Monthly Archives: May 2010

Mersey Tunnel Tour – 22nd May 2010

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Mersey Tunnel Tour – Due to popular demand, a second group took the Mersey Tunnel Tour on a warm, sunny afternoon in May.

“How is this relevant for an underground tour?” you may well ask. “Doesn’t it get warmer, the deeper underground you go?” Well, down a mineshaft, maybe, but down a ventilation shaft…? The answer is very simple – huge fans below ground draw fresh air in through the sides of the ventilation towers and pump it up through vents at the sides of the roadway, the air then being released through the centre of the towers. The air temperature is therefore the same as the outside, but in winter there is a significant wind-chill factor because the winds underground can reach 30 mph.

Most of us travelled into Liverpool by train and met outside the George’s Dock building – the iconic Grade II listed Art Deco structure between the Port of Liverpool building and the Strand.

The tour cost just £5, and all who went deemed it excellent value for money.

If you are interested, there are public tours on Saturday mornings and some weekday evenings. For more details of the tour you can download the Merseytravel poster (.pdf file).

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Nanotechnology – 4th May 2010

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Tuesday 4th May: Jack Brettle gave his talk on Nanotechnology on 4th May. 
(This was the talk which was snowed off on the 5th January).  Jack touched on the hype surrounding Nanotechnology – for good or ill. He outlined how it all started, what the reality is behind the media headlines and perhaps most importantly whether it will all end in disaster.  Watch this space for a link to his slides.

The Great Moon Hoax

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Tuesday 2nd March 2010: we had an extremely interesting, nay – thought provoking, talk from Dr. Steve Barrett from Liverpool University Physics Department entitled “The Evidence that the Apollo Moon Landings were Faked”.  Steve talked on how science is treated in the media, and presented the skeptics’ arguments, followed by systematic rebuttals of each of them.
Read the Great Moon Hoax – Steve’s talk about the Apollo Moon Landings