Tuesday 13th February 2024.

'Science, Climate and Politics' by Professor Geoffrey Boulton

Our speaker on 'Science, Climate and Politics' was Professor Geoffrey Boulton, Fellow of the Royal Society, a distinguished and internationally renowned expert on glaciers and their effect on the Earth’s climate. Having been involved in climate science since the mid-60s with considerable experience of working with governments, he reached the conclusion that there are natural tensions between science and politics because of their differing focus – long term versus short term.

The first step was to consider the conflict between knowledge and beliefs. Beliefs are difficult to change, whereas scientific reasoning makes claims based upon evidence which is subject to peer scrutiny. He referred to the 'climate stand off', looking at the similarities and differences between alarmists and deniers. The workings of the Earth’s climate engine were clearly demonstrated in a series of slides showing how surplus energy is transferred from the tropics to the polar regions.

Photos and data from research in the polar regions illustrated how and why the climate changes. Ice core samples were a valuable tool in determining the fluctuating salinity (resulting in the rising or falling sea level) of the oceans and also analysis of the composition of the air. Ocean temperatures are the highest on record and global temperatures remain at record levels – yet no significant action has been taken! The Professor explained how the Tipping Points interact with each other in ways that can’t always be predicted. The anthroposphere (the coupled earth system) comprises the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. The Greenland ice sheet is certain to disappear with a resulting rise in sea levels. Why do we fail to act? ? Amongst other things, down to populist politics, credibility, lack of imagination, 195 governments in the world with different priorities? Finally Geoffrey referred us to the website of Greg Craven and a quotation from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 'So long, and thanks for all the fish'. The following lively discussion covered many relevant issues, including carbon capture and population.

Paul then gave a short presentation of videos taken over the last year by his garden trailcam. It was set to activate at night only, using infrared light to capture the nocturnal activities of hedgehogs, badgers and foxes. For these animals to access the garden from adjoining fields needs only a small gap (100mm x 100mm) in a fence or hedge and the absence of this in modern fences accounts partly for the sharp decline of hedgehogs in gardens. Although now in hibernation, hedgehogs were by far the most regular visitors to my garden, showing their eating, climbing and even mating habits. Their well-known defence tactic of curling into a spikey ball was demonstrated by the approach of inquisitive badgers and foxes. Hedgehogs' diet includes snails and slugs, not welcome in most gardens, so why not put out some food scraps and invest in a trailcam instead of slug pellets?

Kevin Reynolds will speak at our next meeting on 12th March 'Pigeons – from the Gods to the Gutter. Dove of peace or rat with wings?' A look at our complex relationship with, and perceptions of, this remarkable bird throughout history.

Tuesday 9th January 2024.

'A Universe from Scratch' by Dr Julian Onions

Dr Julian Onions is a researcher and lecturer in the Astronomy Department of the University of Nottingham and has done research into using computer modelling to describe how the Universe is evolving. This is a subject where distances and numbers are so large it is difficult to relate them to those used on Earth, or even in our own Solar System. An open mind helps.

Julian started by describing briefly the telescopes used to explore the cosmos, the Hubble Space Telescope, now at the end of its life, and the James Webb Space Telescope, the new and larger tool that is exploring the most distant and youngest galaxies ever seen. Because light from these galaxies has taken billions of years to reach us, they show us what they looked like shortly after the ‘Big Bang’ that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago. A European Space Agency mission called ‘Gaia’ is creating a three-dimensional map of stars in and beyond our Milky Way galaxy, and will provide data needed to answer questions on the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy. Julian showed computer simulations of the relative motions of the stars in the constellation of Orion, the pattern changing radically over millions of years.

The challenges of Julian’s work include how to model celestial ‘stuff’ that cannot be seen; Dark Matter and Dark Energy, being only detectable by its gravitational effect on visible or ‘real’ matter. To compound the problem, Dark stuff is far more abundant that real stuff. Julian showed how hydrodynamics was being used to model motions of celestial gas and dust, comparing their motions to that of vortices of milk as it is stirred into coffee. All this modelling takes massive amounts of computer power which limits the resolution, a dot on the computer screen representing groups of ten thousand stars, rather than individual ones. As a rule of thumb, in the past, available computer power doubled every 18 months, but this now seems to have reached its limit. The relative movements of planets in our Solar System was shown as a good example of computer simulation, Jupiter moving much closer to the Sun and Uranus and Neptune swapping places as the system evolved.

For me, the abstract nature of the subject of the talk challenged my imagination to the limit. A group member commented to me afterwards, that although many facts were unproven, hypothetical, and of little relevance or practical use, it was refreshing to gain an insight into the theoretical world of cosmology.

The meeting also included a review by Tanya Dempster of some science-related items in the news. These included how the rare Amur leopard at Dartmoor Zoo became a hit on a dating site and how a 40 stone ‘silver back’ gorilla was ‘habituated’ by carefully managed human contact. This should pave the way for the return of tourism to the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tanya also talked about development of a new antibiotic against an infection that causes up to a 60% fatality rate in critically ill hospital patients. Finally, she talked about how the world’s food shortage in some regions could be solved by improving the efficiency of a crop’s photosynthesis - its conversion of light and gases to biomass.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 13th February when we will hear from Geoffrey Boulton on how our oceans and glaciers can reveal changes in our climate.

Tuesday 12th December 2023.

'My Search for the Snow Leopard' by wildlife photographer Tony Davis

This was our last meeting of the year so we planned to have a main talk about Tony’s adventure into Mongolia illustrated by his beautiful images of animals, followed by a Science Quiz (thanks to Lynda Kovach for supplying this) during the break. After struggling with the laptop and with the help of Mike Stow, we were soon on our way to Ulaanbaatar (UB for short) in eastern Mongolia via Moscow and a 2.5 hour flight to Chinggis Khaan airport. Although it was August (2019), conditions were thick snow and freezing temperatures. Accommodation was in traditional circular Mongolian tents, or ‘gers’, heated by a single solid fuel stove, basic but adequate for survival! Each day started by climbing 2000 feet to scan for signs of the elusive, and extremely well camouflaged, ‘ghost cat’. Despite enlisting help from experienced local guides the only sighting was from a trail camera. Meanwhile Tony took stunning images of other less elusive wildlife, gerbils, the cuddly looking Pallas’s cat, lizards, hedgehogs, squirrels and many birds, including vultures, eagles and falcons. Eventually, Tony returned home without seeing a live Snow Leopard, and, determined not to be beaten, immediately planned a return trip for early 2020 when temperatures were even lower and a global pandemic was about to threaten all travel plans.

For the return trip, the team travelled 6 hours over frozen wastes to reach the Snow Leopard’s likely habitat and even used ‘prayer wheels’ to bring them success! After a tip-off that a goat had been taken by a wild cat, Tony camped for 5 hours in a tent ‘hide’ to await the return of the predator. After enduring temperatures of -18C, a Snow Leopard appeared to finish eating its kill; success at last. Another was spotted from the vehicle and gave them a great photo opportunity. All the waiting and hardship had been worth it, the images were truly stunning. It was all going so well... until Covid 19 intruded. A surprise visit from security and medical teams informed Tony that for 6 hours on the internal flight he had sat next to Mongolia’s first Covid case. Fortunately all the team tested negative, but he must stay isolated in camp for another 3 weeks. Success had come at a price.

After pictures of frozen steppes, a warm drink and stollen cake were very welcome at the break. The group split into teams for the science quiz of 30 questions, several of which could be answered from information given in our talks during the year. Time to find out who had been paying attention! The scores were generally impressive, but 25 for the winning team was outstanding.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 9th January 2024 when we welcome back Julian Onions from Nottingham University to talk about galaxies.

The Group’s team leaders, Tanya, Lynda, Bill, Kurt and Paul would like to thank everyone for their support during the year and wish them all a Happy Christmas.

Paul McKay.

Tuesday 14th November 2023.

'Zoos: the science behind the scenes' by Megan Wright

Megan Wright from Twycross Zoo Education and Training Department gave us a fascinating talk about how science is used at Twycross Zoo. The zoo opened 60 years ago and aims to educate and inspire all age groups. The zoo’s aims are: supporting ex-situ animal populations; protecting wildlife species and habitats; inspiring positive change for wildlife; enhancing the value of zoos for nature and society; caring for ecosystems; and becoming environmentally sustainable. Megan drew on university research carried out at Twycross, giving several examples, including details of a study of chimpanzees’ behavioural repertoire which led to a redesigned enclosure, more closely replicating their natural environment. The zoo makes extensive use of the Zoo Monitor App to track animal behaviour, recording feeding patterns, location, interaction with other individuals, sleeping patterns etc, with analysis of the results leading to improved living conditions for the animals concerned. We were interested to learn that 2 of the chimps have implanted pacemakers and that the animals are susceptible to human diseases such as diabetes and Covid. We also learnt that the primates are not fed bananas as they are on a low sugar, fruit free diet for their health!

