This is a lively discussion group which meets monthly in members’ houses on the second Thursday morning of each month. These informal meetings include a main subject or topic for discussion with an introduction by either a group member or occasionally by an external guest speaker. There is also an opportunity to spend time on discussing a wealth of unrelated topical science and technology stories making the news throughout the year. We can often go rather deep into some subjects, but it is never dull and surprisingly we get a lot of laughs. 

Some of the topics have included robotics, space exploration, artificial intelligence, climate change, computer technology, innovative engineering and materials science, major global engineering infrastructure projects, fracking, geothermal power and hydrogen generation, epigenetics, the science of ageing, food allergies and the latest developments in medical research. 

 We arrange relevant visits such as the local Mullard Space Laboratory and the Surrey Space Centre. In recent years we have visited the Culham Fusion Reactor Centre near Abingdon, the Diamond Light Source Synchro-Cyclotron facility in Didcot, Kew's Millenium Seed Bank, Hampshire Astronomical Group's Clanfield Observatory, South Downs National Park and the Linnean Society in London. We also attend the U3A annual science talks at the Royal Institution in their historic lecture theatre in Albemarle Street, London. A recent visit uncovered the technology behind the golden age of cinema at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, South London and we recently attended a fascinating tour of SES Water's Bough Beech treatment plant, dam and reservoir at Edenbridge in Kent.

We get occasional vacancies and there's also a further Science & Technology Group in operation; so if you are interested, please contact Brian.

Updated 14/01/2024