VLUME VLUMEOO 22 22 N NOO 1 1 | |M MICHAELMASICHAELMAS 2009 2009 Oxford Today THE UNIVERSI T Y M AGAZINE Which way forward? The superhumans debate intensifies How to keep your head in a crisis Denis Healey, Nigel Lawson Sharpening up a satirist Ian Hislop on life before Private Eye Spin-offs pay off Taking research to market From the Office of the Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew D Hamilton, MA, PhD, FRS October 2009 Dear Friends and Colleagues The challenge of the new is always and more widely. So, Oxford may I do not want to end this first letter invigorating; it forces us to see be a new location for me, but it is without paying tribute to the work of and think afresh. Little surprise, by no means an unknown quantity. my predecessor, John Hood. A great then, that as the incoming Vice- I am greatly looking forward both many important and necessary things Chancellor of one of the world’s to continuing my own research here have been achieved in his time here. greatest universities, my strongest and to becoming a closer part of this His own qualities and leadership were sense is a mixture of excitement outstanding scholarly community. a vital part of those achievements. and expectancy. I have a great deal I hope and believe that working I am coming to Oxford at a to learn but what a place to do that together with colleagues throughout challenging moment for the world of learning! the University and across the wider higher education. Great universities Oxford family of which you are part, As I begin that journey, I am delighted like ours cannot expect to be we will build strongly upon them. to have this early opportunity to make significant players in enhancing the contact with you and to share with world’s well-being and to be entirely I also hope that in the months you some initial thoughts about our immune to its travails. There will be and years to come I shall have the University. time and opportunity in the period opportunity to meet many of you ahead for me to discuss the particular personally and to learn more of your One measure of Oxford’s importance challenges that are likely to face us sense of what makes our University is the fact that round the world as a university, locally, nationally and so special now and for the future. it needs no introduction. In globally, in the coming years. But this conversations in recent months in Yours sincerely is not that moment. What I do want to many different countries, as I have state unequivocally now, though, is my prepared to take up this new role, I confidence that Oxford is more than have felt a surge of pleasure and pride capable of meeting the challenges and in the admiration and esteem that indeed that it will do so. Oxford attracts. It is a confidence based upon what Andrew Hamilton Being the oldest university in the I have seen already of the talent English-speaking world probably of my colleagues in every part of helps, but mere longevity would be a the University; of the outstanding pretty flimsy basis for a reputation of quality of our scholarship; of the real, perhaps unequalled, substance. It extraordinary mixture of rich is what we are doing today, and what intellectual diversity, and of unique we aspire to do in the future, that opportunities to weave those diverse must be the true measure of Oxford strands together: opportunities in and its greatness. which our colleges play such an I have had the good fortune to work important part. in several fine universities on both But it is also a confidence based upon sides of the Atlantic and the standards what I have experienced in so many Oxford sets are rightly of the very places, of the loyalty and affection highest. To be part of an institution of the worldwide Oxford family; the and a culture with such expectations Oxford that is located not on a map for and of itself is truly exhilarating. but in tens of thousands of hearts and In one important sense, though, it is minds. These are the bonds that do an excitement with which I am already so much to sustain the University, and familiar. My own academic career as help also, I hope, to sustain your own a lecturer and researcher has brought sense of what is truly of enduring extensive contact with colleagues at value and significance. the University, both in my own field Editor: Greg Neale Designer: Richard Boxall Head of Publications and Web Office: Anne Brunner-Ellis Editorial Assistants: Janet Avison, Martin Harrington, Anthea Oxford Today Milnes, Elizabeth Tatham THE UNIVERSI T Y M AGAZINE Picture Editor: Joanna Kay Editorial Advisory Board: Michaelmas highlights Alan Bell Anne Brunner-Ellis DDEN David Clary, A 13 23 34 M 56 President, Magdalen College FLATLINER BY KEITH LEPOR O Paddy Coulter T Sue Cunningham, BENWOOD/CORBIS