cycle. It’s a real business cycle. Bad luck.

DSGE and RBC models have origins in theories explained in the 1874 work Elements Of Pure Economics by which French economist? Don’t know a French economist. Don’t know… Pass. Pass. It was Leon Walras. Another starter question now. What six-letter word links all of the following.

In biology, a condition whereby more than one genotype is present in the same organism, in computer science, the first web browser to display graphics in line with text, and in art, a decorative medium exemplified by the Roman site of Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily? Mosaic. It is mosaic, yes. Your bonuses, Sheffield,

Are three questions on works by the US film-maker Mike Flanagan. Flanagan’s 2020 mini series The Haunting Of Bly Manor is a loose modern adaptation of which novella of 1898? Victoria Pedretti plays an au pair hired by a wealthy family to look after their children, Miles and Flora. Turn Of The Screw. Yeah.

Henry James, is it? I don’t know. Yeah? The Turn Of The Screw. Correct. Which 2016 horror film by Flanagan stars Kate Siegel as a deaf and mute writer living in an isolated forest cabin where she’s attacked by a masked killer? The larger part of the film takes place without dialogue. Hush. Correct.

What word precedes both “mass” and “club” in the titles of series of 2021 and 2022 by Flanagan? The former is a vampire story set in an isolated Catholic fishing community, the latter is based on the young adult horror novels of Christopher Pike. Midnight. Midnight is correct. For your music starter, then,

You’re going to hear a piece of classical music. For ten points, simply name the composer. DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS Mendelssohn. No. You can hear a bit more, Sheffield. MUSIC CONTINUES Come on. Want to have a go? Shostakovich. No, it’s Brahms. We’ll take your music bonuses when we get a starter right.

Loosely related to concepts such as transmigration or metempsychosis, and derived from the Sanskrit for wandering, what term is used in Buddhism to denote the cycle of births and rebirths that ordinary people undergo… Samsara. Samasara is correct, yes. You heard a moment ago Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, written

As a tribute to the University of Breslau in 1880. Your music bonuses are three more pieces from the late 19th century, written as gifts, this time to individuals such as family members or pupils. Five points for each composer you can name. First, this composer. LILTING PIANO MUSIC PLAYS That’s more Western European.

It sounds Western European. It sounds almost Western European. THEY CONFER Maybe Chopin. Come on! It’s a quiz, not a concert. Chopin. Chopin. No, it was Edvard Grieg. Secondly, this Western European composer. PIANO AND VIOLIN PLAY GENTLY THEY CONFER Mendelssohn. It could be Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn. No, that was Cesar Franck. Finally, this British composer.

ROUSING MUSIC PLAYS What’s his name? THEY CONFER Benjamin Britten maybe? No, it’s not Benjamin Britten. Could be Holst. Holst? OK. Holst. No, it was Edward Elgar. You need more Radio 3 in your lives. In 1930, the industrialist Richard Fairey paid the Vicar of Harmondsworth £15,000

For a plot of land for the assembly and testing of aircraft, thus establishing the precursor of which major airport? It was formerly known as the Great West Aerodrome because of its proximity to the A4 trunk road. Heathrow. It is Heathrow, yes. Your bonuses, then, Aberdeen, are questions on a mathematician. Born in 1882,

Whom did Albert Einstein describe as the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began? She has also been described as the mother of modern algebra. Ada Lovelace? Ada Lovelace. I don’t know anyone else. Ada Lovelace. No, it’s Emmy Noether.

In 1915, David Hilbert invited Noether to join which German university to the south of Hanover, described as one of the great mathematical centres of the world? Gauss, Riemann and Landau have all held faculty positions there. Could be Heidelberg. I’d go with that. Heidelberg. No, it’s the University of Gottingen.

In physics, Noether’s theorem linked symmetries in the laws of nature to conserved quantities. Time translation symmetry is connected via Noether’s theorem to the conservation of which quantity? Energy? Go for it. I don’t know. Energy. Energy is correct, yes. Another starter question now. After discovering that the standard kilogram prototype,

Kept at Sevres near Paris, was 50 micrograms lighter than its other copies, the General Conference on Weights and Measures agreed to redefine the kilogram by what standard physical constant in 2018? The constant was formulated to predict mathematically the distribution of radiation emitted by a blackbody and is represented by a small letter h.

