The Science and Technology Group was delighted to receive alot of positive feedback about this event which it hosted on 11th July 2014 and which was attended by over a hundred members of similar Interest Groups from the other U3As in Hampshire. We were very grateful to the speakers who covered the wide range of subjects shown below and who helped to make the day so successful. It had been hoped that other U3As might organise similar events in the future however as yet this has not happened.
Space Weather
Matthew Stuttard, UK Head of Advanced Projects – Space, Airbus Defence and Space
Space Weather is best known to most of us for the beautiful display known as the Northern Lights which occurs when charged particles streaming from the sun interact with Earth’s ionosphere. However it has become a topic of interest and concern at Cabinet Office level because the trend towards technology dependence in society renders us vulnerable to the effects of large solar storms; for example on power grids, satellite navigation, global time coordination, mobile communications networks, long range radio and satellite communications.
This talk addressed the different types of space weather, how they are monitored, how they have affected engineered systems on Earth and may do so in the future, what can be done to mitigate the economic and societal threats from space weather and how space weather forecasting may soon become as routine for certain sectors of the economy as weather forecasting is today.
The Cardiac Foxtrot: How Constant Is Your Heart?
Jeff Bagust, BSc, PhD. Emeritus Professor of Experimental Research
Is a steady heart rate a good thing? This talk explored how simple techniques can be used to investigate changes in heart activity, both in health and disease. It also considered how modern techniques allow subtle changes in heart rate to be analysed providing an insight into the control of the heart, and the functioning of the nervous system. Using examples of yoga relaxation and pain-induced stress we saw how changes in heart rate variability can tell us about the body’s response to everyday situations.
Thorium Energy
Dr. Ian Scott; Alvin Weinberg Foundation
Nuclear energy has reached a cross roads. Although the world needs nuclear energy to reduce its carbon emissions, the cost of making nuclear power stations safe since Chernobyl and Fukushima has made them prohibitively expensive. To break this impasse, two technologies that were researched but abandoned in the mid-20th century are now converging. Ian demonstrated how re-engineering a design for molten salt reactors which use abundant, cheap thorium as their fuel holds out a real prospect of making nuclear power stations much safer and no more expensive to build than coal fired stations.
They could also eliminate the need for geological nuclear waste repositories, consume the world’s stores of waste reactor fuel and plutonium from bombs and provide clean energy for at least 1000 years. The UK could lead the realisation of this vision despite abandoning its world leading position in nuclear technology over the past 30 years.
Why You Should Not Buy an Electric Car - Meeting our future need for Electricity
Professor Averil Macdonald D.Univ CPhys FInstP FRSA, Chair in Science Communication, University of Reading
Professor Alun Vaughan, ECS, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of Southampton
Electric cars are widely perceived as an excellent way to reduce pollution and our reliance on fossil fuels. Averil challenged this view by discussing the serious difficulties and threats that they could bring, including the problem providing the amount of electricity needed to charge them. She also considered the life style changes that we will have to adopt if we are to move to a totally green electric world.
Alun described the huge technological challenges we face if we are to generate and transmit the electricity we will require in the future and the research currently being undertaken to try and achieve this.