Presentations on a wide variety of subjects by members or visitors who have either a special interest from their working life or an enthusiasm for other aspects of science. Short talks on current developments as well as more in-depth lectures provide a rich variety of information.
| Leader | John Email92a |
| Day & Time | Tuesday Monthly - 2nd week 14.00 to 16.00 |
| Dates | Sep 8: Oct 13: Nov 10: Dec 8: Jan 12: Feb 9: Mar 9: Apr 13: May 11: Jun 8 |
| Venue | QE Park Centre Main Hall and Zoom |
| Status | Active, open to new members |
Autumn 2026 Programme
| Date | Speaker | Topic |
| September 8th | Professor Philip Harris | One Theorem to Rule Them All - A simple idea, derided for two centuries, now helps to run our modern world: from Enigma to submarine hunting, UFO conspiracies, AI and Google searches, life wouldn’t be the same without it – so why is it so obscure...? |
| October 13th | John Nichols | What happened to Eugenics? - Eugenics reached the depths of depravity in WWII death camps but has re-emerged as gene therapy and the promise/threat of genetic enhancement |
| November 10th | Roger Philo | From building muscles to the origin of life, it’s ion gradients all the way - Ions are atoms or molecules that have either lost or gained an electron giving them an electrical charge and they play a key role in chemistry and especially the chemistry of life. |
| December 8th | tba |
Each meeting will finish with 2-3 hot topic reports from science journals and the timing is:
2:00 pm Main speaker
3:00 pm Tea & coffee break
3:10 pm Further questions and discussions with main speaker
3:40 pm 2-3 hot topic reports*
4:00 pm finish
*Short reports are based on a hot topic from a current or very recent paper in a science or medical journal and examples from past meetings in 2025 include: mirror molecules and their possible uses, using mice to study brain activity during dreaming, dietary factors determining the risk of bowel cancer, recruiting the second X chromosome to slow ageing, hunting for the properties and sources of neutrinos, using NMR to make better landmine detectors, shingles vaccine reduces risk of dementia, birds use shed snakeskin to build safer nests, people who eat nuts live longer and healthier lives.