The zoo is the proud holder of the Studbook for Siamang Gibbons in European zoos – a genetic tool which ensures species are not hybridized and avoids inbreeding, in some cases by using contraception. Megan introduced us to nanopore sequencing, a portable system for DNA profiling of an animal that can be used in the wild and can be used to combat the illegal wildlife trade. She gave the example of Mongolian Marmots and Snow Leopards, where a seized item made of fur can be tested and the species of its origin identified.

Discussion about the future of zoos ranged from the use of animal holograms, loss of habitat in the wild, potential measures for eventually releasing threatened animals bred in captivity back into their natural habitat, the politics of moving animals across borders, to the effects of war. A very exciting development is the scheduled opening of the National Science and Conservation Centre at the zoo in 2025. The zoo gives conservation talks every month which can be booked. Megan recommended we make use of the iNaturalist app to log plants, animals, insects, birds etc when out and about as the data recorded is used for research.

An entertaining and educational talk which really opened our eyes to the ways zoos have developed since the days of chimps’ tea parties.

For the second part of the meeting Kurt Kovach began with This Day in History: It was World Diabetes Day: 100 years since Frederick Banting and John Macleod won a Nobel Prize for discovering insulin. In 1716 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz died and in 1922 the BBC was officially opened.

In October Nobel Prizes are traditionally awarded: so far 63 prizes have been given to 62 women compared to 894 men.

We were then introduced to Professor Avi Loeb and his obsession with UAPs (Unidentified Alien Phenomena) which used to be called UFOs. He headed up many professional bodies and was the author of 8 books and over 1000 scientific papers. In 2012 Time Magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space.

In 2017 an object was detected by the Panoramic – Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii. Initially it was designated as a comet, then as an asteroid and finally it was recognised as an interstellar object and named OUMUAMUA, a Hawaiian name which is loosely translates as ‘scout’.

The consensus was that because of its speed and trajectory, its origin was from outside our Solar System. It was very odd, very large, 100m long, either cigar shaped or pancake shaped - a very odd shape to occur naturally. It was rotating constantly, reflecting light from its surface. At its brightest, it was over 10 x as reflective as typical space rocks. So reflective it could have been made of metal. Professor Loeb surmised that based on its shape, reflectivity and its acceleration without any tail or coma, OUMUAMUA was a one-in-a-million object, acting as if it had a light sail attached, which the solar radiation was acting on to accelerate it away.

When you consider that ¼ of our galaxy’s 200 billion stars are orbited by planets that are habitable, the way Earth is and have surface water and the chemicals needed for life, it would be surprising if we were the only life in our Solar System, let alone the Universe.

A few meetings ago we learned of a meteor that landed in the ocean off Papua, New Guinea. Analysis of the pieces recovered revealed that they were 84% iron, 8% silicon, 4% magnesium, 2% titanium plus some trace elements. This would make it an artificial alloy.

This project is not popular with mainstream scientists, but as Professor Loeb says. 'We are quite happy to accept the idea of the multiverse, despite having no evidence for it. We happily talk about dark matter, despite having no evidence for that, so why not aliens?'

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 12 December at 2pm in Packington Village Hall where Tony Davison will talk about 'My Search for the Snow Leopard' – his search in Mongolia for the elusive snow leopard and the adventure that followed, accompanied by some festive fun and seasonal fare.

Tuesday 10th October 2023.

'How to create a new steam loco' by Bill Devitt

In these days of green energy, it might be interesting to know what design issues in the past went into the creation of a new steam loco.

Bill drew upon his many years of experience and expertise to tell us about the design and manufacture of steam locomotives. While most of us can remember steam trains from our youth and had a vague idea of how they worked, we gave no thought to the large number of technical issues that had to be considered.

Firstly before you begin designing the train consider the geography, what hills and inclines must it be able to tackle, how straight or curved is the track. Then how long must it run each day, does it need to interface with other rolling stock and what maintenance will be needed.

Credit must go to a French man, Henri Giffard, who designed the steam injector which makes it all possible, but from then on thought needed to be given to all the components necessary to produce motion. The boiler, firebox, brakes, regulators and many controls. Bill described being a skinny lad having to climb into a firebox to remove the ash, it was still so hot his shoes were smouldering!

At first there was not even a cab for the driver and they were standing for up to 17 hours at work. Safety and comfort improved, as did efficiency over the years. But at each point there was a choice about which material or alloy to use, depending of strength needed and its cost. What type of gears or valve should be used. Because of economies of scale the US trains could be designed differently to ones in the UK.

Bill started as an apprentice in Derby, so personal anecdotes were scattered throughout the talk, including his work for the Railway Museum in York supervising the sectioning of a full sized loco to show the working parts. (Very good if you haven’t visited.)

The talk concluded with a humorous look at some early designs, all very Heath Robinson.

After Bill’s talk, Paul McKay gave a brief presentation on his visit to Birr Castle in Ireland to see Lord Rosse’s giant telescope, a 2 metre diameter by 16.5 metre long ‘Leviathan’ that for 70 years was the World’s largest telescope. The telescope is set in the beautiful and idyllic grounds of the castle, but the awful Irish weather created harsh conditions for using the telescope. There were also difficult practical challenges; casting a large mirror in brittle ‘speculum’ metal and operating the crude control system to precisely guide the telescope to its target, to name just two.

Despite the challenges, the telescope resolved, for the first time, the fuzzy nebulae in the night sky into a densely packed spiral structure of stars, very similar to our galaxy the Milky Way.

Next meeting Tuesday 14th November - 'Zoos: The Science behind them' by Megan Wright of Twycross Zoo.

In recent years zoos have contributed a lot to animal welfare, veterinary understanding, international breeding programs and reintroducing endangered species. Here Megan will talk about the technology that monitors the health of their animals, and the international role that Twycross Zoo plays in conservation.

Tuesday 12th September 2023.

Making the Nottingham Tram System Work by Adrian Hickson, and 'Sod's Law' by Bill Devitt

Adrian worked from 2001 to 2004 as a consultant to Arrow, the consortium building Phase 1 of the scheme. Nottingham’s first tram system was installed in 1910 and lasted till 1930. Phase 1 was expected to cost £180m and finally came in at £200m. His initial role was to get all the suppliers talking to each other, so that components worked properly.

Phase 1 was a 14km section with 23 tram stops with Bombardier building the technical bits. They also made the trams which were the most expensive in the world, with the middle cars suspended between the other cars.

The first section was laying the track. This involved moving all the services that were underneath, so that if repairs had to be made, they did not have to dig up the track. The rails were encased in rubber and to reduce wear from the car and lorry traffic going over it, stones were embedded in the rubber by hand – by a man with a bucket of stones and a hammer!

Adrian described the main construction offices, two storey portacabins, which were erected next to the Goose Fair. It was so noisy, most of the construction staff preferred to work from home where possible.

Initial problems included underestimating the swept path of the trams as they went round the bends in the track, so that they would collide with objects placed close to the track. Everything had to be tested before use and much of this was done at nighttime. One test involved shorting the current to the rail which blew a sub-station but fortunately did not upset the railway power supply which had been the big worry.

A big issue was educating the public in their interaction with the trams. They could not park close to the tram lines as trams needed clearance round bends. Also, people carrying metal ladders or scaffolding poles had to avoid the overhead cables which carried 750v DC. Trams had their own set of traffic signals and were equipped with lights, brake lights and indicators. While the tram had no choice in which way it turned, the driver still had to indicate to let traffic behind know what he was doing.

They had to liaise with the fire station as they needed to know which way to exit the fire station in the event of an alarm and the procedure near the David Lane railway level crossing was especially complicated as the barriers were raised after the train passed, but not if a tram was due. Other signals were needed for the tram.

The Wilkinson Depot was built on the site of a former soap factory which caused several problems.

The only problem involving HSE was caused by the initial practice of spot welding the poles carrying the current. They tended to snap off. Later they were fully welded at the base and fitted with guy ropes.

Otherwise, Phase 1 was a huge success. The growth in car use was limited to 1% instead of the normal 4% and tram journeys were 8.4m in 2004 - 5 and 9.7m in 2006 – 7.

Phase 2 linked up to the Clifton South Park and Ride which opened in August 2015.

A fascinating talk on the many problems linking rail, tram and road users along with pedestrians and the fire service.

Bill Devitt on 'Sod's Law'

Bill followed up with an amusing talk on the problems on the East Coast Mainline. He was responsible for getting to the bottom of the many different problems he experienced.

The found that wheels on one side of the carriage were not round. They were wearing away on one side. Eventually a wheel broke up and caused a train to crash off the track. They eventually found the cause was chefs pouring their fat at the end of cooking down a drain onto the track, which emptied onto one rail. So, the wheels on that side were skidding and wearing.

