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U3A SciTech Group
​Previous Years' Programmes

Back to the current programme
2012
Jan 20        David Cox – How drugs work in our bodies
Feb 17         Denis Yell – “Big Business - evil or misunderstood?"
Mar 16        Ros Cole - Cognition
Apr 20        Nicola Tee - Sports Science
May 18       Keith Lovell - How a Car Works
Jun 15        Ray Smith – Getting it Right First Time
Jul 20         John Marriage / Ros Cole – Your Eyes
Sep 21        Eden Thomson – Tides
Oct 19        Patrick Shepherd – Planetarium, + evening visit to NLO the following week – Weds 24th at 19.00, £5
Nov 16       Jeff Bolam – Weather
 
2013
Jan 18        Richard Doney - "Turning a Grapefruit into a Mushroom" - The incredible story of how an idea that something the size of an grapefruit could destroy a city was made a reality.
Feb 15        Val Doney – The Heart and the Circulation of the Blood
Mar 15       David Croman - Things You Wondered About Freud - But Were Afraid to Ask
Apr 19        Maurice Liddiard – The Three Parent Child
May 17       Ros Cole – Phobias
Jun 21        John Marriage – Charges and Sparks – The Mysteries of Static Electricity (live demo)
Jul 19         Ray Smith – Thermionic valves + Richard Doney – Life and Death of a Star
Sep 20       Denis Yell – Hidden Engineering – the big Cover-up
Oct 18        Nicola Tee – Newton to Einstein – One Small Step
Nov 15       Richard Godfrey & David Halberstadt – Our Joints (now including practical demonstrations!)
 
2014
Jan 17        Enrich your Future - A recorded lecture by Prof. Tom Kirkwood of Newcastle University
Feb 21        Fred Humphrey – TV lighting as it used to be  (live demo)
Mar 21       Richard Doney – Untangling the Internet
May 16       Denis Yell & Keith Lovell – The Truth about Fracking
Jun 20        David Cox - Some Lifestyle Mysteries of our Birds and Butterflies
Jul 18         Steve White - Space Weather Research on Ascension Island
Sep 19       Val Doney - Immunology
Oct 17        Ros Cole – Communication (especially non-verbal)
Nov 21       Paul Bohane – Apr 7 1964 and how it’s affecting YOUR life now
 
2015
Jan 16        Geoff Townson - “The history of a pebble - a 900 million year Round Trip” - a pebble from a Dorset beach with worm burrows made 450 million years ago on a beach 50 degrees south of the equator...
Feb 20        Nicola Tee & Gerald Clark - The Science & Technology of Nuclear Power Part 1
Mar 20       Eclipse morning! - Richard Doney
Apr 17        Eden Thomson - Cephalopods
May 15       Nicola Tee & Gerald Clark - The Science & Technology of Nuclear Power Part 2
Jun 19        Geoff Townson - Geomythology
Jul 17         Richard Doney et al - Questions
Sep 18       Paul Bohane – Apr 7 1964 and how it’s affecting YOUR life now
Oct 16        Ros Cole - Lichens
Nov 20       Kevin Benfield – Synesthesia
 
2016
Jan 15        Steve Coles - Where do our drugs come from: a short history of medicines
Feb 19        Stella Huyshe-Shires - Lyme Disease
Mar 18       Bob Miles (Sidmouth U3A) - Nanotechnology
Apr 15        Richard Doney – Comedian wins Nobel Prize, the life and achievements of Richard Feynman … PLUS … Gravitational Waves
May 20       Geoff Kirby (Weymouth U3A) - Ancient Mathematics
Jun 17        Nicola Tee - Thinking fast, thinking slow
Jul 15         Eden Thomson – Biological Light
Sep 16       John Marriage - Harmonography
Oct 21        Richard Doney - Are you smarter than a 10 year old? - the retake
Nov 18       Keith Shaw (Exeter U3A) – The Digitisation of the UK Telephone Network

