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00:18University Challenge. Asking the questions, Maul Roger.
00:28Hello and welcome to University Challenge. Tonight we begin phase two of our double elimination
00:33quarter-final stage. The teams in this match are now playing for a place in the semi-finals.
00:38Both of them have won one quarter-final already, so a win tonight will be enough to see them
00:42through. The losing team, however, will have one more chance to grab that second win at
00:47a later date. The team from Edinburgh seem to be getting stronger with each match they
00:51play in this year's competition. After a slightly uneven performance against Newcastle in round
00:55one, they beat Trinity College Cambridge in round two, having nearly doubled their bonus
00:59conversion rate. And in their first quarter-final against Manchester, they were dominant on the
01:03buzzer, taking 12 starters to Manchester's five with no five-point penalties. Film, music
01:09and modern literature are among their many strengths and their average score so far is
01:13190 points per game. Let's meet the team from Edinburgh for the fourth time.
01:17Hi, I'm Parthav Ishwar. I'm from Portland, Oregon in the United States and I'm studying
01:22for a Master's in Sustainable Lands and Cities. Hi, I'm Johnny Richards. I'm from Los Angeles,
01:27California and I'm doing a PhD on Ancient DNA. And their captain. Hi, I'm Alice Leonard. I'm from
01:33Portsmouth and I'm studying for a Master's in Environment, Culture and Society. Hi, I'm Rehan Amjad.
01:39I'm from Dublin and Glasgow and I'm studying for a PhD in Computer Science.
01:45The team from Merton College, Oxford came into this round off the back of two comfortable wins over
01:50strong teams from Durham and Churchill College, Cambridge. Their first quarter-final, however,
01:54against UCL was much more closely fought. After the first start, the lead changed hands seven times
01:59and with less than a minute to go, the scores were level. In the end, however, Captain Elliott's knowledge
02:04of French literature secured Merton the victory. Literature generally is clearly one of their strong
02:09suits, as is history, and their average score is also 190 points. Let's meet the team from Merton
02:14College once again. Hi, I'm Kieran Duncan. I'm from High Wycombe and I'm doing a PhD in English
02:20Literature. Hi, I'm Evelyn Ong. I'm from Singapore and I'm studying for an undergraduate degree in
02:25Mathematics and Philosophy. And their captain. Hi, I'm Elliot Cosnett. I'm from Hatton in Warwickshire
02:30and I'm studying for an undergraduate degree in History. Hi, I'm Verity Fleetwood Law. I'm from Amersham
02:36in Buckinghamshire and I'm studying English and French. Very nice to see you all and to see you
02:45applauding each other. Very nice to see your crazy mascots as well. Shall we begin? Fingers on buzzers.
02:49Here's your starter for ten. Good luck. Answer as soon as your name is called. What are the only two
02:55vowels that can be found in the titles of a 2021 film directed by Sian Hader, a 2020 film directed
03:02by
03:02Chloe Zhao, a 2012 film directed by... O and A. Yep, that's right. The films were Coda, Nomadland
03:10and... Well done. Your bonuses then are on philosophical debates. A combative series of
03:16articles and responses by Jacques Derrida and John Searle beginning in the 1970s were inspired by Derrida's
03:221971 Montreal conference address, Signature Event Context, in which he critiqued the work of
03:28which thinker as it appeared in his 1962 book, How To Do Things With Words.
03:34Oh, 1962. So is it a linguist if it's words? It's 62. Who would be... Margaret Mead was semi-arctics,
03:42right? Moloponte? Like that. Okay, yeah, let's go. Moloponte. No, it's J.L. Austin. The University of London's
03:50International Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science hosted a 1965 debate between which two philosophers
03:56of science, particularly regarding the differences presented in their respective
04:00works on the subject, the structure of scientific revolutions and the logic of scientific discovery.
04:05So one of them is Thomas Kuhn and... Hopper? I like that. Yeah, Kuhn and Hopper. Well done.
