Meeting Details
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Time | 2.30 pm on the fourth Friday of the month |
| Duration | 1 1/2 to 2 hours |
| Location | Castle Street Centre |
| Coordinator | John Burrows |
What we do
Our meetings consist of talks by a guest speaker or group member, group study activities, or visits to places of scientific interest. Each meeting is planned to completely cover a specific subject. Subsequent meetings may cover a related subject but not rely on the matter of a previous meeting. In this way anyone who misses a meeting will not be at a loss.
Our policy is that talks and studies do not require specialised knowledge. If some members wish to go more deeply into a topic then we would arrange to meet outside the programmed meetings. Mathematical topics are not covered unless the members wish for a change. We welcome tackling any subject a member would like to raise and like to think our interests range widely.
Past subjects have been '600 million Years of Cumbrian Geology' by Mike Dewey one of our Group members, 'New Light on Light' by Professor John Inglesfield and a group study on 'Future Energy Sources'. Questions are encouraged as we go along to increase understanding.
Visits, outings and social events may be at times outside the normal schedule of meetings.
We have also visited the Lambrigg wind farm, the Windermere sewage works and the Windermere aquarium.
New members would be very welcome.
Reports
February 2008
I’ve arranged a summer walk for the Science Group and other U3A members. It’ll take place on Wed 18th of June 08 starting at 11:00 hrs. The walk will be 3 miles long on good paths. The starting point is Force falls lay-bye (grid ref SD508868). The walk will be along the Lancaster Canal and the River Kent taking in three old gunpowder works. Please being along a packed lunch.
Mike Dewey
March 2008
The subjects we shall cover for the rest of this session are:
March: Biofuels, Vernon King
April: History of Land Plants, Mike Dewey
Summer: A walk round old gunpowder factories, Mike and Gill Dewey
We have had a very pleasing surge in interest in the group with 29 participants up to the beginning of December 2007. I do not have the register at the time of writing as I was on holiday for the February meeting so it has probably increased. Please tell Mike Dewey or myself if you have any interests you would like us to cover and better still if you are prepared to give a talk.
Sophia Harteveld showed the way when she volunteered with much trepidation. Nevertheless she gave us a wonderful talk about the Dykes and Waters of Holland at our November meeting. She left us a very good handout, which I can copy for anyone interested. She covered the land reclamation from the North Sea from 2000 years ago to the present day and the problems ahead if sea levels rise. Initially this was done with windmill power operating waterwheels in reverse. Of the many facts one that stood out is that 27% of Holland is below sea level including Amsterdam airport. Mike Dewey greatly helped Sophia with slide preparations and we can offer this help to anyone else.
We did not meet in December but 15 of us enjoyed an excellent lunch in early January at Kendal College. Two had to cancel at the last minute unfortunately. Professor John Inglesfield gave us a talk on Symmetry at the end of January. He has done this for several years now and we are most grateful. He explained the different types of symmetry, mirror rotational, etc with examples from snowflakes, flowers and chemicals where different symmetrical forms have quite profound effects on the way they behave particularly in the human body. 23 members attended this very good talk.
As already mentioned I missed the February talk by Mike Dewey on the Development of the Colorado Plateau. I was in the Canadian Rockies and will have to see if he will explain how these beautiful mountains were formed.
April will be our last meeting but Mike and Gill have already generated interest for a walk round the old gunpowder factories in the area probably in June or July. Details will be announced at the next meetings and on the Website. Please telephone Mike or myself if you miss the details.
Next session we are moving to the Castle Street Centre, where there is free parking. The dates fixed so far are: Fridays 26th September, 31st October and 28th November 2008. Michael Middleton has offered to talk about ‘Goldilocks’ this will not be about bears and honey but the reasons why atoms are the size they are. Any other volunteers or ideas will be most welcome.
John Burrow
November 2007
The subject of our first meeting of the session in September was on Automatic Chemical Analysis by myself. We had an excellent attendance of 22 members. I covered two methods. The first was laboratory continuous flow analysis technique, which was invented in early 1960s and still widely used. While preparing the talk I realised more fully what a great invention it was at the time as there were no computers then nor many of the materials that are now used in modern instrumentation.
