Tech and Science Restarts

We hope you have had a great Summer break and are eager and ready to start a new season of presentations in September with the following schedule planned:

Sep 10  Vera Rubin and the LSST
Sep 24  Red to Gold – Prussian Blue

Oct 08  Stereograms – 3D science
Oct 22  Compost – science in your bin

If you have an interest in technology and science then give us a try. The venue is Kensington House from 2:30.  All u3a members are welcome.

T+S does Plague

Our Technology and Science group looked at the history and science of ‘plague’ at the end of June. We covered several pandemics around the world but, because the presenter is squeamish, the gory details were only scraped over.

But Channel 5 has given us the chance to relive the 1665 English events.

Click on the image to watch the program. You will need to register with C5!

This image file is from the Wikimedia Commons  a freely licensed media file repository.

Tech Group visits Grenfell

Wednesday’s talk was given by John Joyce (BA) who talked about all aspects of the Grenfell Towers incident. A very comprehensive presentation covered the incident itself, previous issues with similar buildings, building materials, council  issues and the inquiry.

He also gave detailed information on the outcomes of findings within all the industries and services involved including significant changes to legislation, likely to affect all construction in the future.

The presentation was broken down into 5 key areas:

  • Grenfell summary
  • Construction sector
  • BSA summary
  • Grenfell today
  • What next for the fire industry ?

Our thanks to John and to Steve for inviting him to the group.

Further reading can be found in these links:

The Grenfell tower inquiry
The Hackitt Report
Grenfell – BBC podcast
Show me the bodies

Next month we will be looking at Luca Turin (11th) and plague (25th)

Tech and Science

Our next meeting is Wednesday 26th March at Kensington House
at 14:30 where we will be looking at the science and history of ‘graphene’.

Future topics and dates:

09 April  ‘The 1831 cooling’
23 April  Bar codes
May 14  Mustard
May 28  Luca Turin

If you have a topic to share or offer for us to present then please contact Colin or Phil

Tech and science – Correction

We got our dates mixed up in the previous post. Hopefully this better.

A small turnout for ‘3 lines of coke’ but it seemed to be well received. Hopefully folk know a lot more about Pepsi cola, coal coke  and crystal meth 🙂

Our next topic will be the history of Thalidomide on Wed 22 Jan.

February:  12th – Kodaks first digital moments 26th – HAARP
March 12th we will be looking at ‘glass making’ with John. We are proposing a visit to the world of glass museum in St. Helens on Wednesday March 26th. We have the option for a private (FREE) visit or as a group with various add-ons for £15 per head.  Have a look at the website please, check out the group visit and let know if you’re interested.