PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS

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Knutsford SciBAr Out & About Click here for Archive -Pre 2007

THE picture opposite is a nanotechnology Molecular engine inserted here to comemorate our first discussion session led by Prof Paul O' Brien on Nanotechnology . Go to our discussion group site to see more nano engines and other superb science photos including astronomy ,black holes , satellite pictures of England in the dark etc and look in the Files section to get statistics on Uk Energy 21st Century needs Have a look what we discussed after the SciBAr Evening and add your comments/questions ---click here.

Knutsford SciBAr Discussion group

If you would like to see a 17 minute video of Knutsford SciBAr in operation (it downloads in 4-5mins broadband) CLICK HERE

The last bit was shot sound only so other video of the SciBAr has been added on top

PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS

5th july 2010" The deep Oceans and their inhabitants"

Join Professorpaul Tyler of The National Oceanographic Centre on Monday 5th July to discuss"What goes on down there"

What are conditions like at the bottom of the DEEP Oceans. The pressure is phenominal - Can anything live , What would they eat and what do they do all day in the parts of the earth that light doesn't reach.

7th of June 2010 "Synchotron Radiation"

Professor Richard Pattrickand will join us to discuss:- Synchrotron radiation which is electromagnetic radiation, generated by the acceleration of ultrarelativistic (i.e., moving near the speed of light) charged particles through magnetic fields. This may be achieved artificially in synchrotrons or storage rings, or naturally by fast electrons moving through magnetic fields in space. The radiation produced may range over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays. The picture shows the CRab Nebula and the blue light in the centre is natural synchotron radiation.from the electrons in the supernova explosion of 1054

10th of May 2010 "Memories are made of this"

Professor Alistair Burns(MBChB, FRCP, FRCPsych, MD, MPhil, DHMSA) is -Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs, & Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at The University of Manchester in the UK and an Honorary Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust (MMHSCT) and will join us to discuss:-

How are memories formed and how and where are they stored
What goes wrong with the process during aging-- if anything, as my personal experience suggests its my retrieval process which is deteriorating most.
How do we retrieve memories - How come smell seems to be a potent memory jogger
What goes wrong with the retrieval processes during aging
What is Alzheimer's disease and what can be done about it and memory loss during aging

12th of April 2010 The brain in the gut

In this talk, Dr Cath O’Neill from the University of Manchester Gastrointestinal sciences group, will talk about how the brain ‘talks’ to the gut to control eating and drinking.

Put simply, the brain controls everything we do. This includes things we are aware of such as movement, vision, hearing etc and also unconscious behaviours such as keeping the heart beating, controlling blood pressure etc.
One ofthe most important things the brain does is to control eating behaviour. Clearly, eating is one of the most important things we do and is often one of the most pleasurable. Much of our early evolution has been shaped by the struggle to obtain food and nature has given us strong mechanisms which encourage eating and storage of fat. However, these days, food is plentiful and unfortunately, we have much weaker mechanisms to prevent overeating!!
We will discuss how the brain starts a meal, the signals it sends to tell us to stop eating and what happens when it all goes wrong!!

1st of March 2010 Frogs & amphibians - Are they still as primitive as when they started on their evolutionary journey

Andrew Gray, the Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum will talk about amphibians - their early entry into the world via evolution and the sophisticated nature of the "end product"- Remember they have had more time to evolve from their beginnings than we have. From a personal perspective he will share his experiences working with these wonderful creatures over several decades, including his fieldwork in the depths of the South American rainforest. He will also highlight the need for amphibian conservation and how research and education are proving crucial to the efforts being made. He may even bring with him some amphibian members of Manchester Museum Herpetology department

Have a look at :- click to go to Andrew's Frog blog

1st of February 2010 "Is Farming Sustainable?"