They had problems with bogies that had been built in Switzerland. Bits would keep dropping off. This was because cotter pins were made from mild steel. They had to change these to stainless steel to cure that problem.

They also had problems with the wrong sort of snow, which turned out to be caused by water drain holes being at the top, instead of the bottom, of the engine compartment air intakes.

John Prescott MP highlighted a major problem with the toilets when he travelled home from Leeds. He later raised this in the House of Commons. The problem was that an increase in outside pressure when entering a tunnel caused the holding tanks to compress with the toilet deposits coming back up with disastrous results for Mr Prescott. Bill and his team had to raid B&Q stores for pressure valves to fix this.

They even had fires on trains. This was when people could still smoke on trains but was caused by the seat reservation system. At the end of a journey staff would just push the old ticket down into the seat and put the new one in. Somehow this linked to the ashtray and when people put hot cigarette buts in the ashtray, they could set fire to these old seat reservations.

There were problems with doors that would not open and doors that would not close as well as problems with air conditioning systems. Trains would travel smoothly at 140mph but be unstable at 125mph.What a lot of challenges. It’s a wonder anything works. Now I know why Bill did not choose to use the computer projector.

The next meeting will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday 10th October in Packington Memorial Hall when Bill Devitt will give a talk on 'If you want to create a new steam locomotive, then START HERE!'

Tuesday 8th August 2023.

The Science Group didn't meet in August as they were taking a summer break, but will be back on September 12th

Tuesday 11th July 2023.

A Year at Rutland Water by Tim Sexton.

Tim gave a detailed review, lavishly illustrated by his own photos, of his first year as the Recording Officer at Rutland Water. With superb images of wildlife, from otters to microscopic hydra, Tim kept us spellbound with his intimate knowledge of the wide variety of wildlife at this site. With the hindsight of his talk, it is not surprising that it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the habitat it provides for many birds is of global importance. This largest expanse of inland water in England hosts 70 thousand black headed gulls and over 21 thousand ducks, including mallard, tufted duck, teal, wigeon, pochard, shoveler, shelduck and more! Rarer varieties, such as the smew, pintail, Mediterranean gull, and great white egret were also described. Rutland Water is famed for the success of its Osprey breeding programme and since its start in 1996, 250 osprey chicks have fledged.

Tim’s scientific approach was evident in the recording of the location of the 300 bird and bat boxes on site; previously no records were kept regarding their use. He found blue tits used bat boxes and bats used the bird boxes! Ringing of birds and bats is key to tracking their long flight migrations. A pipistrelle bat attacked by a cat in Russia had a ring from Rutland Water. Sand martin banks at the site have been specially designed to allow access to the nesting areas allowing for the ringing of fledgling birds. Tim soon discovered that the fleas that feast on the sand martin’s blood also had a liking for the human blood despite protective clothing. This discomfort was nothing compared to that inflicted by some other animals. For example, the bug which crawls up the nostrils of sheep to lay its eggs, the larvae of which crawl towards the brain. Tim was the first to record this at Rutland Water and alert farmers. Another example was the parasitic wasp that injects its egg into a ladybird to protect itself from predators, the larvae then munches on its host's internal tissues before breaking out through the abdomen! Tim had conducted his own experiments to show that the ladybird survives this gory ordeal.

Tim’s talk was entertaining, educational and sometimes gory but it was all true and absolutely fascinating. We look forward to a return visit from him in 2024 to learn more about Rutland Water’s wildlife.

Kurt Kovach then gave a short talk on events that have happened on this (11th July) in the past.

In 1987 on this day the earth’s population reached 5 billion and World Population Day designed to create awareness of this global crisis was formed. It’s also free Slurpee day. If you can find the right shop in USA, you can claim a free Slurpee.

1801 French astronomer Jean-louis Pons discovered his first comet and US SKYLAB falls out of orbit crashing into earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over Western Australia killing a cow.

Another piece of space debris fell to Earth on 8th January 2014. This was recognised as the first recognisable interstellar meteor by Professor Avi Loeb and his team. It was a basketball sized object travelling at 130,000 mph. It could not have come from within our Solar System because of its speed and trajectory.

He was convinced that it was an artefact from an alien world. The debris fell into the ocean at a depth of 1.2 miles off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Professor Loeb mounted an $1.5m expedition (backed by the US Government) to recover some of this debris by using powerful magnets to dredge the ocean floor. He recovered 50 metallic beads of size 0.1mm to 1mm.

Early analysis has shown they comprise mostly of iron, nickel and some trace elements. This does not match commonly manufactured alloys and previous meteorites.

His view is not shared by the wider scientific community, but he is confident he can prove that this an example of a spacecraft sent from an alien world from outside our solar system.

Kurt was going to describe the standard model, which is coming under renewed pressure and could need a make-over, and mention the appearance of non-native beautiful European bee-eaters in Norfolk but there was not time. Coffee awaited.

We also reminded members that there is no meeting in August, but a bat walk has been arranged for Friday 11th August, more details would be sent out by email.

Tuesday 13th June 2023.

Bill Cove - 'Amazing Bats - what do we know about local species?

Despite the very warm and humid weather, there was a good attendance, including 4 new members, for our guest speaker, Bill Cove of Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group and his “Amazing Bats” talk.

Bill developed an interest in bats while working as a wildlife warden at Calke Abbey and kept his audience spellbound with a host of interesting facts and photos of bats which are found locally. Fourteen of the 18 UK species (of about 1300 worldwide) have been identified in Derbyshire, including our rarest – the grey long-eared bat – and new species are regularly being identified due to advances in science and DNA analysis of bat droppings. Bats can be found roosting in the tiniest of spaces and are very territorial and we learnt about their feeding, breeding and navigation by echo location.

There was such a high level of interest generated that Bill has kindly offered to provide bat detectors and accompany a group of us on an evening bat walk, probably in the area of Staunton Harold, on Friday 11 August. Any interested members who haven’t already signed the sheet and would like to join us on the walk should email science@ashbyu3a.co.uk to register their interest.

Tanya Dempster thanked Bill for a fascinating presentation and following this introduced us to the life and achievements of geneticist, Barbara McClintock, 1902 – 1992. The only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology, McClintock studied maize and discovered jumping genes, the ability for genes to change position on the chromosome. Her work was mocked by several male scientists who said “she did not understand the topic”.

Tanya then referred to several recent news items relating to genes and DNA research:

• The fertility regulator has confirmed that a baby has been born using three people's DNA for the first time in the UK.

• There is hope that there may be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease by 2040. Prof Julie Williams has studied Alzheimer’s for 30 years and her team at Cardiff University has identified 92 genes that significantly increase the risk of having the progressive condition. They knew of just three genes when their research began in 2009.

• Researchers find oldest evidence of the plague in Britain.

• A pioneering study analysing the DNA of centuries-old skeletons found mutations that helped people survive the plague. But those same mutations are linked to auto-immune diseases afflicting people today. The problem is they have been linked to auto-immune diseases such as the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn’s - what helped keep your ancestors alive 700 years ago could be damaging your health today.

• A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer has shown real promise in a major NHS trial, researchers say. The test correctly revealed two out of every three cancers among 5,000 people who had visited their GP with suspected symptoms, in England or Wales. In 85% of those positive cases, it also pinpointed the original site of cancer.

• Scientists have produced an updated map of all human DNA which could help to transform medical research.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th July at 2pm in the Main Hall in Packington Village Hall, when wildlife photographer Tim Sexton will tell us about his first year working for Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust 'A year at Rutland Water'.

Tuesday 9th May 2023.

Tudor Food and Nutrition by Yogi Godwin

Yogi started by defining when the Tudor times started. This was in 1485 when Henry VII emerged victorious at the Battle of Bosworth where he defeated Richard III. Food and the raw ingredients for meals in those times were many times more expensive than it is today, even when based on today’s minimum wage. To give context to the talk, many fascinating facets of life in Tudor times were recalled. For instance, the quality of the diet of the rich was inferior that of the poor provided the crops had not failed. This was because the diet of the rich was based on excessive amounts of meat (6 pounds a day!), whereas the poor ate mostly vegetables, which provided plenty of ‘roughage’. Little wonder that rhubarb was favoured by Henry VIII for its laxative effects.

Meals tended to taken twice a day for both rich and poor. The poor would have a metal pot of vegetables stewing all day with maybe a few pieces of meat, and it would be ‘pot luck’ who found these. For the more wealthy, the quantity depended heavily on their ranking in the strict ‘class’ system, the top table could have 12 courses, the lower tables only 2.

Tomatoes, often called love or poison apples were also available. Plates were often made from pewter which contained lead in Tudor times, and the acid juices of the tomato would leach out this toxic element poisoning the unfortunate diner! Tables were simple ‘boards’ resting on trestles which could be upturned if elbows were rested on it, the origin of forbidding such a habit even today. The Tudor 'board' is the origin of today’s phrases ‘bed and board’ and chairman of the ‘board’.

