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In my department we're thinking about showing online lectures one day per week at lunch, as sort of a virtual colloquium appropriate to mathematics undergraduates as well as faculty. To start with we'd probably not want to launch into a lecture series on a single topic, but instead show high quality colloquium talks. I'm looking for links to things like Voevodsky's lecture "An Intuitive Introduction to Motivic Homotopy Theory", for example. (We give only the title here because links to YouTube aren't allowed on MO. If you intend to answer this question with a YouTube link, instead please type the title of the talk so it can be googled.)

We intend to start with MSRI talks and ICM lectures, but would like to know which are the best quality talks in these collections!

So by now you've probably figured out that the purpose of the current question is to collect other high-quality online colloquium talks:

Question: What is a link to your favorite online talk suitable for (reasonably) general audiences, that is not part of a lecture series?

It would even be useful for us if you provided a recommendation for a particularly high quality talk found in the MSRI or ICM archives, as all of these talks are not created equal.

Thanks in advance for allowing us to benefit from your experience!

To clarify how this question is different from, for example this one, I'm looking for specific lecture recommendations and not only general collections of lectures. The hope is that the community can share its good taste in order to benefit our virtual colloquium (and help other departments who might want to try this).

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    $\begingroup$ Please CW moderators! $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 16:00
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    $\begingroup$ I just gave an answer containing a Youtube link, and it worked --- why do you say they aren't allowed? $\endgroup$
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:34
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    $\begingroup$ @Federico: When I was typing the question I tried to include the link:youtube.com/watch?v=b4BlA7NymIE and MO wouldn't let me post the question... $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:39
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    $\begingroup$ For those who are voting to close, what precisely is the problem with this question? (I'd like to know in order to avoid asking ones like it!) Please suggest modifications that might make the question suitable. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:42
  • $\begingroup$ I voted to close because I find the formulation of the question "subjective and argumentative", and the potential answers perhaps to overlap with the previous such question(s). Though I'll defer to the opinion of more experienced people, in case this question is deemed suitable :-) $\endgroup$
    – Suvrit
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 22:36

6 Answers 6

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Not sure if public lectures count, but I've always been fond of http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/multiplying-and-dividing-whole-numbers-why-it-is-more-difficult-than-you-might

(Gresham Lecture in 2007 by some descendant or other of the author of the Complete Plain Words)

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  • $\begingroup$ Public lectures count, Yemon. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:13
  • $\begingroup$ (In fact, the Voevodsky lecture I refer to above is a public lecture. The idea is to engage undergrads and simultaneously have something interesting to watch with colleagues at lunch.) $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:29
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For a lighter topic, Mathematics of Juggling by Allen Knutson is great.

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  • $\begingroup$ I was looking for something on this (where someone who could actually juggle could talk about it...) $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:33
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For specific topics, I found very high quality and worth watching videos at the Arizona Winter School. Those are yearly 5 days schools around arithmetic geometry, providing 4 lectures with one daily session, videos and notes, so it is a bit of a lecture series, however they are short, willing to be pedagogical and introductive, hence the first talk of a topic is probably suitable for a lunch colloquium.

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Look at the web page of Carl Bender. It contains some remarkable colloquium talks and lectures (videotaped) on the boundary between mathematics and physics. http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~cmb/

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If applied math is allowed, here's one about invariant manifolds and interplanetary superhighway (Restricted three body problem) http://www.podcast.ethz.ch/episodes/?id=1269

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    $\begingroup$ Why not applied math is allowed! $\endgroup$
    – Atsushi Kanazawa
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 18:16
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My favourite is Bar Natan's talk explaining why ancient Celts should have discovered Witten's construction of the Jones polynomial.

"Cosmic coincidences and several other stories", http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/Talks/Tennessee-1103/

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  • $\begingroup$ I can't seem to get the video to work for this one...maybe it's just my machine, though. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Bannon
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:16
  • $\begingroup$ On the "talk video" page, if it doesn't work directly in your brwoser there is a link to download it : drorbn.net/dbnvp/ogg/Tennessee-1103_320.ogg $\endgroup$
    – Adrien
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 17:19

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