Dr Alastair Leake MRPPA ARAgS MIAgrM CEnv from The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Project Head of The Allerton Project. will talk to us about Farming and the pressures on Farming today The Allerton Project is 333 hectares of clay soil (Hanslope and Denchworth series) and is a mixed arable and livestock business. Crops grown are primarily winter wheat, oilseed rape, winter oats and spring beans. The pasture land is grazed by a flock of 280 mule ewes and, through a grazing agreement with our neighbour, a South Devon suckler herd. In order to spread fixed costs, the arable side of the farm has also been managed in collaboration with the neighbouring farm since 2001 when minimum tillage was adopted across the combined area.

Wheat and oat crops are grown to an environmental standard and sold at a premium as Conservation Grade. Farm staff are also involved in conservation work through management of habitats, both in the farmed area, in woodland and other non-cropped habitats. Much of this work has taken place at Loddington and in Sussex (see The Sussex Study) where we have recently compared the relationships between pesticide use and invertebrate abundance.They have a wide-ranging research programme in collaboration with universities and other research organisations from across the country

4th of January 2010 "Reasoning Machines "

Dr Louise Dennis's background is in artificial intelligence and more specifically in automated reasoning. Over the years she has worked primarily on the development of automated reasoning and theorem proving tools. Wouldn't it be better if a bunch of satellites could take any appropriate action by talking together on their own without awaiting instructions from their ground base. It sounds a bit difficult since we don't seem to know much about our own reasoning processes - never mind a machine's. Join us and discover what machines might do .

Come on in R2D2 why are you sad?

7th December- Harvesting Sunlight: Can solar power meet our requirements for a sustainable energy supply?

Every year we are using the same amount of energy that it has taken the Earth one million years to store in fossil fuels. We are increasingly aware that the burning of our precious fossil fuels cannot continue for long, but what viable alternatives exist? One answer is solar power, but can solar power alone meet our growing energy demands?

Dr Darren Graham from the Photon Science Institute of the University of Manchester will lead the discussion into the requirements of a sustainable energy source, reviewing current solar technologies and introducing promising new directions being explored in laboratories around the world. Dr Graham’s research is primarily concerned with developing a new generation of solar-harvesting nano-cells, which are based on nanoparticles: clumps of atoms that are a billionth of a metre in size, and which promise to simultaneously increase solar cell efficiency and reduce cost.

Dr Graham uses synchrotron radiation facilities across Europe to understand how the structure of these nanoparticles influences their light-harvesting properties, and laser facilities at Manchester University to investigate the mechanisms of electricity generation in prototype solar cells. Through the insight this research is providing Dr Graham and colleagues are optimising the design of these novel solar nano-cells, which they hope will soon enable their widespread implementation.

Prof Partridge who was due to talk to us about "Deep Oceans" cannot make it,unfortunately. Professor Tyler has now agreed to lead the Deep Ocean session in July 2010 - see below

2nd of November 2009 "Gravity Waves-- Ripples in the fabric of Spacetime"

Dr Ed Daw of Sheffield University will return to take us into the realm of Gravity Waves-- If a large star explodes it can create an effect like throwing a pebble in a pond . The pond in this case is Spacetime itself. Can we rupture Spacetime? and can we detect these ripples which are forecast by Einstein's General Relativity. It does sound a bit tricky but a lot of work is going on and I'm sure Ed will tell us about the theory and the major efforts currently under way to detect gravity waves in Spacetime

5th of October 2009 " Nuclear Fusion -- Another approach -- The HiPER Project"

After being thwarted by the snow in February, Professor Mike Dunne Director of the Rutherford Labs HiPER Project will introduce us to their approach to Fusion research which addresses some of the issues ,like containment inherent in the Tokomak approach. He will explain how they plan to fire lasers at pellets of fuel to cause " rapid fire" fusion reactions one after another .The laser and the pellets need to fire around 5 times a second and the laser compresses the hydrogen pellet with a pressure like that which an aircraft carrier would exert if resting on your thumb. Sounds tricky but it does largely address the fusion confinement problem ie what do you put your star in when you've made it.

7th September 2009 " The future of the seas around us- Are the Oceans Doomed?