Utensils included only a sharp knife and a spoon, the fork being an Italian invention, was not used. We can trace our liking for oranges and pomegranates back to Tudor times when Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon brought them over from Spain. Unlike today, chicken was not a source of cheap meat for the Tudors as the hen supplied fresh eggs, a food rich in protein and vitamin A.

For drink, Tudor peasants would have beer, even at breakfast. This provided nutrition and calories for a day spent labouring in the fields or at the forge. For richer folk, wine would be available. Both drinks were probably safer than plain water, as the boiling and fermentation process probably killed some of the bacteria. Overall, the Tudors enjoyed their food and drink and the poor probably ate more healthily than we think. As always, excessive consumption is bad for your health. After a lifetime of excess Henry VIII weighed 30 stone and could not walk due to his weight and leg wounds, and suffered severe constipation.

Thanks Yogi for a fascinating insight into Tudor life.

Tuesday 11th April 2023.

The Science Group didn't meet in April as the date clashed with Easter weekend

Tuesday 14th March 2023.

Water: Past, present and future by Chris Hesketh

Our first meeting in our new venue, the Main Hall in Packington Village Hall, was very well attended, despite our meetings now being moved to Tuesdays. The topic was 'Water: past, present and future' presented by Chris Hesketh, which was followed by a lively discussion. Chris stepped in at short notice when our planned speaker couldn't make our newly changed day. She had also given us the excellent talk on 'John Snow, Father of Epidemiology' last month.

The very first slide got our immediate attention: a graphic showing the water distribution of the Earth. The majority of the Earth's water isn't available for human use, as surface water accounts for only 1.2% of the Earth's water, with the remainder being the oceans which are saline. The surface water was then further broken down into lakes, rivers and boreholes, with the majority of the surface water locked in glaciers and the ice caps. Surprisingly, most water in the UK is used by industry, a lesser amount by agriculture and even less by domestic use.

Chris gave a brief history of water supply and waste disposal from before the aqueducts of Roman times, via centuries of open sewers, up to the Big Stink of 1858 and Bazalgette's design and construction of the London sewer system, still in use today. Waste water can be classified into yellow, brown, black and grey and contains many different pollutants such as fats, solids, bacteria, wipes, nappies, chemicals, nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides, agricultural run-off and medicinal drugs. We learned the importance of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) in determining the strength of sewage, which then determines how the sewage is treated. There are many different stages: filtration, settlement tanks to remove some suspended solids, secondary and tertiary treatment and in some modern sewage treatment works, new additional treatment. Water companies are allowed to discharge untreated waste water into water courses and the sea under certain conditions, and these discharges should be reported to the relevant authorities. However there are many loopholes in this system as the water companies are allowed to self-regulate and are allowed some discharges under certain conditions. This is certainly contentious and some national newspapers and organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage are running campaigns to rectify this. The problem is compounded by domestic plumbing in which all waste currently goes into the same sewer, thus mixing surface water run-off with domestic waste. There are now requirements for new housing estates to provide surface water reservoirs, but this can't be applied retrospectively to existing housing stock, which forms the majority. Different solutions to this problem were discussed, including reducing demand for water and reusing grey water, such as bath water, for watering the garden for example. It was felt that there is a definite need not just for a consistent government policy on waste disposal, but for international consensus and action. Water supplied for the domestic users should not be too pure, however, or the process of reverse osmosis takes place in the body, resulting in a loss of calcium, for example. A final slide certainly gave us food for thought as it showed the global drought risk. Despite considering ourselves a rainy country, the UK is a high drought risk! Tanya then thanked Chris for stepping in at short notice to provide us with another fascinating and informative talk.

The second part of the meeting began with Tanya introducing us to British Science Week, 10-19 March - a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths, which is held every year since 1994. It is organised by the British Science Association and funded by UK Research and Innovation, aiming to inspire all people to learn more about science and all the scientific inventions around us, and also to encourage more young people to consider science related careers.

Smashing Stereotypes' is a collection of over 30 stories from individuals and teams that challenge long-standing stereotypes, with the aim of encouraging more young people, from all backgrounds, to see themselves as scientists. With profiles of chefs, product designers, and fitness professionals, 'Smashing Stereotypes' showcases how science is for everyone: whatever your interests or background. An example of this was the free instruction sheet on how to extract your own DNA using a strawberry and easily available equipment in your own kitchen!

Kurt focused on the problems scientists have in getting their ideas accepted, not just for outsiders like John Snow, but for major scientists, who were part of the establishment. He talked about James Clerk Maxwell (1831 - 1879). He was first chair in experimental physics at Cambridge University and is credited with unifying electricity and magnetism and showing that light is an electromagnetic wave, yet at the time of his death, his ideas were not accepted or even fully understood. It needed Oliver Heaviside, a young man in his twenties with no formal education, to give up his job, move back into his parents' home to work on his equations and produce the final 4 equations we have today.

Kurt then returned to John Snow, who died on the 18th June 1858, at the time of the 'Big Stink' and he speculated that John Snow, who died of a stroke, might have succumbed to the miasma and heat stroke at this time. An ironic end to his life.

On this day in history (14th March): This day is known as Pi Day, celebrated all over the world, as in America the 14th March is written as 3-14. Also scientists at the University of Applied Sciences at the Grison have calculated the value of pi to a 100 trillion digits. Kurt was able to reveal that the 100 trillionth digit was in fact a '0'.

Also on 14th March, Paul Ehrlich was born. He was a bacteriologist, haematologist who did pioneering work in chemotherapy and also discovered arsphenamine, the first effective treatment for syphilis.

In 1879 Albert Einstein was born on 14th March and 1879 was also the year that Maxwell had died. While we were all aware of his scientific achievements, Einstein was also involved in politics and in 1952, 3 years before his death in 1955 he was offered the presidency of Israel. He did decline this.

Lastly, he mentioned Stephen Hawking who died on 14th March 2018 aged 76. His main work towards the end of his life had concentrated on black holes and the radiation emitted from them. This is now known as 'Hawking radiation'. He finished with a quotation from Stephen Hawking in 'A Step Backward For Civilization', The Washington Post, 16 Feb 2014.

'Aggression has had definite advantages for survival, but when modern technology meets ancient aggression the entire human race and much of the rest of life on Earth is at risk ... It is not clear that, unlike aggression, intelligence has any long-term survival value.'

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 9th May in the Main Hall in Packington Village Hall, when Yogi Goodwin will talk about 'Tudor Food and Nutrition - the Tudor food of both poor and rich, its preparation and the effects on the body'.

Please note there is no meeting in April, due to Easter.

Monday 13th February 2023.

Monday 9th January 2023.

Monday 12th December 2022.

A Christmas Special

We got off to a festive start by making decorative paper chains for the Seasonal Special meeting. Not just the ordinary chains we made as children but special Scientific Chains that had a twist, or even 2 or 3 twists in a 70 cm strip of sugar paper. Cutting the chains down the middle produces different numbers of linked chains, or Mobius Strips to use the mathematical name. There was much laughter and chat as these were constructed and sometimes fell apart.

This was followed by a Name the Scientist picture quiz and groups worked together on the clues in the images as they munched Christmas snacks with their coffee. Books are always a popular Christmas gift, so a Science book review was next.

A Scientific Santa Quiz continued the theme. How many children does Santa visit, how fast does he travel, can Einstein's theory of relativity help him visit so many and why does he probably have diabetes? ( Hint - think of all calories in mince pies and sherry and what that does to his BMI.)

The next meeting is 9th January 2 pm, with a second visit by the Astronomer Julian Onions on The Dark Side of the Moon - who wants to go there and why?

NOTE We have a change of venue to the meeting room (not the main hall) at Packington Village Hall, entrance down the left side of the building.

Monday 14th November 2022.

Phil Richardson - The Social Challenge of Nuclear Waste

Phil is a geologist, and spent the last 30 years of his career advising a range of clients on ways to address the social and technical issues surrounding the management and disposal of radioactive waste, following an early career in the National Coal Board. These included a range of environmental organisations, national governments and the United Nations. He began his talk by introducing us to the sources and types of radioactive waste generated from the nuclear industry, the use of radioactive isotopes in health and scientific investigations and as the result of the testing of nuclear weapons. He then explained the different management and disposal options that exist for the various types of waste, dependent on their activity and half-life, such as surface-based engineered vaults, shallow excavated vaults or disused mines for the less radioactive materials, and 500-metre-deep geological disposal facilities (GDF) for the most radioactive materials such as spent fuel and high-level waste.