Oh… The Planck constant. I’ll accept that, but next time you must answer straight away. Your bonuses, then, Sheffield, are three questions on the Elizabethan navigator Martin Frobisher. First, during one of three voyages in search of the Northwest Passage, Frobisher became the first Englishman to land on which island – Canada’s largest? Baffin? Baffin?

Baffin Island? Baffin Island. Correct. Well done. Frobisher returned from his voyages with over 1,500 tonnes of what he believed to be gold ore. It is now thought to have been which mineral, a calcium-rich subtype of amphibole? Pyrite? Yeah, pyrites. Pyrite. No, it’s hornblende. Finally, Frobisher commanded the ship Triumph

In which naval engagement, for which he was knighted during the operations by the Lord High Admiral Charles Howard? The Spanish Armada… What was the battle? Battle of the Spanish Armada? Yeah. The Battle of the Spanish Armada. Correct, yes. Another starter question now. In philosophy, what term

Emerged in the 18th century to refer to the description of objects of conscious experience appearing later in the title of an 1807 work by Hegel, and eventually becoming associated primarily with the school of thought emerging from the work of Edmund Husserl? Phenomenology. It is phenomenology, yes.

Your bonus, then, are on the origins of dance music genres. Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood are artists principally associated with the emergence of what genre of dance music in Detroit in the 1980s? Swing maybe? 1980s. I would say hip-hop. Break dance? Break dancing, yeah, it’d be that. Break dancing. It’s techno.

What name is given to the genre of dance music that developed in the UK in the early 1990s out of the rave scene and reggae sound system culture, associated with acts such as A Guy Called Gerald and Goldie? Drum and bass. Yeah. Drum and bass. I can’t accept drum and bass.

We need jungle, I’m afraid. What is the stage name of the DJ and producer widely referred to as the godfather of house music? The term “house” originated as a contraction of the name of his club, the Warehouse. Fatboy Slim maybe. I was going to say the Prodigy but Fatboy Slim might be…

Do we want to go for Fatboy Slim? No, he’s Ministry of Sound. I don’t know. Not my subject. No, the Prodigy’s more of a rock band. Fatboy Slim. Fatboy Slim. No. It’s Frankie Knuckles. Let’s take a picture starter now, and for your picture starter

You’re going to see a painting of a scene from Greek myth. For ten points, name the figure on the left. Danae. It is Danae, yes. That picture starter was one of Titian’s depictions of Danae faced by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold. For your picture bonuses,

You’ll see three more depictions of this scene. Five points for each artist you can identify. Firstly… Titian… No, Titian was the last one. Botticelli or… Yes. It’s a bit later. Tintoretto? Giorgione? Giorgione? Go for it. Giorgione. Rembrandt. Secondly… Looks kind of Botticelli, but… It’s not Caravaggio… No. THEY CONFER Come on, guys.

Van Eyck. Van Eyck. No, that was Artemisia Gentileschi. And finally… Klimt. Gustav Klimt. It is Klimt. Yes. Just 20 points in it. Here’s another starter question. What city was known to the Vikings as Miklagard, to the Russians…? Istanbul. It is Istanbul, yes. Your bonuses, then, are on early contributions

To the field of climatology. Appointed in 1720, which Astronomer Royal produced one of the earliest-known maps of global wind circulation? He is remembered today for his research into the periodicity of comets. THEY CONFER Halley. Yes, it’s Edmund Halley. Born in 1906, which German-born climatologist was an early pioneer

Of research into the effects of particulate air pollution on human health? Koppen. Unless anything is… No. As in the Koppen climate classification? Yeah. It’s German, so… Koppen. Koppen climate classification. No, no, no. Just his name is Koppen. OK, nominate McClements. Koppen. No, it’s Helmut Landsberg.

