Hope you had a great, bug free break and are ready for a new season of technology and science topics. We resume next Wednesday with:

Jan 10th – The jolley girls with Phil
Jan 24th – Pain with Bob Morris

Topics for November will be:

Nov 08 – The Abbeystead disaster
Nov 22 – Christmas chemistry

No meetings in December. Have a good break.
We resume on January 10th.

We have had a good response to ‘the future topics’ request so we will be looking at Mars rover, pain, plate techtonics, canal systems, home security, chemical disasters and slide rules. Dates TBA

Dates and subjects for October

11th:    Air currents from the jet stream to ground        with Wanda Leach

25th:    The ‘painted lady of Paviland’ with Phil

Kensington House from 2.30 pm.   All welcome.

Not already a group member ? Then contact Colin to be included in the email list.

The Tech and Science group will restart another season in September at the usual venue of Kensington House from 2.30 pm.   All welcome.

If you are not already a group member then please contact Colin to be included in the email list.

Sep.  13  Radio astronomy with Phil
Sep.  27  History of medicine with John

We have covered over 100 subject in the last 15 years. An updated list is here.
If you fancy doing a presentation on a subject you think we might enjoy, or would like a topic presented then please contact us with your ideas.

I have been trying for several weeks to access the ‘FREE WiFi‘ on the new Merseyrail trains without success. I finally contacted the Helpdesk to be told that –

‘there are issues with the wifi and Stadler are looking in to it’

Merseyrail have a Customer Service number on WhatsApp – 0151 555 1111

We have a change of subject for June 28th
It will now be ‘sun safety’ with Bob Morris.

We then break for the summer and restart in September with:

Sep 13. Radio astronomy – history and science
Sep 27. History of medicine

Further to the presentation on AI, given last week, we decided to try out the ChatGPT system with some searching questions. Sandy kindly gave me 7 sample queries and the results for the first one are here.

What were the most significant scientific discoveries made in the 20th century ?

The 20th century witnessed numerous groundbreaking scientific discoveries across various fields. Here are some of the most significant ones:

1. Theory of Relativity: Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, published in 1905
2. Quantum Mechanics: early 20th century, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr
3. DNA Structure and Genetics: In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick
4. Antibiotics: The discovery and development of antibiotics in the early 20th century,
5. Theory of Plate Tectonics:
6. Big Bang Theory:
7. Space Exploration:
8. Genetic Code and Human Genome:
9. Nuclear Energy and Particle Physics:
10. Computing and Information Technology:

This is just an extract from the resulting query which gave 1000 words in great detail within seconds. Thanks to Sandy for the interest and input.

If you would like to try out the system then login to https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt

Upcoming topics:

May  24    AI – What’s it all about ?

June 14    RADAR with Eric
June 28    Radio astronomy history and science

12 members of the Technology and Science group visited the Scottish Power control centre in Prenton last Wednesday.  We were given a most excellent presentation by Jon and Sue that covered  topics including the generation, power distribution networks, outages and call centre activity.

We were then shown around the ‘control room’ and given a close display of the Maghull area network by Kevin, who fielded all our questions.

We finished with Sue and a Q+A session regarding outages and their effects.

Thanks to all the staff and to Bill for organising the day.

We hope to visit a local factory in Knowsley in early June so watch this space.

April    26 – SP Energy Networks visit
We have a party of 16. Meet at Kensington House at 13:00 for car sharing to the site.

If your NOT on our list but wish to be included please contact Colin or Phil asap !

Here are the topics for May

10th – Nuclear Fusion with Wanda
           Putting the sun in a bottle

24th – Artificial Intelligence with Phil
           Intelligence demonstrated by machines