Having established the existence of radioactive waste, and the need to safely manage it, Phil introduced the issues surrounding the siting and development of disposal facilities, pointing out the difference between how this was done in the past and what happens now and is planned in the future. How can we as Society recognise both the need to find an acceptable site and the understandable concern expressed by those living around a potential location? How can they and the public in general be informed of the issues and be supported to trust both the technology involved and the government and industry actors tasked to manage the process? Phil outlined the essentials of an acceptable process for public participation, based on extensive experience in numerous facility siting programmes around the world, discussing in particular the current UK process that he was involved in developing as a member of a government advisory committee. The underlying principles are that Society recognises the contribution a host community is making to solving a national problem, and that the community should be rewarded for that through a package of focused community benefits, whilst at the same time allowing local involvement in decision making etc. The UK process is currently ongoing, with 4 local citizen/industry partnerships exploring the suitability of potential repository sites in West Cumbria and East Lincolnshire.

Finally, Phil pointed out the difference between the current UK process for radioactive waste and the very recent proposal by the Truss government (now reversed after the Sunak ascension) for the development of fracking. Phil questioned whether the earlier lack of meaningful public participation proposed by such as Jacob Rees-Mogg could raise concerns that the requirement for long-term political support for the radioactive waste process could erode the public trust which, as he showed earlier, was essential for a successful and acceptable outcome.

Monday 10th October 2022.

40 years a geologist by Bob Onions

Bob described his career as a professional geologist. He began by talking about his education and a trip made while at University in the late '60's to Arctic Norway. He followed this covering his time working on graduation as a Mine and Bush geologist in Botswana. He then spent some time talking about the Dinorwig Pump storage power station in North Wales where he spent some time as an Engineering Geologist. Following an MSc he covered the remainder of his career with Hanson as a Geotechnical Specialist in the quarry industry. He now is an occasional Geotechnical trainer for the MPQC the training and awarding arm affiliated to the UK quarry industry.

Bob showed several photos, and told many interesting anecdotes, about his times in foreign lands, especially when living in the bush in Botswana and after a brief wrestle with a recalcitrant projector, managed to show us an interesting video of Dinorwig power station.

Monday 12th September 2022.

Climate Change by Kurt Kovach

We started by defining the term "Climate Change" and then listed recent examples of climate change in action. The extreme heat in central England in July, the massive floods in Pakistan, the wildfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, the threatened loss of many Pacific islands from rising sea levels and the impact on UK farmers. We briefly looked at 6 "tipping points" which once crossed would signal an irreversible reaction leading to destabilisation and system breakdowns.
We then covered the causes of "Climate Change", the growth in emissions of CO2 and methane and nitrous oxide and their impact. These emissions are caused by burning fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, which currently provide 83% of the world's energy. Also the world is increasing its energy use by 2.4% per annum, an exponential rise.
We looked at CO2 emissions in metric tonnes per person from various countries ranging from Kuwait with 23.9 metric tonnes per person, USA at 16.1 metric tonnes per person per year. China which emits 8 metric tonnes per person is still the biggest emitter due to its population size. Only 3 countries are currently carbon neutral, namely Bhutan, Suriname and Panama. While China is the biggest polluter it also has more solar panels than any other country and more offshore wind turbines and is currently planting millions of trees.
We spent some time looking at the opposition to Climate change that have delayed the necessary steps to limit climate change. This was led in the US by Exxon Mobil who staged a massive PR campaign to discredit Climate change science. Another US company Koch Industries funded Republican politicians who opposed any action on Climate Change. In the UK Nigel Lawson was a major opponent to action on Climate Change and we are now seeing negative comments from the present Government.
Then we looked at the solutions to solving Climate Change.
The first is to move to new Earth, Planet B. This is unfeasible according to Professor Mike Berners-Lee. We looked Michio Kaku's (a US Professor) idea to expand into the Solar system and even our galaxy. It is too early for this solution. Efficiency savings only get us to use more fuel, so that doesn't really solve it.
The only viable solution was for everyone to commit to NetZero. We have committed to NetZero by 2050. This means stopping our use of fossil fuels completely and relying on renewables and nuclear and embarking on a massive carbon capture scheme to take out the carbon already in the atmosphere. This could be by planting billions of trees or direct carbon capture or both.
The 2015 Paris Climate Accord saw 196 countries agree to keep the world's average temperature rise to below 2°C preferably below 1.5° C of pre-industrial levels. The problems we are currently facing outlined at the start are caused by a rise of 1.1°C, so we are likely to experience many more of these.
Lastly, we discussed some of the other problems: over grazing, overfishing, species loss, pollution, soil erosion, plastic, etc.
Finally, we talked about Solar Together Leicestershire, a scheme to bulk buy solar panels and batteries. So far 750 families have signed up to this scheme. Also, Leicestershire has pledged to become NetZero by 2040 and claim to be on course to reach this by 2030. Lots is being done.
BUT is it enough?
Have we done it soon enough?
AND even at this the 59th minute of the 23rd hour are we seeing the spectre of efforts to water down our actions and even reverse some of them?

After the tea break Paul gave a short talk on "The Nuclear Power Option - friend or foe of climate change"

This was a brief overview of the current status of the government's proposals to massively increase the proportion of electricity generated by nuclear power as a strategy to move away from fossil fuel power stations to counter their effects on climate change. The benefits and penalties of nuclear power were outlined, including its crucial contribution towards meeting the country's climate change objectives. Nuclear technology is safe, closely regulated to ensure high safety standards and the science of nuclear fission is well understood. The basic layout of a nuclear power station was explained and the unique safety features highlighted. Despite all this, nuclear power stirs up strong opposition politically because of its expense and long project timescales. It is also disliked on environmental grounds because of the radioactive waste problem and the public do not want a nuclear power station nearby. A lively debate followed and a member of the audience, with detailed knowledge and experience in radioactive waste management, promised to give a talk on this subject.

Monday 11th July 2022.

The Scales of Creation, by Tim Phillips

The human mind can cope with small numbers, 1- 10, for example. But science takes us into the very small, the microscopic world of human cells, or even smaller the DNA inside the nucleus of cells. How can we begin to imagine how small those are? When considering outer space, the celestial world uses huge numbers. We have trouble visualising the size of mountains on Earth, so how can we imagine these extremes of size, from cells to distant planets in the solar system?

Tim's talk was to give us stepping stones, without using a presentation of visual images, to enable us to better comprehend these scales. Imagining how different the world would look if you were an ant, or the size of a red blood cell or the size of the Earth!

Red blood cells travel at astonishing speeds reaching the extreme parts of the body before returning to the heart in 30 seconds! He then translated these speeds to other journeys, for example, speed to reach the moon.

If just one strand of human DNA was unravelled it might be comparable to human height, but if you added all the DNA strands, and unwound the tightly kinked proteins it would be .... an astronomical distance. It seems impossible to imagine this coiled up inside each cell in our body (apart from red blood cells which have no nucleus). Tim gave these discrete changes in scale labels, for example shrinking down to DNA level, was 'DNA Alley', and scaling up to solar system size was 'Lunar Valley', an interesting trick to help the imagination. He also moved his position when talking about the various scales, so we associated position with the scale, a useful and clever trick to aid memory.

Scaling up a human body presents interesting conundrums. If you double the height of a person their volume and mass increases by a far greater ratio, approximately by 8 times (2 cubed), although Tim was keen to avoid the use of mathematical relationships in his talk. To move the heavier limbs of our imaginary giant at the scaled up speeds means that they approach the speed of sound. This puts impossible strains on the anatomy, hence all giants seen in fiction films ar always portrayed moving relatively slowly.

A very interesting, mind stretching talk

Tanya and Paul

Monday 13th June 2022.

Breathing at Altitude by Colin Woodland

At this meeting we were pleased to welcome back our very own Colin Woodland, Squadron Leader RAF (Retd), who gave an updated version of his talk, which he first gave on Zoom during Lockdown, on his experiences in the RAF, when they were developing high level military flying equipment.

This required equipment to enable the air crew to survive any loss of cabin air pressure at altitude. If not combated, the crew would lose control of the plane due to oxygen starvation.

The team on which Colin was a member were developing processes and equipment designed to save the crew's life in emergency situations where the atmosphere in the plane's cabin was lost. Colin was the guinea pig for several of these tests, which paved the way for safer planes for military fliers.

After the tea interval, Bill Devitt presented some examples of failed developments in the transport industry, citing William Brunton's locomotive "The Traveller" as well as Thomas Shaw Brandereth's "Cycloped", the former propelled itself by steam powered legs, and there was a similar road vehicle, also with legs. "The Cycloped" worked by a horse walking on a treadmill. Both designs suffered from the drawback that they could not go in reverse. Some other equally impractical designs were also illustrated.

Monday 9th May 2022.

Monday 11th April 2022.