Join Dr Steve Simpson on Monday 7th September to discuss the future of the seas around us!

The Daily Telegraph’s headline "All Seafood will Run Out by 2050"sums up the current debate on our oceans. But how much of this is science and how much is scare story? Steve Simpson is a marine biologist and fish ecologist at Bristol University. His particular interests in coral reefs, commercial fisheries, climate change and aquaculture qualify him to shine some light into these murky waters!

Steve’s talk, and the subsequent discussion, is based on a regular series of Science Cafés at the Pierian Centre.

10th of August 2009 "A Bacterial Conundrum-- Where to go? and How to get there?"

Professor Judith Armitage of Oxford University tooke us into the land of the bacterium. These little creatures are less than a thousandth of a millimetre in size - so the full stop at the end of this sentence could hold several hundred thousand. They still face the same problems as other animals -- how to find food ,how to avoid danger and if you know where the food is how do you go in that direction . This is not so easy when you are too small to have a brain , so how do they do it? They are the most successful creatures on earth and the ones from whom all other animals and plants are descended - so they must be good at it. The session also included work on Swine flu and how bacteria differ from viruses( or is it "viri"

6th of July 2009 "From a single cell to a complete animal"

Dr David Tannahill of Cranfield University will talk to us about how genes work in the development of an embryo. How they get switched on and off in different ways in different cells . Each cell contains all of the information to make a complete human being and yet some " decide to become a fingernail whilst others become brain cells. What makes them do that ? and in such an ordered fashion that the end result works. What about Stem cells why haven't they decided what to be yet? If they haven't decided yet why is it so difficult to get them to "decide" to be what We want them to be? What do we still have to do to unleash the medical benefits of Stem Cells

1st of June 2009 "Dinosaur locomotion and primate Evolutionary Divergence"

Dr Bill Sellersof Manchester University will introduce us to his research on Dinosaurs and how they moved . Could a T-Rex catch a triceratops that was running to escape-- Could it catch a man who was trying not to be eaten(if we'd been around) How did Primate locomotion evolve and what influence did it have on evolution. We will also discuss the research that tells us these things and the level of credibility we can put on research results about things that were happening millions of years ago

11th of May 2009 "Dark Matter -- will someone please switch on the light"

Dr Ed Daw of Sheffield University will take us into the realm of Dark Matter -- What is it ? Where can we find it? . If it is all around us , why is it so difficult to find ? and what makes him think he will find it down a coal mine of all places. Professor Spooner is trying to find some of this enigmatic stuff. What are the consequences, if he finds it: and what are the consequences if it turns out "not to be there".

6th of April 2009 "Digging up Planets - The Geology of the Solar System"

Professor Chris Ballentine of Manchester University looked at the Geology of the Solar system.-- How do the planets differ in their Geology? and Why are they all so different? - What is the earth's Geology like? and how did it end up like this ?.Mercury is definitely strange from a geological point of view , being not much other than a metallic core with a thin covering of surface rock

2nd of March 2009 "Digitising Sound-- Make a cheap violin sound like a Stradivarius"

Professor Patrick Gaydecki from Manchester University will with the aid of his demonstration equipment show us what becomes possible when you digitise sound and how, among other things, you could adjust the sound so that a cheap violin sounds like a Stradivarius. It sounds like an intriguing session .

2nd of February 2009 " Son of Scibar -- Evolution Head to Tail

Dave Thompson Founder of Knutsford Scibar stood in for Mike Dunne who was planned to introduce us to The Hiper Project at Rutherford Labs but was thwarted by heavy snow over much of southern England. Mike will join us, weather permitting, on 5th of October see below. Dave gave a Son of Scibar style talk on "Evolution"; from the neo Darwinian theory through the selfish gene to the workings of DNA, during which he made an impassioned defence of the role of the male in preventing errors inherent in female only reproduction (parthenogenesis).