04:11Which philosopher is at the centre of a metaphorical debate with Jürgen Habermas,
04:15largely over the differing conceptions of power in their work? He also engaged in an in-person debate
04:20with Noam Chomsky on Dutch television in 1971 over the possibility of an innate human nature,
04:26which this philosopher largely rejected. I think this is the Chomsky Foucauld event. Yeah, yeah.
04:30Foucauld. It is Foucauld, yes.
04:32Don't start the question. Located in the upper reaches of the Inguri River Basin, the village of
04:38Chajashi in Ushguli community is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Upper Zwaneti. Found in what country?
04:45Over 2,000 metres above sea level, the village has preserved more than 200 of the region's distinct
04:50medieval towers built by the Svan... Is it Italy? No, I'm afraid you lose five points. Built by the Svan
04:57people to serve as both homes and defence posts, as well as Orthodox churches and fortresses.
05:04Martin Cosmet. Ethiopia. No, it's Georgia. Let's start the question. What is the name given to
05:10aggregations of the protein alpha-synuclein that can appear within and often displace the components
05:16of brain cells? Martin Cosmet. Crayons. No, I'm afraid you lose five points. They are named for the
05:21German neurologist who discovered them while examining the brains of patients who had suffered
05:26from Parkinson's disease and dementia.
05:31Inebra Richards. Clax. No, it's Louis bodies. Let's start the question. What type of structure
05:36appears in all these paintings? Robert Delaunay's Champs-de-Mars, Ellis Lowry's The Tollbooth,
05:43Glasgow and a work by Bruegel inspired by a scene from the book of Genesis. The first of these
05:48structures is... Martin Ong. Ship. No, I'm afraid you lose five points. The first of these structures is of
05:53puddle iron, a type of wrought iron. The second, stone and the last...
05:59Edinburgh Richards. A fountain? No, they all depict towers. So Delaunay's work depicts the Eiffel Tower and
06:04Bruegel's The Tower of Babel. Another starting question now. Fingers on buzzers. What three words
06:09complete the following excerpt taken from the content section of a 1993 novel? Calcutta simmers
06:15in a stew of talk. A cemetery affords a pleasing walk. Beneath the neem the village children play.
06:21Worn cattle churn the burning earth to clay. A desperate mother ventures to deploy. Fair means or
06:26foul to net. What? The three words form the title... Edinburgh Amjad. A suitable boy. Yes, as in the novel
06:32by Victor James Bates. Three questions for you on a poet. Described by biographer Jonathan Bate
06:37as the greatest labouring class poet that England ever produced, which Northamptonshire poet born in 1793
06:44wrote primarily on rural themes before spending most of the final 27 years of his life in asylums?
06:51Duck. Stephen Duck. Does that make sense? Labouring poet. Stephen Duck. No, it's John Clare. What is the title of
06:58Clare's 1827 poetry collection that depicts the progress of a year much like an earlier work
07:04by Edmund Spencer with a similar title? Progress of a year? What did Edmund Spencer write apart
07:08from the very first year? I don't know. What does that mean? Have you got anything? Yeah, there's pass. Pass.
07:13It's the shepherd's calendar. Clare declared that, quote, whoever looks round sees eternity there
07:18in a poem dedicated to which subject that John Keats described as a close bosom friend of the maturing
07:24sun. Oh, what Keats? That sounds like an ode, right? Autumn, melancholy. I don't know. Yeah,
07:35it's not an ode. I don't mind autumn. Like the sun setting or something. Like a hill? Yeah, sure.
07:42The horizon. It was autumn. Bad old. That's OK. You've done all the hard work. Bad that.
07:47Let's start a question. What two words link all of the following? A 1949 Raoul Walsh film in which
07:54James Cagney plays the ambitious gangster Cody Jarrett. Martin Duncan. Roaring 20s. I'm afraid you
08:00lose five points. An influential 1990 cookbook and memoir written by Marco Pierre White. The second part
08:06of the title of a 1968 album by the Velvet Underground and a phrase used in a 1963 speech given
08:12by Harold
08:13Wilson outlining the intensity and possibility of technological advancement.