Crazy Interstellar Rockets by Dr Julian Onions

Dr Julian Onions is a researcher and lecturer in the Astronomy Department of the University of Nottingham so was well qualified to talk to us about how we might travel by rocket to distant planets and stars. To compare the performance of various rocket options, he explained the term specific impulse using some scary maths, but was just how long, in seconds, a rocket engine could sustain an acceleration equivalent to Earth's gravity. A full range of options were reviewed, starting with gunpowder-driven fireworks and the solid rocket fuel for Saturn 5, to design concepts using nuclear reactors, the pros and cons of each system were compared. One drawback that tends to get overlooked is the inability to switch off or control many of the more powerful rocket engines, making landing an extremely hazardous task. The most extreme option that put aside all practical considerations, was the possibility of distorting space-time in accordance with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, 'Warp' drive. In simple terms, this option causes 'space-time' to move towards you, rather than you moving through space! We finished with a light-hearted quiz to name various fictional rockets and space stations and it was amazing how many of these we could correctly identify.

Monday 14th March 2022.

Mark Stretton - "The Science of Archery"

This group tries to get a real mix of talks, covering all the sciences & technology, and this one had a fine mixture of both history and medieval technology and also given by our first external speaker.

Mark Stretton is an expert with 40 years' experience in the world of Archery with nearly 25 years specialising in the English War Bow, of the type used at the Battles of Agincourt and Crecy. He is also the 17-year reigning holder of the Guiness World Record set, August 2004, for drawing to full draw and shooting a 200 lbs warbow. He is also an expert in recreating archaeological finds so they can be tested in use, often at MoD test sites.

The first written words on arrows record them piercing an oak church door during a raid. Was this actually possible? By setting up a test it was seen how far they did penetrate oak, so suggesting the reliability of this record.

Archaeological finds show up to 17 different types of metal arrowheads, shape dependant on use, for hunting or war. The images in medieval manuscripts often show hunting arrows as they look more dramatic. The iron can be treated in different ways to add carbon to make the steel stronger, but what methods were used?

The battles ones were like bodkins designed to pierce armour. Armour in museums is Tournament armour very fancy and decorated, medieval bling, modern recreation would cost 80,000 Euros! Battle armour was often melted down and reused and so has not survived. Mark has also tested methods that could be used to make large numbers of war arrows and measured the carbon content of the resultant steel to check it matches the archaeological finds.

To test the breast plate under battle conditions it is necessary to mount it on a moving platform to simulate a cavalry charge at 20mph, stuffed behind like a chest, while firing the bodkin war arrows from different distances at their speed of 150ft/s to see what the penetration depth was, would it result in fatal injuries to vital organs? It did penetrate that deep but also the impact alone carries twice as much energy as needed to stop the heart from an impact blow. Mark also made us realise what it would be like to be an archer, on foot, facing a cavalry charge of 20 mph which gave you a mere 22 seconds to stop the charge. Terrifying. There were many images of the different tests and their results, even graphs showing how the impact speed varied with angle of projection and if the arrow was fired downhill or uphill.

Mark also brought his recreation of the warbows found in chests on the Mary Rose. Made from one piece of Italian yew, but cut from an area of the tree so that the outside of the bow is of sapwood which is strong in tension and the inside of the bow, facing the archer, is of heartwood which is strong in compression. This gives the bow its great strength. However to be able to draw the bow required practice from an early age for the archers to develop the physique and strength needed to pull the bow. The Archers were valued members of their troops and had a good diet.

Mark is a Master Arrowsmith and Past Warden of the Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers and Fletchers Company, and he travels throughout Europe and the UK delivering Seminars, Talks and Demonstrations and has appeared on many TV programs as an expert of the Warbow so we were fortunate indeed to have such a knowledgeable visitor to the group.

Future talks include "Crazy interstellar rockets", "People of the Mary Rose" and "Breathing at Altitude" - a full list is on our website.

Monday 14th February 2022.

Transmitton a local company's technical story by Adrian Hickson

With a change of emphasis to include the 'Technology' side of our group Adrian, one of our members, gave an informative and entertaining talk on Transmitton Ltd.

With a focus on the history of Transmitton from the early days in Burton on Trent through commercial success supplying key equipment for the mining industry, in particular overspeed equipment to maximise efficiency and safety of lift winding gear speed limits, to the company's purchase by BICC enabling further investment with a move to Smisby Road, Ashby, and the building of the larger premises and the opening of a social club along with the business expansion overseas.

Adrian gave an explanation of the technology employed and key design elements of Transmitton's systems which gave the company a stronghold as a control system (SCADA) supplier. Rail, Oil and Gas and Industrial control systems were described up to and including the eventual purchase by Siemens and the company's move to its current position next to the M42.

We were informed of amusing and informative stories of project works including successes and incidents which made up an engineer's life in the 1980 - 1990's, including fire at oil tank farms and concrete where it was not needed within the London Underground.

After the drinks break, Tanya and Paul introduced four videos to bring the group up to speed with the latest science and technology news.

The first video described the incredible find in Rutland Water reservoir of the fossilized remains of a Sea Dragon, or Ichthyosaur, the largest ever found in the UK. The second video explained how a vertebrate palaeontologist developed a way to identify the gender of fossil birds. The third video explained the latest developments in nuclear fusion, the 'holy grail' of power generation, with no radioactive waste and only hydrogen isotopes as the raw material. Finally, we learned how the James Webb Space Telescope was slowly and carefully adjusting the shape of its main mirror to focus the telescope, all controlled from Earth, one million miles away.

Monday 13th December 2021.

Star of Bethlehem by Paul McKay, Christmas babies and 'Instant snow' by Tanya Dempster

Eighteen people attended our 4th face to face meeting of 2021 to hear whether modern astronomy could explain the Star of Bethlehem. There is no agreed scientific explanation for the star or celestial object that guided the three Kings, Wise Men or Magi (the origin of our word 'magic') to Jesus in Bethlehem. There are various possibilities and the talk examined a few of these in detail comparing each with the biblical description given in the Gospel according to Matthew. Firstly, the depth of astronomical knowledge available 2000 years ago was reviewed, which highlighted the absence of any scientific basis. Knowledge of the stars at that time was used mostly for navigation across featureless desert landscapes. There is no doubt the Magi had good star knowledge but at the time nearly everything in the night sky that was bright and moved differently to the 'fixed' stars was called a 'star', including comets, planets and supernova (exploding stars). After assessing each of these candidate objects against the biblical evidence it was concluded that no single feature could account for the behaviour of the Star of Bethlehem, as it suddenly appeared, moved, stopped then disappeared. Perhaps, the event was unique and has never been repeated within modern times, we do not have the experience to explain it. Matthew's Gospel was written 80 years after the star appeared and there is no doubt they were re-told by word-of-mouth many times, and could have been exaggerated as time passed. But it is a story that has inspired the faithful for 2000 years and today still provides the imagery for many Christmas cards.

After the refreshment break there was another talk on Christmas Babies, scientists who were born on Christmas Day. The Cornishman William Gregor was the first to discover the metal Titanium, in 1790, named after the Greek Titans. He was a clergyman but with a wide range of interests especially Geology. A year later Martin Klaproth also discovered it, another example of discoveries being made in different countries very close together in time. The American Scientist Richard Shope made some interesting discoveries during the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 that killed between 20-50 million people. He realised that pigs were suffering a very similar disease, thought to be caused by bacteria. By careful experiments he showed it was not a bacteria but a Virus. International teams conducted further studies, and in 1933 a British team found the human Flu virus, and this led to the flu vaccines we have today. A paleobiologist, the Russian lady, Irina Dobruskina became a expert of the Triassic era Flora, suffered with chauvinist male colleagues, but ended up writing the key work in Triassic Flora. Despite it being the time of the Cold War she managed to work with many overseas geologists, but also passed round illegal Samizdat literature, despite her communist family. Eventually she moved to Israel becoming a professor at the Hebrew University and died in Jerusalem in 2014.

The most famous Christmas baby is of course Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-26, however his dates now show him born after the new year! This was due to the Calendar being changed from the inaccurate Julian calendar, to the Gregorian calendar after his death, and it is the latter historians now use.

To finish the Christmas Special meeting there was a practical activity, making Instant Snow in small groups. Mixing the powder with water made the hands cold and a tiny bit of powder fluffed up many times to make the 'snow', that is used in movies. This being a science group the explanation was given for these effects, and details of how to make this with grandchildren for some 'science magic'.

Monday 8th November 2021.

'The Accident of Life' by Kurt Kovach

The Accident of Life looked at many of the conditions in our universe, our solar system and on our planet that are favourable to life forming.

It started with a brief summary of the big bang and then went on to examine the 4 forces in the universe. We then looked at Sir Martin Rees' 6 major constants and their effect on the universe. We briefly looked at the role of carbon in the formation of life and the properties of water that are so special and vital to life forming. We then considered the role of our sun in the stability of our solar system followed by the earth, the ultimate goldilocks planet, with all its many benefits. The moon and Jupiter too have a role in protecting us from harm and stabilizing the planet. We considered the effects of a molten interior, the pluses and minuses, before examining just how complex life has become.