5th of January 2009 " What makes you tick ?- A look at our many internal body clocks"

Professor Andrew Loudon from Manchester University l introduced us to the many body clocks we have built in to ensure that our body is ready for what it needs to do -"at the time" He is using many animals including siberian hamsters and sheep to see how internal clocks time physiology and behaviour. From sleep , hibernation, reproduction to feeding & fattening cycles. how do these clocks work and what influence do the genes have on what time of day or year your body thinks it is. A great evening 71% of attendees rated the evening "Excellent" for each of Informative,Stimulating, Participative, Enjoyable and Overall . Professor Loudon will soon be speaking on a similar topic at Didsbury SciBar

1st of December 2008 "The effects of Space and Ageing on the human physiology"

Professor Mario Narici from Manchester University led the discussion on the effects of Space trips on the physiology of Astronauts. Astronauts have the urgent requirement for physio treatment on return from Space, if they are not to fracture a limb -- even if they have only been out there for a short time.Professor Narici's work also has implications for the ageing process and automatic monitoring the efficiency of bodily processes with a view to applying timely interventions.It was fascinating and Thanks to Chris Grice for his excellent chairmanship of the meeting ,in my absence

3rd of November 2008" Emulating biology to make thin film Solar cells"

Professor Paul O'Brien from Manchester University returned to inform and entertain us, yet again. Paul led our very first SciBAr on the topic of Nanotechnology( See picture at top of"Whatson page") and returned to lead our discussion on what's new in Nanotechnology and discuss with us how he is trying to emulate photosynthesis in plants using microscopically thin films of non biological material. He focussed very strongly on solar power generation and the need to reduce the costs and improve the packaging rather than focus on improving efficiency. He pointed out that if the world's energy usagy was 13 units the sunlight falling on the earth was 100,000 units so a very low efficiency would be sufficient, provided it was cheap and robust.

6th of October 2008" Mining Space -- What's out there? and how could we get it back here?"

Dr Benny Peiser from Liverpool John Moores University returns to inform and entertain us, yet again, and leads the discussion on Mining in Space. We are talking about minerals in vast quantities but which minerals and how do we get them to Earth without burning up in the atmosphere. Space ships is the obvious answer but how do we get millions of tons of payload down to the earth's surface without it costing so much as to make it economically totally infeasible. Does it need to come down . And its not just minerals - There is a lot of He3 on the moon - It could be very useful fuel if we ever realise the Nuclear Fusion opportunity. There have been countless feasibility studies but who/what is going to make it happen? When is it likely to happen? What are the implications for colonising the Moon , the Planets and indeed Space itself. What about manufacturing out in Space? and which country owns all this stuff and how would we decide?-How would we get the factories out there? There would be a lot to resolve but is it just pie in the sky? or a real opportunity

1st of September 2008 " LIQUID CRYSTALS-- What are they and why are they appearing everywhere?"

Professor Helen Gleeson from Manchester University l helped us understand how something can be both a liquid and a crystal. Normally, we consider matter to have three distinct states: solid, liquid, and gas. However, there are states of matter which do not meet the necessary requirements of any of these three categories. For example, a substances such as mayonnaise is somewhere between a liquid and a solid. Mayonnaise is not a liquid crystal but liquid crystals do seem to occupy a place in between a liquid and a solid . Liquid crystals seem to manage to preserve their orientation in space like a crystal even though, like a liquid, they can move freely around. They seem to be able to polarise light in many directions in an organised way which allows them to vary their colour. Which is why they seem to be popping up everywhere in electronic devices from phones to televisions

7th of July 2008 " Consciousness - What is it ??-- and How might it work"

Professor John Jefferys from Birmingham University helped us understand what we know about Consciousness. Of course some things are not yet known but good progress is being made. Among other areas ,Prof Jefferys has been researching how the brain solves a key problem known as “ The binding problem” The problem is that lots (and I do mean lots )of different information about different aspects of an object arrive at different points in the brain and require different brain processing time to be dealt with by the brain. And yet we just sense a single object not each aspect separately eg the shape and the colour. How does the brain get all these things from their different places and “construct” an integrated proposition. What are the necessary things that consciousness would need to have in order to function and what do we know of the different brain functions that would be needed to produce consciousness How far have we got in identifying these neural correlates in the brain.