08:19White light. Bad luck, Rayhan. I can't accept that. That's the first part of the title of the
08:24Velvet Underground album. What I needed was white heat. Wilson talked about the white heat of technology.
08:29Another starter question. What surname is shared by both the Mexican general who assumed the country's
08:34presidency in 1913 following the so-called ten tragic days in which he staged a coup against
08:39César Chavez, Francesco Madeiro and the American labor activist who, along with...
08:45Chavez. Don't be afraid you'll lose five points. Along with Gilbert Padilla and César Chavez,
08:51co-founded the organization that would later become the United Farm Workers of America and...
08:57Diaz. No, it's Huerta, Victoriano, and Dolores respectively.
09:01Now, let's start the question. In the English titles of three
09:04works written in irish chinese and latin respectively what short word appears along
09:10with ulster in the name of a manuscript that begins in 431 ce follows spring and autumn in
09:16a work that ends shortly before the death of confucius and is the title of a work on the julio
09:21claudian emperors by the roman historian tacitus edinburgh mjet annals yes well done it is indeed
09:29three questions for you edinburgh on a phrase what three word phrase is commonly used to
09:34designate the decades-long period of reduced chinese political unity and dominance by foreign
09:39powers lasting for roughly the start of the first opium war in 1839 to the end of the second world
09:44war nominate richard center of humiliation correct well done again i need a three-word answer here
09:51during the second opium war british and french troops attempted to intentionally humiliate the chinese by
09:56attacking what complex in beijing known locally as yuan ming yuan it remains destroyed today unlike
10:02its largely restored counterpart nearby definitely old summer palace oh the old summer palace yeah
10:08yeah nominate richard the old summer palace yes correct the century of humiliation is widely
10:14considered to have ended following the end of world war ii and the establishment of china alongside the
10:18us the uk and the soviet union as one of the four what a successor to the four powers of
10:24the war
10:26super powers no but that's five and that has friends i would go with superpowers yeah that feels
10:32crazy i don't know i'm not sure we've got nothing else yeah yeah superpowers no it's a policeman bad luck
10:40plenty of time and see if you get going with this picture round it's a picture starter and you'll be
10:54not confer anyone would have a go martin cosmet juvenile no it's pliny the elder we'll take your
11:01picture bonuses in a moment let's start the question i'm looking for a single five letter word here
11:06what theological concept is named in the titles of both a posthumously published poem by samuel taylor
11:12coleridge and a 1972 poem by seamus heaney coleridge describes this strange place as a spirit jail
11:19walled round by the mere horror of blank merton cosmic limbo it is limbo well done for your
11:25bonuses for your picture starter merton you saw an extract from naturalis historia by roman historian
11:30pliny the elder detailing his impressions of the arabian peninsula for your picture bonuses you'll be
11:36shown maps of the near east marked with the locations of ancient cities mentioned in naturalis
11:41historia the ruins of which are now unesco world heritage sites for five points each name the city
11:48first this ancient capital city oh it could be like memphis it's not cairo it would be a different
11:55country it's egypt so yeah yeah memphis yes next this city known for its greco-roman architecture
12:02it's not pet so that's in syria it's in syria um classical syrian cities antioch maybe what are you
12:08thinking no i don't know antioch could be a good antioch no it's palmyra and finally
12:14this could be petra because it's in jordan relatively far size petra well worked out
12:21now start the question what arabic term literally meaning head or top of the shop denotes a complex
12:27spice blend used widely in the cuisines of morocco tunisia and algeria and ever amchat
12:33is it out there no i'm afraid you lose five points recipes for which vary widely and often contain
12:38upwards of 20 ingredients with cumin ginger cardamom cinnamon and nutmeg among standard
12:43inclusions merton fleetwood law sumac no it's ras el hanout another starter question i need a short
12:50single word name here what modern syncretic belief system can trace its recent origins to gerald
12:57gardner a retired civil servant who taught and practiced neo-paganism from the mid merton cosmic
