Symons Gold Medal Lecture: On Missing Gravity-Wave Forces, and Scientific Understanding

The lecture is in two parts. The first part is about an unresolved technical issue in weather and climate modelling -- the `missing forces' problem -- which I suspect may have dropped out of sight in the community, but which is still a big challenge for a bright young dynamicist. The second part broadens out to visit some generic issues about science itself, and how best to understand it and communicate it. The generic issues have a philosophical flavour, but as a humble scientist I think I'm permitted to discuss them in a simpler and more direct way than can a card-carrying philosopher.

This talk has been pre-recorded and the speaker will be available to answer any questions at the end of the presentation.