2nd of June 2008 "LINDOW MAN -- PLACES FOR THIS SCIBAR COST £3 AND NEEDED TO BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE.

This was a SPECIAL SciBAr which took place in Manchester at The Manchester Museum and included a private visit to the Museum to view the "Lindow Man " exhibit. Lindow Man, the naturally preserved body of an Iron Age manwiil be in M/c , from April 2008 until March 2009. Thanks to the preservative powers of the bog waters many details can be obtained about the health, lives and deaths of these Iron Age bodies. We know that Lindow Man was well built, in his twenties, 1.68m tall, and weighed about 60 kg. Before this death he was generally in good health, except from suffering from worms and a touch of rheumatism. It will be the third time the freeze-dried bog man - discovered in Wilmslow( or is it really Mobberley), Cheshire, in 1984 will have been on display in the city. But this time Manchester Museum is developing proposals that will reflect a wide range of different perspectives on the display of the human remains..Through a series of public consultations the views of archaeologists, curators and Pagan groups are being sought - all of whom have very different views on Lindow Man. Whether or not the remains, carbon dated between 2 BC and 119 AD, cease to be a person on death, as archaeology assumes, or continue to retain personhood, as the Pagans believe, is central to the debate about the nature of the forthcoming exhibition.

12th of May 2008 "STRING THEORY for DUMMIES"

Dr Richard Battye from Manchester University and Jodrell Bank led our discussion on String Theory . We touched on string Theory in several topics but this dealt with the Basics of the theory itself . . We are apparently not made of strings but merely of the vibrations of the string.We covered What is a "Brane" & How do strings relate to "branes" . If we have no evidence that the theory is correct why all the interest? What's exciting about it is , if it's right it solves a lot of very serious problems in physics -like reconciling gravity and Quantum Mechanics . These strings are vibrating in 10 dimensions of which most are invisible.

7th of April 08 2008"From DNA to Organism and could Humans grow new limbs??"

Professor Enrique Amaya from Manchester University discussed how DNA makes organisms and how amphibian embryos have an incredible ability to heal following amputations, which is one of the primary reasons why they have been used for more than a century as an experimental embryological system. Xenopus frog embryos are able to heal following wounding within hours, without leaving a scar or any sign of damage. Could humans be persuaded to grow a new leg after amputation -- Why do toads and newts etc not even leave a scar. Superb movies of , Xenopus frog tadpoles regenerating all the tissues in the tail, following amputation, within nine days. Profesor Amaya is trying to identify novel genes involved in the regeneration . The ultimate aim of this work is to identify new gene targets, which may form the basis of novel therapeutic and clinical applications to wound healing and tissue regeneration in humans.

3rd of March 08 2008"How does the brain keep us awake during the day...AND.... Thin"

Dr Denis Burdakov from Cambridge University will help us understand how the brain keeps us awake and conscious during the day. It was until recently mysterious why in the sleep disorder narcolepsy people suddenly fall asleep in the middle of doing other things. We now know that special neurons located deep in the brain play a part. While only a few in number, these neurons turn out to control almost the whole of the brain, setting global brain state and the level of altertness. They are active during the day and silent during the night and malfunction of this system causes narcolepsy in mice, rats, dogs and humans. More recent discoveries indicate that these cells, called orexin neurons, can alter their activity depending on the amount of hormones and nutrients in the blood. So it turns out that these cells can also determine when and how much we eat. Dr Burdakov will explore how orexin neurons operate, which is one of the big questions in neuroscience related some of the field’s biggest mysteries, sleep, consciousness, and appetite.