13:03wicker it is wicker well done your bonuses then merton are on chemical elements identified as
13:09carcinogenic by the national cancer institute in the united states in each case i need you to name the
13:14element from the nci's description first a naturally occurring radioactive metal that is found in
13:20soil rock water and minerals such as monazite its properties have led to its historical usage in ceramic
13:26glazes lantern mantles welding rods and medical radiology radium maybe uranium radium no it's thorium
13:40secondly an extremely lightweight and hard metal found in nature especially in bertrandite rock
13:46which is used in high technology consumer and commercial products including aerospace components
13:51transistors nuclear reactors and golf clubs titanium i think yeah that sounds good titanium no it's
13:57beryllium lastly a radioactive gas that is released from the normal decay of the elements uranium thorium
14:03and radium in rocks and soil which can accumulate in areas without adequate ventilation such as underground
14:09radon yes well done that'll start with question derived from a leonais puppetry tradition analogous to
14:15punch and judy what two-word french term is commonly used to describe a form of melodramatic horror
14:21theatre popular in 19th century france Edinburgh richards grand guignol it is indeed well done three
14:29questions for you on spiced coffee a mexican drink in which coffee is brewed with cinnamon cloves and piloncio
14:36is known as cafe de what word literally meaning pot referring to the clay pots traditionally used for
14:42its preparation what is pot in spanish i don't know i have no idea nothing right pass that's cafe de
14:50olla
14:50in english what demonym is used to refer to a style of coffee with a thick consistency that is prepared
14:56using finely ground beans brewed slowly in a long handle pot called a jesva and often flavored with
15:02cardamom turkish coffee oh turkish coffee yes which spice from a plant related to both cardamom and turmeric
15:08is the principal flavoring of the indonesian coffee brew kopi jahe with jahe being the word for this
15:13spice in indonesian close related to cardamom and ginger oh is it ginger yeah is that related to
15:23cardamom but it is yeah ginger it is ginger well done music round now and for your music starter
15:28you're going to hear a piece of popular music for 10 points i need you to name the group you
15:33hear
15:33it performing
15:51anyone someone have a go come on have a guess
15:59martin cosmet arctic monkeys that's amusing but not quite there a bit more a tiny bit more but not
16:05too much edinburgh no i'm going to put you out of your misery that was animal collective we'll take
16:13your music bonuses in a moment in pharmacology for what does the abbreviation ti stand referring to a
16:21quantitative expression of the margin of safety that exists between an effective dose of a particular
16:26drug and a toxic or harmful dose of that drug most often calculated as the ratio of the median
16:32lethal dosage to the median effective dosage
16:38edibra leonard toxicity index no anyone from burton
16:45no i'll tell you it's the therapeutic index
16:48bad luck no starting question what regnal number links all of these the first king of france from
16:53the house of bourbon the king of spain who commissioned velasquez's painting las meninas
16:58the king of scotland killed at the battle of flodden in
17:00martin cosmet third no i'm afraid you lose five points in 1513 and the english king often known as
17:07bolingbrook and number each one fourth yes henry the fourth philip the fourth james the fourth and
17:13another henry the fourth for your music starter you heard quite a lot of animal collectives
17:17summertime clothes taken from their 2009 album meriwether post pavilion named after and inspired
17:23by the maryland concert venue of the same name for your bonuses three more tracks inspired by concert
17:29venues in each case i need you to give me the name of the artist first this singer
17:34when over the rainbows too far
17:38i think it's fiona apple yeah yeah yeah fiona apple yes well done that's lago about lago in los angeles
17:47secondly this band
17:54this is not my it sounds like that yeah
17:59no it's love lastly this band
18:05um there's a british in the clash yeah that's a clash so we'll give you the points but you had
18:12the wrong song that's white man in hammersmith palace let's start a question derived from the
18:17aramaic alphabet what name is given to the writing system used in persia from around the second century
18:23bce to the seventh century ce this name is also shared by iran's final ruling dynasty and its two