Finally, in 1769, which American polymath and statesman first published a chart of the Gulf Stream to explain why British mail packets took so long to travel westward across the Atlantic? Franklin. Benjamin Franklin. Franklin. Benjamin Franklin is correct. Another starter question now. With no syntax, grammar or meaning to the words,

Hopelandic or Vonlenska is the name given to the non-linguistic…? Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros is correct, yes. Your bonuses, Sheffield, are on juvenilia or childhood writings by well-known authors. In each case, name the writer from the titles of the works given. Firstly, the author of the works Love And Friendship

And The History Of England written before 1793. Jane Austen. Yeah. Yeah. Jane Austen. Correct. Secondly, High Life In Verdopolis and The Spell, set in the fictional kingdom of Angria. They were written in the 1830s under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley. THEY CONFER Maybe one of the Brontes? Is what I’m thinking.

Charlotte Bronte. Correct. Finally, the two sisters who wrote the Hyde Park Gate News, a fictional newspaper from 1891 onwards. Sisters? Literary sisters? The Mitfords? Yeah? The Mitford sisters. No, it’s Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Another starter question now. “Yellow-eyed”, “little”, “Fiordland” and “Magellanic” all precede what word

To give the names of species of a bird in the family Spheniscidae, whose number of extant species is debated ranging from 17 to 21? Penguin. It is penguin, yes. Your bonuses, Aberdeen, are three questions on treatments for syphilis. Discovered in 1909 by Sahachiro Hata at the laboratory of Paul Ehrlich, which arsenic-containing compound

Was the first effective treatment for syphilis, as well as being the first synthetic antimicrobial drug? Um… He said arsenic. Well, penicillin doesn’t contain arsenic… What could it be? Mercury? No, gosh, no. No idea. Pass. Yeah, pass. That was Salvarsan. Next, Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Medicine

For his work treating syphilis by inducing fever. He achieved this by infecting patients with what protozoan disease? Smallpox? No, no, no. It’d probably be yellow fever or something like that. Yellow fever? Yellow fever. Bad luck, it’s malaria. Finally, after its isolation for clinical use by Howard Florey

And Ernst Chain in the 1940s, which drug became the standard treatment for syphilis and remains so to this day? Argh! Ohh… No, I’m sorry. I’m blanking. Let’s pass, then. Go to another starter. Pass. It’s penicillin. Another starter question. In mathematics, what three-word term denotes a method of solving quadratic equations

From which the general quadratic formula may be derived, and which entails converting a quadratic in the form…? Completing the square. Correct. Yes. Your bonuses, then, Sheffield, are three questions on film adaptations of a play. “My aim was not to adapt Shakespeare to the cinema, “but to adapt the cinema to Shakespeare.”

These words of the Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev referred to his 1964 film version of which of Shakespeare’s plays using Boris Pasternak’s translation? It may be a tragedy. Macbeth maybe? THEY CONFER Come on, guys. Macbeth! No, it’s Hamlet. Akira Kurosawa’s 1960 film The Bad Sleep Well

Is a loose adaptation of Hamlet in the film noir genre. It stars which actor in the lead role, his 12th collaboration with Kurosawa? Mifune. Nominate Nail. Toshiro Mifune. Correct. Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2014 adaptation Haider is set in 1995 against the backdrop of conflict in which disputed transnational region…? GONG CRASHES

And at the gong, Aberdeen have 105 and Sheffield have 130. APPLAUSE Aberdeen, gosh, it was such a tight game. Such a tight game until right at the last five minutes, basically. I’m so sorry. It feels like your knowledge of music, whilst incredible, let you down, both classical music and modern dance music.

You did an amazing job with everything else except those two little bits, and we’ve absolutely loved having you. Have you vaguely enjoyed yourselves, even though you just lost? Yes! It’s been a huge pleasure and privilege to have you. Thank you so much for coming and bringing your wonderful mascot.

Sheffield, you made it stressful for yourselves, didn’t you? I think you’re going to need to try and make it a little bit easier in future. But we shall see you and…is it Barry the tiger? Mm-hm. We shall see Barry the tiger again. I hope you can join us next time

For the last of the second-round matches. But until then, it is goodbye from Aberdeen… ALL: Goodbye. It’s goodbye from the University of Sheffield. ALL: Goodbye. And it’s goodbye for me. Goodbye. APPLAUSE