4th of February 08 2008"Bringing NUCLEAR FUSION - Down to Earth"

Chris Carpenter and Chris Warrick from Culham the UK's primary FUSION RESEARCH CENTRE helped us look into Nuclear Fusion ( using the same processes that make the sun hot to create electricity on earth) Apart from the difficulties in creating a mini sun on earth ,if you did it what sort of container would you put it in . If it can be done commercially, the oceans are full of the deuterium fuel and we would have unlimited "CLEAN " energy forever. The two Chrises got super ratings in addressing a record attendance of 97 people without microphones or slide ( The sockets had fused in the venue). Surprisingly, the size of the audience did not dampen down the enthusiam in the discussion .Well done, guys

7th of January 08 2008 " Synthetic Biology and Biological Computing

Dr. Martyn Amos from Manchester Metropolitan University will help us look into the technologies of biological computing and we can now adjust biological "creatures"to do things never previously created in the history of life. In the living cell and given the right conditions, DNA is capable of performing every trick that evolution has taught it over 3½ billion years. If you could attach that vast armoury of ability to the power of your DNA computer, you have the enormous potential of the cellular computer. The flood of genetic information coming from a host of genome projects that not only include humans but many other organisms from onions to orang-utans is like a catalogue of genetic components for synthetic biologists. In time they hope to pick what they need from such databases to build molecular machines for specific tasks. For instance, a harmless bacterium could be modified into a microbot, programmed to sniff out the chemical traces of a newly formed cluster of cancer cells and emit a molecular signal to wipe out the diseased tissue. Similarly in reverse the silicon based computers are being used in biological situations e.g. to allow people to "feel" their artificial limbs and get direct nerve feedback as to position and forces acting on them . We're going to see BIG changes over the next few years

3rd of December 2007 " Old and new Technologies and the spread of the Minoan Civilisation in Crete

Dr. Ina Berg from Manchester University helped us look into the technologies of pottery manufacture in ancient Crete.Her research uses X-ray analysis to determine how the pots were thrown and the types of potters wheels used in different places . She used the information to examine the economic and cultural aspects of the Minoan civilisation & to examine how that civilisation grew to dominance. Why did so many HUGE Palaces get built within a very short time period - with no evidence of invasion or other foreign incursion - just a bit of local in fighting to spice things up.. Its other main feature is its variety from site to site, which is suggests that Early Minoan social traditions were very localised. We don't know why nobody bothered to invade and yet the society was rich enough to make major investment in palaces

5th of November 07 " The Holographic Universe - Maybe the reality of our world is just an illusion"

Dr. Radu Tatar from Liverpool University will help us look into the science of the Holographic Universe. . String Theory suggests that our real world is made from different vibrations of a string not from the string itself but just from its vibrations.Strings with different vibrations can interact and change their vibrations -and the vibrations act like fundamental particle . Are you made of real string or are you just the wobbles of many strings interacting-Where are these strings , dangling in space and if so what sort of space - You can be sure it's not an empty vacuum like our old idea of Space .How long are they ? How heavy are they ( a lot heavier than you'd think ) how stiff are they ? are they loose strings or loops .? Can they tie themselvers in knots (as well as tying me in knots ) So you are just a vibration pattern but what a vibration it is ! not just in 3 dimensions but in many more.Why can't it be any no. of dimensions why is it limited to only a couple of options in the number of dimensions there could be and why do we have to have more than 3,or 4 if you include time. Where does the two dimensional Universe come into it -- Might it be real or is it just a mathematical convenience. Come to Knutsford SciBAr and find out whether you're just a phantom -only a wave in the sea of spacetime - Not the water just the wave.

1st of October 07 "Defending the Earth against Asteroid and Comet attack -- How are we doing?"