18:30leaders edible each one palavi it is palavi well done your famous towards edinburgh three questions
18:36on a religious order founded in the 1660s at a namesake abbey in normandy and officially known as
18:43the order of cistercians of the strict observance what religious order is today best known for
18:47brewing their namesake style of beer trappist trappist yes correct which american mystic born in
18:56prad in france spent the final 27 years of his life in a trappist monastery in kentucky where he
19:01composed his spiritual autobiography the seven story mountain thomas merton correct mount saint
19:08bernard the only trappist abbey in england can be found near colville about six miles east of ashby
19:13de la zoosh in which county where's colville trappist don't they brew buck fast shouldn't it be
19:20yeah no that makes sense but i don't know like norwich no no come on dorset dorset no it's lecestershire
19:29that's not a question answer as soon as your name is called what prime number results from adding
19:35together the number of players allowed in play at any one time per team in the following three sports
19:42volleyball netball and ice hockey
19:4924 no
19:5419 it is 19 well done six plus seven plus six three questions for you merton on a theme in
20:00art
20:01primarily known for her work in 16 millimeter film which british artist's works include the 2008 film
20:06prisoner pair a close-up study of the slow decay of two pairs bottled in schnapps
20:11any ideas tracy emmon check right sort of time anything anything better what no
20:21tracy emmon those tacitur dean which scottish artist often classed as one of the ybas created the 1992
20:27installation red on green consisting of 10 000 cut red roses laid on a bed of their leaves and stems
20:33that are deliberately allowed to shrivel and rot i don't know no no no and you do get tracy emmon
20:41again tracy emmon no it's anja galacio which yba's significant early works include a thousand years
20:48a 1990 installation that involves a decomposing cow's head in a large glass and steel vitrine
20:53first damien haas yes it is let's start the question picture round now for your picture
20:58starter you're going to see an illustration of an optical device for 10 points i need you to give
21:03me its two-word name merton on camera obscura well done it is indeed your picture starter merton
21:11saw a camera obscura which david hockney claimed was used by a number of notable visual artists
21:15in his 2001 book secret knowledge for your bonuses you'll see paintings by three artists
21:20that hockney claimed made use of the camera obscura five points for each you can name first this
21:25artist canaletto maybe yeah sure like tintoretto i don't know it's not kind of letter yes second
21:33the artist of this painting whom hockney postulates may have used a camera obscura
21:36in order to capture a high level of detail
21:43i don't know anyone delacroix sounds good maybe delacroix no that was by angra
21:49lastly this artist that's vermeer yes let's start with questions max offal's 1950 film la ronde is
21:58set in the early 20th century in which european city martin dunkel vienna it is vienna yes three
22:05questions on botanist lester sharp in 1921 sharp published an influential textbook titled an introduction
22:12to which branch of biology concerned with the makeup and structure of cells microbiology cytology the
22:191934 edition of sharpe's book included the first use of what 11 letter name for the protein structure
22:26that forms on the centromere of chromosomes and aids in their segregation during cell division
22:32t-e-l-o-m-e um i don't know just pass pass that's the kenita core which scientist credited
22:39a course
22:39taught by sharp at cornell university with inspiring her to pursue further research into cytogenetics in
22:45which capacity she eventually discovered the existence of transposons or jumping genes
22:53mclintock yes four and a half minutes to go the largest of the zodiac which constellation contains
22:59the sombrero galaxy and the bright star speaker the sun lies within mountain on a fair goal it is virgo
23:06yes reflections for you merton on musical textures what term describes a musical texture in which multiple
23:12voices or instruments simultaneously play variations of the polyphony no that's something different it's
23:18heterophony derived from a greek term meaning sounding across what term describes a musical texture in
23:25which the melody is passed between multiple groups of instruments or voices often placed in different
23:29parts of a church or concert venue diaphony no it's antiphony the term micropolyphony was coined by