What are the chances of all these favourable outcomes and how can we explain them? Weird isn't it? Finally we briefly mentioned the exoplanets that have been discovered, nearly 5000 so far. So perhaps we are not alone?

Monday 11th October 2021.

'A Blast from the Past' by Mike Hardy

Mike Hardy recalled his experiences and reminiscences of quarrying and blast operations from 1964 to 2004. Sixteen members listened as Mike described his early working life, transferring from agriculture to managing large quarry operations. Starting work at the Breedon and Cloud Hill site, he moved to sites in Wales, Southampton and back to the Midlands, gaining experience with mining and blasting limestone and granite. The various methods of drilling for blast holes and the layout of the holes (burden, spacing and hole depth) were described with the aid of images and videos. The types of rocks being quarried were briefly described, from oolitic limestone, a sedimentary rock, to granite, a hard igneous rock and how the strength of the explosive was matched to rock type. Then the type of explosives and detonators used depended on the wetness of the blast hole and the dimensions of the rock face. Finally, the adverse effects of a blast on people and buildings needs to be considered, including ground vibration, air shock wave and flyrock (projectiles). Mike bought along examples of firing mechanisms and 'dummy' detonators and recalled many anecdotes that brought his talk to life.

After the refreshment break Paul McKay gave two brief talks, one on the recent release of beavers by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust into the Willington Nature Reserve. The second talk summarised the recent 'flyby' of planet Mercury by the BepiColombo orbiters.

Monday 13th September 2021.

A talk by Ret'd Chief Fire Officer Graham Edwards on "How times have changed"

Retired Chief fire officer Graham Edwards gave a very interesting talk to the Science and Technology group entitled, "How times have changed" reflecting on changes in the fire service over his career.

When he began most people had open coal fires, but as living standards rose more flammable consumer goods in the home meant that fires burned hotter and longer, and gave off toxic fumes. Older large houses were turned into flats and bedsits with multiple occupation, but no planning to improve fire safely. There is a strong connection between social conditions and death risk.

Changes in building standards resulted in large open spaces in factories and warehouses, with flimsy and flammable partitions, cheaper to build, but more dangerous as fire could then spread and engulf the whole area in a few minutes.

Some famous fires with multiple deaths were considered, and whilst much was learned from the causes of these, the necessary rules, laws and planning details were not always altered to prevent similar tragedies occurring as new technologies were applied with insufficient understanding.

Monday 14th June 2021.

Talk by Paul McKay on Einstein the Man and his Special Theory of Relativity

Surprisingly, twenty people from the Ashby and the Burton science groups logged into Zoom to hear my talk on this fascinating, and intellectually challenging talk. I have given this talk before to the Burton group so perhaps they were so baffled the first time, they needed some revision, I certainly found it hard to recall and even more difficult to explain...'fools rush in..'.

I started gently, explaining that Albert Einstein as a child was quite slow and even as a physicist, he struggled with mathematics, enlisting the help of colleagues to express his complex concepts mathematically. In later years, he deliberately exaggerated his idiosyncrasies to depict himself to the media and the public as the absent-minded professor, odd but harmless. He was a loner and radical thinker so struggled with the student/ tutor relationship, the lecturers interpreting his behaviour as arrogant and rude. He failed to understand that to secure employment as a scientist depended on positive references from these tutors, even for a lowly position of Patent Examiner 3rd Class, which he secured only through the influence of a friend.

Working well within his mental capacity proved a blessing in disguise for Einstein, it gave him time to ponder the fundamental problems of physics; the nature of light, molecular structure and the space-time dimension. His boss even allowed him time to write four brilliant scientific papers in a single year. Recognition of his work by prominent physicist of the time, Max Planck, was the signal that the conservative physicists of the day needed for them to endorse Einstein's ground-breaking work. His General Theory of Relativity followed 10 years later in 1915 to world acclaim and eventually he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for explaining the Photoelectric Effect, not for Relativity, which the bearded conventional physicists on the panel considered too 'theoretical' and 'unproven'. He re-located to the United States to escape repression of the Jews in Germany, and although a lifelong pacifist, he eventually supported the development of a weapon based on his famous equation, E=mc² , believing that the Axis Powers were also working on it.

Finally, the application of Special and General Theories of Relativity to Global Positioning Systems was explained, an application even Einstein could not have foreseen.

Friday 21st May 2021.

A talk by Martin Willett of Burton u3a called "Gas detecting - 200 years of innovation"

There were 12 attendees for this very informative talk based on Martin's long experience in this field of science and instrumentation.

Some gases can be dangerous due to the potential for combustion or even explosions , (eg Methane) , poisoning (eg Carbon Monoxide) or asphyxiation (eg carbon Dioxide) and so in many situations it is important to be able to detect and measure the concentration of such gases. Some gases can be detected by the property of interest such as methane which was, historically, detected by the Davy Lamp which measures the gas by controlled burning. This was replaced by the pellistor which burns the methane on a catalyst and gives a good measurement of concentration by measuring the change in resistance of a coil due to the rise in temperature.

The presence of carbon monoxide in mines was historically detected by the effect on canaries which are very sensitive to the poisoning effects of the gas. It is now measured by the current produced in a fuel cell where the a reaction with a catalyst on the electrode produces a current in an external circuit.

In order to assess asphyxiation risk, oxygen can be measured with a battery in which a lead electrode is consumed , thus limiting the life of the detector.

An ideal gas sensor would have the properties, amongst others, of being safe, reliable, sensitive, small, cheap and have a long life. We are going a long way in achieving these goals.

Monday 12th April 2021.

A talk by Tanya called "A life scientific"

Britain has a shortfall of engineers and Scientists; they are needed for a prosperous economy. Predictions show we will need more STEM people, (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in future years so how can we prevent this deficit increasing?

Tanya's talk looked at the recent research on this issue, and that recent well trialled studies have shown how figures can be increased, and more girls encouraged to continue.

All children study sciences from the age of 5 to 16 and research shows that 70% enjoy the subject but that only 17% think of a science career being for them. Why this huge gap? The image of a scientist is a white man, with glasses, mad hair, in a lab coat, working by himself and probably blowing things up, rather than the wide and diverse range of activities. What child would aspire to be a Mad Scientist? And this image excludes girls and those from ethnic groups. So from an early age children need to be surrounded by images showing diverse people doing a wide range of scientific tasks in their careers, and solving many interesting issues from environmental, zoological, medical as well as technical. Books and posters are available for schools to use. They need to meet real scientists and many primary and secondary schools invite STEM Ambassadors in to work with children and tell them about their jobs and life so that they realise scientists are ordinary people doing a special job.

Peer pressure prevents many girls studying science A levels, especially physics, but they are just as able and needed if we are to close the gap in supply. A different approach is successful here, looking at the types of personalities needed, able to work in a team, good communicator, creative etc, and encouraging girls to aim high and not limit their options.

Science Capital is a new approach which has proved successful, parents, teachers, not just what you know about science, but attitudes by parents, science related toys, trips out, TV programs. The more science capital a young person has the more likely they are to opt for sciences. This animation explains it: https://youtu.be/8y5vyjlxsBA

So will this happen? It needs teachers to be trained, and schools able to afford material.

The talk was followed by a discussion amongst the group members about the points raised.

Friday 19th March 2021.

A talk by Rosemary Marsden on "Science - What's in a word"

This month's talk was given by Rosemary, who claims to be the least scientific member of the group. Rosemary considered what is science, where did come from, who 'invented' it, how did it develop and even where is the word 'Science' derived from.

She gave the Science Council's definition of Science as: "Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence."

So where did Science start - long before the West thought about it - how did the word scientist (and others we take for granted in the scientific community) come to be coined. Science began even before writing - seasons are part of science, religion and astronomy were part of science, science is not only diagrams and maths - but part of everyday life whether medicine, flora and fauna, cooking and chemical reactions - science is thinking, seeing, predicting, experimenting.

She concluded that almost everything is science since we, animals, plants, the planet and the whole universe are made from the same few elements and hence science seeks to understand everything about everything. Science is a HUGE word.

Monday 8th February 2021.

A talk by Dave Hollis on "Garden Wildlife"

Dave, our first professional speaker, treated us to a grand tour of the fascinating wildlife to be found in our own gardens. He introduced himself as a lifelong lover of wildlife. As a three year old, he was amazed at the colourful beauty of a chaffinch and later used primitive recording equipment to capture bird-song.