By popular request Dr Benny Peiser from Liverpool John Moores University returned to the SciBAr after a very successful session on Global Warming to discuss the issue of an asteroid or even a Comet crashing to Earth to cause the sort of devastation which drove the dinosaurs extinct . How likely is this ? What would be the effects on human civilisation . Is there anything we can do about it ? What would we need to do and when. Dr Peiser has an asteroid named after himself and also one named after his daughter and is well placed to give us the real run down on what could be a disaster. What should we be doing? and are we doing it? If you hasd come to the SciBAr you would know

3rd of September 07 "The SUN -- Our nearest Star"

Dr Lucie Green will introduce us to our nearest star . What makes our Sun shine , How long will it shine ? How do we know . What sort of regular changes does it go through ? Does it affect our weather , Does it affect our Climate( Not to mention Global Warming) When will it become a red giant and grow to consume the earth. Come along to find out the fascinating facts behind our own little ( well medium sized ) star.

6th of August 07 " INVISIBILITY CLOAKS -- Science - not Magic"

Professor Sir John Pendry from Imperial College London will help us look into the science behind invisibility cloaking . A lot of research is being carried out in the USA on the physics of "INVISIBILITY"- Not invisibility to radar as in the stealth bomber but "REAL" invisibility to the human eye. Professor Pendry is credited with creating the physics behind achieving invisibility cloaking and will outline the scientific principles involved. Harry Potter eat your heart out ! There is clearly a lot of interest in the Science but also considerable interest in the ramifications for the military and society as a whole . It should be a good discussion . By the way Professor Sir John Pendry used to live in Knutsford. The reason you probably never met him was....... ............

2nd of July " Recipe for a Universe" How does Quantum Mechanics operate in the real world WE live in

Dr Tara Shears from Liverpool University helped us look into :- How the explanations in Quantum Mechanics (where force is transmitted by exchanging particles) reflect into our real world. The nucleus of the atom contains quarks which are positively charged and thus should repel each other and fly apart, but they don't they pack themselves into a very small volume (the nucleus of an atom) to make nearly everything we experience in the real world.What stops them flying apart ? and what makes the gluon so sticky ?.Current Quantum theories also say all particles have no mass but some things are quite heavy in the real world. So how do they appear heavy if they weigh nothing. How does the theoretical Higgs Boson give other particles weight. What about the graviton ? We certainly experience the force of gravity but if that's transmitted by particles called gravitons what & where are they? Magnets exhibit magnetism in the real world . In the quantum world magnetism is caused by exchanging photons. Does that mean that between two bar magnets lots of photons are whizzing about. Dr Shears showed us how some of these things somehow come together to form a Recipe for an incredibly varied Universe which starts " Take four particles ...............

IS SCIENCE GOING THE RIGHT WAY? -

Good points ?- Bad points ? –

Tell The Government what you feel -

DATES :- 24th April, 22nd May, 19th June ...TIME 6:30 for 7:00pm

 Science Horizons is a national series of:  4 discussions about new technologies, the future and society. All 4 events are FREE. It has been set up by the UK government and will run during 2007. Developments in mobile technology, the internet and healthcare have changed our lives over the last few decades and new applications of science and technology will continue to shape our futures. The government has invited scientists, engineers and other experts to say which areas of science and technology they think will have the biggest impacts in the future. But experts don’t have all the answers. They can’t predict which particular developments will emerge and they can’t say how developments will be used by individuals and society. These discussions are your chance to tell them what you think, and what sort of future you want.
The science horizons events allow you to get involved in a group discussion and give the government your views. It contains a brief outline of what life might be like in 2025. After discussion we would then summarise our groups' position as to the positive and negative effects of the technology and how it might be used .
This will be sent to the government .Give it a whirl and ensure that the Government get sensible viewpoints for a change

Science Horizons are not Knutsford SciBAr Events-you may nonetheless enjoy them. S H events kindly sponsored by CCLRC Daresbuty Laboratory & HMG

4th of June 2007 -"SHOCK! HORROR! --Media hype, Climate Alarmism & the Crisis of science communication

Dr. Benny Peiser from Liverpool John Moores University helped us look into the various factors affecting Climate change and the things we can and cannot do about it as a Local and Global Community.Dr. Peiser is the editor of CCNet, an electronic science and science policy network with more than 3,000 subscribers from around the world. It is in this capacity that a 10km-wide asteroid, Minor Planet (7107) Peiser, was named in is honour by the International Astronomical Union. Author of a book called "Adapt or Die" -: The science, politics and economics of climate change Dr Peiser is admirably placed to lead our discussion and achieved an the SciBAr's highest rating ever by the attendees for audience participation in the discussion . This was remarkable bearing in mind there were 88 people at the meeting.