Director of Development Mary Dejevsky, The Independent Zoe Flood Jeremy Harris, Director of Public Affairs Nancy Kenny, Director of Alumni Relations Oliver Rawlins, UK Film Council Richard Repp, Past Chairman, Oxford University Society Gillian Reynolds, Ethics man: this New horizons: taking Caught in conflict: News for you: the The Daily Telegraph way superhumans? research to market a new life in pictures making of an editor Sally Shuttleworth, Head of the Humanities Division Rachel O'Kane, Wiley-Blackwell Editorial enquiries: University News Features Janet Avison Public Affairs Directorate 2 News 13 Woe, Superman? Tel: 01865 280545 Fax: 01865 270178 Charter for world resources; changing Peter Snow talks to Oxford bioethicists about the perils and [email protected] Vice-Chancellors; spin-out successes; prospects of human enhancement. Advances in medical science www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk and what Oxford Today readers want could see health enhanced and some human lives extended – Alumni enquiries, including 10 Appointments and awards but what are the dangers of such developments? change of address: Claire Larkin 27 Science findings 16 Driving down Electric Avenue Alumni Office Georgina Ferry meets the scientist behind a new development Tel: 01865 611610 30 Student scene in electric-powered cars. At a time of increasing concern over [email protected] Oxford journalism: hack to the future? www.alumni.ox.ac.uk climate change and depleting energy reserves, is this the shape University of Oxford 38 The 2009 Alumni Weekend of transport to come? University Offices 43 Sport Wellington Square 19 When war came again Oxford OX1 2JD Scrumdown with the kids A s we mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Advertising enquiries: World War in Europe, Chris Sladen examines its impact on Landmark Publishing Services Oxford, and hears from survivors of the wartime generation – 7 Adam Street Arts and Ideas London WC2N 6AA a period of austerity, grim humour and ingenuity amid Tel: 020 7520 9474 adversity Fax: 020 7520 9475 36 Preview [email protected] A rts, music and exhibitions this term 23 Innovation by the Isis A s the University’s spin-out company reports an increase Publisher: 45 Reviews Wiley-Blackwell in revenues, Michael Gross talks to one of the architects of 9600 Garsington Road New books and music turning academic innovation into commercial opportunities Oxford OX4 2DQ 48 Distractions Tel: 01865 776868 28 The Broad view Fax: 01865 714591 Prize crossword, bridge and chess www.blackwellpublishing.com 49 Poetry 56 My Oxford Printed in Great Britain by Ian Hislop, Editor of Private Eye, on a student career that Headley Brothers Ltd, Kent sharpened a satirist’s skills issn 0954–1306 Oxonian Extra Oxford Today is published in VOLUME VOLUME 22 22 NO NO 1 1 | |MICHAELMAS MICHAELMAS 2009 2009 February, June and October. It COVER PICTURE Oxford Today is free to Oxford graduates and 32 Oxonians at large THE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE is available to non-graduates R unning the economy; photographing on subscription. For further Change of direction: it is an JAMESWHITAKER war; bringing faiths together – Which way information and to subscribe Oxford tradition to find new forward? Oxonians at work around the world The superhumans online, please visit debate intensifi es www.blackwellpublishing.com/oxto uses for old buildings. This 40 Oxford University Society How to keep and click on ‘Subscribe/Renew’ your head weathercock sits atop the former in a crisis (see page 53 for further details). Working with, and for, a new generation Denis Healey, Indian Institute, at the corner of Nigel Lawson © The Chancellor, Masters and of students; events, travel programme Sharpening Scholars of the University of Catte Street and Holywell Street, up a satirist 51 Obituaries Ian Hislop on Oxford which is now home to the History life before Private Eye The opinions expressed in 54 Letters Faculty Library and the James Spin-offs Oxford Today are those of Secondary education and Oxford pay off Martin 21st Century School. Taking research the contributors, and are not admission; college histories; Oscar to market necessarily shared by the University of Oxford. Wilde’s reading habits; climate change Advertisements are carefully vetted, but the University can take no responsibility for them. OXF O R D T O DAY . Michaelmas Issue 2009 1 TOCK S APHIC R G O E G News ATIONAL N / N Charter aims to lift MICHAEL ICHOLS ews ‘resource curse’ N A n international charter aimed at helping the world’s developing nations benefit from their natural resources has been launched by a high-profile group of economists, lawyers and political scientists, including several leading Oxford academics.