Descriptions and stunning photographs followed of mammals, birds, butterflies, insects, reptiles, fish and wildflowers. We learned that grey squirrels are more closely related to rats than its cuter and more colourful cousin, the red squirrel. He explained that frogs are wet and hop, while toads are dry and walk. If you want to attract diverse wildlife quickly, a pond is the way to do it; frogs, newts, dragonflies, snails and water spiders all use water as their habitat, and birds drink from it. Even the lowly slug was included, but it was a 12 inches long black slug, from northern Spain.

The Q & A session included the introduction of beavers at Willington, how best to engage young people with nature, the making and positioning of bat boxes and hedgehog houses and the red kites over the M40 motorway. For 2 hours Dave captivated us with his knowledge and superb photographs. I hope everyone has been inspired to observe wildlife and create wildlife habitats in their own garden.

Approximately 46 people from the Ashby and Burton U3As attended the talk via Zoom.

Friday 15th January 2021.

A talk by John Hoddy of Burton u3a Science group. "Unknown heroines of science"

Many scientists have contributed greatly to science but are relatively unknown. A number of these were women who also had to face discrimination. Starting in the 18th century, Caroline Herschel, whose more famous brother William discovered the planet Uranus, achieved a number of firsts in the area of astronomy. They built themselves the best telescopes then in existence and amongst other things discovered were several new comets. Moving on a century, two contemporaries were Emmy Noether and Lisa Meitner. The former was a mathematician who overcame resistance to her entry to Gottingen University to create an equation that links two important concepts in Physics , ie symmetry and conservation laws. The latter was not even allowed into the University itself, where in an outbuilding she did the work that led to the discovery of the neutrino and nuclear fission. She never received the Nobel prize, even though her fellow workers did. The work that Rosalind Franklin did in discovering the structure of DNA was described. Again she was shabbily treated by her colleagues. Finally arriving in the 20th century the discrimination against the coloured women who were NASA's so-called "human computers" was outlined.

Friday 18th December 2020.

Two short talks. One by John Hoddy on The Science of Christmas and one by Paul McKay on The Mystery of the Star of Bethlehem

I don't have a report of John's talk but Paul told us that there is no agreed scientific explanation for the star or celestial object that guided the three Kings, Wise Men or Magi to Jesus in Bethlehem. There are various possibilities and the talk examined a few of these in detail comparing each with the biblical description given in the Gospel according to Mathew. Firstly, the depth of astronomical knowledge available 2000 years ago was reviewed, which highlighted the absence of any scientific-basis. Knowledge of the stars at that time was used mostly for navigation across featureless desert landscapes. There is no doubt the Magi had good star knowledge but at the time nearly everything in the night sky that was bright and moved differently to the 'fixed' stars was called a 'star', including comets, planets and supernova (exploding stars). After assessing each of these candidate objects against the biblical evidence it was concluded that no single feature could account for the behaviour of the Star of Bethlehem, as it suddenly appeared, moved, stopped then disappeared. Mathew's Gospel was written 80 years after these events and there is no doubt they were re-told by word-of-mouth many times, fiction replacing facts along the way. But it is a story that has inspired the faithful for 2000 years and today still provides the imagery for many Christmas cards.

Monday 12th October 2020.

Talk by Colin Woodland on Breathing at Altitude

For the S&T group's third Zoom talk, Colin Woodland, Squadron Leader RAF (Retd) gave us a very interesting talk about "Breathing at high altitude". This was based on his experiences starting as a Technician in the RAF at the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Farnborough.

He first explained the problems at altitude, namely the lack of oxygen to breathe! At the top of Everest, i.e. approx 30,000 ft, the air pressure, and hence amount of oxygen, is only 30% of that at ground level. It is also very cold. Air temperature drops 2degC for every 1000 ft you go up. So at the top of Everest it is around -40degC without any wind chill. Flying above that height, conditions are even more extreme so pilots need assistance to survive at those altitudes. At 63,000 ft the air pressure is so low that blood in the body begins to boil!

Colin then went on to describe the various methods, which became increasingly sophisticated, to enable pilots and later passengers to breathe comfortably at higher and higher altitudes. He also kept us amused by relating some of the many experiences he had as an experimenter and guinea pig. Most of the stories were of funny incidents but his last told of how after going through several decompressions trials in one day, he suddenly felt a sharp pain between his shoulder blades and he collapsed with a heart attack caused by nitrogen bubbles in his spine (the bends). Fortunately, his boss, who was a cardiologist, recognised the signs, laid him out and thumped him in the chest and restarted his heart!

He spent several days in hospital on his back, recovering. The perils of high altitude can be found in the lab too. Fortunately Colin recovered well enough to tell us the story. And a fascinating one it was too.

Monday 14th September 2020.

Talk by Tanya Dempster on Pandas

For the S&T group's second Zoom talk, Tanya gave a very interesting talk called "Sex and the single Panda"!

This was about her trip to China and in particular to the Panda breeding centre. Accompanied by some delightful and at times very cute photos of pandas, we got to find out how and why they are endangered and why they are so difficult to breed and raise in captivity. Basically they seem to be very choosy who they mate with despite the females only been in season for a very few days a year and the males are more interested in eating than mating. They are also very choosy about their food and only seem to eat a bamboo with very low nutritional value. Consequently they eat all day. It has recently been discovered by using motion-activated remote cameras that pandas are much more likely to breed in the wild but it is the lack of suitable terrain that is reducing their numbers.

Tanya also pointed out that pandas may look cuddly but they have pretty fearsome claws and, despite having her photograph taken with one, they are not to be considered tame even though they are obviously habituated to human visitors.

Monday 3rd August 2020.

Talk by Paul McKay on Submarines

The talk combined basic science, submarine technology and work experience. Inspiration for Paul's lifelong interest in diving and underwater technology stemmed from an ITV programme 'Sea Hunt,' aired in the late 1950's, starring Lloyd Bridges as an intrepid diver (Mike Nelson). Later, training with submarine builder's Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness balanced the fiction with the harsh reality of shipyard submarine construction.

The relevance of Archimedes Principle and Boyle's Law to submarine diving operations were explained and demonstrated by diagrams and a video of a military submarine venting ballast tanks. The structure and operation of commercial mini- submersibles in support of oil and gas production and torpedo recovery was covered.

Then, the role and design of Royal Navy nuclear submarines was outlined. The principle of harnessing steam for propulsive power was conceived 2000 years ago, only now nuclear energy has replaced fossil fuel as the heat source. Finally, details of where you can explore complete de-commissioned submarines or ride in a tourist submarine were given.

Monday 16th March 2020.

Talk by Bill Devitt on how Steam Locomotives work

The first meeting of the new S & T group was held before the lock-down.

At this first meeting, Bill gave a talk on "How a steam locomotive works". This was based upon the sectioning work done to a real steam loco by a group under his direction in 1975, for the National Railway Museum at York.

The talk showed the process of heat energy creation by burning coal in the loco's firebox, releasing heat and turning the adjacent water into steam. This fluid transferred the energy to the locomotive's cylinders, so as to create propulsion. The many design features that went into this successful design were illustrated and discussed.

Thursday 13th February 2020.

As Advertised, the inaugural meeting of the proposed Science Group was held on 13 February at 10.00am at the Ashby Evangelical Church.

No formal minutes were taken but what follows are notes that I took as the meeting progressed. The notes are not necessarily in Chronological order.

1. Twenty two people had registered interest in the Science Group and thirteen people attended the meeting.
2. It was proposed by Bill Devitt that the group name should be 'Science and Technology' to encompass not just pure science but also practical applications of science. Those present agreed with the proposal and the group will be known as the Science and Technology Group henceforth.
3. Rather than select a leader for the group, those present decided to have a small 'committee' to lead the group. Paul McKay, Tanya Dempster and Bill Devitt 'volunteered' to form the committee and will organise future meetings between them.
4. It was agreed that future meetings should be held at the Ashby Alliance Church for the time being.
5. Future meetings will be held on the 2nd Monday of each month at 2.00pm. Should the 2nd Monday of the month be a Public Holiday, an alternative day for that month will be nominated and publicised.
6. Those present agreed that a contribution of £2 per person attending should be collected at each meeting to cover the cost of refreshments and to build up a reserve for expenditure of outside speakers' expenses.
7. Should the group arrange any trips or visits, they would be on a self-funding basis.
8. Initially speakers will be found from within the group when needed. Some meetings will be forums where topics will be discussed.
9. Suggestions of possible speakers and places to visit will be welcomed by the Group Committee but no guarantee can be given that the suggestions will be taken up. The Group Committee will determine suitability and affordability.
10. Mike Stow has added a Web Page on the Ashby U3a for the Science and Technology Group. Information on the group's activities will be notified there.
11. The next meeting has been set for Monday 9th March at 2.00pm at the Ashby Evangelical Church.

Many other things were discussed but the above sets out the main points.

Any other U3A members with a scientific bent, please come along too.

Colin R Woodland Ashby U3A Interest Groups Coordinator