14th of May 2007-"Chaos Theory - Can the flap of a butterfy's wing in England cause a hurricane in Asia"

Professor Tom Mullin from Manchester University with the help of several mechanical models helped us look into :- The hidden order which lies beneath seemingly very complex systems . The butterfly effect discovered by a weatherman shows that very tiny changes can have very large consequences. The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does..There are many systems which seem very complex but which can be very simply modelled. So what's behind this seemingly random but fascinating regularity -t Great Attractors keep things on the straight and narrow but for how long?, The secret of nature's most complex structures is in the simple techniques by which they are built and managed, combining a simple repetitive act with the strangely helpful chaos of unpredictability, in order to make their growth and evolution in this world successful.

2nd of April 2007-"SLEEP - What goes on in the brain whilst we're not watching?- or when drugs affect " Our Reality" "

Professor Jim Horne from Nottingham Universitywill help us look into :- What makes us spend a third of our lives vulnerable to predators.What is going on during sleep that makes it evolutionarily worth that risk.. Certainly people have from ancient times had a fascination about what goes on in sleep and it does not seem to be diminishing. Prodessor Horne --We do need to sleep and no amount of rest will eliminate the need to sleep- How much we need varies but people needing much more than 8 hours are very rare. no-one knows whar dreams are but they can last up to around 40 minutes . Nearly everyone dreams every night but have no recollection apart from the last few minutes if wakened in the middle of it .Sleepwalking and people who believe they've been abducted by aliens were discussed along with " night terrors". So that in brief is what the brain is up to when we're not watching ?

5th of March 2007-" Panspermia - Did Life really originate on Planet Earth - If not then Where??"

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe from Cardiff University will introduce us to the basics of Panspermia and brought us up to date on current thinking about Life originating from outer space and travelling to earth on comets and meteors. By careful spectroscopic observation and analysis of light from distant stars Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe found evidence of traces of life, in the intervening dust. They proposed that comets, which are largely made of water-ice, carry bacterial life across galaxies and protect it from radiation damage along the way. It is now universally accepted that space contains the "ingredients" of life. They then broadened or generalized the panspermia theory to include a new understanding of evolution. While accepting the fact that life on Earth evolved over the course of about four billion years, they say that the genetic programs for higher evolution cannot be explained by random mutation and recombination among genes for single-celled organisms, even in that long a time The programs must come from somewhere beyond Earth. 100 tons of comet material lands on the Earth EVERY DAY

5th of February 2007 "Prehistory and the Evolution of Mind"

Professor Steven Mithen from Reading University led our discussion on how the human mind evolved to its current position. One would have thought that since thoughts do not leave many fossils that this would be an impossible task .Minds however do produce results which themselves leave fossil evidence of the thoughts behind them. professor Mithen has done research into prehistoric man to produce evidence how his mind worked and how evolution shaped it from it's original thinking processes via a series of evolutionary advantageous steps to the mind of a modern human. it is absolutely fascinating and a great example of how the scientific method can give tackle problems that at first glance seems impossible. his book " The Prehistory of the Mind" is well worth a read.

8th of January 2007 " Sexual attraction- What is IT that turns people on and WHY?"

Dr Craig Roberts from Liverpool University introduced us to what we all need to know -( Get away with your bother!- It's never too late) and the answers were fascinating as indeed were the reasons why . Lots of things working together to say who is the best breeding stock.

But how can we check his/ her genes are OK -- in public??