About the group

This group is aimed at members with a general interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (past, present, and future developments).

The main criterion for membership is an enquiring mind and a readiness to learn something new through interaction with others in the group; the usual format is to hold an informal meeting with speakers on relevant topics. We arrange visits from time to time, usually during school holidays when we would not normally meet.

Meeting Dates

As follows – all on first Wednesday of the Month:

January 2020 – no meeting – School closed for holidays

5th February 2020 – Jenny Mainwaring – Earth’s Magnetic Fields

4^th March – John Rayment  –  Great Feats of British Aviation

1st April – David Elliott  – Greening transport….green cars, planes, boats and buses

6^th May – Dr Mark Hadley University of Warwick – Free-Will and Physics

3^rd June Tba

1^st July Tba

August and September – no Meeting – School Holidays

7^th October – Tba

4^th November – Tba

2^nd December – Christmas Quiz and Planning meeting

Note: Speakers always needed!  If you are reading this and feel able to offer a talk on a Science & Technnology related  topic or know someone who could help, please do get in touch with us.

Further details available from Dorothy Morgan by email: science.and.technology@buckinghamu3a.org.uk

Previous Talks

Related Resources:

The RLS Discovery Centre has a series of Community Lectures being held on Wednesday evenings as detailed at this link:

Lillingstone Lectures

We recently visited the John Lewis Automation centre in Milton Keynes; here is a video showing the process: Knapp – Automation at John Lewis

National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park; website is here – you can book a public guided tour online.

You can see a video of Colossus on the Codes & Ciphers site, along with other interesting items about exhibits including the Robot “George”.

http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/

We would also like to recommend a book called “The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson, which is subtitled “How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution”. It traces the development of computing from Ada Lovelace way back in the 1840’s right up to the last few years. Could be obtained from Amazon UK, or from other retail outlets including eBay.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Innovators-Inventors-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Digital-Revolution/dp/1471138801

The Creative Science Centre – Dr. Jonathan Hare’s Website

http://www.creative-science.org.uk/

The NASA Website is interesting https://www.nasa.gov/

The American Museum of Natural history

Bucks Earth Heritage Group can be found at  www.bucksgeology.org.uk

Some associated links to investigate

http://spaceweather.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain

http://www.cyclocane.com/

Balancing Green Power; how to deal with variable energy sources (David Elliott ex OU professor of energy/technology policy – author of ‘Balancing Green Power; how to deal with variable energy sources’)

Some related links to investigate

David Elliot’s Web Page

EU: The European Climate Foundation
http://www.roadmap2050.eu
European Renewable Energy Council
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/consultations/docs/0005/registered/91650013720-46_european_renewable_energy_council_en.pdf
Global: Stanford University- Prof. Mark Jacobson http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/
WWF
http://www.wwf.org.uk/search/node?keys=renewable