The second was on-line analyser in nuclear reprocessing plant, which was beside the plant and fed with sample from it. Here the emphasis was on problems of operating an automatic analyser safely behind shielding and within a glovebox.
In October George Coulthard gave a very interesting talk on Design of the South Lakes U3A Website. Clearly this was planned like any industrial project starting with objectives through to testing with the Computer Group and then launch. A few ideas came up for improvements during the talk, which George was going to implement. We were shown some other local U3A websites and we all thought George had provided us with the best one.
The subjects we shall cover for the rest of this session are:-
| November 2007 | Dykes and Waters of Holland | Sophia Harteveld |
| December | No meeting | |
| January 2008 | Symmetry | Prof. John Inglesfield |
| February | Development of the Colorado Plateau | Mike Dewey |
| March | To be decided | |
| April | History of Land Plants | Mike Dewey |
John Burrows
July 2007:
In the last Newsletter I forgot to report on Mike Dewey’s January 2007 talk on ‘The Geology of the Lake District’. In this Mike explained the origin of the rocks and in particular the new interpretations on the geological evidence. My main memory was excellent slides and that geologists now believe there was a ring of volcanoes in the central lakes rather than one. My apologies to Mike if this recollection is inaccurate.
In March Mike showed slides and lead a discussion on quantum mechanics (QM). QM explains the behaviour of very small scale matter, that is atoms and sub-atomic particles, which are beyond our normal comprehension. The scale you have to think about is where a million atoms side by side would be only the width of a hair strand. Here Newton mechanics, which explains such things as planetary motion and Einstein’s General Relativity, which extended Newton’s work, break down. Mike finally touched on ‘string theory’ which is trying to combine Einstein’s theories and QM into one framework. Top scientists are still working on this after 40 years and not sorted it yet! It is hoped the CERN Large Hadron Collider starting experiments in November 2007 will be able to test some of the string theories. The study extended our group but hopefully gave an insight into this exotic field of science.
Mike was the speaker again in April on ‘The Vernacular Architecture and building stones of Kendal’, which was followed by a walk round the town on 27 May to see the buildings. Both events were illuminating and enjoyable. We learnt Dalton limestone was used for the main facades but you often see Urswick limestone used for lintels because it is stronger. On the walk we found a significant fossil (I cannot remember its name) on the north parapet of Miller bridge, which Mike told us can accurately age the limestone.
As you will gather the Group is greatly indebted to Mike and Gill Dewey for all the excellent talks he has given.
We meet again in September and the diary up till early January is below. You will see we are giving Mike a rest! We have talks lined up for next year and selected the most popular ones from our survey at the end of last season.
John Burrows
March 2007:
Prof. John Inglesfield gave us a thought provoking talk on Gravity in November. It is the weakest of all the forces but does not appear such if you fall over. It seems almost impossible to imagine how gravity works but really must be accepted as a field much like magnetism affecting a compass needle say. John covered Newton's theories and explained how Einstein in his general theory of relativity treated gravity as a space-time problem.
10 members enjoyed an excellent and good value lunch at Kendal College in January.
I was on holiday for Richard Horsley's talk on Bacterial Flora of Fish in February but heard it went off well though Richard had rush off the next day to a family funeral I believe. We are grateful he managed to fit the talk in.
If members of other Groups would like to attend Mike Dewey's talk 'Vernacular Architecture and Building Stones of Kendal' on 27 April 2007, which should be of general interest, they would be most welcome. However please let me or Mike know so a larger room may be booked if necessary. In addition a walk may be arranged during the summer 2007 to see 'the building stones' in the area. Again please let us know if you are interested.
We shall finish this season's programme after the April meeting and meet again in September 2007. We hope to arrange a few visits or walks during the summer months, in particular the one already mentioned by Mike.
A number of subject matters have been suggested for the next session and we shall try and decide the programme at our March and April meetings. Please let me know if there any topics you would like us to tackle.
John Burrows