Wednesday, 2nd December 2015 – Christmas Cheer
Some tasty treats and teasers for you 
at Christmas! With a festive assortment from Jack, Chris, Edmund and Patsy, you can be assured of a heart-warming afternoon:
10 minute talks on Christmas science, a quick quiz, games, mulled wine with mince pies and cake, and many prizes ~ what else could you wish for!
Wednesday, 4th February 2015 – Chemical Elements part 2 – this was a joint effort by 6 of our members, each talking for 10 minutes on their chosen element. It was the second session on chemical elements, the first one being last June. February’s line-up was:
Frank Wood – Silicon
John Appleton – Lead
Ann Parker – Hydrogen
Allan Yates – Polonium
Bill Hale – Iridium
Sue Watkinson – Gold
Each of the presenters took a different approach, which provided great variety.
Frank outlined the zone refining of silicon, its crystal structure, 
and its major uses. He then went on to explain how silicon acts as a semi-conductor when doped with either nitrogen or phosphorus atoms and is the basis of the transistor.
John described the harmful effects of environmental lead in the development of children’s teeth, with particular reference to a project he has worked on in Poland monitoring the levels of lead over time.
On a lighter note (you can’t get much lighter than hydrogen!), Ann 
explained the critical importance of hydrogen bonds in biology and how they enable life as we know it.
Allan talked about the discovery and properties of polonium, one of the most radioactive and toxic substances around, and its role in the killing of the former soviet secret service agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Bill’s interest in birds and geology suggested iridium, which is found in meteorites with an abundance much higher than its average abundance in Earth’s crust. For this reason the unusually high abundance of iridium in the clay layer at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary gave rise to the Alvarez hypothesis that the impact of a massive extraterrestrial object caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species 66 million years ago.
Sue rounded off the mini-talks with an interesting account of the early history of gold and its uses through the centuries right up to the present day use in electronics, medicine and space exploration.
I venture to suggest that the seventy-eight people who came along not only enjoyed the talks, but also went away knowing something extra about six more of our chemical elements.
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Wednesday, 3rd December 2014 – “Christmas Cheer”: Christmas Menu Mulled wine Christmas Baking and Christmas Drinks – what is the common denominator? Yeast! We will be serving up a variety of science morsels: physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and domestic! Come along and sample them all. |
Wednesday, 5th November 2014 – “It’s a dirty old world we live in” – the Science of Cleaning, by Patsy Colvin. As an ex Head of Chemistry at a local school, Patsy brought her vast experience of chemistry to bear on the problem of cleaning. Why are some stains harder to remove than others? Why do we need so many different types of cleaning solution? Why can’t there be a universal cleaner?
Well, Patsy did a very good job of enlightening us: we heard about surfactants, solvents, chelators, saponifiers and builders and how these various components of the cleaning process work on different types of stain. We learnt about soils and stains, anions and cations, hydrophilic and hydrophobic solvents, and hopefully we left with a better understanding of how to read the labels on cleaning products!
Wednesday, 4th June 2014 – “Chemical Elements – Part 1″ – a joint effort by 6 of our members, each talking for 10 to 15 minutes about their chosen element. The line-up was:
Patsy Colvin setting the scene with a brief definition of an element, a bit of atomic theory and a tour around the periodic table, then on with the show, starring your very own…
Edmund Moynihan talking about Iron. A whizz through the history of iron taking in Soviet Art, the Romans, the industrial revolution, geology with a bit of biology to finish with.
Beryl Yates talking about Copper. Its history, its geology complete with samples to show: what more could you ask for!
Chris Procter talking about Phosphorus. From its discovery to its critical importance in biology and agriculture, everything you wanted to know.
Peter Croughan talking about Noble Gases Six elements at once, not so unreactive as you might think with much curious chemistry and many important technological applications
John Parsons talking about Chlorine A much maligned element, critical to modern hygiene. The world of Domestos revealed
Tony Edwards talking about Platinum Not just for jewelry, important in many areas of technology especially the glass industry. We learned some metallurgy from an expert.
Each of these has a story, and each of the presenters took a different tack. We heared some fascinating things about the discovery, chemistry, physical properties, uses and economic importance of each of these elements; and with seven of our own presenters, no one fell asleep!
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Courses are typically from 2 to 8 weeks long and expect you to do between 1 and 4 hours work per week.
The list of courses currently running or soon to be run is here.
Wednesday, 5th March 2014 – Following on from our highly successful talk about Forensics in February, our own Marguerita McBride will talk about Chemical Analysis.
It’s a complex world we live in – physically (as well as politically, socially, financially, culturally, and so on!) – and there are many processes used in analysis of the chemical, physical and biological properties of materials.
This presentation is about some of the types of analysis linked to Chemistry and the impact of those on many aspects of everyday life. Some reference will be made to the Electromagnetic Spectrum we looked at in November, eg Infra Red, Ultra Violet, but other methods may perhaps be less well known and yet every bit as important and interesting. How do we know the formulae of so many complex chemicals, for instance, or that we are ‘over the limit’ or that an athlete has taken a banned substance?
It’s all down to Chemical Analysis, and the modern tools and techniques used. Come along and find out more about it.
Wednesday 5th February 2014 – The Use of Forensics in Criminal Investigations. Stuart Kirby, who retired from the police service with the rank of Detective Chief Superintendent, and who now lectures in Criminology at Lancaster University, came along to tell us about the use of Forensics in criminal investigations. Popular television programmes such as CSI and Silent Witness have stirred interest in this area, and Stuart enlightened us as to the lack of real science in many of the stories.
He was entertaining yet informative, and had a very easy style of delivery, so the 96 people who attended were rewarded with a great afternoon.
Wednesday, 6th November – something a bit different!
This was a meeting inspired by a suggestion from Sylvia Dillon. Six members each gave a 10 minute talk on a different aspect of The Electromagnetic Spectrum:
Marguerita McBride set the scene with an overview of the spectrum, and the relation between wavelength and frequency.
Edmund Moynihan gave a potted history of early discoveries in relation to the spectrum, and of the scientists who made them.
Patsy Colvin concentrated on visible light and colour in chemistry.
Chris Procter talked about ultra violet vision in the animal kingdom, and how insects see the world differently to humans.
Alan Nolan outlined the use of electromagnetic radiation in communications – from long wave radio to microwave transmission.
Jack Brettle was last up to show us how modern astronomy benefits from observing the skies at different wavelengths, and combining the results to give a much fuller picture of the universe than simply using optical telescopes.
This was a somewhat experimental format, but most people seemed to enjoy it, and at least the frequent change of speakers kept the audience awake!
On a hot summer’s day in late July, a waste recovery centre is the last place you’d wish to visit – yes?
Well, not everyone would agree, especially the two dozen or more who made their way to Farington, near Leyland, last week, and enjoyed a truly educational tour of the facility that processes nearly all of Lancashire’s domestic waste.
The Farington Waste Recovery Park is operated by Global Renewables Lancashire Ltd, under a 25-year PFI contract with Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council. When built, it was the second fully enclosed waste treatment facility in the UK.
We followed the progress of household waste as it arrived from one of the waste collection centres in Lancashire (our nearest is in Skelmersdale), and then passed through a series of separation stages to recover as much material as possible, and minimise the amount that has to be sent to landfill.
More photos in the gallery.
Aughton & Ormskirk U3A Science Group (Archived) 