​2017
​Jan 20      Steve Coles – Proteins and the Human Genome
Feb 17     Steve White – The BBC South Atlantic Relay Station
Mar 17    Hilary Naylor – Astronomy: What the Very Small can tell us about the Very Large
Apr 21     Steve Coles – Human Genome research: it's impact on current understanding of disease
May 19     Bob Speer - Listening in on the Universe A Demonstration Lecture.
June 16    Tony Fitzpatrick - The Importance of the Minus Sign
Jul 21        Kevin Benfield – Perception – The Science of Seeing
Sep 15       Steve Coles – Senile Dementia
Oct 20       Jim Wiles – How to MoT a Nuclear Power Plant
Nov 17     Richard Pinion (Sidmouth U3A) – The Science of Christmas
​
2018
Jan 19  Joss Kent - Airborne research undertaken by the Met Office
Feb 16  Geoff Townson: Two Billion Years - Four Snapshots & a Projection
Mar 16  Richard Doney - To Boldly Go
Apr 20  Steve Coles - Antibiotic resistance
May 18  Bob Speer - Gold and Platinum (a talk with demos)
Jun 15  Nicola Tee - Automotive power systems - past, present and future.
Jul 20  Richard Pinion (Sidmouth U3A) - Tommy Flowers, The Man who Changed the World
Sep 21  Ros Cole - Slime Moulds
Oct 19  Kevin Benfield - Consciousness
Nov 16  Richard Doney - The Gaia Survey

2019
Jan 18  Bob Speer - A Pound of Paper. Treasures from the Book World. With demos!
Feb 15  Guy Hayden - Why can I still see when I'm 40? ... and other marvels of ophthalmology
Mar 15  Sugendran Govender - The Future of Dentistry
Apr 12  Steve Coles - Sleep
May 17  Brian Young - Meteorology
Jun 21  John Marriage - Electrochemistry
Jul 19  Kevin Butcher (Weymouth U3A) - SONAR - SOFAR 50 years of UK sonar development
Sep 20  Paul Bridge - Why is Penicillin called Penicillin?
Oct 18  Ros Cole - Fungi - Rotters, little and large
Nov 15  Maurice Liddiard - Waterwheels + Fred Humphrey - Sundials
2020
  
Jan 17
Bob Speer - Solar Eclipses 1850-2500
Feb 21
Colin Osborne - Bees
Mar 20
[Covid-19 - No Meeting]
Apr 17
ONLINE - Steve Coles - Infections of the Respiratory Tract
May 15
ONLINE - Six short talks by members on a variety of topics
Jun 19
ONLINE - Prof. Chris Paul - Geological clocks
Jul 17
ONLINE - ​The Doney Family - Vitamin D & "So you think ..."
Sep 18
ONLINE - Steve Coles - COVID-19 update 
​Plus

Dr Keith Jones - Invasive Aliens (Plants!)
Oct 16
Hilary Naylor - Norman Lockyer
Nov 20
ONLINE - Steve Coles - COVID-19 update (vaccines)
​Plus
​
Robin Brand (Weymouth U3A) - The Skylark Rocket
2021
  
Jan 15
Richard Doney - ​Life on Venus - or not?
Feb 19
Barry Zussman - The igNobel Awards
Mar 19
Steve Coles - Vaccines
Apr 16
Ruth Worsley - Grey Long-eared Bats
May 21
Ian Black - Lucretius
Jun 18
David Croman (Bridport) - Dorset Reptiles
Jul 16
Leigh Edwards (Exeter) - Artificial Intelligence
Sep 17
Barry Zussman - Little Wonders of Evolution
Oct 15
Max Beran - Benford's Law
Nov 19
Paul Hearn - Radio Astronomy and the Contribution of the Independent Researcher
2022
SciTec Group Programme  
Jan 16
John Marriage - Blowing Hot and Cold in the 1980s
Feb 18
David Youll - Introduction to Quasars
Mar 18
[cancelled - speaker has Covid-19]
Apr 22
​Move to Woodmead!
Dave Farrier - So you want to develop an onshore windfarm?
[note the now-revised date avoiding Good Friday] 
May 20
Richard Doney - Crystals and Chips 
Jun 17
Bob Speer - Adventures in Solar Physics 
​With demonstrations
Jul 15
Peter Williams - Exoplanets 
Sep 16
Steve Coles - Our Microbiome
Oct 21
Ray Helm - Technical developments in the world of humanitarian aid.
Nov 18
Richard Doney - The James Webb Space Telescope
2023
SciTech Group Programme  
Jan 20
Andy Littler - Turning Quarries Into Nature Reserves
Feb 17
Leigh Edwards - Genetically Modified Crops
Mar 17
Bob Speer - The Second Law
Apr 21
​
Keith Jones - The Bathing Water Conundrum
May 19
David Croman - Erasmus Darwin and the Lunar Society
Jun 16
Richard Doney - Fly Me To The Moon (and back preferably)
Jul 21
Charlotte Bacon - Let The Water Flow
Sep 15
Phil Busby - The Box Which Changed The World
Oct 20
[cancelled]
Nov 17
David Croman - Perception and Deception
Copyright © Lyme Regis u3a 2024
Updated 1 March 2025