23:39which avant-garde composer to describe his use of dissonant and fragmented melodies to create dense
23:44clusters of sounds it features in vibes no that was ligetti let's start the question as of 2025 the largest
23:51water lily currently known to science is native to and takes its name from which south american
23:58edible richards brazil no i'm afraid you lose five points where it grows in a llanos del mojos
24:03in the benny department bordering the brazilian state of rondonia
24:10venezuela no it's bolivia bad luck another starter question with a name deriving from the norse for
24:15cloven island which island off the coast of pembrokeshire is a national nature reserve noted for its
24:21namesake subspecies of bank vol a colony of atlantic puffins and hundreds of thousands of manx shearwaters
24:31englesey no
24:33merton duncan lundi island no it's skoma another starter question from the greek name of an oxygen
24:39group element what five letter word describes an organic compound containing an alcohol-like group
24:44that has sulfur in place of oxygen merton on deal can you spell your answer t-h-i-o-l
24:50yes correct
24:51your bonuses are on some of the creatures from british and irish folklore as depicted and named
24:56on royal mail's 2025 special collection of myths and legends stamps in each case give the name printed
25:01on the stamp for the creature described first a type of water demon originating in the folklore
25:05of yorkshire and lancashire that lurks in ponds and wells waiting to grab children who come too near
25:09the edge of the water with its long spindly arms kelpie no it's grindy low secondly a spectral hound
25:15center stalk east anglia writer and naturalist william duck once wrote of him his howling makes
25:19the hero's blood run cold grim no that's black shuck finally a shape-shifting creature appearing
25:24in both scottish and irish folklore that can transform from a seal into a human and vice versa
25:29sulky yes another starter question change of what color may be defined as a copper carbonate mineral
25:35a small dabbling duck for example anus cracker and flowerless spore-bearing plants of the class bryopsida
25:44merton cosnet blue no
25:46enneville richards brown no it's green as in malachite teal and moss let's start the question
25:51name either of the two london boroughs located east of the city of london that is home to a unesco
25:57world
25:58heritage site the boroughs in question are contiguous across the river thames and have names that reflect
26:03the location of the site edinburgh richards tower hamlet and greenwich yes i only needed to hear one
26:08but you did get both of them right well done your bonus are on jean-baptiste colbert the french
26:13controller general of finances under louis the 14th the set of fiscal policies known broadly as
26:18colbertism are generally synonymous with what broad economic system that seeks to maximize exports and
26:24protect domestic industry against free trade protectionism you've both said that protectionism no
26:30this is specifically mercantilism colbert rose to power after exposing which man finance minister at
26:35the time of louis the 14th's coronation for embezzlement is this like the jacuzzi thing no no that's a long
26:41pass that's nicola fouquet which fiscal practice did colbert reputedly describe as quote plucking the
26:52goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing
26:57oh which what does that mean um fiscal so it's extractions like something about like taxation
27:05oh but like hyper progressive taxation progressive taxation too specific i just needed taxation let's
27:10start the question
27:19what a stressful game do you know at the beginning i thought you were competing with each other
27:24to uh get things wrong and it was a massive wind up but you guys came back so fantastically
27:28impressively against such a strong side and i thought you're going to pull off a near miracle
27:32maybe with a heroic answer again from you elliot but it's not the end of the road we get to
27:35see
27:36you again because you come back uh edema you made it very stressful by sort of shutting up for about
27:40five minutes at the end there for no good reason i don't know why it's like you wanted to excite
27:43the
27:44viewers at home anyway well done you're through to the semi-finals the first of our teams to make it
27:47we
27:48look forward to seeing you then i hope you can join us next time too for another quarterfinal match
27:52but until then it is goodbye for now from merton college oxford goodbye it's goodbye from edinburgh
27:57goodbye goodbye goodbye and it's goodbye from me goodbye
28:00goodbye
28:04so
28:12so
28:13so
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